FOCUS ON FAITH

PASTOR Tony Togneri of St George’s Street Baptist Church ON Tuesday, July 17, I headed off on what we in the business call a sabbatical.

This is a period of extended leave granted every seven years – hence the ‘Sabbath’ reference.

I think the idea is to combine a period of relaxation with reflection and study.

It is a chance to recharge both the body and the mind, and to engage in some deeper thinking that the busyness of life precludes – although I do think it’s strange that church ministers should feel the need to investigate that which, I think, is their day job.

Faith is, of course, a deeply personal thing, and nobody can determine – although many try to – what it is we as individuals hold to be true.

I am therefore very aware, that when each week, I take a service, I am passing on that which is personal to me.

Therefore, it behoves me to collaborate this, with that which I consider to be the handbook to life.

This handbook, the Bible, can sometimes ask as many questions as it answers, frequently repeating questions asked by some of its main protagonists.

Job, a good man, smitten down with disease, wants to know why it is the evil prosper.

David, in his Psalms, would also frequently challenge God in his situations of life.

Faith doesn’t necessarily make life easy.

Neither Job, David, nor myself for that matter, have all the answers, hence the need to delve further into God’s book.

While the three of us reserve the right to question and lament our circumstances, we are grateful to have a God who hears us.