I thought I would share with you a new profile photo - me as Wonder Woman!
I played the part in our children’s Christmas Extravaganza at Weston and thoroughly enjoyed myself! However, the role is actually a terrible Christian role model!
At the start of this new year, as usually happens, we were once again bombarded by advice about how to be healthier; how to avoid bad things like chocolate, alcohol and too much screen time; and how to generally improve ourselves.
Now I would heartily endorse all of these “Good Things” but there is a danger. All this good advice could make the rest of us ordinary mortals feel like failures. Maybe by the time we reach February we have failed to “lose that stone”; gone back to the alcohol after Dry January, and are slumped in front of our screen or on our phones feeling inadequate, weak and a complete failure!
Jesus never saw people as failures. Just the opposite. He sought out the weak, those marginalised by society because of their physical weakness; or their professions like prostitutes and tax collectors. He was ready to meet with lepers and all those who were shunned by “respectable” society! He loved them and by showing them that love, he healed them.
I know I am not Wonder Women. I have so many faults, I make so many mistakes and time and time again I fail to do what I know I should do. But I know that does not stop Jesus loving me. He will forgive me and He will give me the strength to go on doing His work in this community.
I have to rely utterly on his power and strength, not my own. I know God has loved me (and all of you!) unconditionally from when we were in the womb. One of my favourite psalms, Psalm 139 says this:
“For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (13-14a)
So, if we who are “fearfully and wonderfully made” can learn to rely on God’s strength and not our own, then perhaps we can all be Wonder Women and Supermen!!
With every blessing,