At the end of the day...

 

Good morning and welcome to today’s Thought for the Day entitled “At the end of the day”.

Now I wonder if when you were growing up as a child, you had a little routine before bedtime. Some kids after tea get a bath and then a story and then after they have tried to delay things a little, they eventually get tucked in with a kiss. Some of us may even have had a prayer somewhere in the routine, even if it was “God bless mummy, God bless daddy, God bless my little brother and God bless the dog”.

I wonder if had a prayer in your bedtime routine? Maybe you never had a religious upbringing, and perhaps the only time you prayed was when an exam was coming up, or to get out of trouble. But many people do pray, and many have the same prayer each night. When I was growing up we used the following little song as a prayer. “At the end of the day I kneel and pray, thank you Lord for my work and pray, I’ve tried to be good for I know that I should, that’s my prayer at the end of the day”.

It’s a lovely prayer, and I’m so grateful that I had parents who prayed with me and loved me so much. But there’s only one problem with that prayer. It suggests that all God is really interested in is whether you have been good. “I’ve tried to be good for I know that I should”.

It could sound like God is a kind of Father Christmas figure who gives you good things if you’ve been good, and bad things if you’ve been bad. And that could lead to a feeling of insecurity. Because no matter how good we try to be, we aren’t. We don’t love God and we don’t love our neighbour. We fall desperately short.

But here’s the wonderful news of Christianity. It’s not primarily good advice- try harder to love others around us and spread kindness and generosity. Try to be good.

It’s not good advice, it’s good news. The God who made us, and who we have so desperately offended loves us despite the fact that we haven’t been good. In fact, he’s sent his son to die for a world that hasn’t been good.

Christianity is not I’ve tried to be good (good advice), it’s I haven’t been good, but you still love me (good news), and I’m relying on your undeserved kindness.

Well since we grew up singing that song, my parents and I have I think discovered a lot more about what the Bible calls grace. God’s undeserved kindness. It means at the end of the day you can thank God not for trying to be good, but that he is always good, and always gracious. And that changes everything.

Have a great day. Thanks for listening. 

Charlie Newcombe 29th Jan 2024