The rabbit was rooted to the spot, its eyes caught in a beaming car’s headlights. Meeeewow, the car rolled on oblivious to the carnage, and the rest is history! Such is the overwhelming scale of need in today’s world and the detailed information available to us through newsfeeds, we can end up paralysed like that rabbit and end up doing nothing. Syrian atrocities, refugees at our borders, starving people in Yemen, Malawi and other African nations, homelessness on Scottish streets, poverty in our own town, the list is endless!

Neil Postman’s aid-memoire ‘LIAR’ stands for ‘Low Information Action Ratio.‘    The fallacy and lie that, ‘the more information received, the better equipped we are to respond’ – not so! Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer comes in handy here,

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.”

This is not to say we shouldn’t be disturbed and shocked about events in our world and neighbourhood, rather that we must be careful to focus on needs we can help with, whether it be praying, petitioning, financially giving, visiting, practically helping or whatever you can.

A big thank you to all helping to spread the ‘Are ye Wise!?’ films and their ‘loving, caring, sharing’ message! The 4^th film (song) has been viewed well over 32,000 times, heard at least 4 times daily on Irvine Beat FM and been watched (sometimes in the rain) by shoppers passing Irvine’s Big Screen. I’m encouraged by calls received from people keen to do something to help and support others in Irvine and needy parts of the world. Grateful for all they have, they’ve been moved by the needs of others and are taking steps to do something.

Christmas is the chance to see what the world can be like when we let Jesus in with His ‘down-to-earth’ life-transforming generosity. Sitting on the sidelines is not an option with Jesus, who enters our world via the back-door, coming to ‘disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed’.

 “God of Surprise, open my eyes to see where and with whom I can make a difference this Christmas and beyond!”

A Happy Christmas to and through you, my friends!