Page 22 - Dainfern Precinct issue 3 2022

FOOD FOR THOUGHT w

THE REAL POWER NAP

BY PETER STOFFBERG

GOOD FRIDAY
ith winter around the corner, let me
ask you - do you train hard in the 9h30 - 15 APRIL
Wgym, all through winter? If so, how do DAINFERN COLLEGE
you feel about squirrels? These questions are
related, weird as it seems. You may be blissfully EASTER SUNRISE
unaware of this, but squirrels are responsible for Bring Camping Chairs

such heinous behaviour as whipping dogs into a 6h15 - 17 APRIL Coffee & Hot Cross Buns
barking frenzy at dawn, chewing cables, raiding NORSCOT KOPPIES
bird feeders and stealing food out of cupboards.
While none of this may affect you in the least,
what they do in their sleep is enough to infuriate EASTER SUNDAY
anyone who’s ever committed to the pain of 9h30 - 17 APRIL
weight training, especially through winter. DAINFERN COLLEGE
Human beings have to work hard to build muscle
mass and strength, and we lose it very quickly
during periods of inactivity. Apparently, it takes
just one week of illness-enforced bedrest to
reverse the gains of twelve weeks of weight
training. One little bout of flu, and the training
programme suffers the kind of setback that can
bring us to tears, then on to binging on junk-food
and starting a new hobby. It is really hard for us EASTER
to maintain strength through the cold, dark winter.
SERVICES
But then there are these squirrels. They
hibernate, spending the lean winter months
sleeping in a warm dark squirrel bed, only
emerging as the spring warmth gently wakes
them. That’s enough to make anyone envious,
but when they awake, they’ve lost hardly any www.familychurch.online
muscle or strength at all. That’s just not fair.

They do this that we, too, are responsible for it. We plead
with the help for mercy and demand justice, but how do we
of special reconcile that in our own failings? How do we
bacteria in live so that we will receive mercy and not the just
their gut. punishment for what we’ve done?
The bacteria
break down Easter is when we remember Jesus, the Son
urea (waste of God, and how He’s solved our problem with
matter His great love and perfect justice. It’s difficult to
that we all achieve something in our sleep, but impossible
accumulate) to achieve anything when we’re dead. That’s
into proteins not the case for Jesus. He died in our place,
that are and achieved more in His death than anyone
recycled ever achieved in their lives. He died to take the
through the little rodents’ bodies and are used to punishment for our evil, and was brought back to
repair and maintain muscle mass and strength life to show that He has succeeded in paying for
while they sleep. They achieve more in their it. His resurrection assures us of our own.
sleep than we do while we’re awake, which got
me thinking about something else that’s around May the sweet realisation of His victory bring you
the corner. Easter. the greatest peace and rest this Easter.
From the dawn of time, we humans have faced
a more serious problem. We long for justice and
hate to see evil going unpunished, but we know

20
DPL