CHRISTIAN COMMENT It does not cost anything to give

DO you get fed up with all the bad news with which we seem to be bombarded with?

The cost of living continues to rise, income from savings is more or less non-existence, unemployment is up, the demand on food banks has never been higher, and we are now told that the latest financial news could end up costing us hundreds of pounds each.

But I do not have that amount to spare!

So where is it coming from?

For the majority of us the figures that are quoted seem unreal, we cannot imagine such large amounts of money and for some this could lead to worry and anxiety that we have not experienced before.

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This is the time of Harvest; a celebration; thanksgiving; isn’t this a contradiction?

Or is it a wake-up call?

Is it a time to get back to basics, to re-think our standards, to make some changes, to bring joy into our daily lives?

The Christian is not encouraged to strive for something that is out of reach but to learn the art of contentment, counting our blessings rather than constantly grumbling.

A lady in her seventies was with a group of people visiting Kosova.

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They were helping the very poor widows and orphans and trying to improve their circumstances.

Some of the group were doing manual work, others painting and decorating.

This lady was asked, “What do you do?” to which the reply came, “I listen”.

While the others worked, she would sit and listen to anything that they wanted to talk about, be it family, friends or just what was happening in the locality, her grasp of the language was not great but that did not seem to matter.

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Someone to just listen had proved to be an amazing help, and at the end of the visit it was recognised as possibly the most important part of what the group had achieved.

It is true that it is better to give than to receive, but it does not have to cost anything to give.

Caring, helping, being friendly, is all that many people need, and the rewards really are worth having.

Gerald Thompson