Tower and Town, September 2018 (view the full edition)Putting a Smile on the Face of GodA few of us had the privilege of attending a packed meeting in the House of Commons with Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu on June 12th to discuss linking communities across the world. Many readers of Tower and Town have been either involved in or supporters of Marlborough’s link with the predominantly Muslim community of Gunjur in The Gambia or to other parts of the world through e.g. the Salisbury Sudan link. The Archbishop’s words are addressed particularly to them. “You are putting a smile on the face of God. I know! – I have a hotline to God! “The media are too ready to report the bad news. We don’t hear enough about the good things. If people heard more about the good things such as the benefits of linking people across the world, it might help to relieve the gloom. You are the cat’s whiskers! You put a smile on God’s face – and I have a hotline! Be more exuberant – celebrate – celebrate! "People often say “my little bit, what difference does it make? The problem is so massive, it is insignificant what I am doing”. But don’t be inveigled by that argument. Every individual is of infinite worth. You are all God-carriers – into whom God has breathed the breath of life. "Do you know the starfish story? A child is walking along a beach covered with thousands of starfish that have been washed up and are waving their legs in the air but can’t get back into the waves. The boy walks along and one by one turns them over and gently puts them back into the waves when along comes an old man – someone like me – and says to the boy, “You must be crazy! This whole beach is covered with starfish!” “Ah but for this starfish”, the boy replies “It really matters.” There is only one way to eat an elephant....a piece at a time. The sea is made up of individual drops of water; but what a lot it can do when all those drops come together. Share your stories more widely. Applaud yourselves. Some people think that God made a mistake in creating us. No! When God had finished his job of creation, he was rubbing his hands. “This is pretty good ---This is lovely!” You shouldn’t be going around as if you were an apology. You aren’t! You are the best thing that God created: YOU. You are not an afterthought. You are not an accident – some of us might look like accidents! – but you are not an accident. God has known us all from eternity and has placed us here. We won’t win the war against terrorism as long as there are conditions in the world that make people desperate. I can tell you that. "The Jews think that God made the world slightly imperfect, so that people can make it perfect. Humans can only be human by learning from other humans. A person is only a person through other persons. “I need you to be all that you can be, in order for me to be all that I can be”. A totally self-sufficient person would be sub-human. "You have found this out from your international links and you are saying “We are family!” And if we don’t learn this lesson pretty quickly we are candidates for extinction. When I use my hotline God says, “Thank you. Thank you for putting a smile on my face” ” Reporting Desmond Tutu (1988) |