Brighton Community Church

One of the most interesting places I have visited is the Kennedy Space Centre in Orlando, Florida. During the guided tour, I listened spellbound to the story of the epic contest between the United States and the former Soviet Union to send men into space. I was unusually moved as I stood contemplatively on a deserted launch pad on which 3 brave astronauts had lost their lives when the spacecraft they were in caught fire. I struggled to grasp the immense dimensions of the Saturn V rocket (height of a 35-storey building), the most powerful machine ever built, that blasted humans off to the moon. I marveled at the space shuttle which resembled an obese airplane, but that could go into orbit round the earth, and then withstand the fiery heat of re-entry to land on a runway.

Since time immemorial, mankind has gazed into the night sky and felt a yearning to venture into the great beyond. Today, the fascination is even greater, because of the real possibility of crossing this last frontier. Several companies are racing to set up the first space tourism programme. You can go to the Virgin Galactic website to book a $260,000 ticket which will take you into space and let you experience six minutes of weightlessness. But you had better hurry; there are nearly 500 people in the queue.

Given the astronomical cost of space travel, few of us will ever get the chance to escape the gravitational pull of planet earth. That’s a pity, but it really wouldn’t make any difference to our daily lives whether we get to experience outer space or not. What we all can do, and should do, is to explore inner space. Most of us are not conscious that our life journey has two components: the inner journey and the outer journey. We tend to be fixated only on the outer journey which consists of events, things and other people. We expend all our resources and energies striving to achieve success, wealth and recognition. That’s not surprising, since these are the things that can be seen by everyone. Unfortunately, this means we ignore the inward journey of growing in character and greater intimacy of God.

Think about the New Year resolutions that you will almost certainly be making during this period, whether on paper or just in your mind. How many of them have to do with the outer journey: losing weight and getting into shape, getting a better job, spending more time with family and friends, getting out of debt, travelling to new places? All well and good, but outwardly-focused nonetheless. Even if we achieve all these resolutions by the end of the year, they would leave us unchanged on the inside—and that’s who we really are.

There is no better way to start the year than focusing on tending the garden of our souls. It’s a good time to clear the weeds that have choked our growth, eradicate the pests that eat away at our effectiveness, prune the plants that have sprouted out of control, and fertilise the trees that they may bear fruit again. In practical terms, we need to go back to the good old spiritual disciplines of bible reading, prayer and fasting, not just for the sake of religious compliance, but with an eye on allowing God to work in the inner recesses of our hearts.

This New Year, let's heed Jesus’s advice. Let us be found often in the secret place for our regular rendezvous with our Heavenly Father. Not only will you receive God’s secret reward, you will be doing what you were originally created to do.