FIRST: LIFE IS HARD

Life is hard because of bad things which happen to us, but are outside our control



(More on this later)



Life is hard because we do things which are self-destructive. The Christian Church has put these 'sins' under these seven headings:

The Seven Deadly Sins:

1. Lust (Latin, luxuria)
- fornication, perversion

2. Gluttony (Latin, gula)
- waste, overindulgence
- unreasonable or unnecessary excess of consumption

3. Greed (Latin, avaritia)
- treachery, covetousness
- excessive unneccessary acquisition of wealth

4. Sloth (Latin, acedia)
- laziness, apathy

5. Wrath (Latin, ira)
- anger, hatred, prejudice, discrimination

6. Envy (Latin, invidia)
- jealousy, malice)

7. Pride (Latin, superbia)
- vanity, narcissism

Life is very much harder for some people than for others. Here's a Congolese child carrying nutritious biscuits handed out by UNICEF, And an American soldier carrying a dead child in Iraq:





But here's something interesting: I heard in a sermon yesterday that a medical expert on rheumatoid arthritis said he'd noticed after many years that there's a grace about these sufferers that he doesn't see in most other patients. This particular disease apparently creates a special quality of character... Now what do you make of that?

Rowland Croucher