There’s a line from Ed Sheeran’s The A Team that struck me recently: “The worst things in life come free to us.” It rings painfully true. Disease, injustice, grief, depression, and death all arrive uninvited, barging into our lives without warning or cost. Ed was on to something.
But it's only half the picture. Because the best things in life are free too. The deepest sources of truth, beauty, and goodness aren’t bought—they’re received. They come as sheer gifts, poured out by a generous Father.
In light of this, here are three of life’s greatest treasures that are ours to (freely) enjoy.
Creation
Living in a capital city, we can easily overlook the wonder of nature. For starters, there’s just less to see. Light pollution and the abundance of concrete make the stars dimmer, and wild spaces scarcer. But even so, life has a way of finding the gaps in the tarmac - the sun still dawns in unrestrained beauty, the birds still sing, the clouds still form their patchwork quilts. Creation quietly insists on being noticed.
Step outside the city and the spectacle widens: oceans, forests, mountains, skies that stretch unbroken. It’s all from God, who loves to shower us—all humanity in fact—with undeserved common grace.
People
The people God places in our lives are among his sweetest gifts. For most of us, the love and company of family make life’s highs higher, and its lows more bearable. We didn’t choose our family (sometimes that’s obvious!), but God chose them for us and knitted them into our lives with great intentionality. We never earned their kindness, but he knows we need it.
And when family is absent or strained, God’s grace is no less evident. He gives us friends—often in unexpected ways. Most of my closest peers are not those I consciously invested in from the get-go, but old flatmates, life group members, and school friends. God sovereignly brought us together, and the rest is history.
Jesus
This gift surpasses all others. We get to enjoy time with Jesus every day. He speaks to us through the Bible, hears us as we pray, and nourishes us as we take communion. He encourages and challenges us through prophecy and the faithful words of a friend. He walks with us and loves us. He loves us, he loves us, he loves us.
This intimacy was never guaranteed. Once estranged from God because of our sin, we had no claim to it. But Jesus closed the gap, choosing the cross and paying the debt. The treasure of knowing God is now ours to enjoy, the invoice already settled. Into eternity we go, an endless discovery of his love freely given.
Wherever you find yourself today, why not enjoy God’s gifts and let them stir up thanks? Take 10 minutes away from your desk to walk through a park. Reconnect with a friend. Most importantly, spend time with your saviour who paid for your life so that you don’t have to.
Where will you sit this Sunday?
What goes through your mind as you approach church on Sundays?
I’d expect a wide range of answers to that question, and it probably depends on various factors - what the time is, how your day is going, whether there are any kids in tow, etc. Perhaps you’ve been attending church for a long time now, and there is a tendency to just go into autopilot as you walk through the door and not give attention to your mindset.
A few years ago, I read Tony Payne’s helpful little book on how we should walk into church on Sundays. In the opening chapter, he argues for a small but significant shift in this moment, which is to pray about where to sit. This not only expresses our trust in God for what he will do as we gather together, but also turns our attention towards others. He writes:
‘When we pray about where to sit, we’re also putting ourselves in the right frame of mind towards each other. We have started to think about the church as being someone other than me. This can be quite a mind-shift, but it’s a vital one. We come to church not only to be loved and blessed by God, but also to love and bless others around us. We come not to spectate or consume, nor even to have our personal encounter with God. We come to love and to serve.’
From experience, this kind of thinking requires intentionality. If we don’t set our minds on the things of the Spirit, then we turn inwards. On the contrary, imagine what it would look like if every person walked through the door having just finished a prayer with a posture of ‘who can I encourage today’ and ‘how can I show hospitality to those who are new’? I think we would see a demonstration of what the author of Hebrews had in mind in chapter 10:24-25:
‘And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.’
Last Sunday, Daniel reminded us that as followers of Jesus, we are all called to this kind of ministry and succinctly defined it for us as ‘pursuing God’s purposes in people’s lives for God’s glory and people’s good’. Prayer is our most effective way of fulfilling this.
So on Sunday, as you walk through the gates or park your car, I want to encourage you to join me in starting to pray something like this, with joyful expectancy for what God may do as we gather:
Lord, as we gather today, help me to glorify you and serve others. Lead me to those who I can encourage and set my mind on the things of the Spirit as we worship you and hear from your word. Amen.