The Single Basket Approach

We’re often warned against ‘putting all our eggs in one basket’, because if you drop your basket, you’d break all your eggs. Eggs should be divided among several different baskets….

However sometime a single basket approach is required:

When I go married fifty-two years ago I didn’t consider the multiple basket approach… When an ambulance came for our badly injured son beside the road, following an accident caused by a drunk driver, we didn’t wait to see if a better ambulance would come later… When the lost sheep was eventually found by the Good Shepherd, there was no option of other shepherds.

We watched the football on Saturday. Jude Bellingham had another good game as England defeated Switzerland. Some have described him as ‘Saint Jude’.

Jude (not Bellingham!) was a disciple of Jesus who, according to tradition, was martyred in Beirut. Pictures of Jude usually have him carrying a picture of Jesus; a flame above his head shows that he was present at Pentecost…

He’s variously described the patron saint ‘for the hopeless and the despaired’, ‘the impossible’, or ‘hopeless causes’. When you’ve run out of baskets for your eggs you turn to St Jude – he’s the only one left.

Perhaps that will be Jude Bellingham in Wednesday’s semi-final…

I was reminded yesterday of Leonard Cohen’s wonderful song ‘Hallelujah’, and my favourite line: ‘It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah’…

The song refers to the stories of Samson and King David – two men with huge potential who messed up badly, caused the death of innocent victims, made really bad choices – particularly regarding women… They tried many baskets but still smashed many eggs.

‘It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah’… speaks of messing up, running out of options, one of St Jude’s hopeless causes, the shepherd-less lost sheep. From the place of broken eggs and hearts, I intentionally and deliberately bring ‘Hallelujah’ to acknowledge and praise my God. I may not have many unbroken eggs left, but they’re all in a single basket.