For most of us the summer holidays are over! While this may be a matter for regret, it’s also a time of opportunity. Hopefully if we’ve been able to take a break during the past month or two we are feeling physically and mentally refreshed and better able to cope with everyday living. And for many it’s a time of great change. In schools, colleges and universities a new academic year begins. In employment generally, more people start new jobs in September than in any other month, and surveys indicate that early autumn is the most ‘optimistic’ time of the year.
But for many of us, how long does this upbeat mood last? Holiday memories can quickly fade as the nights draw in, the first signs of winter appear, and ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ (as Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet) can cast a shadow over our lives if we’re not well prepared to cope.
This is where Christianity kicks in. Holidays provide physical and mental refreshment, but when it comes to really testing times, it’s often the spiritual dimension of our lives that determines how we manage problems, overcome them and emerge stronger than before. A personal relationship with God our creator, developed through prayer and a belief in his son Jesus Christ, who knows from personal experience what it’s like to live and suffer as a human being, can better enable us to handle the stresses and strains of daily life.
If you don’t already belong to a church community, why not consider finding out more? In Lynn itself there are over 20 churches of different denominations. Could this autumn be a time for a new beginning for you?
BY TONY KENDALL
The Church in the Woottons