In anticipation of moving house soon, I have been trying to clear out cupboards and boxes. Given that I also have a storage facility full of things I have not seen for three years, and a garage with boxes that I have not used in one year, I am appalled at how much “stuff” I have gathered. By now you may be asking the same question I am, how much do I need this if I have not touched it in three years, and the answer is I don’t. I don’t need it, some of it I like, much of it I cannot remember why I bought it in the first place, and so my “barn” is filled with stuff, unnecessary stuff.

Have you ever said the words “I did my best” to be met with the response “Well your best is just not good enough” or worse still, has this ever been your response to someone. Such discouragement lingers with us and often when we attempt something new it is the negative voices which we hear rather than the positive. I once took part in an appraisal at work where, rather than looking at strengths and weaknesses, it looked only at the strengths and built on them, a much more positive experience which left us feeling valued and encouraged.

The start of the New Year can be a real mixture of emotions, excitement at the possibilities ahead perhaps tinged with a bit of fear as to what this coming year might hold. I wonder if this is how the Israelites felt as they stood on the brink of the Promised Land?

So preparations for Christmas are now in earnest.

Preparing the food, planning menus, freezing ahead, making the cakes and pudding, bracing ourselves for that last shop in all its madness. Preparing the presents, shopping online and in stores searching for the right gift and then the right wrapping. Preparing the house for family, perhaps for guests, decorating trees, sorting out guest rooms. Preparing ourselves, on the outside anyway, something new to wear, or a trip to the hairdresser. It seems to gather its own momentum, some of it fun, much of it stressful.

Walking in the fields this week with my dog, I was enjoying watching her run happily back and forth and thinking back to the first night she came to us as a puppy.

Like most other puppies she yelped and howled her way through the night, scared of her new surroundings, unsure of us and what her life would be like. Yet I knew what she didn’t, that she would be better loved than she could possibly realise and that we would give her the best and happiest life that she could possibly imagine.

As Summer is well behind us, and work and school routines have settled down, I am conscious of how fast the months seem to pass as we drift through the seasons. Quickly I fall back into patterns and routines week after week. There is much comfort to be had in these seasons and routines, and the more comfortable I become, the more I wonder at Abram who heard a call from God and, in spite of a prosperous comfortable life and old age, was prepared to leave his routines behind. He did not know at that time why or where he was to go, but without hesitation he followed.