Monday 19 September 2016

Everyday Theology - from the young and the old

I've been leading pre-service prayer meetings in church almost every Sunday for the past three months. The two most regular attendees are my 11-year-old daughter and Auntie K who is a mighty prayer warrior in her 90's.

After the meeting, there's a 45-minute break before the service during which I sometimes get to chat with Auntie K and listen to her amazing stories of answered prayers. She is always quick to attribute all glory to God, reminding me of how little education she's had and how incapable she is of doing anything great. Well, yesterday she made a comment which got stuck in my head, "No matter what they say, don't let other people sidetrack you from doing what God wants you to do!" I made a mental note to make sure I remember her advice for life.

Later in the evening, during our family prayer time, our little girl seemed very much affected by what we had been praying for in the morning pre-service prayer - the war in Syria - and requested that we pray for the world to be a better place. (Let me know if you didn't immediately hear Heal the World playing in your head!) So we suggested that she lead us in prayer which she promptly did. The one phrase from her prayer that got stuck in my head was, "Please let people know that we should make friends and not enemies!"

As I thought about these two phrases today:
1. Don't get sidetracked
2. Make friends, not enemies
I realised that they had succinctly expressed Jesus' teachings in His Sermon on the Mount!

 ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matt 7:21)

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matt 5:44-45)

With 80 years' age difference between them and only primary school education (at least so far, for my girl,) what lovely gems of wisdom these two had spoken! You don't need to have a degree in theology to be a theologian. :)

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