This morning we had the rare joy of going to church together as a family and none of doing anything except participating. The discipline, of course, for people who are often ‘up front’, is listening as hard when you are not on show as you do when you have to prepare something for others. Actually, now I come to think of it, that’s a challenge for all of us; who knows how diligently we are actually engaging with God when we are engaging in worship. I guess that all of us find it alarmingly easy to fake attention.
Anyway, the thing that really caught my imagination this morning was something that the preacher ascribed to Arsène Wenger. Apparently M. Wenger says something along the lines that if you hold one hand in front of you and imagine that to be your priorities in life and then the other just behind it, between you and the first, that ought to be the attitude you bring to life. The problem is that your attitude is so often swung by prevailing situations or emotions such that it veers right, up, and down with mesmerising unpredictability.
In other words the attitude that you nurture within yourself ought to be directly in line with your priorities in life. If love is a priority then we cultivate patience, diligence, respect, loyalty and so on…
What a helpful image. I’ve got no idea how effective it is for footballers, but it bears reflection for those of us who are serious about growing and developing as Christians.
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