June's Blog by Rev. Phillip Castle - Associate Priest
I have said before that I find it difficult to write the letter for the magazine, much easier to write a sermon! I found what follows from a letter I had written some time ago and looking around at the world as it today is in places like Nigeria, Syria, Ukraine etc it seemed like a good time to repeat it and to remember that there is good news around if you care to look for it. (It also helps because I couldn’t think of anything else!!)
What happens in heaven when we pray?
I dreamt that I went to heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked
side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel
guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is
the receiving section, here, all petitions to God said in prayer are
received."
I looked around in this area, and it was
terribly busy with so many
angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps
from people all over the world. Then we moved on down a long corridor
until we reached the second section. The angel then said to me,
"this is the packaging and delivery section. Here, the graces and blessings
the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons
who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There
were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings
had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to earth. Finally
at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very
small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there,
idly doing nothing. "This is the acknowledgment section,"
my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed. "How
is it that there is no work going on here?" I asked. "So
sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that
they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments," "how does
one acknowledge God's blessings?” I asked. "Simple," the angel
answered. Just say, "thank you, Lord."
"What blessings should they acknowledge?"
I asked.
"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a
roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this
world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet or purse, and
spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the worlds
wealthy." "And if you get this on your own computer, you
are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity."
"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are
more blessed than the many that will not even survive this
day."
"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 700 million people in the world."
"If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are envied by, and more blessed than three billion people in the world."
"If your parents are still alive and still married ....you are very rare." "If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm; you're unique to all those in doubt and despair"
Ok, what now? How can I start?
If you can read this message, you just
received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as
very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the
world who cannot read at all. Have a good day, count your blessings,
and if you care to, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we
all are.
Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and
for giving me so many wonderful people with whom to share it.
“God doesn’t just give us grace. He gives us Jesus, the Lord of grace”.
Phillip