My wife’s sister married a Canadian in 1980 and we have been fortunate to have several trips out to visit them in the intervening years.
We were over for a family wedding just a few weeks ago and extended our trip with 10 days’ holiday on Vancouver Island.
We had a lovely time in the picturesque south-west coast area.
However, we then became stranded due to a forest fire, which caused the closure of the only paved road to the coast.
This wasn’t a problem initially as it was a beautiful area, but then shortages started to become apparent, as fuel tankers and delivery trucks couldn’t get through.
The supermarkets were running short of fresh fruit and vegetables and the shelves had other gaps too. The cashier was very apologetic to one older gentleman in front of me and blamed the forest fire.
“It’s no problem” he said. “None of us are fighting the fire: we are safe. We have water to drink and plenty of other food to eat.” A man with a good perspective on the real priorities of life.
How do we decide on the priorities of our lives?
As Christians we aim to make good use of bible teaching. But there are 66 books of the bible, which run to well over 1,000 pages on most versions. How to make sense of it all?
Jesus gave us a clear guide to the key priorities – to love God with all our being, and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.
Those are what we should focus on.
David Morgan, from Wokingham Methodist Church, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
