A Word of Encouragement

Did your computer teacher ever teach you about GIGO? It’s an acronym meaning ‘Garbage in, garbage out.’ It’s about making sure your computer doesn’t get filled up with corrupt garbage files because what we put into our computers is also what will eventually come out of them.

Now, I’m not very good on computers but I get the idea. It works with lots of things. For example, our bodies. If I put only junk food in my body, then my body will begin to feel like junk. But if I fill it with healthier choices, I’m much more likely to get healthy results. It’s like another quote I read recently: ‘What’s in the well comes up in the bucket.’ That is, if we’ve left our well uncovered and let it fill with sour things, we can’t be surprised when the water that comes up is also soured.

My question for us today is about our minds – what are you filling up on when it comes to your mind? 

We’ve made it halfway through a really strange year. And as the news keeps coming and the bumps in the road keep jolting, it’s easy to get consumed by the bad news, to fill up only on the worry, the stress, the anxieties of the unknown and the things beyond our control. And then before we know it, all we can draw out of our minds is feelings of worry, anxiety and stress. But this isn’t God’s plan for us. He wants better for us, even as we face difficult things. It’s one of the reasons God regularly tells us in the Bible to guard our hearts – to guard what goes into our minds – because what goes in is what comes out. And it’s also one of the reasons God tells us to give thanks. Because giving thanks is not just the right or polite thing to do, it’s actually good for us. When we look for things to give thanks for, we have to look up and around, we have to stop and ponder and fill up on the good. And even in a storm when we stop to look for the good things, we will see some, and ultimately at the end of every one of those things will be the hand of God.

So even though we are all feeling the pressure of this unusual year, let’s be people who guard our hearts this term – hear what we need to hear to stay informed, and then decide not to fill up on all the rest but rather switch it off. And let’s be people who look for the good and give thanks for it – for the beauty of the sunset in a cloudy sky, the joy of friendship, the things we are learning, the life and health and safety we enjoy, and countless other things. And as we do so, may we be reminded again that God’s care for us is real and his plan for us is good. 

Rev Karen Reid

Girton Chaplain