Maybe I’m mistaken, but it seems like many people in Britain are less than happy. Undoubtedly life is tough and many do face challenging situations, but it’s the general discontent and long faces that disturbs me; also, the impolite language that accompanies people’s disappointment and the sadness and depression that leaves some living without hope.

              I do not wish to diminish the struggles people have. Neither do I want to deny that we live in days with grave issues. Just last week the COP26 conference ended in Scotland at which delegates from across the world sought to stem the tide of certain destructive practices that harm our planet. Many left disappointed, feeling that the conference was not radical enough in its decisions or commitments. Hopes dashed, some despair, as they acknowledge that delayed action will incur further damage on our planet’s delicate ecosystem.

              Of course, it is right we act responsibly because God has called us to care for the earth. We are His stewards and we must use our intelligence wisely and altruistically, although we can’t do that without His help and wisdom. I wonder how many of the delegates at COP26 referred to or consulted God on how best to care for His wonderful creation.

              Our world is indeed beautiful. Every day it seems the heavens declare God’s glory. The big sky of the Scottish Highlands, where we find ourselves today, overwhelms us. Its changing mood is a riot of colour, dispersing light far and near; blue, often grey and red with fire that’s tinged with green. It is an incredible phenomenon. Each day the light fades and, like the drawing of a curtain, the darkness on a cloudless night displays a sky scattered with twisted bands of diamonds.

Lochs and inlets, smooth and glassy, mirror autumnal colour. Silky grey dolphins chirp and whistle as they playfully surf waves off Chanonry Point while black and white oystercatchers, searching for molluscs, strut the beach piping loudly. And so it goes on – this world alive with God’s glory.

But how do we hold the balance? How do we live rightly, active in our care, doing our part while holding onto the truth that God is sovereign? I don’t always get it right until God shows me again that obedience to Him rightly orders my love for people and His world. Plus: I am not the one who is going to save the planet. Its ultimate survival lies in God’s domain, not mine.

And, even if the earth were complete and whole, it could not be the source of my happiness or even my peace. Yet our hankering for peace and that elusive sense of wellbeing can sometimes take us in the wrong direction. For a moment we throw all our energies towards a worthy cause and then life shakes us. Circumstances change, or discord comes, leaving us floundering, disappointed and sometimes cynical, until we understand that perhaps something has become god-like to me. I love God but maybe my love for Him has grown small in comparison with my love for other things.

Knowing that the only way to gain true peace and that sense of wellbeing is to love God supremely, I pray, ‘Lord, order my loves.’ God with us, is the only unchangeable thing in this world that cannot be lost unless we choose to withhold ourselves from it.  And why would I do that?