Spring Is Here…It is!

Adieu Mr Sharrock

The last week – 10 days have been eventful – I finally resigned from my firm, and told the boss that I am planning to make a trip to Malaysia. I am hoping this happens by late next week. It’d be great to catch up with my parents again, as well as my brother. I finish with this place on Friday. I had wanted to leave earlier but the boss thinks I can and should do more before I leave. It doesn’t make a big difference to me but I always think it wise to let employees who have resigned, leave as early as possible, as the notice period would be unproductive at best if not outright harmful. I now have a great sense of relief, never having fully settled down although I have worked here for almost 1½ years.

Bumping into Relative in Cyberspace

I received quite a few emails on Saturday – a number of them from someone who thought she may be related to me. She must have, for some inexplicable reasons, found this site interesting enough to read through so many entries. Maybe it’s just the thrill of reading something filled with familiar details. It turned out she was right – she is related. She is the daughter of my grandmother’s step sister, I think. She now lives in England, but her mother still lives in Melbourne. It’s freaky how 2 related persons who probably wont recognise each other on the streets and live in opposite ends of the world, should stumble and meet in cyber space. It took a lot of effort on her part – ploughing through various entries and put a number of details together to decide I was related to her.

Old Do’s and Don’ts

The missus was upset on Saturday night, when she returned from her ladies’ group meeting which had done on the whole afternoon. A couple of leaders said, during the meeting, that the 10 commandments are obsolete, they are no longer valid. We are living in the age of the new covenant, they said. Missus vehemently opposed that view and said so. As a result, the leaders thought she needed a bit of correction and yesterday morning in church, one of them gave her a book – something about living in the age of grace. I thumbed through it and yes, of course, the bit about the laws no longer having any hold, was there somewhere.

“Tsk tsk” is what I’d say. I think there is a big difference between saying under the new covenant we are no longer saved by obeying the 10 commandments (the laws) and saying, simply, that the 10 commandments are no longer valid. Just because a meal was free doesn’t mean it didn’t cost anything. God’s laws require compliance, not so that we could be saved, but because we have been saved. God doesn’t change – I think it is called God’s immutability – so, if He required some things to be done, they remain His requirements. The old covenant may have become obsolete, but the laws do not and would not. That’s my lay person’s understanding anyway, so let’s see how they react to missus’ uncharacteristic (but great) outburst.

The “outburst” on Saturday must have warmed up the missus considerably – this morning was a very chilly 3 deg but she didn’t utter a word about it. As usual, I crawled out of bed first and turned on the heating but she didn’t say anything about the cold at all. It has been a long winter, but I can already smell spring approaching – and I’m not just talking about the weather. Adieu Mr Sharrock.

“So, I commend the enjoyment of life.” (From the Bible – really. Eccl 8:15)