Reminder

Last year around Spring Concert time I talked in worship about this sign that I had seen. It is a red sign and at that time it was vibrant red hanging in a store front window on our route to school. It has since faded in pink and I rarely notice it anymore.

Spring concert time is a stressful time around our school, and this red reminder enabled me to do just what it says: Keep Calm and Carry On. Apparently this was a poster that was printed in 1939. They were designed by the British Government to reassure the citizens that they would be protected in the midst of the war.

I like it's pragmatism.

I like the idea of everyone tending their own garden and not getting so caught up in things we cannot control.

But what of social justice? What about change? What about interacting in the world? I guess I am taking a more passive role on these questions these days. The truth is change is hard and we aren't going to change the world for the better. All we can do is live our lives and I think in the living of our lives we effect change, more lingering change.

That is quite humanist of me. Let me restate. I think that God sustains us with common grace. And this common grace is why people do not act as evil as we really are. Because of God's mighty grace we are freed from thinking that we have to change the world. We are called to love and serve those around us: I consider this tending our own gardens. We care for the people God has placed before us and through God's power and our own simple practices we keep calm and carry on.

I am coming to see that our simple practices remind us of the power God has in our lives.