Where is God in the COVID pandemic.

Where is God in the pandemic?

As a practicing Christian I often get asked by people who do not go to church “ Where is God in this pandemic?” This is a very difficult question to answer. In my fantasy novel I tried to answer this question. Edward Eastland is confronted by a member of the Covenent the mysterious group of magicians. He states that his God has given them power and makes people bow down and obey the Covenenters. Edward stood up to his power when he tried to make him bow down and answered.

Stubbornly, Edward replied. “ My Maker is all powerful. He has given us all gifts in plenty. It is not in the nature of my Maker to bestow power but to give us guidance on how to live our lives and how to use the power we have for the benefit of all. If you believe in interference of a host of gods into the lives of men, we are no longer free agents to live our lives within the law or not. We have then become puppets. You have through your religion reduced mankind to mere playthings of the gods, a hollow vessel to be manipulated for the pleasure of the gods.”

 If we have free will God does not make us do anything. He has showed us all the way to behave by loving our neighbours. To my mind this has shown itself in the way people have helped others without the expectation of reward. If one good thing has come out of the pandemic it is the neighbourly spirit it has built up.

 

Racism in the church.

 We Christians have to own up to forms of racism in churches. It is not overt and many Christians would deny it happens. When we have new members there is a sense of welcoming but in some Christians there is an undercurrent of nervousness about people who are different. One of the problems might be the compartmentation of churches. Different denominations are reluctant to mix with other denominations. There is often a reluctance to admit that different ways of conducting services is right. They stick ridgidly to their way of doing things.

In my novel An Ordinary Life this question arises. Tom Houseman as a delegate from his church attends the Council of Churches committee. He meets the pastor of a mainly black church and they become friends. The black church is vandalised and Tom tries to get his church members to help clean his friends church. It is a Sunday and most of his church members refuse to help claiming it is a time of worship and anyway the black church is not their business. He wonders what would have been the reaction if the church had been predominantly white.

An Ordinary Life by Edmund Gubbins published through Amazon and available as a paperback from Amazon and as a download ebook from Kindle.

Listening to the wind

 Lying in bed listening to the storm outside with the wind whistling through the branches of the trees drew parallels with the storm we are facing in our lives. The virus has made us all change our way of living and wonder when it will end. Despite government’s assurances about the safety of leaving the house most people my age are still wary of venturing out. We have ventured a few times into town but it is a nervous time. It is not the people as old as us but the younger ones. They do not appear to understand social distancing. Some younger people get impatient and push the old out of the way. They are not wearing masks. It is as though they think because the young are not effected so much by the virus it does not matter about the affect on other people. Not all are like this and these keep their distance.

Our church has stair ted to hold services on a Sunday again. It is wonderful to be back in the building again after services on you tube or zoom. It is not the same. We all sit apart without masks on. We are not allowed to sing but must say the words of the hymns. The Lord’s Prayer is muted through the masks. There is no handshakes or hugging after the service just say goodbye and out of the door. I read the passages from the bible and was amused to find it was about a storm on the lake.

In my book of short stories, The Cigar And Other Stories, there is one about trying to turn a ship in a gale. That is the difference lying in bed listening to the wind of a night. On a ship the structure groans and rattles. As waves cross the deck and the bow digs into the water there is a bang. But as the song You’ll Never Walk Alone from the  musical Carousel says the storm will come to an end. We will conquer this pandemic but until we do everybody must play their part. 

My book of short stories is available from Amazon.

Fifty years of marriage.

 Is it really a year since we celebrated our golden wedding? Time flies by. My hairdresser asked me how I had managed to stay with the same person for tea length of time. I said because we love each other, are tolerant of each other’s faults and we are the best of friends. For our family dinner where not just my children And grandchildren came but many of my cousins, I wrote a poem:

Fifty

Side by side, hand clasping hand,

We have walked the byways of being 

Together for the past fifty years .

At times, sitting beside the still waters of life 

Relaxed, contented and gratified in our happiness.

Other moments we have lain in the sunshine

Basking in the brightness of our love for each other

Or slept in balmy, warm days of contentment.

Ignoring other people in our enclosed world.

We have stood on each side  of the raging torrent

Crashing against the rocks and rapids of our anger,

Separated, alone and baffled by our fury and ire

Starch stiff in the rightness of our cause.

Only to watch as the torrent slowly subsides

As a passing storm into our love for each other.

In ffifty years we have become more than lovers

But friends and constant companions.

Sharing each others  moments of triumph

Comforting one another in times of stress. 

Now with confidence and calm we find

The tingling of senses and the excitemen

As hand in hand we continue life's journey.

This has all been tested in the lockdown but we have come through still lovers and friends.

I read In the news paper some time ago about a couple who had been married for over fifty years and had then been separated by being sent to different nursing homes. From this came my novel Saving Grace where the man attempts to be reunited with his wife.

This can be purchased from Amazon

Poems and short stories

During the lock down I have been collecting together all the poems and short stories I have written mainly during my creative writing classes.

These are the three volumes I have self published so far.

Poems and the sea are written about my connection to the sea from the twelve years I spent as an officer in the British Merchant Navy and visits to the sea subsequently having moved as far away from the sea as is possible in the UK.

The Cigar and other stories are from my time at sea many of which formed the basis of my book Tales from the sea.

The Golden Age and other Poems is a collection of poems about life.

Purchase from Amazon.

Eddie Gubbins thrillers

Three thrillers as Ken Flood tries to help his brother.

Brotherly Love where Ken is asked by his brother to deliver a package to London. He finds he is pursued by people he did not know, Even worse he comes to regard anybody as an enemy except those friends who willingly try to help him. He does not know where to turn or where to hide. He as an academic is usually sure of what he is undertaking but now he is out of his depth. Should he help his brother or turn him into the authorities? That is If he knew who the authorities are. 

A Legacy From Mary is a situation where Ken gets involved again with his brother Norman when one of his research students is killed. A mugging gone wrong, the police told him. Then his friend Mary is killed in a car crash. A tragic accident, the police tell everybody. The one common factor is a country called Mengambi. Ken is asked to go there and organise a training programme. During his stay he tries to find out the connection and finds himself threatened with being killed.

For The Love Of Pauline where Ken’s daughter dies of a drugs overdose or so it is alleged. For once Ken in trying to find out who supplied the drugs which killed his daughter, asks his brother a Norman to help. This leads them into the dirty world of high crime where the top criminals think they are immune from prosecution. Threatened with being killed, Norman and Ken still seek to find out who runs the organisation.

Available from Amazon as paper backs and Kindle for downloading as ebook.

The environment

Once more the world is starting to think about the environment and the danger of climate change. This has been especially true during the lockdown in the Uk because the amount of traffic had fallen both on the roads and in the air. People are hearing birds song in towns and cities clearly. 

The commentators are still it seems reluctant to mention the elephant in the room. A great deal of the problem stems from the increase in population world wide. There are too many people now and there is an increase. One only has to look at refugee camps where crammed into tents are families with six or seven children. More people means more travel,, more cars and more energy used. All this pushes global warming and pollution to greater heights. Religious leaders like the Pope do not help by denying women family planning. They encourage bigger families.

More people more land needed to grow food, more trees cut down. More land needed to build houses for people to live in. More people more roads and bigger airports. There are technical ways to mitigate the effects of pollution, electric vehicles, electric heating of homes, cleaner energy. 

What should happen is that some of the aid budgets from international organisations should be channeled into helping women family plan and reduce the size of families. The Pope should be educated in 5he need for leadership in this. God gave us the ability to enjoy sex without creating babies. 

Let us hope some influential people take up this theme and start a movement.