h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I MUST get it together to pay my speeding ticket. I keep forgetting.

Just came back from seeing Sindi. My, what a cross she carries.

Headache.

Another Saturday evening on my tod then. A pattern seems to be developing.

It has taken me over 2 hours to shake off the effects of this afternoon. I have to carry the burdens of the people I meet, which is why I don't have many friends, because it's too exhausting.

The curse! Oh, I can't wait for this season to end. It's terrible. The voices have started up again. Looks like I've gone around full circle again. What a nightmare. It's like Groundhog Day.

They're asking for volunteers at the station. I'm going to go, but it's up to God whether I behave in a manner acceptable to them. I can't see, my head is filled with cotton wool, I've lost my speeding ticket, the voices are going on and on and on. Does everybody have to endure all this trouble when it's time for God to bring you your wife? I suppose Jesus has had to endure loads of trouble before he has his Bride brought to him. Pascal said Jesus was in tears until the End of Time.

So I've got to go out on Monday and pay my speeding fine. That's no biggie. ("Yes it is," said the voice.) The tyranny of the voices. They slap my head accusing me of being "wicked". If they treated me like they did, they'll treat you the same. Well I did sign up for the whole Jesus experience.

The cafe wasn't exactly a friendly experience. The woman sat next to me told me I stink, and something in me rose up and said something and Jonathan said Shut up. Well that's how I treat people I suppose. Alternatively my flesh might have been called up by Jon's "life" to which he hasn't died, and he might have been speaking his own judgement there; as usual I take the brunt of it. I keep hearing the word matyika which is annoying.

That you should discover the Author of Love, Jesus Christ. Why doesn't anyone believe that I am saved? They all treat me like a sinner. Well they always did, even in Gilcomston, so but anyway I'm not scoring any more so let's just see how things improve when I'm off the sauce. I keep screwing things up. Anyway Collard said you could just pop in for a cup of tea and bugger off again, so that's what I did. There's no point in trying to speak to someone I can't remember. The voices around me are mocking me and cursing me.

safe in the arms of Jesus... you just have to go through this stuff. Endure it. Don't ask why, that's what my Son asked... It's like the radio is mocking me. But I've got the joy coming through from the background to the foreground. Now we've got a song about someone waiting for someone, waiting like a lovesick fool. How long is this going to take? A fool without a memory. I suppose I've got to just carry on with my work. Got three tracts to write: "Take Up Your Cross", "Endure to the End", and "The Lord's Supper". I should also write one on "Wait upon the Lord". Basically it's testimony. Each one has got to make an evangelical point. I haven't written much evangelism yet have I Lord? Waiting = waiting for Jesus; endurance = the endurance of Jesus, the Cross one is obvious; the Lord's Supper is obvious.



There we are. I've just finished a tract called "As Sparks Fly Upwards", about time, troubles, endurance, character and hope. I wanted to write about endurance and ended up writing one about Romans 5:3-5.

As Sparks Fly Upwards (Back Cover: Romans 5:3-5)

In his magisterial definition of love, the first word Paul uses is “patient”. It is noteworthy that God’s love hasn’t to do with emotions, which change; God doesn’t change, but he is the same yesterday, today and forever. God’s love isn’t a feeling, but a promise – indeed, many promises, all of them given in the Scriptures, to encourage us by increasing our knowledge of this God whom we love with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The promises of God are all guaranteed in the life, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus; not only that, but also by the existence of the Jews today, the remnant of Biblical Israel, and by the continuing existence of the Body, despite persecutions from without, and schisms within, until this very day.


The Letter to the Hebrews mentions those “who are inheriting the promises through faith and endurance” (6:12). The word we translate “endurance” may also be translated “patience”; it is the same word as the one Paul uses in “love is patient” (1 Corinthians 13:4). Why do we need patience, if there were no troubles to endure? Indeed, Eliphaz the Temanite says that “man is born to troubles as surely as sparks fly upwards” (Job 5:7). In Romans Paul writes, “we boast in our troubles, because we know that trouble forges endurance, endurance forges character, and character forges hope... which does not disappoint”. In short, troubles make us grow, and growth is good because our hearts’ capacity for God’s love increases, so that we become more like God, and a brighter beacon by which people can find their way home. The logical link between the troubles of the world and God’s love poured out into our hearts, is endurance, character, and hope.

The Greek for character is related to words for “testing”, so by “character” we understand “the proof of our testimony”. Thus by hope do we redeem the time, that is, put it to good use. Time is when the troubles come; it is by enduring time, with its troubles, that we redeem it. The hope consequent on endurance does not disappoint, because of the love that is poured into our strengthened hearts, a love which is associated with the Holy Spirit, who is elsewhere called an earnest, or guarantee of the reality of the Age to Come. So time leads us into and prepares us to stand in the glorious fulfilment of God’s promises.

St John mentions “the endurance of the saints”, a phrase which resonates with the proverb “many are the troubles of the righteous – but the Lord delivers him from them all”. The Way of Jesus is not an easy path to tread. There are troubles to endure, and, by enduring, overcome. Since there is no end to the capacity of the heart to contain the limitless love of God, since the Spirit is given without measure, so there never comes an end to the troubles a believer must endure in time. In other words, we never stop growing in this life. There is always room for further endurance, greater Jesus character, more powerful hope in the ultimate manifestation of the Victory of Christ. A hopeless world creates troubles for us which in their turn, as we endure and mature, produce greater hope in believers’ hearts, with which we strengthen each other and encourage the watching world, which is constantly testing our character, to see if what we say is true. Troubles are both the making and the tasting of God’s love in us. Just as we consult the Bible to see if what is said is true, so the world consults our character, by testing us, to see if our testimony is true. Thus it is that the circle is closed: trouble eventually results in the manifestation of God’s love, first in our hearts, then through us into the world. Troubles make us shine more brightly with that hope of glory, Christ in me, of which his Coming is the fulfilment.

Obedience to the Gospel is not a way of escaping the troubles of the world; it does, however, provide the way of dealing with them of the greatest economy and to the most powerful effect, both on us and on the world to whom we are living proof of the truth of the Gospel.

I have dried up and cannot write another word of tract. Well I've written one and a half today, and I still have to see if "As Sparks Fly Upward" is any good; it might need revision because I might not have earthed the subject properly.

Then there's one to write on "take up your cross daily", one to write on "The Lord's Supper", and a possible Helga tract on the Greek for character, dokime.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner. Have mercy on me because of your grace, Father. Because you have loved me with an everlasting love. Because you have chosen. Because you are kind and compassionate.

"Do you believe all these things?" she asked.

The Holy Spirit believes these things for me; I merely open my heart to Jesus and ask for the mercy and the grace of God.

Sleep it off; there's an goodlie idea.

Now I'm using up some of my dongle bandwidth. I jolly well hope I can. It reached speeds of 44Mb/s just now.

Be kind to him.