Day 188

2 Kings 14:23-15:38, Acts 25:23-26:23, Proverbs 16:18-27

There are a number of things from these readings that stand out for me. There are a few of the kings who are actually quite young and today we see a 16 year old who is one of the ones who “did right in the eyes of the Lord”. Age does not necessarily mean that you have it sorted, nor does it mean you are always right, listening to God, even if you are just 16, is a great help though.

The other thing that struck me as we heard of about the 6th king today was the fact that we are only hearing about the kings and not much about the people. One of the kings lasted just 6 months. We have been lucky to have a monarch on the throne for 58 years and we have a stable government for, on the whole, anywhere between 5 and 15 years, it is all quite stable really. How must it feel when the people at the top keep changing and in fact, without TV, the new king may have gone before you even get to find out that he was on the throne in the first place. All a bit unsteadying for the people.

In his latest conversation with Agrippa Paul tries to explain that the Jesus that has changed his life is the messiah that every tribe of Israel has been longing for. It is this idea of longing and waiting that is not that far away from what people experience today. Many studies of current spirituality tell us that people are still looking for “something”, they believe in that higher power even if they can not put the name of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) to their higher power. Just like Paul, we know the name that people are looking for is the name of Christ, the one who can change lives through his death and resurrection.

Finally, a random picture to stick in here right at the end. This is the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. I took the picture when I visited there with a bunch of other lawyers a number of years ago. A couple of days ago I also heard that someone I know won the Thunderball, a good couple of hundred grand.

“Better to be lowly in spirit than among the oppressed
than to share plunder with the proud” (Prov 16:19)

It just spoke to me a little bit. Who are you standing with right now? Who would Christ have stood with?