Owen Batstone, Ogmore Vale

I’m writing this because Hywel George asked me to, and I quite like him.

Which verses would you take to the desert island?

I’d like to change the rules this once, if I may. I want to take whole Bible books with me instead of verses. Why would I only take individual verses to an island? I would have to rip up and ruin my Bible to get them out. Also, for the last four years or so, I have become a lover of reading large swathes of scripture at once. After all, God has put the Bible together in books – so it is obviously best to read them as whole books. I find it’s simpler to understand this way and I don’t get bogged down in little details, which are usually resolved by the time I get to the end anyway. Having said that, sometimes I don’t move beyond one verse or even one word because it hits me for six.  But generally speaking, these days, I am worshipping more through reading whole books than individual verses and so I would want them on the island with me.

Now let’s be honest. Do you know what I probably wouldn’t do on a desert island? Read my Bible.
I know it sounds idyllic - the sun, the blue velvety waves - and I’m sitting cross-legged with my Bible open. In reality, however, I’d feel I’m too busy to read. I can see it now - the need to catch my food, to find a drink, or how to source a workable type of sun cream - it would panic me into pushing my Bible aside. Even now, every day I have a mountain of my own sin and apathy to wrestle with before I open my Bible. And that’s with a relatively easy life with food in the fridge and water in the tap.

Esther 1:1 – 10:3

Someone once said that if you struggle with sin, apathy, or anxiety then you should read a Systematic Theology because it will enlarge your view of God and His glory which in turn can help you fight your sin. But I think I can do one better. I would read the book of Esther. And when I had finished, I would read what was going on in the world at the time of Esther (it seems I’ve snuck a History of the World onto the island too). I would get to grips with the spiritual state of the Church back then, where the Persian Empire was, what it was like, and how it fell. Then I would read Esther again and ponder how Jesus is the Everlasting King whose Kingdom never falls. I would smile at how He preserves His people and that nothing happens outside of His will, from the fall of the mighty Xerxes right down to my personal frustrations which come with being marooned on Hywel’s island. I think it’s in the busy chaos of day to day life when I need that vision of Him most. He has a wonderful plan for my life and it might mean I’m going to rot alone on the island and be eaten by crabs. But it’s not without purpose, Jesus wins and so do I. That’s why it would be silly to push my Bible aside just to get on with another day. Every day needs this type of perspective or it gets depressing. So, I guess I would grab my bucket and spade and find some water, realising afresh that even seemingly irrelevant and mundane tasks are actually part of the story of the King’s Everlasting Kingdom.

Which Christian from the past would you like to find on the island for company?

Sorry, if I answer this with anyone other than my wife I’d be in massive trouble.