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Viewpoint from Richard Child 17/03/2017
 Richard Child
Member of Leadership Team, Light of Life Baptist Church, Ormesby St Margaret
also published in the Yarmouth Mercury
Passing a significant birthday (60) recently I have been reflecting more deeply than usual on the meaning of life: to be precise, on the meaning of my life! What strikes me about Jesus is that he achieved so much in just three years. What he said and did in those few months is still being talked about, and continues to have a profound influence on the world even now. So what, if anything, will people still be talking about, because of me, after my short visit to Planet Earth? Not much probably, but......
 Here is one instance of what I am doing to try to answer this question. When my working life finally grinds to a halt, probably in three or four years’ time, the business I have been working in will carry on, but with different people carrying the baton. Having been involved in the founding of the business, I and a colleague of a similar age, have been asking ourselves: how do we ensure that the values which were important to us at the outset of our business will be the values which still apply when the baton has been passed to others?
There is a long answer to this and a shorter one! In brief, we have identified two of our team from the next generation (under 30) who we are working with to identify the values they recognise within our business, and they will then be helping us to broaden the exercise so that all our fifty people will be engaged in the process. Our aim is to ensure that the values which are important to us last longer than we do!
 Now, as is often the case when in a reflective mood, I find myself returning to Ecclesiastes. I recommend reading the whole book; not just the celebrated “Time” passage in Chapter 3. For me it explores the mystery and majesty of God and creation, whilst also recognising the significance of the “seasons” in our lives, and accepting, in faith, the inevitability of the ups and downs of life
So, in what is, for me, a season of “planting”, I feel prompted to ask all of us: what do we believe God is calling us to do during the precious time we have been given on Earth, which will, in some tiny way, improve the world – not just for now, but for always?
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