We can all think of levellers, things that bring us down to the same level. The M25 is the prime example. There are times when we all have to go at the speed of the slowest, regardless of the power of the car or the skill of the driver. When, with our overhead electricity cables, we have a power cut in Belsize, we all suffer whether we have large or small houses. Biographies of great sportsmen reveal how they all at times have to be out of action because of injury. Then the Reaper, with his unavoidable sickle, is the greatest leveller of all.
Are there any elevators, things, available to us all, which can raise us up to a higher level of experience? No doubt gardeners, cooks, athletes, sportsmen, artists, anyone with skill, can know things that give them pleasure and a lift. A job well done or something turned out better than we had expected. Often the elevators belong to the mind or the spirit rather than the material. Often they are known second hand or to us as spectators. Can we share in Ellen MacArthur’s achievement? We can be uplifted by seeing the dawn and the sunset. Often these experiences can be fleeting.
The Christian gospel, as an elevator, is there to offer something more permanent with a chance to know something real, with a divine dimension, C. S. Lewis said, ‘I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen – not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else’. This is not an optional add-on to what we are, but something that transforms and renews our outlook. We can see things differently. The means here is Jesus himself. In knowing and being one with him, we take his outlook and with his help the intention is to become like him. You could say this is the car God wants us to drive on this motorway, trying to cope with all the hazards and other cars in the process. John King, Churchwarden