Looking at the Bright Side of Life

Today, I look out the window to see a cloudless sky. This is very rare in the UK, I might add. Indeed, it's that time when winter gives way to spring, the days get longer, the nights shorter, the weather warmer, and crocuses and daffodils colour the landscape with their blooms. And oh yes, the beginning of Daylight Saving Time when the clocks go forward in the early hours of Sunday morning, that somewhat crazy phenomenon when you wake up each morning as if from a hangover for days to come.

Spring blooms - Daffodils and Crocuses.

For us, the thoughts of the seaside or boarding the Eurostar comes to mind. Or had I remained single, perhaps another prospect of a long-haul flight. On the other hand, the library of photo albums that would have accumulated over the past two decades would have required enough shelving in a public library for storage!

Maybe that's was it? By the end of the twentieth century, I was wondering whether the sense of adventure gotten from intercontinental backpacking was beginning to wane, especially to the States, after five separate visits already. Who knows. However, at the start of the new millennium, my original plan was to fly from London to Cape Town, backpack to Johannesburg, then fly to Perth, Western Australia, then surface travel to Sydney before taking off again to California. In other words, another Round-the-World trip like the one accomplished in 1997. Back then, such an endeavour was financially possible, thanks to British Airways signing special deals with other airlines, such as the Australian Qantas, originally meant to repatriate Aussies temporary residing in the UK and wishing to return. Instead, in 1999, I courted and married Alex, thus putting an end to all long-haul travel.

Then again, what if...

What if I held a driving licence, valid around the world? Despite the paperwork involved - insurance, collision-waiver fees, taxes, etc, hiring a car would have opened vast areas of the USA not reached by public transport, especially west of the Mississippi River. Canyonlands in Utah is one example, where trails pass through narrow slot-canyons, barely wider than my shoulders, with high vertical cliffs of patterned sandstone towering high on each side of me. Or the fantastic majesty of Half-Dome Mountain dominating Yosemite National Park, a mass of granite challenging any hiker to climb to its summit. Or the strikingly beautiful Crater Lake in southern Oregon. At the visitor's Centre, I would have gasped at how fire, heat, and lava from the bowels of the Earth could have created such a huge caldera lake, further enhanced by the presence of a small volcanic cone rising from the surface as an island located near the edge.

Then considering the sandstone pinnacles of Bryce Canyon, also in Utah, it's worth pondering how someone like me without a driving licence can miss out on nature's rugged beauty. Getting tired of visiting America? With a car, I would have never been tired! There were so many places worth visiting.

Hence the frustration of using the Greyhound Bus, even with a month-long pass ticket, or the Greyhound Ameripass, as it was called then. The busses linked cities, not natural wonders, although I was fortunate to make use of public services to get to Grand Canyon South Rim in both 1978 and 1995 respectively. 

Indeed, despite missing out on these dramatic attractions due to my inability to drive, yet, I have much to be thankful for. When I was young and pushing a broom across the floor of a family-owned factory workshop, I had never dreamed that not many years later I would gasp at the thundering cascade of Niagara Falls, or look down into Grand Canyon, let alone the need to hike down to view the Colorado River from close up, along with the numerous buttes that make up the rugged skyline from below - that contrasts vividly to the straight line of the North Rim as seen from the Village. Or when I walked through the rainforest of the Blue Mountains National Park near Sydney and looked up at the waterfalls cascading down those high cliffs. 

And turning to aquatics, those highly treasured moments when I hovered just above the corals of the Great Barrier Reef and over the corals of the Red Sea just south of Eilat. Two very different kinds of coral with their variation of species. Last but certainly not least, to stand on the summit of the Mount of Olives, looking west across the panoramic view of Jerusalem, the City of the Great King, and a view not unfamiliar with Jesus and his disciples.

It's during these present times that evaluating what you've achieved can be very helpful both spiritual and psychological. Whether it to do with leisure travel as was with me or having a high level of education, the ability to hold down a respectable career, to be successful in the business world, or to excel in a sport, whether as a team member as in football or cricket, or solo as a track-and-field athlete, or achieving a marvel such as swimming across the Channel or writing a novel or set of novels that fill the shelves of a well-known bookshop chain, such as Waterstones.

Or to pursue hobbies such as photography, as in my case, closely linked with travel. The inner glow felt within by having achieved something, whatever it might be, to fulfil your dreams are all good therapies to combat the challenges of life, such as the war in Ukraine and the threat of the rise in the cost of living. 

Corals at the Red Sea, Eilat, taken Oct 2000.

I guess it's so easy to allow rage to simmer within over the evils of the Russian President, how through his selfish ambition to annexe this small, independent State back into the former Soviet Union has caused widespread misery to millions, even fear and death among Russian soldiers ordered to fight and take the land, after minimal training for many young conscripts. Yet, it can be so easy to refer to Vladimir Putin as the son of the Devil, evil, wicked, and yet find it nigh impossible to see him as also loved by God, who is sustaining every breath he takes, every heartbeat, every morsel of food digested, and the efficiency of his immune system. During our Zoom prayer meetings, requests were sent heavenwards for God to appear in a supernatural way to Putin, very much in the same way when God appeared to Isaiah the Jewish prophet:-

Isaiah then cried out, 

Woe is me! For I'm undone, a man of unclean lips who dwell among a people of unclean lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. Isaiah 6:5.

Isaiah already knew God before that particular moment, but the experience gave him that extra power to minister to the Israelites and to be forever changed. Using this Scripture verse as a yardstick, some of us prayed for Vladimir Putin to have a similar revelation of God, be converted, and the war coming to a rapid end.

I couldn't help but feel ill-at-ease. For Putin to become a trophy of grace whilst many die in his war without having faith in Christ seems to be the nadir of unfairness! However, no matter how uncomfortable it feels to know that God still loves him, yet, that's still true, for when Christ died on the cross, he atoned for him as much as to the most devoted Christian.

And then, news of the coming inflation, the rise in energy bills, higher taxes and National Insurance, no doubt would cause some, perhaps many, to shiver in his shoes and wonder how one will survive financially after the threefold crisis of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and runaway inflation still to come. But according to one journalist, many were around to remember the 1970s with industrial strikes every five minutes, the Winter of Discontent, power cuts, cancelled trains, disrupted flights, and the three-day working week. Yet, we got by.*

Not that I ever remember working a three-day week. During that era, I was working in a precision engineering firm making ball-bearing races (the two rings which in between the bearings rolled.) I fully remember the two diesel-powered generators installed to power the entire factory with all its machines and office equipment. As such, we all worked our full five-day shifts.

But whichever way things are likely to turn, especially on the financial side, I can thank God that we here in the UK are not involved in any war. My heart goes out when I see images and hear about how so many Ukrainians are fleeing from their homes to cross the international borders as refugees. And the courage and determination for all men between the ages of 18 and 60 to remain behind to fight the Russian forces. Indeed, they have already earned the respect of the rest of the world, especially from the west.

I find something so good in humanity, especially when based upon Christian principles. Countries of the European Union are showing wonderful hospitality to these Ukrainian refugees. Especially Poland, a member of the EU since May 1st, 2004 and a Schengen Area member, took in the greater majority of refugees. This seems to be in keeping with what Jesus himself once said, Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest - Matthew 11:28.

And this couldn't be more appropriate. What greater burdens are there and what heavier laden than being a victim of war? Here in the UK, refugees are offered hospitality from ordinary citizens. Unfortunately, Brexit-voting Britain is the only country in Europe insisting on an entry visa, and a layer of bureaucracy makes everything more difficult for a household to take in a refugee. To me, this seems insane! During the referendum and for some time afterwards, the EU was seen by some educated Christians as a precursor for the coming Antichrist, and the EU consisted of his kingdom to rule the rest of the world.

The level of hospitality shown to the Ukrainian refugees proves this Antichrist theory as unmitigated rubbish! If anything, as already mentioned, the EU is acting more Christlike than bureaucratic Britain! Therefore, rather than preaching from an ivory tower, is there anything positive we (as a couple) can do? I wonder whether we would qualify to take in a refugee by the bureaucrats, even if we have a spare bedroom in which we have accommodated overnight guests without any hitches. For one, my wife is keen to take in a refugee. However, it's left for each householder to select and sponsor a refugee. The snag with that, in my view, is that the better looking young and intelligent-looking type would be selected in preference to the not-so-admirable-looking crowd.

Thus my prayer for financial security, especially after next month, the start of the new financial year when all essentials will go up in price. Such prayers are not merely to avoid poverty. Rather, my prayer is, Bless me, O God, so that I can bless others.

Many Christians pray for God to help the poor. But I feel God is saying, You do it. You bless the poor. And so, I thank God that there are good and reliable charities who transfer my donation to those in genuine need without too much deducted for admin costs. Christian-based charities such as Tear Fund, Compassion, Salvation Army, Red Cross, and Shelter are a few of many charities I can donate. But that comes from financial security, allowing me to give freely in love and without the fear or concern for our own welfare.

The spirit of generosity is a gift of God, even to an unbeliever. Indeed, I may indulge in great travel memories, and yes, those memories are uplifting to the spirit, and I enjoy writing about these experiences on this page (as you might have already guessed!) But, I think the greater source of personal wellbeing is generosity to those less fortunate. And that includes war refugees. Thus, instead of wallowing in misery over the fate of those less well off than us, I can look on the bright side of life and give generously towards those in real need.

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*Richard Littlejohn, The Daily Mail Online, March 17th, 2022.

Oh! We Never Learn From History.

A week when Summer really means Summer. At least here in the UK, when a heatwave pushes the temperature into the thirties Celcius, which is well into the nineties Farenheight. Young men go about topless, proudly displaying their bronze muscular torsos, most of the others wear loose tops, and a small minority go about in business suits and ties. 

Ah, a reminder of Singapore on a typical weekday in 1997. The crowded sidewalks of Orchard Street were populated with almost a monotonously-dressed crowd of young male office employees with white, open-neck shirts, yet quite a number also wore ties - in hot and humid 38-degree Celcius air. The same sort of fashion I also saw in 1993 at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on the ushering of the Sabbath - a uniformly-dressed crowd of black pants and white, open-neck shirts and each male head topped with a black yarmulka, there were some older men also wearing ties in the warm evening. Indeed, in my mind, as the tie is perceived as of very English origin, I have wondered whether the 144 years of British colonial rule over Singapore and the thirty-year British Mandate over Palestine had the same effect on the indigenous dress sense.

Meanwhile, a London-bound Eurostar train breaks down just outside Brussels, and our own train companies cancelling a third of all its services, especially here in the South where the temperature is at its peak, thanks to the threat of rail heat-expansion and buckling. Not to worry. With the threat of airline pilots and airport ground staff's looming strikes throwing cold water on the joys of those thousands anticipating their holidays overseas, indeed, Britain is heading for a golden future under the administration of our new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Oh, the optimism! Like the human pride being the motive for the building of a city with the Tower of Babel so to reach into the heavens. Er, no. God had other plans and all was left was a stump of masonry rising as a low mound from the valley floor. A lot more recently, the floating glory of the British Empire, the Titanic, a ship which was the very zenith of Empire, and it was also said that not even God was able to sink, yet went down on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on 15th April 1912. All by being struck by a huge lump of frozen water.

And how could I forget reading about the great Babylonian Empire of ancient times? What majestic power it had over the Jews during the fifth century BC! A kingdom of grand royalty, power and glory, which boasted the best military force in the world at the time, under which the Jews were a captive minor subordinate. Yet this great empire is no more, it has been extinct for the last 2,500 years, yet the Jew lives on, flourishing to this day. Therefore I had a sense of reverential respect as I watched a crowd of Orthodox Jews who were singing, dancing and praying at the Western Wall one Friday evening in 1993. How I revelled in the experience. Then a year later, in 1994, I found myself standing amid a thick crowd of Jews at Jaffa Street, out on a political protest against their Government giving consent to a Palestinian issue concerning East Jerusalem.

As I stood within the courtyard fronting the Wall, I became an object of disdain by one Jewish family who was standing nearby. I was bothered by their scowl, so I asked a passing young Jewish man to ask the family if there is a problem. There was. I was carrying my camera strapped over my shoulder on their Sabbath. To them, I was "working" even if I couldn't take any more pictures due to the post-sunset darkness. Or the time I watched a group of devout Jews throwing a few stones at a nearby TV cameraman for filming on the Sabbath. Indeed, Babylon, with its optimistic greatness, glory and power, is long gone, but among the Jews to this day, laws and judiciary customs go right back to the time of the Exodus, which long preceded the rise of Babylon.

History tells us that we learn nothing from history!

The reason for all these downfalls of pride, ambition and optimism is not difficult to understand. They are all opposed to walking in humbleness before God.

Jews crowd the Western Wall,  taken 1994.

As for me, I agree with the most devout of Brexiteers for a safe and secure place to live. I too want to continue to live out my days free from any threat of war, disease or starvation. I too, wish to see laws established to protect each citizen from being victims of crime and fraud, to see laws set up against computer hacking which could clear the victim's bank account without consent, a form of wrongdoing from which I was close to being a victim myself just recently.

But what I don't agree on is this want of an independent, sovereign State based on national pride and optimism for a "golden future" as that promised by Johnson and his supporters. In other words, for Britain to become a latter-day Babylon - an empire built on human and nationalistic greatness. The spin-off from that attitude is a nationwide snobbery shown towards foreigners. The quest for imperialism, that sense of arrogance and the smug superiority on full display towards the indigenous of the colonised land. Of course, this worldview has been thriving throughout history, including the Darwinian philosophy of the rise of the "master race" of Nazi ideology, with its resulting Holocaust slaying millions of "inferior races" such as Jews, gipsies, and other races which did not match their ideal for an advanced society.

Christians who are well acquainted with the Bible would rate the Babylonian Empire as a desperately wicked kingdom, especially when their forces killed and captured other states and nations, such as Egypt and Tyre and of course, Israel with its capital, Jerusalem, the City of David. Such a glorious city was razed to the ground in 586 BC and its inhabitants, including its king, was led away to Babylon. It was there where the Jews began to settle at their new home, a phenomenon which led to the rise of the Diaspora, still very much active during the days of Jesus Christ and the setting for the birth of various churches.

Although long extinct, the Babylonians had far greater respect for the Jews than the modern-day Nazis. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II, actually promoted a Jew to be Prime Minister, the second greatest individual of the Empire, after the king himself. Furthermore, three more Jews were also promoted to be the PM's assistants. Indeed, the lives of these men had a big impact on the empire, just like another Jew, Joseph, who was known to weep aloud in public along with all his hugging and embracing of other men, yet single-handedly rescued the whole of ancient Egypt from a severe, seven-year famine.

Joseph, along with Abraham, Moses, King David, and others had that one special ingredient which made them truly great. Their faith in God and their humbleness in walking before him. That what made them great, rather than imperialistic power. There is a world of a difference between a man like Joseph and Adolf Hitler. Joseph knew his standing before God. Like his ancestor Abraham, he saw himself as dust and ashes compared to God's holiness, just as David perceived himself as a flea, the smallest creature seen with the naked eye, or a dead leaf blown away by the wind.

By contrast, Adolf Hitler exalted himself, as did his predecessor Haman. The latter was promoted to a Persian Prime Minister by its king in the 4th century BC but was later hanged in public shame, after exalting himself above the Jews, and his plan to initiate his version of the Holocaust. Likewise, Adolf Hitler committed suicide, and despite his racial superiority resting on Darwinian principles, he went down defeated and suffered the worst kind of humiliation imposed on any national leader.

Fortunately, Boris Johnson is not at all like Adolf Hitler! His goal is merely to take Britain out of the European Union, so the United Kindom will enjoy independent sovereignty afterwards. On principle, there is nothing wrong with that. The UK has the means to enjoy the blessing of God as a sovereign nation providing two conditions are met:

1. To humble itself before God and allowing to see how it stands before God's holiness. This includes national repentance, a repudiation of Darwinism in favour of Divine Creation, to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation and to walk humbly before God. And humbleness towards God cannot accommodate snobbery or any sense of national, racial or ethnic superiority.

2. Respect for the Jew, with Israel seen as God's representative earthly nation, and as such, God's deputy for the world. This includes the recognition that when Jesus returns, he will set up his reign on the throne of his father David in Jerusalem, and not at Buckingham Palace in London!

But I doubt whether any of this would happen. That is the reason why I'm pessimistic over Brexit. The nation if far from national repentance. Rather, it's looking to pride in its sovereignty, self-confidence, optimism and self-glorification. And with Darwin's evolutionary theory as a bedrock for all philosophies and academic knowledge, rather than to acknowledge God and his creative powers, he will be tossed aside into the bin of myth, along with any concept of Intelligent Design. As evolution continues to be pumped out to the public from the TV and radio, along with newspapers, magazines and textbooks, this theory will be so ingrained in the psyche that any idea of a Creator God will be held up for public ridicule.

I don't believe Britain will ever become like Nazi Germany of the 20th century. Nevertheless, the idea of eugenics had its origins here in England. Charles Darwin supported it. But it was his cousin Francis Galton who actively promoted it. The Germans picked up the idea and put it into practice years afterwards.

Here in England, eugenics is alive and well! It's practised every day here in Britain. I'm talking about elective abortion and the encouragement by doctors for all fetuses conceived with Down's Syndrome, spina-bifida, or any other abnormality, to be aborted. Willfully forgetting that this fetus is already a human being who will one day contribute well to society, as it's already demonstrated.

As I see the day of Brexit approaching (on Halloween - is this an omen?) I try to take the divine worldview rather than a human one. And this does not leave me with much optimism.

Overconfidence - A Potential Danger?

Earlier in the week, the AA (Automobile Association) released a eleven-minute video of a young couple, he as an aspiring musician and with big promises for his future, and her occupation unspecified, although she had a wealthy background. On one occasion he came across a pregnancy test strip in her handbag and took a look at it while her back was turned. The expression on his face told us immediately that the strip showed a positive result. The prospected of fatherhood had certainly lifted his mood to even higher levels. The smartly dressed couple presented themselves at certain high places, including a wedding. Then, on another occasion, the pair were out on a drive through a narrow country road.

He was exuberant and confident of his superb driving skills. So whilst driving, he took out his mobile phone and started texting. After all, his skills behind the wheel were so finely tuned, he knew that nothing bad could happen to them. He started his sentence with something like:

I'm so happy to have such a wonderful partn...

He failed to see that his vehicle has swerved on to the adjoining lane. A car was fast approaching in the opposite direction. The other driver had no time to stop or swerve. As our driver continued texting, there was an almighty head-on collision. The music-loving driver survived, as did the oncoming driver. His partner however, remained unconscious in her front passenger seat. After climbing out of the wreckage and ensuring that both the other driver and himself were reasonably okay, he turned his attention to his girlfriend, still sitting unconscious in her seat. As the other driver dialled for the ambulance, he managed to free her from the wreck, and carefully laid her on the ground. He kept on calling her name and pleading to wake up as her life slowly ebbed away. When the ambulance arrived and the paramedic confirmed that she was gone, he cried aloud and calling out her name whilst cradling her head in his hands, with his broken mobile phone lying on the ground next to him, still displaying his unfinished text. His life forever changed, including his promise of parenthood suddenly snatched away. All because of a grossly inflated confidence of his driving skill, along with persistent optimism that "It will never happen to me."

Above and below: Stills from the Video.

Although the cast in the film were all brilliant in their acting, I still felt deeply moved over the whole incident, especially if she was my wife who was laying unconscious on the road, then slowly passing away as I watched. This video has hit me hard when considering that in real life, Alex was actually unconscious for a couple of hours one Sunday evening, and like in the video, she too was attended by paramedics as well as a GP who all arrived in an ambulance, as fully documented in my previous blog When The Unexpected Happens...and like with the film, I too was filled with dread of the possibility of her passing away.

The video appeared in the Daily Mail Online page. The forum which trails the article was full of comments about answering a call as being the instinctive reaction when the mobile rings whilst at the wheel. At first I thought that his decision to text at that moment was totally without any prompt, except a feeling of exuberance of his future career in music and parenthood, along with his confidence while he was in charge of a vehicle. But a closer watching of the film on the second view shows that he was distracted by an alert from the phone. But then, when as a passenger, she should have dealt with the alert, instead, she allowed him to take the call, with full confidence in his skills. She was one of the 6% of all passengers who does nothing when the driver answers a call on his mobile. That is a total of 2,000,000 passengers of the UK population. But according to an AA poll result, of the 23,141 drivers polled, 59% would ask the driver to stop, and a further 30% would offer to take the call on their behalf. Of drivers who insist in answering the phone, eight out of ten of passengers had said that they would snatch the phone away, while a further one in twelve would refuse to get into the driver's car ever again.

In the days when I earned a living cleaning windows, seeing drivers on their mobiles while they were on the move was very common. Actually I could say that I have even seen up to two vehicles, one behind the other, drive past whilst the driver was on his mobile - that is fully hand-held. Young career women in particular were just as bad as the men, and I have watched them drive rather large vehicles such as the Volkswagen Caravelle, the Toyota Pro-ace Verso, or the Peugeot Traveller, sometimes even with children inside, using a mobile while they were at the wheel.

Peugeot Traveller

I guess there are times when it's good to have some optimism and confidence. Like how the surgeon must have felt when last year he carried out open-heart surgery on me to replace a faulty aorta valve with a new one. If I had doubted his abilities, I would have ran to the exit of the hospital - and still kept on running! But considering so many inventions, such as the TV, the telephone, the radio, recorded music, not to mention horseless chariots themselves, and a vast host of other commodities which has made our lives far more comfortable - all must have been invented with a certain level of optimism. But all these projects, I think, were achieved with a level of cautious optimism, that is with the awareness that the project in mind could well have failed.

Cautious optimism should have been shown on both sides of the June Referendum. The Brexiteers said with full confidence that Leaving the European Union would make Britain great again with a booming economy and a remarkable reduction of immigrants, and up to now this confident optimism is daily splashed across the front pages of our newspapers. The proverbial "I told you so" uttered with pride and smug satisfaction. And that's the way it looks at present with the news just in, that the car makers Jaguar has plans to open a new plant here in the UK, with the creation of 10,000 jobs. Yea, victory for Brexit! Lest it be forgotten, we are still at the moment within the Union, and according to the Media, Article 50 won't get under way until March 2017, and even then it could take two years or more for the "divorce" to be completed. And this is where I feel that cautious optimism would be far more sensible, allowing room for any potential downturn of events after leaving the Union.

On the other side, "Britain Stronger in Europe" Remain supporters, especially within Parliament, were equally optimistic with confidence. This was well demonstrated by our former Prime Minister, David Cameron, feeling smug with optimism during the early half of that night when the votes were counted, with the Vote Remain looking to be in the lead. It was only later, when the numbers for Vote Leave, particularly from the Northern working-class area of Scunthorpe, brought a shocking defeat to the over-confident Government which ushered in the Prime Minister's resignation - a crashing down, not without parallel to the auto-crash which featured in the video.

It does look to me that cautious optimism is okay for achieving many things, whether its governing a country, inventing a product, running a business, performing a surgical operation, climbing a mountain, running in a race, and especially within the Arts. After all, for example, there are many entries for a photography competition, there will always be only one winner, and the same is true in the sporting world. Cautious optimism seem to be the best line of thinking to hold on to - except using a mobile phone whilst driving, or for that matter, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

There is only one area where a more confident optimism is allowed for, and that is with a revelation from heaven. Biblical prophecy is a good example of this. If Isaiah wrote that, way in the future from his point in time, God's servant will be, "Oppressed and afflicted, yet did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." (53:7) - then Isaiah, who wrote this prophecy, can be confident that this will certainly happen in its proper time. Likewise, when Jeremiah and Ezekiel both wrote that the nation of Israel will be gathered to its own land and experience a universal conversion to Jesus Christ as their Messiah, and then Jesus himself will return to Jerusalem to reign as King on his father David's throne - still future from our point in time - then we can be confidentially optimistic that this series of events will take place. The only thing we don't know is when - only God himself knows (Jeremiah, chapter 33; Ezekiel, chapters 36-37).

Then the Lord Jesus Christ had every reason to be confidentially optimistic. From eternity past, he knew that one day he would be born of a virgin woman for the specific purpose to die a criminal's death, and three days later rise bodily from the dead - the very first person in the whole of human history to do so! So at exactly the right time he made the journey to the Cross, completely refusing to be swayed from his mission - despite that at least on one occasion, Peter tried to dissuade him (Matthew 16:21-24). Jesus was confident and optimistic that after his Resurrection, he will be richly rewarded by the giving to him of countless saved souls by the Father (John 6:37; 17:1-6), as the Bride of Christ, before returning to his Kingdom here on Earth crowned with glory and splendour.

After his Ascension, the Apostles, along with all believers, were confidently optimistic that salvation is in no other than through the risen Jesus of  Nazareth. And because of the very omniscient nature and character of the Eternal God who never changes, we can be confidentially optimistic about our Once Saved Always Saved imputation of Christ's righteousness into our accounts. We as a church can have optimistic confidence that through the promises of God, we will be the Bride of Christ, as we are his body already. That's why I always like to say, that after his Resurrection, Jesus had two bodies: he took one to heaven, leaving the other behind - for now.

We can have full optimistic confidence in the promises of God, even if at this point in time there is little to see of it. But God is gracious, very gracious. If faith - the hope in things still unseen (Hebrews 11:1) is weak or failing under doubt or confusion, then a trip to the Holy Land, for me anyway, was a tremendous faith booster, especially walking through the Old City of Jerusalem, watching the Jews gather at the Western Wall at the start of every Sabbath, and visiting other ancient and Biblical sites across Israel and Palestine.

So I would say: Be totally confident and fully optimistic about God's promises; let's be cautiously optimistic in daily business affairs, allowing room for error or failure, and don't be optimistic at all about something as incredibly stupid as using a mobile phone whilst driving.