Plenary,

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Official Report 376KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. As always on a Wednesday, our first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Andy Brookes from the National Prayer Breakfast.

Many thanks to the Presiding Officer for the opportunity to address members today.

Yesterday, Michael received "the letter"—not unexpected, given the rumours and the half-year results, but a rumour is very different to having the letter in your hand. Michael knew that he was in good company, locally and nationally, but this was his letter, from his employer. It had been handed to him in a perfunctory meeting with someone from human resources. It stated:

"In our meeting today, I confirmed that following the conclusion of the consultation process, your role will become redundant on 27 June 2009."

He read it and reread it.

Michael became a Christian only recently, committing his life, warts and all, to Jesus Christ. In that short time, one of the truths that he had come to know as bedrock was that God was God over the whole of life. Not that he had ever articulated it, but his assumption had hitherto been that, if Christians were right about God and Jesus, the deity's interest was limited to churchy things—prayer and so forth. However, as the roots of discipleship grew into the Bible-enriched soil of his life, Michael saw how false that was. The whole of his life was under God's loving gaze. God had commands, advice and wisdom for all areas of life, and—wonder of wonders, especially to Michael, who had always been a self-sufficient sort of bloke—the grace thing. Churchy word, grace, but Michael, in his pragmatic way, had translated it as "good stuff from God that we don't deserve."

So as he stood in the kitchen with his letter, he acted out that truth. He prayed, with his redundancy letter held high, the simple prayer:

Lord, I trust you. Show me the way to go; and keep my spirits up.

No flashes of light, but a reassuring sense of presence was God's answer.

Let us pray.

Lord, we pray for all in this Parliament, for those in the public gallery, this city, this nation, for me, that today and always we would, like Michael, know your loving gaze over the whole of life; your wisdom for living; and, above all, your grace in Jesus to live humbly, obediently and with joy before you. Amen.