Not For Me Thank You

It’s all kicking off in Lowestoft today. It’s the ‘First Light Festival’ today and tomorrow. Inspired by Lowestoft’s location as the most Easterly part of the country and therefore the first to receive sunlight we shall have our ‘free summer solstice celebration of culture, creativity, and community’.

Thousands will gather on our South Beach and will have a wonderful time. A number of my friends are involved, many more will be attending and think it’s great. ‘Will  you be attending, Malcolm?’ they’ve asked…

…For me it’s like fishing, golf, car-mechanics and ballroom dancing – all very worthy and wholesome, but my reply has been, ‘Not for me thank you.’

I often think about the big positive choices I’ve made in my life – leaving home, teacher training, getting married, job applications, buying houses, retaining a Christian faith… there’s also the ‘Not for me thank you’ choices I’ve made…

Today it’s our friends Christine and David’s wedding anniversary… 56 years – Congratulations! It’s ours next week. When I said, ‘I do,’ to Rachel, I was saying ‘I don’t… Not for me thank you’ to many, many other women… for which they are exceedingly grateful, I’m sure.

Musing on marriage… ‘Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?’

I replied, ‘I do.’ This promise of love, priorities and faithfulness… I haven’t always got it right, but it’s required a ‘Not for me thank you’ response to other choices throughout my life…

I’ve recently come back to St Paul’s: ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.’

The world around me often tells me, ‘Enjoy yourself – have fun.’ ‘Look after yourself – no-one else will.’ ‘Make the most of your life – you don’t get another.’ Self-centredness, self-promotion, self-obsession, self-success… is considered normal.

I’m still learning the humility which knows when to step back and say, ‘Not for me thank you.’