Grasping the Nettle

 "And Paul said, 'I am not mad, but I am speaking truthfully and rationally". Acts 26:25.

In 2021, I had to make it clear at my office that there were certain 'requirements' that I would not be participating in, as I viewed them as contrary to my individual rights, especially when it came to my welfare, and the health of others.

In that same year, I had to leave the place of worship I had been attending for nearly a decade because they believed those same 'requirements' made it necessary to both close and then curtail the freedom of the believer to assemble and worship God.

Some eighteen months on, my concerns in respect to the dangers of all these 'requirements' have been realised. The social fabric of society as a whole has been rent asunder by the 'woke' agenda that has come to the fore during this period of imposed travail, and the misery that has been woven into the day to day reality of life as a result is palpable.

When the Apostle Paul stood by Agrippa and Festus to present his case for being a messenger of truth, he did not hold back in respect to why and how this was the imperative. He knew that his life belonged to another, and as a result, what happened to him and those fellow believers like him was not determined by the powers and authorities of his day - they were small in comparison to the Lord he now served.

Life teaches us that in spite of what is 'strong' right now (be it external dictates or mandates, or our own wayward desires), there are far greater powers at work that can never be overtaken by our small ambitions, however much power we believe ourselves to hold.

In the Autumn of 1940, Hitler's vast war machine turned it's attention to the shores of England, and the impressive might of the Luftwaffe pounded the airfields of the RAF to win control of the skies to allow Operation Sea Lion (the invasion of the country) to occur. Air Marshall Dowding, who "Trusted in God and prayed for Radar", knew that if this relentless campaign continued, his loss of pilots and aircraft would signal the end, and as had happened on the beaches of Dunkirk, only a miracle would change things.

After a small bombing raid by the British on Berlin, the miracle came.

Hitler ordered the carpet bombing of London, and on the knife-edge of defeat, the airfields gained the reprieve they needed. The struggle that followed was hard, but that one change by the German war machine altered the entire course of the struggle over Europe.

The small things we do now may not appear to make much of an impression, but when we choose, like Paul, to put our faith in God and keep our wits about us in respect to what we say and and do, the integrity of what this conveys will speak.

We are called to truth concerning this present moment, and we must be those who affirm this, however hard this may prove to be.

Jesus has promised to be with us in such hard times - to aid us and go with us through these days, so let us do what is necessary, even when we feel alone or afraid.