Chatsworth House: Distractions

I recently called at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, the principal seat of the Dukes of Devonshire. A rather splendid mansion, its grounds are well kept while its interiors are lavish and historical. Although the Cavendish family must surely have all the comforts of modern living in some private wing of the house, the parts which paying punters get to see is still how it must have appeared in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Endless rooms characterised by deep red and rich blue wallpapers, gold gilded frames, dark wood panels and a gigantic stock of oil paintings. All of this was just what I expected, of course. If I wanted to see flatscreen tellys, dog hairs on the carpet and crisp packets stuffed behind IKEA armchairs, there are council estates in Lancashire to which I could go for half the price.

Bizarrely, some of the rooms and their fine artworks were obscured by modern artworks. I am not a total ‘filistine’ and I do appreciate that work of art made after AD 2000 may still be worth viewing and hanging -just not here. It is almost as though no-one would otherwise look at these modern pieces, so they had to wheel them out and stick them right next to the walkway in order to force people to look at them. Sadly, it was the Old Masters and 1690s ceilings and walls I wished to see, not Liza Lou’s Valley, below, fresh from Los Angeles. In the correct gallery, I might have admired it. Obstructing older works of historical importance at one of England’s premier stately homes, and I resented it.

It is vital that we all comprehend the more important things in life, chief of which is the need to get right with God, approaching Him through the crucified and resurrected body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The world, the flesh and devil will all combine to thrust less important, temporal and pointless distractions in our way, impeding our view, clouding our understanding and hindering our efforts. So look beyond the ephemeral, the trite, the cheap and the modern: come and behold ancient truth, veritable wisdom and the timeless beauty of Jesus Christ:

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2