Tuesday 3 February 2009

Now, its not that I'm paranoid or anything, but something distinctly odd happened as I walked to work this morning. As I walked along the street, not one, or two or three…but four different streetlights on two different streets went out at precisely the moment I walked underneath them. For fans of the boy wizard - I felt like Albus Dumbledore with his famous putter-outer. Had I set off some sensor, was I simply unfortunate with my timing - or was someone, somewhere, charting my progress on a security camera and deliberately plunging me into darkness? After all, anything's possible…

There's times in all our lives when we feel like someone, somewhere is out to get us. Of course, we don't want to be paranoid, but it just seems that events conspire against us. One thing after another goes wrong, and they all seem to have a stack of consequences, like dominoes falling over. The old thing about troubles coming in threes seems like a vain hope when they are coming by the dozen!

The Christian faith never promises a way out of troubles - only a way through them. It might be that extra bit of courage, a glimmer of hope, or maybe just the assurance that there are others who can help you. As a minister I am constantly amazed by the small and simple ways people help each other through their crises. A reassuring word, a bunch of flowers, a well-timed phone call is sometimes all it takes to dispel the darkness. Very often, by the time I am called into a situation, the real person-to-person support has already been given, and the outlook has changed for the better because of it. When that happens, I'm quite happy to be redundant!

Thankfully, my darkness was only temporary this morning. The lights were switching off because the sun was coming on, and anyway the route is so familiar I can practically do it with my eyes shut. If the route had been unfamiliar, though, or the darkness a bit more intense - I really would have needed a friend with a torch to help me along.