Daily Reading: 18 July

(from www.christianaid.org.uk)

Friends in unlikely places

Something to read

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 

- Luke 7:34 .

Something to think about

You really can tell much about a person by the company they keep. People who prefer to echo their own prejudices, and recline in their own comfort zone, find ways of finding people who look sound and think exactly like themselves. It’s a way to stay safe.

But those who value a sense of otherness and diversity will invariably end up mingling with people who are precisely unlike themselves.

In fact, it's often in this context that we rediscover who we are.

In unlikely company Jesus was re-affirmed as the Son of Man. And here, too, we discover that God has friends in the most unlikely places.

Something to do

Time for a reality check: can you think of an unlikely place you should be for a good reason?

Something to pray

Lord lead me to where I have not yet been,

to the people I have not yet met

and to love as you have always loved. 

Amen.

Today's contributor is the late Rev Joel Edwards.

Joel was a writer, broadcaster, coach and public speaker. He was over 30 years in Christian leadership as director of Micah Challenge, a global advocacy campaign, general director of the Evangelical Alliance UK, and a wide range of community engagements in church and government.

At time of writing Joel was an honorary canon at St Paul's Cathedral, and visiting fellow with St John's College Durham, where he was completing a doctoral programme.

We are so grateful to Joel for his friendship with Christian Aid and faithful service to God. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.