What can we say so far about our visit to India? It is difficult to know where to start. First impressions include the warmth and friendliness of the people, their humility and thirst for God, the insane traffic and driving, the heat, the smells of spices that are so different to the smells of bacon and coffee at home, the contrast between luxury and poverty and the sheer colour and vibrancy of all we see.

Fredrick and Reeba have welcomed us with warm hospitality and are solicitous in looking after us. We are humbled at being treated as minor celebrities wherever we go and at being asked for photos, simply because we are white!

The traffic and driving are mad. Fredrick says the motto is ‘you can drive without brakes, but you can’t drive without a horn’!! The noise, volume and speed of driving through crowded roads take some getting used to, and the drivers amongst us are amazed! ‘You’d get fined for that in England’ is Diane’s recurring comment on driving practices (riding motorbikes without helmets, overtaking on the inside, driving the wrong way down roads etc.)

The area where Fredrick’s church is situated and the area where the tailoring programe and slum children attend meetings has to be seen to be believed. One rickety tap provides water for the whole area. Families live in a room that looks more than ramshackle. Dogs, goats and cows roam around freely. In contrasat, we are staying in the IT part of Bangalore. It’s like a construction site!

We have been very busy so far. Today we are going into people’s homes to pray for them. Tomorrow we will be taking part in two Good Friday services. Please continue to pray for us.

As we reach the end of these Lenten musings, it’s very easy to summarise the life God wants us to live. He wants us to live a life of love. Love is the fulfilment of the law (see Rom 13:10 & Gal 5:14) and if we want to reflect God’s nature to others, we have to show His love in practical ways.

Getting rid of impatience, worry, idleness, pride, anger, envy and unforgiveness are means of pruning wrong attitudes, thoughts and actions from our lives. Embracing patience, trust, service, humility, kindness, gentleness, forgiveness and compassion are ways of reflecting God positively to a world that knows a lot about different kinds of love but which struggles to understand the selfless, unconditional love of God.

Tomorrow, Good Friday, is the day when we contemplate this love in its purest form: Christ hanging on a cross to redeem us from our sins. As Peter puts it, ‘Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.’ (1 Pet 3:18) Our response is to give ourselves wholly, unreservedly, to God, so that we become messengers of reconciliation to a world starving for love. Love well and do as you please, Augustine said, for when we love as God loves, our actions will match His.

We laugh at the joke told of the woman who came forward for prayer. When asked why she needed prayer, she said, she wanted God to give her the gift of patience and she wanted it right now! When Dave was recently in hospital, he was told he would need patience and determination to recover. He told the nurse he had plenty of determination, but sometimes struggled with patience! We all tend to struggle to embody patience and find this virtue difficult to practise: I am typing this on a notebook and it’s taking much longer than normal which I find irksome, to say the least!

It remains true, however, that patience comes through the trials we endure (see James 1:2-3, Rom 5:3-4). We learn patience because we have to. There is simply no alternative. The pregnant woman has to wait for the baby to arrive, and no amount of fretting can alter that fact. The impatient child has to wait for Christmas to come. When I was a child, I would frequently feel ill as Christmas approached because I was so excited, but that didn’t actually alter the speed at which 25^th December would arrive each year! If we don’t learn patience, all we do is make ourselves miserable in the now, which is God’s most precious gift to us.

The word often translated patience in our Bibles is the Greek word hupomone, a word which conveys the need to persevere and endure through difficult circumstances. William Barclay said, ‘Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.’ Rom 8:25 reminds us ‘But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.’ As we practise patience, often through tears and gritted teeth, we can also learn to do so joyfully because of the hope God gives us.

Gentleness is another virtue that is easily overlooked. Gentleness is quiet, unassuming and tender; we appreciate it when we are injured or ill or needing medical attention, but we are often too impatient to grow in gentleness. Haste, impatience and being short-tempered are the opposite of being gentle, yet these are the characteristics of modern society.

Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, came as a gentle king riding on a donkey (Matt 21:5) and described himself as ‘gentle and humble in heart’ (Matt 11:29), comparing himself to a mother hen who gathers her chicks under her wings. (Matt 23:37) It stands to reason, therefore, that his followers are urged to be gentle: as Paul says, ‘Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.’ (Eph 4:2) Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) and we are encouraged to clothe ourselves ‘with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.’ (Col 3:12)

Gentleness is about our inner attitudes and how our faith is presented to the world. Peter told us to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope we have, but reminded us to do this ‘with gentleness and respect’ (1 Pet 3:15). Timothy was urged to pursue gentleness along with righteousness, godliness, faith, love and endurance. (1 Tim 6:11) We don’t have to be obnoxious about our faith, but need to grow daily in gentleness, for it acts as a cure to ill-temper and wrath. (Prov 15:1)

Apologies for having fallen behind with our Lenten blog posts: travelling to India and a busy schedule so far have meant computer access is limited. Here are our last thoughts…

Weeds grow more quickly and easily than flowers and plants, it seems, and in the same way, pride, arrogance and grumbling can flourish more quickly in our hearts than humility. Humility is not something which is valued in our society. Being modest is inconspicuous, and we seem to value the brash and boastful more than the quiet and meek. We often feel that being humble is beneath us; we fear being trodden on by others and see life as a perpetual struggle to make ourselves top dog.

Jesus described himself as ‘gentle and humble in heart’ (Matt 11:29) and reminded us that His is a topsy-turvy kingdom where ‘those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’ (Matt 23:12) Ultimately, as C. S. Lewis said, ‘True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.’ (‘Mere Christianity’) We can be secure in our identity as children of God and allow humility to grow in our hearts by choosing to think of others first and to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When we do this, we let go of our obsession with ourselves and understand that comparisons with others are futile.

Mother Teresa gave practical guidelines about what cultivating humility looks like in practice:

• To speak as little as possible of one’s self.
• To mind one’s own business.
• Not to want to manage other people’s affairs.
• To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully.
• To pass over the mistakes of others.
• To accept insults and injuries.
• To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.
• To be kind and gentle even under provocation.
• Never to stand on one’s dignity.

We were once on holiday in Ireland, and our SatNav was resolutely trying to take us the wrong way to the port. Time was passing alarmingly quickly and it looked like we would miss our ferry home because we were lost. As we stopped to consult maps and SatNavs, a lady following us in a car stopped also and asked where we wanted to go. She then offered to drive to the port, leading the way, cutting through the Dublin streets to bring us safely to our destination with minutes to spare.

Such kindness helped us enormously and was a vivid reminder that it’s the little things in life that often make the difference. This woman wasn’t going to the port that Saturday and went out of her way to help us. She probably didn’t give the incident a second thought, but to us, she was a helper from God, and we were truly grateful.

God is merciful and kind to us, and kindness is something which costs us little but has an enormous impact on others. Those ‘acts of random kindness’ can be pointers to and reminders of God’s character to a world that is often cruel and merciless. Rom 2:4 tells us that it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. How can we show kindness today?