Thought for the Day

As delivered this morning on BBC Radio Bristol's Breakfast Show:

A few years ago I was absent-mindedly glancing down the list of the Queen's New Year honours in the newspaper when I spotted a name I recognised. A friend from a previous town had received an MBE for services provided during the London bombings.

I won't name him because he is incredibly modest and wouldn't want me to.

But on the 7th of July 2005 he was on one of the tube trains that was bombed and in the next carriage to the bomber.

It took some time to squeeze the story out of him. He had told very few others up until the announcement of his medal. It turns out that as people were running down the track escaping he climbed into the damaged compartment to help.

I thought about him the other day when I heard of the courage of the Tunisian hotel staff, shielding guests from the gunman.

You don't anticipate that, as part of a normal day, you might be expected to put your own life on the line, or climb into a burning tube train and see what you can do to help.

Jesus told a story of a guy who had such an abundant crop of grain he built extra barns to accommodate it so he could take it easy and live off the profits. In the story God says to that man 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.'

Complacency, in the Bible, is the enemy of all the things God intends.

And a willingness to value your own life as no more important than that of the person in the next carriage seems to me to be the ally of all that God counts good.