Sorry to mention that. Or am I the only one sick of hearing about the price of petrol? And sick of talking about the price of petrol? And sick of endless speculation about the future price of petrol? “Not as sick as I am of paying for the stuff!”, you might say. True. As an average tank approaches the $100 mark, that hurts. And the shopping voucher hardly dents it at all.
We’re funny creatures though. A lot of wealth has come into this country through the ‘world resources boom’. No complaints there, right? But when that same boom (as I understand it, anyway) is a significant part of pushing up the blow at the bowser, the complaints gush forth. There’s a strange part of us that somehow expects the world to become a better place, despite the evidence!
Don’t get me wrong. I’d love the prices to drop, not rise. Bring back the 43 cents per litre I paid when I was on my Ps in 1986! And I know for some families at SCPC, especially where work is tightly connected to fuel prices, the costs are far greater than just the tank for the family car. These events are very much hurting some financially.
But it is a vivid reminder about the fickle nature of this world. Indeed, the majority of people in this world are facing far greater hardship than fuel price hikes. And whoever we are on this planet, rich or poor, we all live in a world that is passing away. In 1 Corinthians in coming weeks, we’ll hear Apostle Paul urging “those who use the things of this world”, to live “as if not engrossed in them, for this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:31).
I wouldn’t know if we’re about to start exhausting the world’s oil resources or if it’s just political games. But I do know for certain that they won’t last forever. This world IS passing away. And this whole world will then face something far more drastic than a nasty fuel bill – giving account to God for their response to his precious Son’s death for us (Hebrews 9:27). You wouldn’t want to have your trust in anything in this world, would you? But trust rather in the one who, by his death and resurrection, carries you to the new creation.
So, as much as it hurts to see that climbing price on the servo signage, perhaps direct that frustration into something useful: the desire to tell people about eternal salvation through Jesus beyond this groaning world.
