BBC Radio Leicester
Thought for the Day
© John Denney 15
November 2004[1]
I’m
not a morning person. I need a coffee
and a shower before I’m fit to face the world.
Sometimes, while I’m still snug under the duvet, trying to summon up the
willpower to roll out of bed, I think to myself, “Suppose I stay here today. What difference would it make in the grand
scheme of things?” And it’s certainly
true that a great deal of the things we’re worrying about this morning – what
the boss is going to say about that missed target; how I’m going to pay that
final demand from the gas people; what I’m going to say to heal the rift
between her and me; those sort of things – it’s certainly true that in a
hundred years time no one will even know about them, let alone care.
But
today there are people who care about
you. Maybe it’s someone who relies on
us, or someone who looks forward to our company, who would notice if we weren’t there.
Yesterday
was Remembrance Sunday. By our village
war memorial, we gathered: the youth organisations, the churches, the parish
council, the British Legion, the villagers, with our poppies and our wreaths. The Last Post was sounded. The roll call of men from the village who
died in the First World War and the Second, and in conflicts since, was read
out. Each one of them was remembered. There were people present who bear some of
the same surnames, but not a few of those names have died out. But still we remembered them; ordinary people
just like us who faced an extraordinary situation, and whose lives were taken
from them, that we might be free.
God
shaped humans to remember. Truly, the fact
that we hold acts of remembrance gives those who were sacrificed a sort of
immortality. Their names do live on. In recent days, we have heard of the deaths
of Yasser Arafat, Fred Dibnah, Emlyn Hughes, Howard Keel and John Peel, and
their families and friends will be mourning them still. This morning, people from my village are
mourning Betty – whom you’ve probably never heard of, but who was dear to many
people beyond her family. Her name lives
on, just as those celebrities’ names will live on.
It’s
in the impact we have on other people that our life gains purpose. Like Jesus, we’re here to bring love to
others. That’s the meaning of life: to
live it in love.
[1] On this day, BBC Radio Leicester ran a theme through all its programmes: “What is the meaning of life?” This Thought was written with this in mind.