All over the place

I feel at the moment that my mind is just buzzing with so many things. This is good if somewhat chaotic and I don't know how to translate all that is in my head into a blog so what follows in the next few days will probably be somewhat all over the place.
Ivory Coast
I was relieved to hear this morning on the news that Gbagbo has been arrested and there has been a call from the president for people to lay down their arms. Sadly this has come too late for my friend Solomon and his wife whose church has been scattered by the violence and its valuable work for the poor and for those involved in prostition ended for the moment at least. Knowing in part what it is like to see a work you have planted and poured your life into come to an unwanted end my heart aches for them. However I believe God has greater things in store.

Sunday
We had a good day of worship on Sunday. In the morning it was good to listen to people's heart as they shared their concerns for a needy world and to sense the passion among us as we sang, "For the world, for the world Jesus died, Jesus died All the world to save to battle we will go And we ever will our colours boldy show With a trumpet voice we'll let the millions know There's salvation for the world." This was followed in the afternoon with Messy Church, which although we don't get large numbers attracted another new family. In the midst of all the craft and mess there was opportunity to simply tell the gospel story.

Happiness
This morning, on the radio there was an item about Action for Happiness, a new membership organisation dedicated to spreading happiness. It says it prioritises healthy relationships and meaningful activities as a means to happier lives. It is based on the "new science of happiness and the belief that our mood can be altered." Much of their message is based around the idea that we are happier if we try to make others happier.

As a movement the Salvation Army knows that when people stop living just for themselves and do something for someone else it makes them feel better. Years of using volunteers to help with Christmas Day meals has proved that for me. How many of them have said they had had the best Christmas ever simply because they had served someone else rather than indulged their own appetites. So I am all for promoting the idea that priotising meaningful activity will enhance people's lives. We could all benefit from a society that was less self absorbed, less cynical and more helpful. However there is a big part of me that knows that human effort alone will never be enough to make people truly happy. True happiness is related to to inner security. If we don't feel safe we will never be truly happy. Whilst it is possible to cultivate an enviroment where we all feel safer because we are being nicer to one another the human race has a problem with selfishness which will always derail our best efforts. Happiness is totally related to trust and human beings will let us down. Of course some people will also say that they are happy and God doesn't come into the picture at all so why do Christians have to spoil everything by being so pessimistic about the human race. It is because optimism does not deal with the ego and the problem we have with the breakdown of our relation with God. Our fundamental need is to find our way back home to a trusting relationship with our heavenly Father so that we know that our life has eternal purpose and security. Severed from a connection with God there will always be a sense of grief in our hearts that cannot be filled by anything other than him.

Ignorance is not bliss. As the old adage goes a child playing with their toys in the sunshine in the middle of a traintrack may be perfectly happy and comfortable but they are also in great danger. The child may cry when you remove him from his "happy place" but you have saved him from death. Christians cannot therefore just promote happiness as a goal in itself. A person maybe happy but heading in a direction that leads to eternal separation from God which will result not in happiness but hell.

God bless
Carol