Simple Pleasures

Whenever I am in London I head towards the park to have my sandwich that I've prepared at home and carried up on the train with me. It allows me to rediscover one of life's simple pleasures: feeding the ducks. You can escape the worries of the world and the pressure of the day as you watch the geese heave into the air and honk with delight, while swans glide and ducks bob as if they didn't have a care in the world.

Well, it is a world away from the daily stress of everyday life. Yet, if I'm to believe what I read in the papers, see on TV or hear on the radio, then I fear the days of my reprieves from the hustle of London may be numbered. Bird flu is on the wing and we don't, it seems, have a prayer of stopping it.

It's a powerful cocktail when the prediction of widespread calamity mixes with our own, individual anxiety. 'How will this affect me, personally?' we ask. 'Will I get a vaccination?' ‘Should I stop buying chicken at the supermarket?’

And each day, it seems, there's something else to worry about: al Qaeda; the rise and rise of violent crime; record immigration to this country, if such a thing vexes you. Both the media and politicians can feed our fears to suit their ends, while we end up with the weight of the world on our shoulders: a burden which makes us afraid to go the park, to travel on the underground or even to step outside our front door.

The words of Jesus may, in the face of our genuine fear of pandemics and disasters, seem rather glib. 'Do not worry,' He said. 'Look at the birds - they don't sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?'

'Easy for You to say,' we might reply. 'You're the Son of God, after all.' But this is no conditioned religious answer with a pat on the head to match. Instead, Jesus then issues a call to action. Don't sit here paralysed by fear, but: 'Go and seek God's kingdom and His righteousness.' In other words, get out more - feed the hungry, defend the poor, look after God's creation, challenge injustice and care about the people and things that God cares about the most.

Of course, we're ever grateful for the expertise of the scientists who are monitoring the bird-flu virus, for the forward planning of governments and the provision of health care. These things matter. But the threat of anything, from catching the flu to catching the tube, must not, in the meantime, prevent us from living the life God gave us to the full, and always in pursuit of the perfect love which, so the Bible promises, will drive out fear, for good.

Dearest Lord, do not let our foot stumble; guard over us by day and by night, protect us from harm, watch over us as we come and go, now and for evermore. Amen.