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'Surely the Lords mercies are not over, his deeds of faithful love not exhausted; every morning they are renewed; great is his faithfulness!' (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Fr Jamie McMorrinFr Jamie McMorrin
Fr Jamie McMorrin

Someone kindly gifted me a FitBit watch for Christmas. I’ve taken the hint and have made a New Year’s resolution to make regular exercise a part of my routine in the year ahead. Now, in the third week of January, having not quite finished all the Christmas chocolates, I’m beginning to fall back into old habits, picking the car over the bicycle and preferring the sofa to the swimming pool.

Thankfully, as a Christian, I believe in a God of second chances and new beginnings. A God who doesn’t reserve his love for the already-perfect, but who freely offers it to ordinary, slightly shambolic, out-of-shape people like me. A God who loves me in spite of my imperfections and my broken resolutions. A God who calls me to be a saint, but who came into the world to save sinners.

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Most likely I’ll reach the end of 2017 still very much a work-in-progress: imperfect, trying my best and with room for improvement. Who knows if I’ll still be wearing my FitBit. But I don’t need an app to know that God will still love me: not because of my goodness but because of His; not because of my heroic efforts at self-improvement but because of the infinite patience of His tender mercies, which are eternal and made new every morning.

Fr Jamie McMorrin,

St Francis Xavier, Falkirk

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