‘Found’ Conversation

Conversation overheard between two beggars in Edinburgh, “ye can get Buckfast in cans noo ye ken!” For our foreign and our more innocent readers, this roughly translates as ‘did you know that it is possible to purchase Buckfast (a highly acoholic ‘tonic’ wine) in cans now?’

I still don’t quite know what to make of this conversation. At a superficial level it is slightly amusing – almost a music hall caricature of the conversation between two drunks. A moment’s reflection though brings it home that these are two unique and special individuals, made in the image of God, for whom the most pressing thing in life is how cheaply (and conveniently) they can find oblivion.

They are not alone. In fact, it seems as if most of our society spends most of its time seeking means to find oblivion from the really big issues in life. I’m not thinking so much of the alcohol and drugs problems that Scotland is sadly famous for – although they are certainly part of the issue. But even our most upstanding and sober citizens appear to fill their minds and their time with everything and anything other than to stop and think about why they are here, where they are going and whether there is any purpose to their life.

The issue seems to be that for most people these questions have been consigned to a very dark and private part of their life. An area of their thought-life that they really don’t like to visit voluntarily. It has been put in a filing cabinet labelled “too hard to deal with”. Some actively state that such questions are nonsense and that the human race is just a massive cosmic accident and therefore there is, and can be, no purpose in life. This way lies oblivion! No wonder so many are seeking it early. If my life is of no ultimate consequence then is it really worth living at all? Is the sum total of my life just an accumulated mass of experiences that ultimately will fizzle out when the last electrical spark leaves the neurons in my brain? Despite the best efforts of the new-atheists most people are unwilling to go so far … we stubbornly and persistently demonstrate that we believe our lives to be worth something and that we are bigger than just the mortal shell we inhabit.

The objective of Scotland Needs the Gospel is to share the fact that the Bible can give you the answers that you may think are not possible to have answered. Why not investigate it? It’s got to be worth finding out about the alternative to oblivion!

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” Rom. 1v16

 

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