Thought for the Week

In a few weeks from now my family and I will be at the Concert Hall in Glasgow watching The Proclaimers in concert and no doubt will be singing along whenever one of the wellknown songs is being performed.

As someone who is ‘ musically challenged’ ( in other words tone deaf) I find myself focussing much more on the lyrics and am often struck by the way they speak to aspects of everyday life in down to earth ways – even the love songs.

There is one song I listened to the other day called ‘What makes you cry?’ – a song about a failed romance which also asks questions about how we react to the plight of another.

‘ What makes you cry?’ is really a question about the place of compassion in our society.

It asks us to think about how we feel about the things we see happening around us in the world.

We a re undoubtedly a compassionate nation and, although we may not shed actual tears at what we see, we are moved to respond to the plight of others – whether that be those caught up in the refugee crisis, those reliant on food banks, those who suffering from incurable diseases, those who suffer a bereavement in their lives, those facing difficulties in their lives ……. the list is endless –but thankfully so is the response we make – time and time again we show compassion.

There will be many things that make us cry in our lives – good and bad, serious and silly – and each time we shed a tear we give expression to what is important to us.

May we never forget the importance of being compassionate – as Jesus said: ‘do to others what you would have them do to you’. John Sanderson, Rutherglen URC