fidzbit

There is nothing quite like a global pandemic to bring out the conspiracy theorists and ‘prophets of doom’! I’m sure you have seen them too. No internet discussion forum is complete without the guy who is wearing a virtual ‘end is nigh’ sandwich board. They are not all promoting religious beliefs. Some people wear ‘climate-change’ sandwich boards. Then there are the 'police-are-communist-power-grabbers’ sandwich boards. But there are a fair few Christian ‘end-of-the-world’ voices out there too. Whilst I do not agree with the apocalyptic vision that many of these voices are proclaiming I recognize that the views are held sincerely. Maybe they are right, maybe not. Who knows? It is not my intention to argue with them but on this Tuesday of ‘Holy Week’ I do want to ask them a simple question: Are you weeping? Let me explain why I am asking this. If you follow the Bible narrative closely you will see that it was either the Monday or Tuesday after Palm...

Wouldn’t it be great if you could hear what God is saying at a time like this? There are lots of different opinions on this. Some Christians look at the crisis and conclude that God is saying “Time’s up. You’re all too bad and this is the end”. Some atheists are saying “God is silent as always. This is the proof He does not exist”. Whenever bad things happen in the world there are also people who conclude quite instinctively that God is an angry sadist who shouts: “You thought North Korea was bad - let me show you what I can do!” Remember that, for David, nothing was going right. He was in exile, isolated in the desert. His enemies were trying to kill him. He had to worry about where to sleep, what to eat, and how to find water. He was missing his family and friends, the comfort of home, and the normal routines he used to take for granted. But he did not conclude that God was out to destroy him. He did not conclude that God had abandoned him completely. It might have felt like ...

First, the dark side. Tom is an anaesthetic registrar currently working in ITU (you can read his interview here:  https://fidzbit.blogspot.com/2020/03/real-people-tom-anaesthetic-registrar.html ). Yesterday, after a gruelling 13 hour shift, he discovered that some kind soul had cut through his bike chain and stolen the bike which he uses to get to and from work every day - from right outside the hospital. Trying to give the benefit of the doubt, the best spin I can put on this is that they were rushing home to applaud NHS workers with their neighbours and, without the use of a stolen doctor’s bike, would not have got there in time. Now, the bright side. This story was shared online and, within a couple of hours, Team Ineos’ cyclist Luke Rowe stepped in and promised to give him a replacement bike. It should arrive in time to get to work on Monday. There is a good chance that the new bike will be much better than the old one. Hats off - or maybe, helmets off? - to him, that is a ...

Today is Palm Sunday. I don’t fast for Lent but, by this point in time, I imagine that those who do are really beginning to crave chocolate. There is something about abstinence  - forced or voluntary - which makes us hunger and thirst for the thing we are lacking. As they say, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’. The new highlight of my day is the 30 minutes exercise and essential shopping trip. In normal times we might try to avoid the menial chores  (“It’s your turn, I did it yesterday”) but it will probably not be long before my wife and I are competing over who gets to go and buy the milk! Granted this is all pretty mundane but you don’t need to be locked inside for too long before you start appreciating little tastes of the freedoms we normally take for granted. Psalm 27 describes one of the times when David was stuck in the wilderness being hunted like an animal by his enemies. It would have been completely natural for him to start craving his bed, missing his fam...

The panic buying we have seen in the last few weeks demonstrates both our wisdom and our folly as human beings. If we know that tough times are coming it makes sense to be prepared. It is wise to fill the cupboards with food that will carry you through the shortages. But the fact we are ‘wise’ in this respect only serves to highlight our folly. The Bible warns us that a day of judgment is coming which will have eternal consequences. If it is wise to prepare for a few weeks of food shortages how much more important is it to prepare for death and eternity? Yet very few people who are fighting over toilet rolls would fight to get hold of a Bible. Very few of the people queuing to get into the supermarket are ever seen queuing to get into church. This is our folly: when it comes to eternal, spiritual realities, we seem unable to apply the simple day to day principles that govern the rest of our lives. Jesus told a story: Jesus told them this parable:  “The ground of a c...

What a horrible decision to have to make!  There are two sick people to every bed. Which one receives the treatment they need? Doctors are trying to prepare themselves anticipating that this situation could come up again and again. Just before non-essential businesses were asked to close, a man in his 60’s collapsed at my local gym. Although he revived a bit with some rest and a sugar drink, he also turned that disturbing grey colour that rings alarm bells: 'heart attack?!' Of course we called for an ambulance, the normal response in such a situation - but no ambulance was available! They were already under such demand that they could only respond to absolute  bona fide  emergencies. One day Jesus was walking through a town. A blind man called Bartimaeus started shouting, trying to get Jesus’ attention over the noise of the crowds. The people told him to be quiet - “He’s too busy for you!” - but Jesus is never too busy. He stopped and called him over. In...

The end is in sight! Really?! Well, no - not for us any way. From our point of view this crisis is only just beginning. We have no idea how long it will last. Will the virus mutate and return again and again, bringing fresh waves of sickness? Will the social distancing measures stop a second or third ‘peak’ in cases? How long will it take to make an effective vaccine? We cannot answer these questions. The prospect of the next few months is daunting - whether that means tiring shifts in the hospital or the restrictions of staying at home through a lock down. But for God the end  is  already in view. In the book of Job God set a limit for the devil’s evil: “And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand.  Only against him do not stretch out your hand." That is God’s line in the sky. Later in the book He declares that He has also set limits for the visible world too: “" Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb...