A QUESTION OF FAITH
With Rev Malcolm Clarke chair of the Vine Trustees HUMAN nature...
So I hope your home computer, or business computer, has not been held to ransom recently. We all of us, I am sure, do what we can to protect our documents, our treasured photos, our lives.
Yet it is salutary to discover that there are folk “out there” who not only have the ability to get past all our defences whatever they may be, but apparently have the will to do so too, irrespective of whose lives they screw up in the process. And so the NHS appointments system, and medical records, and some power companies etc all get affected/infected by their own expressions of their humanity
Why would anyone want to do that? Leave aside the financial gain because that may be minor consideration. So why? And perhaps it’s just because they can; because its “human nature”. Of course in terms of the expression of the worst aspects of human nature this is small fry. Young girls snatched from their school in Nigeria, total devastation in Syria, nuclear muscles being flexed in North Korea and around the world. But it’s all part of the nastiness latent within human beings no matter how much we may try to dress it up.
Present company excepted of course! Not you or me. Except that we none of us are exempt from human nature, nor are we able to pick and choose so that we never display some of the more unpleasant aspects of being who and what we are. Endeavouring to bring out the better aspects in human nature, of which there are many, and many examples too, gets ‘four yeses’ from the judges. But I am mindful of the statement attributed to John Bradford when observing some paying for their sins with their lives (though he might’ve borrowed it from The Bible) “There, but for the Grace of God, go I”.
Microsoft have released a ‘patch’ for those operating older systems like XP or Vista. So clue yourself up, download the patch and install it if you’re still working with an aged PC. Problem solved. At least until the next time.
And God’s grace is available to all too. It’s expressed totally and completely In Jesus who is described from the off as “full of grace and truth”. But likewise you need to clue yourself up, download and install. It’ll make one heck of a difference to your life, your hopes and your plans. But you’ll not regret it. For come what may you’ll stay safe forever. And what’s more this works irrespective of what system you are running and no matter what the age of your equipment.
And PS. If you’re the one who has never succumbed to the downsides of human nature and thus have no need of the grace of God in your life, then please stop me in Castle Street because I’d love your autograph.