‘Things can only get better.’ What does that phrase remind you of?
Perhaps it takes you back 30 years to when the pop song was first in the charts? Or the Labour Party election campaign of 1997? Or the Prime Minister’s announcement of this year’s general election in that deluge outside Downing Street a couple of weeks ago?
It’s a bit of a strange statement – both desperate and hopeful at the same time. It seems to say in the same breath ‘we’re at rock bottom’ and ‘we’re not going to stay here’. And, in a way, it captures something of the nature of the Christian faith.
The Christian God, uniquely in world religions, calls us into relationship with Him. As part of that process, we are invited to admit our past and current failures, and do our best to change, in order to be ready for that relationship.
We’re called to radical honesty about how far we fall short of our best selves but also to the acceptance of the fact that we are loved, forgiven and promised great things. We respond by giving thanks, repenting and trying to follow Jesus, through practice and reflection, day by day. It’s a lifelong journey but as long as we follow it faithfully ‘things can only get better’.
And in a much deeper sense, we believe that the world – all of it – the injustice, the environmental degradation, the sickness and suffering – is on its way to renewal, through the saving work of Jesus Christ. All will one day be well. Things will one day be very much better indeed.
Written by Lois Sparling of St George’s Church in Kendal.
To share an insight about how your faith impacts your view of things, please contact: faithviewpoint@gmail.com.
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