Chaplain’s Chat

In modern society, there are many pressures for all of us. We have pressure to perform at work, pressure to meet the expectations of others (even if well-meaning), pressure to meet deadlines, pressure to perform in sports and even the pressures of parenting! In many ways, some pressure is good for us. For example, the pressure of an assessment deadline will often help us to complete a task. And yet, I suspect we so often feel that sometimes the pressure to do all these things is never ending. This can be a tricky part of life and gives us cause to reflect on how we are living.

Yet we also place some of this pressure on ourselves. Social media has often led to a different set of pressures. There is the pressure to be seen to do the right thing, the pressure to get the right photo and the pressure to get the right number of followers. The problem with some of these pressures and expectations is that we sometimes bring these into our reflections of God. We often assume that God wants us to perform to certain standards and expectations, and to please God we need to act a certain way.

However, the Bible’s wonderful message is one of grace, a gift from God. Rather than us ‘doing things’ to please God, it was actually God himself who has reached out to us in the person of Jesus and in His death on the Cross. We are reminded that rather than trying to complete a long list of things to please God, or even having the most likes and the best profile, we are acceptable to God because of what Jesus has done for us. As Ephesians 2:8 says: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves it is the gift of God.” This certainly takes away the pressure that we might feel about God.

Reverend A Benn
Chaplain