{"id":2036,"date":"2021-01-11T10:35:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T10:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/?p=2036"},"modified":"2021-01-11T10:35:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T10:35:03","slug":"the-thin-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/2021\/01\/11\/the-thin-times\/","title":{"rendered":"The thin times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In next Sunday’s Lectionary<\/a>, there’s a reading from the first book of Samuel. The writer sets the scene; “The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.”<\/em> This phase in the story of God’s relationship with the human race starts in a thin time, a time of God-drought. I’m not particularly wanting to assign blame for this state of affairs – I just want to note that these thin times are also part of the story – and probably will continue to be: it doesn’t mean that God is dead. Even if hardly anyone seems to hear God speak, even if there’s a great flowering of lies and bullshit told in the name of Jesus, even if the drums of violence beat louder and louder, even if we feel total desolation; don’t give up, for this too can become part of the story of God’s love for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can’t think of anything good to say about the weather today. It is simply miserable. A little warmer, yes, but miserable. It didn’t even have the advantage of putting off the dog-walkers: the dog-walkers around here are way too hardcore to be put off by rain and the invisibility of the hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, it is all part of a wonderful system that circulates the water and nourishes the land, and I praise the Creator for that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, our government is delaying the decision about increasing restrictions. In a way they are right – we can’t know for sure what effect the current restrictions are having for a while yet. In a way they are wrong, because any delay is going to cost more lives. There are two reasons they have chosen the delay route – one is that unfortunately our Prime Minister is an optimist. Optimism is fine, but as I already mentioned, you wouldn’t want an optimist driving your bus, would you? Second reason is that he has to ask permission from a few dozen right-wing MPs before he does anything. I wonder what new restrictions would look like. Already I am going beyond – we’re experimenting with getting deliveries from our nearest Co-op. I just hope it isn’t keeping someone else from using this option – I’d know though, by the lack of delivery slots – which are all free at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please pray for the NHS\/GIG* and everyone who works there…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Forgive my poor Welsh, but it’s something like Gwasanaeth Iechyd Genedlaethol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In next Sunday’s Lectionary, there’s a reading from the first book of Samuel. The writer sets the scene; “The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” This phase in the story of God’s relationship with the human race starts in a thin time, a time of God-drought. I’m not … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The thin times”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}