Vicar's Letter

Dear friends,

THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE?

A university lecturer once stood before his philosophy class and laid out some items in front of him. He picked up a very large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it up with golf balls. He asked the students whether they thought that the glass was full? They agreed unanimously that it was. He then proceeded to pour some small pebbles into the jar and after a little shaking of the jar they rolled around and between the golf balls. Once again he asked them whether the jar was full? Once again they agreed that it was. The lecturer then picked up a bag of fine sand and poured it into the jar. The sand found its way between all the golf balls and the pebbles, so he asked his students if they thought it was now full? They hesitantly agreed that it was. The lecturer then took a large jug of water and poured it into the jar. The water completely filled any small space that had been left between the golf balls, the pebbles and the sand.

“Now I want you to recognise that this jar is like our lives”, he said. “The golf balls are the really important things – your family, your health, your children, your friends, things that if everything else was lost in life and only they remained, then your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter to us, like our job, our house and car etc. The sand represents everything else in life – the small stuff that crowds in on us”. He went on to remind them that in life, we tend to crowd our lives out with the small stuff – and that many of us tend to fill the jar of our lives with the unimportant sand first, then there is little or no room at all for the things that we treasure most, like our families and friends. He encouraged the students to set their priorities well in life, because the rest, at the end of the day, is just sand.

One student then asked him what the water was meant to represent? He simply picked up an old dusty Bible and read from the very last chapter of the very last book, the book of Revelation.

“Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life”!

I suppose we can all crowd our lives out with unimportant and meaningless things. The problem is that we all fill our lives to the brim and pay little or no heed to the source of life itself – God! He alone can still find his way in between the nooks and crannies of our lives – those other really important things that we hold to so dearly. He alone can flood our lives with real meaning – even when they are already apparently very full indeed.

And Jesus said; “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him”.

Just a thought for our busy lives! May God bless you and give you rest over this holiday season.

Yours in Christ’s service

Barry Rowland

Alpha Course
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