Much is made in certain circles of the notion that we live in a post-Christian world, particularly where it touches upon Western nations. Looking around, I realise that this has probably been the case since the 1960's and 1970's, when the first wave of 'liberations' occurred. Little by little societies have been weened off Christian values, and the application of those values. They have been replaced in the main by a cultural shift that has been aided science and technology. The contraceptive pill is a case in point.

Even so, a long sunset lingered in which secularism was practised but a generation and a half, still remembering their childhood education, maintained a veneer of  adherence. Lip service was paid, if you like. The Church was still seen as an important institution, even if the pews were filled with 'God-bothering fuddy duddy's.

It is not until Christian content is challenged, or folks raise objections to faith-based material, no matter how innocuous, that your realise how far things have gone. Apparently some members of my choir have objected to an arrangement of Psalm 23 ('The Lord is my Shepherd'). It's hard to imagine a more uplifting and comforting passage of writing in Scripture, but there you are. I fear this is but the thin end of the wedge. If kindly choristers are finding reason to baulk at Christianity, where might things be leading.

As always, be careful what you wish for.

Pride, arrogance and boastfulness get very bad press in The Bible. Pride, of course, almost always precedes a fall of some kind. Sometimes it is a huge fall. We see many examples of this in the modern world - people so puffed up with their own sense of self-importance or superiority that a reckoning of sorts is due. It may not happen for a while, but come it will.

This is not to demean the kind of pride that is proportionate to a personal achievement. The quiet pride that speaks of a job well done or the way a child is performing in some field. It doesn't shout itself out and it is in no way arrogant. I'm sure that you can tell the difference.

The opposite of (bad) pride in Scripture is humility. This is a word and concept that is entirely alien to modernity. It was once a virtue and still is a virtue. Sadly even the notion of there being such a thing as virtue has almost disappeared. The humble person can be a mighty achiever and will dodge attention and accolades if at all possible. They will be quick to point out the contribution of others and only too glad to step back into the shadows.

I have been guilty of pride (particularly intellectual) in the past and I have to scold myself whenever it arises. It is my deepest hope that in whatever time the Lord grants me in this life, I can reduce it to a number approaching zero. 

From Psalm 51.

'You do not want sacrifices, 

or I would offer them;

you are not pleased with burnt offerings,

My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God;

you will not reject a humble and repentant heart.'

This morning I recorded another episode of 'Writers from the Vault' for 2RPH. Number 67. It was difficult to get motivated, given the circumstances, but I got through it without too much trouble.

It's important to keep doing things that are worthwhile when you feel sad. There are obvious psychological benefits, but in my case, the things I do for the station go out to people with sight impairment who cannot access printed material. I can't afford the luxury of indulging my feelings when others are relying upon me and the many volunteers at 2RPH on a daily basis.

Today's 30 minute program included poems by R.S. Thomas and Amy Lowell, an extract from a gothic horror novel called The Beetle, a feature by TNS writer Tracey Thorn, a short narrative from a 1927 edition of The New Yorker, a monologue from the Spanish playwright Gregorio Martinez Sierra and a book review. It's a mix of things, like all my episodes, to keep people listening for half an hour. Something for the ears and the mind. To pass the time.

But it is only God's Grace that keeps me going. My prayers are not in vain, I know, though His Will is hard to discern.

'For now we see though a glass, darkly; but then, face to face.'  1 Cor.13:12

On a lighter note (for surely there must be some!) my coffee machine of 17 years, a Gaggia Classic, has finally expired. It has been though four boilers. Earlier this week, the power unit failed and my regular repairer said he wasn't dealing with Gaggia machines anymore.

I decided, reluctantly, to buy a new Classic. The price has gone up but the new unit comes with a superior brass boiler ( the others being aluminium) and colours other than stainless steel. I chose green. It's basically the same manual operation. They are great coffee machines.

My old machine has gone into storage. I hadn't the heart to throw it out. But here is the new one.

 The past couple of years have been been a difficult time for my family. I can't think of another time like it. I would be easy to throw my arms up in despair and curl into a ball, and the Lord knows I have done some crying and a lot of praying.

A friend wrote to me last night that praying was the best way when multiple hardships occur, because God is the 'most able.' Prayer is the best way at anytime really, because if God is the most able to help, then why go elsewhere. I have to give up my desire to control and surrender it all to the Lord. That doesn't mean doing nothing - prayer can often be a spur to action - but letting go of the relentless struggle. 

So that is what I'm doing. Sceptics might call it leaning on a crutch. Call it what you like. It works, often with the most extraordinary and inexplicable results. Sceptics will call the outcomes 'coincidences.' If only they knew!

 Waiting was once a common state of being. Folks waited through the seasons (which imposed their own weathery logic), waited for the rain to come, for the seedlings to sprout up, for news from the big city about a new king, a war, the approach of a plague. You get the picture. You waited because that was how it was and had always been, across the generations.

The Industrial Revolution changed the rhythms of life for many people, in the same way that it has radically altered ways of being through the Information Revolution in the present age. People don't like to wait and, moreover, don't have to wait, because gratification is almost instantly available. You can order and pay with a click and if you don't have the money, you still buy and pay later.

But waiting is actually a good thing - both instructive in teaching patience and as a lesson in the follies of haste. I see this in myself. Once I get a plan or good idea in my head, I want to get on with doing it as soon as possible. 

Currently, I would like to sell this house and move. I have been thinking about it for a few years, but sickness intervened two years ago to put a stop to any plans. That was a good thing (not the sickness, but the delay) because I had a lot of unfinished business to deal with in my family. I was getting ahead of myself, wrapped up in plans that were far too advanced for my own good. As a Christian, I realize that I had left God out of the equation - not necessarily in prayer ( I pray about everything) but in an abiding trust and a patience to wait. It's always wise to be prudent and diligent, but not to rush off ahead of a clear pathway set by the Lord.

This time around, I am far more cautious, far more prayerful and much more accepting that God's plans are the best irrespective of how it all actually turns out. I do take steps and have paid attention to opening and closing doors more closely. Still waiting is hard. When I start to get into that compulsive forward rush, I have to rein myself in. Pray. Surrender. Wait. Repeat.

Today is Australia Day and many families and individuals will be out celebrating - whether at a beach or a river or a dam, a picnic ground, a backyard, or even at one of the many events organised by local councils and community groups. My wife and JJ have  gone down to Glenbrook for the annual AD celebration.

Another group of Australians will be having 'Invasion Day' events - marches and gatherings to protest the aligning of a national day with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. While it was not strictly speaking a planned military invasion, it might just have well have been for the indigenous population. The consequences have been largely identical.

I have a foot in either camp, knowing that Australians have precious few national days already, outside of Anzac Day, but also that January 26 cannot but have a profoundly negative meaning for Aboriginal people. My preference would be to find another day to celebrate Australia Day. That in itself is a fraught task, for how many days are free from any taint?

In this respect I am in the minority, for a recent poll showed that 70% of Australians don't want the date to change. That is a strong majority indeed.

For now, I think we are all big enough to live with the tension that arises from these two positions, opposed as they are, but also informing each other. Let it be peaceful and respectful. Who knows, perhaps one day there will be a convergence by mutual agreement.

 I was in Thailand when the Bondi massacre occurred. The local TV networks in Thailand, already busy with the floods in the south and a border war with Cambodia, covered the atrocity fairly comprehensively. I supplemented this with direct internet-mediated news from Australia, but once I had the facts of the case, I largely stopped following the onrushing news cycle. The repetition and overabundance of reporting was too much. At some point, you need to step out, else you may be drawn into a maudlin scrolling of every tidbit. Despite my well-known sympathies with Israel and the Jewish people, I needed time-out on this event until I got back home.

Yesterday, in events somehow related to that awful incident last year, the Liberal and National Parties at Federal level exploded and the coalition between them, dissolved. This may only be temporary but it is nevertheless an almighty shot in the foot. At a time when the Federal Labor Government was vulnerable thanks to the lukewarm performance of the Prime Minister over the past two months (on multiple fronts), the Opposition chose to implode. It is a head-scratcher, I tell you. If one had a circular firing squad on hand, it couldn't do worse.