Sunshine

According to the weather forecast I have just read, it's going to be wet or dry tomorrow (don't you just love precision?) and sunny on Wednesday. Great. I love the sunshine.

I worked with a guy once who, after leaving the firm we were at, was made redundant by his new employers in no time at all. His attitude was good and he was a hard working accurate chap. No fault on his part, just the way it was at the time.

We met up for lunch in town one day when he was looking for work and he introduced me to a soup he regarded highly. Honestly? It was good.

Afterwards, we walked along the Strand heading for Trafalgar Square and chatted about things in general and his situation in particular. The sun was shinning and it was warm but not too hot. Frank (his given name), waxed lyrical about the way the sunshine made everything seem better. Like some beneficial intoxicant, it had a soothing and encouraging effect on his mood. I disticntly recall being amazed at his optimisim and buoyant demeanour and hardly credited the sunshine for his frame of mind. I was about 21 at the time and Frank was in his 50's.

Well, now I'm older. There's no doubt, the sunshine doth perk some folk up! Trouble is that if our inner man is lifted by the sun, that same inner man will fare poorly when the sky is overcast.

You will have heard of SAD. A condition some are diagnosed as having and that is countered with the aid of a sun lamp.

I read some old news that is releveant today and that, although old, is new to the first time hearer, viz. Paul the apostle prayed for the Ephesian believers in terms that related to the inner man but had nothing to do with sunshine:-
Ephesians 3:14-19
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (NKJ)

Since the sunshine is here today and gone tomorrow, or the next day or the next (at least in the UK) it is preferable to rely on the Holy Spirit to lift us and keep us from gloom.

That's the way to do it.