On Friday, I was talking with an employee of London Underground.  He told me that he had faced one of the most difficult decisions this week about whether to strike or not.  It reminded me that the significant decisions we take in life are often made at great cost.  It also reminded me that in every dispute there are two sides and it is often unwise to come to a hasty judgement.

Significantly this was on St Barnabas' Day -  whose Collect includes the prayer that we should be 'generous in our judgements'.

In the recent election many of us have faced difficult choices about whom we should vote for - given the state of Parliament, rocked by the expenses scandal which still leaves a lot of unanswered questions.  A jaundiced view of our elected representatives prevails.  The fact that extremist parties and other groups have gained a lot of ground suggests that many of us are bewildered and saddened by the main parties - and this has led to more dangerous trends in British politics.

This week the Deanery Synod was addressed by Canon Justin McKenzie on the subject of 'Race Awareness'.  Justin came to Britain in the 1950s from the West Indies and, as a leading local churchman, he is at the forefront of helping against real racial prejudice and hatred in this country.  Against the background of the recent gains by the BNP, what he had to tell us was both pertinent and timely.  For most of us the issues are clear and the Christian stance abundantly so, but as is so often the case, we can duck the issue, especially if it doesn't directly affect us.  Yet, also, as Christians, we have a duty to fight prejudice, hatred and even indifference.  We have a duty to uphold the rights of others to enjoy God's freedom, justice, love and mercy.  Is that a choice or a God-imposed directive?

Some choices in life are not as clear cut as that, and like my friend facing the decision to strike or not, there is real agonising.

St Barnabas, himself, was faced with the choice of whether to keep in step with Paul or go his own way.  The dispute arose about his young cousin, John-Mark, whom Paul judges to be unsuitable for mission because he had let them down.  Barnabas was much less judgemental and, after a 'sharp disagreement' Barnabas took Mark with his to found the Church on Cyprus (Acts 15:36ff).

Sometimes such disagreements lead to Churches being split apart though, in this case, God blessed the choices made and good came out of both Barnabas' mission, and Paul's.  'Begging to differ' is not a bad thing in itself and doubtless we all have differing opinions about this or that aspect of Christian life and of life in wider society.  What matters is that we act in love at all times.

There are issues, of course, which leave us with questions rather than solutions and part of the Christian way is the choice to learn to live with questions until God graciously reveals His will to us.  Until that happens we need to make the choice that Barnabas made - to be generous in our judgements.