The month of Ramadan has started and it brings with it its strange dichotomy of abstention and excess – during the day (sun-up to sun-down) there is no drinking, eating, smoking, medicine, or “relations”. But sunset heralds the feast and many islanders will consume much more oil, meat, and sugar than normal and eat two or three times in the night. For the wealthy the month can be a party – rich foods and social time with family, and the excuse to do very little in the day. For the poor it can be an extra burden – working harder than normal while weakened by thirst and hunger to earn more to meet the expectations of the family for meat on the table, and new clothes for all the children at the end of the month. The spiritual dynamic of Ramadan is double-edged as well… On the one side people feel good – fortified by all the efforts they put in this month, for others it rings hollow – is this change in routine really earning them a place in paradise?
Pray that many islanders would come to the realisation that they can never work their way to God and that in the midst of that dark truth God would reveal them that He has already come to them!
