Australian Thoughts at the Weekend. 24th and 25th January 2009

Australian Thoughts at the Weekend. 24th and 25th January 2009

Australia Day.

This weekend is a holiday weekend in Australia with a public holiday on Monday celebrating the first European settlement of Australia on 26th January,1788. Australia has a long history of settlement. It seems that the indigenous race which occupied the land at the coming of the British settlers had themselves come to this land over 40, 000 years previously.

Obviously the country changed dramatically under the new settlers. The new people had a very different agenda to those who already lived here. The agenda of the British was to establish permanent dwelling places. Their agenda saw the original settlement village grow to a town and then to a city with surrounding farms established with the seeds and animals they had brought with them. They would grow vegetables and wheat and meat would be supplied by breeding sheep and cattle.

The original people were nomadic. They ate what was readily available. This included animals, birds and seafood, they were able to capture. Kangaroos, goanna, crocodile, crabs, fish, dugong, and shellfish appeared on their varied menu. It included fruit and berries and roots of some plants. They moved to where the food was available in season. Oh, and it included some creepy and crawly things including fat witchetty grubs and bogong moths.

Eventually, in various ways, a few ships of convicts from England and their guards became the 20 million people who today are proud to call themselves Australians. The story of that growth tells of conflict with the original people. It also tells of many people who came from many lands each with their own ideas and agendas. Some of my forebears came from Germany to settle in this, to them, new land to escape the religious persecutions in their former home. Others of my forebears came from Ireland, England and Scotland. Since World War 2, thousands of people coming from probably every nation on earth have made their home here.

On this Australia Day, we might ask what is our agenda for this nation? Each of us, no matter our nationality and no matter where we live can ask the same question: “What is my agenda for our nation?” Sometime later this year we will vote in State elections. This year is also the 150th year since the formation of our State as a separate entity. As we vote will we confirm our personal agenda and wishes for this land?

There are many individuals and groups that work not only at election time but day by day that their agenda may be done in this land. Are we working in our small corner that God’s will might be done?

To do this we need to consider our personal agendas. How do we want to live? Do we want to live our Christian lives in a way that conforms with God’s agenda for us. Are we seeking in prayer not only God’s agenda for us as individuals but are we seeking that truly that His will may “be done on earth as it is in heaven”?

O that in me the mind of Christ
A fixed abiding-place may find,
That I may know the will of God,
And live in him for lost mankind.

Chorus
Doing the will of God,
Doing the will of God,
The best thing I know in this world below
Is doing the will of God.

The suffering servant he became,
Yea more; in loneliness and loss
He bore for me in grief and shame,
A crown of thorns. a heavy cross.

O that in me this mind might be,
The will of God be all my joy,
Prepared with him to go or stay,
My chief delight his sweet employ.

More than all else I would become
The servant of my servant-Lord;
My highest glory his reproach,
To do his will my best reward.
Edward Henry Joy (1871-1949)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 451

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