Seeker

2 years ago yesterday I dipped a tentative toe into the blogosphere, created this blog and published a first brief and rather boring post, THE BLOG BEGINS . I had no idea what I was doing but intended to learn on the hoof as it were. I actually hoped no-one would read it until I'd at least mastered floating, if not swimming in this strange new world. 3 people are to be thanked (or blamed) for unwittingly encouraging me to start a blog: my husband's brother, my sister's daughter-in-law and my bishop. I think I thought - if they can do it, so can I - and so it began. And - surprise, surprise, more and more people seem to be reading it, or at least visiting it. Where it's going next still remains to be seen, but it's starting to feel like a calling (or an addiction?) Am I paddling, floating or swimming here now? Anyway, that's all I want to say today, except - belated happy 2nd anniversary SEEKER.

painting by Jan Sanders van Hemmeson Tax collectors aren't popular, except when they're giving out an unexpected rebate. There was once a tax collector called Levi. He sat at his desk in the customs and excise office, when Jesus turned up and said, 'follow me'. Levi wasn't someone you'd expect a rabbi like Jesus to choose. Although Levi (aka Matthew) was a Jew he would assume he was disqualified from following a religious teacher. Tax collectors were despised by other Jews, hated as traitors, collaborators with the occupying power. They were shunned as ceremonially unclean, banned from public worship and (like women) viewed as unreliable witnesses in court. In a corrupt system tax collectors charged commission on top of due rates. They were known to be unscrupulous extortioners. When Jesus saw Levi, he saw all this. Did he see something more? Levi's longing to find more meaning to life than building up a fat personal pension? His hunger for God? Whe...