Winter is well and truly here in our part of the world, and we have been enjoying both sunny days and quite cold nights over the past few weeks. In Auckland, especially, the sunny days have been a welcome change from the seemingly endless round of heavy rain, and storms that have afflicted us since the end of January. There hasn’t been enough time between these weather events to clean up after the flooding and repair roads and so on, and it is very tough for lots of people in different parts of the North Island right now.
I have been reflecting on the Urantia Book’s encouragement to ‘feast upon uncertainty’!
…long before reaching Havona, these ascendant children of time have learned to feast upon uncertainty, to fatten upon disappointment, to enthuse over apparent defeat, to invigorate in the presence of difficulties, to exhibit indomitable courage in the face of immensity, and to exercise unconquerable faith when confronted with the challenge of the inexplicable. (26:5.3, 291.3).
We are certainly being given many opportunities to put this into practice – the weather is so uncertain, Covid hasn’t gone anywhere, and we are now starting to experience the early phases of our national elections, where the outcome is also quite uncertain, but could bring in a lot of changes.
The teachings from The Urantia Book can certainly help to keep all of this in a universal eternal perspective.
Our online study groups have been continuing every fortnight, which keeps us in touch with each other, and provides a welcome distraction from the pressures of every day life. We did not manage to have a Study Day this year, for possibly the first time – everyone’s daily life just did not allow for us to come together. Hopefully it will be a bit more settled next year.
From Neville Twist, Auckland, New Zealand
You must think that we kiwis are a hopeless lot, but not much has happened here for a while now – except rain, rain, rain! We still meet online (usually) every second week for our study group meeting. If all are in attendance, we number six. It is good to meet up and we enjoy each other’s company and contributions. If Trish and I are in Auckland, we try to hook up with Ian and Marion for a face-to-face meeting, which is always wonderful. Trish and I spent seven weeks in the lower North Island and the South Island earlier this year and managed to catch up in-person with Doug and Francis in Wellington. As we travelled around, we had some interesting conversations with random people we met ‘as we passed by’. There were two memorable ones – one about cosmology under a brilliant night sky – the other about life after death with two guys we met at a cafe. One never knows when a truth seeker will come your way, so seize the moment and share the good news of Jesus with as many people as you can. It is probably worth noting that five kiwis attended the ANZURA conference in Hobart – a record at one conference (with the possible exemption of Robertson), I will be attending this year’s conference in Sydney conference; hopefully more from New Zealand will be there too.