Faith and Life Blog

  September 19, 2024 • Lona For God has not given us a spirit of fear…2 Timothy 1:7 As a young woman, one of my dreams was to learn to drive and eventually purchase my own car. I kept the dream at the back of my mind for many years, but finally, in the late 1990’s I decided to take the plunge. Armed with my learner driver “lunatic” licence and the knowledge gained from reading the driving manual, I found myself a driving instructor and embarked on the journey of learning to drive. I was ready to put the theory into practice. My first driving lesson was a lunchtime lesson. At the time I was working at Jamaica Information Service (JIS) on Half-Way-Tree Road. My first mistake was to assume that, as is the custom with most driving instructors, we would head to the National Stadium or some other quiet area to go over the basics for the first lesson. Was I wrong! I was in for a surprise! We proceeded down Half-Way-Tree Road and turned onto Oxford Road in the heavy lunchtime traffic. The inst

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13   As I exited my vehicle at work one morning, I looked across to the newly constructed extension to the parking lot admiring how beautiful, spacious and well laid out it was. It was a sight to behold! My mind then went back to the previous day, when two of my neighbours, having passed the location that day, were very impressed with what they saw and mentioned it to me. I looked on with a sigh of relief, happy with the fact that there would be no more parking problems, at least for a very long time.  As I reflected on the new upgrade, the words ' pardon our progress' flashed across my mind, and this time, my mind was taken back to the days when the work was in progress. Often used in the field of construction, these words are usually mounted on a sign alerting the public that even though there is a lot of chaos, noise, dust, confusion and inconvenience, something new and better

  Yet you, Lord are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter. We are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8 If we are spiritually discerning, our eyes, hearts and minds will be enlightened to see the important lessons unearthed from last week's devotional. I will share three such lessons with you, hoping you will spend some time meditating on them and apply the nuggets gained from them to your life. 1. Be rightly positioned In order to receive the blessings that God has for us, we must be rightly positioned. We must be in the right place at the right time. We must be rightly aligned to receive from him. Had I been elsewhere, I would not have heard that artisan as he passed by, shouting out the services that He offered. I would not have been in a place to take advantage of the offer. 2. Seize the moment It is said that opportunity knocks only once in any season. You never know if or when you will get another opportunity to do the things that you want to do, so when an opportu

  I collected my first royalty cheque for my published works in December 2016. I was thrilled and pleasantly surprised. Earlier that year I had attended a writers’ workshop and learned that persons who have published works could register them with a local copyright organization and would receive royalty payments at the end of each year. I was quite excited about this opportunity and so I set about registering my three published articles shortly thereafter. When I received an email notifying me that my cheque was ready for pickup, I didn’t have high expectations about the amount that I would receive. I was cautiously optimistic, thinking that it could be about J$5000 if that much. When I looked at my cheque, my eyes widened in disbelief as it was far more than I had imagined.   After I got home, I made a mental note to pay my tithe from the amount, as a dutiful Christian should. But then, a word flashed through my mind, “first fruits”. I quickly rejected it and pushed it aside. Perish t