Thought for the week (we 15th September 2013)

Gareth Bale’s transfer to Real Madrid for a record £85 million hit the headlines last week. Despite the media pressure here’s a young man who seemed to have his feet firmly on the ground and in control of his newly found fame.

The comments by his teachers at Whitchurch High School in Cardiff were highly complementary and this along with his strong family base has given him the opportunity to flourish in the game he obviously loves. The money involved is, of course, mindboggling and such a world away from when in 1979 Trevor Francis broke the million pound mark when he left Birmingham City for Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest.

Money of course, isn’t everything. Amazingly talented players like Gareth Bale would, no doubt, play for nothing such is their love of the game. Most amateur sports clubs survive on a shoestring financially and could not carry on without volunteers who devote time and effort to give the young and not so young the joy of playing the game.

Then again seeing the excitement of children and teenagers in the poverty of the third world when UNISEF ambassadors like David Beckham take time to play football with them brings hope and potential for much needed change.

Jesus challenged the love of money. He changed the lives of money grabbing tax collectors like Matthew that they gave back all the money they had embezzled. He also told of the preciousness of every soul and the divine initiative to bring us back into a relationship of grace and love with the creator of the universe.

So if you’re the richest person in the world or struggling financially, if life is good or you’re finding it hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel be sure that God’s heart of compassion reaches out to you. In believing we can know the reality of peace and the assurance of that being a child of God we are loved and accepted just as we are and that’s something money just can’t buy!