The Greatest Gift That I Possess

Daily writing prompt

List 30 things that make you happy.

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• Music: Listening to great albums or classical works
• Music: Going to live operas at the University of Limerick Concert Hall (UCH)
• Music: Playing the guitar and playing it using RockSmith
• Music: Using music production software such as Mixcraft and Logic Pro
• Music: Using music as a means to reflect on my life – I record what songs were popular every month of my life – and even before
• Music: Playing keyboards
• VR: Wander and similar applications to explore the world
• VR: Demeo – a Dungeons and Dragons game
• VR: Real VR Fishing – where you can fish at various locations around the world
• VR: Walkabout Mini Golf – with new courses released every couple of months
• Audible Audio books: I have a big collection, but I get a new book every couple of months
• Reading: Christian books, rock biographies, science, IT, and history
• TV: I don’t watch live TV as much nowadays, but it has brought me a lot of pleasure over the years.
• Udemy: I enjoy learning and enhancing my IT skills. If you don’t know about Udemy, they have frequent sales, so I only ever buy courses when they’re on sale – from 10 to 15 euro. Don’t pay any more. 😀
• Walking: I enjoy walking even in the city, but it’s even better in nice places such as the Muckross estate in Killarney
• Sleeping: I like sleeping at night, but I also like a lunchtime nap.
• Geography: I like learning about each country. I’m going through these alphabetically day by day. I pray for each country, using the Operation World app, but I also watch YouTube videos. Yesterday, I was in Austria and watched some excellent 180 3D videos on my Quest.
• History: I like creating chronicles of my own life, and slotting in what happened when, but I enjoy doing that for general history too. Last night I was watching a video about the burning of Cork in 1920. Things were so bad back then. It’s great that Ireland and the UK are such good friends nowadays, except that I can’t listen to Pick of the Pops on BBC 2 anymore. They’ve blocked us out. They should have warned us about that before we declared independence 😀.
• Holidays: Who doesn’t like going on holidays?
• Coffee: As I pointed out yesterday, coffee first thing in the morning is a happy habit. I suppose I could extend this to food in general, but I’m not obsessed with food.
• People: I’m a bit of an introvert, but it brings me joy to remember and to pray for the hundreds of people that I met throughout my life. I don’t have much of an appetite for intense or deep relationships outside of my family, but I do enjoy meeting new people.
• Radio: I used to enjoy Gay Bryne, Gerry Ryan and others on RTE radio in the old days, but since getting broadband, I’ve mainly listened to UK radio; BBC 4 BBC 2, and BBC Ulster, where I listen to Sounds Sacred every Sunday. Thankfully, somehow I can still listen to Sounds Sacred, despite the new BBC radio restrictions. But I can’t listen to Pick of the Pops. Maybe it’s God’s way of nudging me away from pop music, towards sacred music 😀.
• Family life: My own childhood, and my own family and all the memories associated with family life
• Work: I’m pretty much retired now, and I did grumble a lot in school, university, and in work, but I had lots of happy times too. Even now, I maintain an interest in my various careers.
• Hymns: I love hymns, old and new. I sometimes think that I should focus on one every day, but there are so many, I’d never reach the end 😀. So, I sometimes, try to familiarize myself with them in batches. I do listen to hymns, but sometimes it’s nice to read and meditate on the lyrics and map them to the Scriptures.
• Church: Church attendance in Ireland and in Europe is declining. Being an introvert, I could very easily just focus on the web for worship, but it’s clear from the New Testament that Christians should meet together. And even times in my life when I didn’t feel that I was getting much out of church, I still persisted. When I think of all the people who died to establish Christianity, and those who died during the reformation to establish a more bible-centred Christianity, surely I shouldn’t complain about the little things that God asks of me.
• Bible: It’s always a delight to read God’s word. I spend most time in the New Testament, but I do try to read the Old Testament too, and there are so many resources available nowadays, it’s a wonderful time to be alive. I particularly enjoy Bible Project videos.
• Church History: I’m interested in general history, but I also like to focus on church history. It can be a little depressing. You would have thought that everything would get better and better after the New Testament, but this wasn’t always the case. Still, I can go to church on Sunday morning and meet believers from all over the world. Somehow or other, the gospel has gone out to all the world.
• Theology: This is a little related to church history. I often mention Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, but I’ve read many other books. And nowadays, I can supplement it with audio, video, and online debates, such as Unbelievable.
• Assurance: When I was a child, I was told that if you were good, you’d most likely end up in purgatory. If you were saintly, you might go straight to heaven, otherwise you’d end up in hell. Then I met people (evangelical Christians) who told me that purgatory didn’t exist and that I could be sure of going to heaven by repenting and trusting in Jesus. I started reading the New Testament and discovered that they were right. It is a great joy to know that I’m going to heaven, whatever my shortcomings. Any Christian will work at loving God and loving others, but we will always fall short, which is why we need a Saviour, and he does save.

I think of an old song “Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I possess”. Well, it is a great gift, but I’d say that salvation is the greatest gift that I possess.

Matt 1:21
²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”