The final article in our annual “My Year In…” series.
There’s an old saying that “books don’t change people, sentences do”. So I thought I’d offer some words that challenged—and yes, changed—my heart and mind in 2024.
“… they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” (Jn 17:14–15)
We’re not taken from the world. In fact, Christians have a remarkable opportunity to be both salt and light in the world. We see this saline effect as Christians work in family law, vulcanology, modern history, and many, many other vocations. We especially rejoice in the task of Christian ministry.
But there is an inevitable point when we disengage from the world and put our hope in the one from heaven who has come to bring light and life. We are not of the world.
Last year, with Jesus’ words in my mind, I listened to John Dickson’s Bully and Saints. Now I could really appreciate both wonderfully positive and sadly negative examples of being in the world. I also continued chipping away at the joyful prose of the mind-expanding Biblical Critical Theory (Christopher Watkin), considering again what engagement with culture means for believers. And finally, I experienced the simultaneous theological ice bath and kindling fire of Growth and Change (Andrew Heard with Geoff Robson). This challenging book made me think about making the most of my time in the world.
“Everyone has heard people quarrelling.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 3)
This is how C.S Lewis begins his noble task to prove that there is real and widely known moral law. When we squabble over some matter, we are holding others to a way—a law—that they ought to follow in how they think or behave. And ultimately behind such a law is someone directing us to do right.
Lewis’ heroically concise explanations of philosophy and theology in Mere Christianity have been a great trigger for chats with a friend who read the book also. But that line in particular is memorable.
‘I taught rats to drive, but they taught me about joy.’ (Kelly Lambert)
A neuroscientist and her team staged a series of experiments to observe the brains of rats as they drove miniature rat cars. But something happened: the rats enjoyed themselves—even pumping the gas and revving the engine on the way to their incentives; a Froot Loop tree! As they switched to observe the rodent’s behaviour, the team started to appreciate new lessons in how creatures can find joy and hope in what’s coming. When I first read this story[1], I laughed and laughed. Thank you, rats!
Infuse in me a delight for You that surpasses all the fleeting attractions I once pursued; that I may wholly devote my love to You, and hold Your hand with all my heart, and that You may continue to save me from any adversity, even until the very end … Indeed, you allowed Your teachings to reach me even as I was distracted by trivial pursuits. (Augustine, Confessions Book 1)
Augustine looks back on his childhood. He confesses how absurd it was for him to be so invested in entertainment and yet hardly bother about his relationship with God. But he was a school kid, surely, he’d grow out of it? Not so. He observes that grown-ups tend to be drawn into far greater distraction but are hard on kids for not being more focussed. As a new year begins, I feel the relevance of this for my own life. Like Augustine, I want to pray that God will fill me with delight in him. I am also encouraged to pray for the next generation, that God will be central to their early years and their service to him will grow as they do.
‘For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.’ (J.R.R Tolkien, The Return of the King, 238)
In the middle of deadly danger and at the point of exhausted drudgery, the brave and faithful hobbit, Samwise, looks up to see the night clouds part and a single star twinkling. He realises then and there that light, beauty and goodness can and will exist far beyond and above even the most powerful evil and darkness.
As a new year begins, many people of our world face their own exhausting, dangerous drudgery. But there is comfort: God’s Son has risen beyond and above even the most powerful evil and darkness. We can rest our hopes on him.
