Thought For The Week 20 October 2024

As I’ve been reflecting on the Gospel reading for this Sunday I started thinking about playing video games with my kids. That may sound strange but let me explain. Twenty years ago I used to enjoy playing car racing games on Xbox. I spent quite a bit of time on it. I could even say I was pretty good. Really good. Particularly at Rally racing games. When I’d race my friends, I was hard to beat.

Eventually, that Xbox ended up lost in a cupboard somewhere until last year we rediscovered it. I was able to introduce my kids to my favourite rally racing game. I was pleased to see that I ‘still had it’. I was rusty but still fast. But I quickly saw that playing against my kids would be like the All Blacks going up against the local 1^st XV. It wasn’t going to be fun, encouraging or life-giving for them.

So I decided I’d limit myself. I gave them the best car possible, I chose the worst car.

I also gave them a generous headstart. The result was our races together became a lot of fun and special time together, where I could encourage them and build them up. Now, believe it or not, they’ve become so good I have to work hard to beat them.

I’m sure you’ve done something similar with the young people in your life. Whether you threw a ball more softly or ran slower than you could have so they could catch you. These little stories are windows into how we handle power. It’s easy to see the power imbalance between an adult and a child, the trust and hope. It’s similar to the way our Almighty and Loving God is with us. Time has proven us humans to be weak and poor handlers of power. But God in divine mercy accommodates us and came down to our level in Jesus, who emptied himself, giving up all so that we may know the power of resurrection life.

In that together we grow in Christ’s servant way, each looking to the interest of others rather than our own.

Luke