Deutschland Uber Alles, perhaps, but not last Thursday! Not in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin for sure! It may have been only one goal that the Irish side scored but wasn’t it a beauty. Shay Long’s fresh legs (he had just been substituted) outpaced the opposition to the ball. His shot flew unerringly, past Neuer (the best goalkeeper in the world) into the far corner of the net.
It exorcised the memories of past defeats and resurrected the ‘Olay, Olay, Olay’ song which had not been sung for so long that many of the youngsters present had to learn the words! There was plenty of opportunity to practise them as the celebrations lasted half the night.
Apologies to our German readers but beating the world champions at soccer is not the sort of thing which happens to us every day! It is now up to our Rugby Team to prove themselves tomorrow against France having made their way successfully through the preliminary matches of the World Cup.
But the week was not all about winning. Digicel, Dennis O’Brien’s flagship, was to be floated on the New York Stock Exchange but was withdrawn. Stock-market volatility was blamed but the offering may have been overpriced. In any event all Digicel’s data is now in the public domain along with its ambition to be the main sports broadcaster in the Caribbean.
This ambition was dented with the news that John Malone’s Cable & Wireless has signed up the English Premier League for the next two seasons!
Digicel hopes to move from being a mobile phone company to include data, broadband and cable TV. In this it is playing catch-up with Cable & Wireless so the battle for the Caribbean is on.
It is in the nature of things that each week there are winners and losers. We hope to be among the winners but experience tells us these hopes do not always materialise.
There is another kind of hope, one that radically changes our outlook. This hope is not a team, a business deal, an idea or thing. It is a person – Jesus.
But it’s not enough to say that reliable hope is in Jesus, it’s more pointed than that. Reliable hope is Jesus! In his life, death and resurrection the believer’s life is infused with hope and we don’t need to search for it any longer. We are released into a life useful to God and our neighbours.
St Paul expresses well in his letter to Titus Chapter 3 verses 4/8. But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.