Christmas Fire

Christmas is a time of year that holds magic and joy, peace and reconciliation, yet for some it is a time of broken memories and shattered dreams.

Perhaps we should rekindle that hope in those whose flame has been extinguished, perhaps we should show those with shattered dreams that Christmas cheer and that warmth of smile that Christmas gives. Let us help those who have forgotten to remember. Isn't that what Christmas is really about? Hope coming into a hopeless world, a fire being relit for peace and justice, grace and mercy? Let us tell our friends that hope is here and the time has come to strike a match and start a blaze.

Fall Down in Worship

A song/poem I discovered in the depths of my mind:

When all is dark
And hope seems no more
There’s a song in your heart
A song to restore

A light flickers on
A glimmer of hope
God’s only Son
A beacon of hope

Fall down in worship
Fall down in praise
Bow down before him
The King of All Days



The skies sing his praise
The stars shout his name
We all bow down
Before you Lord

There are some things too precious to lose

There are some things too precious to lose,
Some things are priceless beyond compare.

Who else can make your heart at peace?
Who else can turn your frown to smile?

There are some things too precious to lose,
Some things are priceless beyond compare.

What else can cause such joy within?
What else can free a broken heart?

There are some things too precious to lose,
Some things are priceless beyond compare.

Where else can you find such wisdom?
Where else can you discover yourself?

There are some things too precious to lose,
So keep them close, hold them dear.

Hide the Poo!

This is a rather sordid, though very amusing anecdote that actually happened at a University in the UK. The story was told to me by a friend who had another friend involved in the story. However, I shall tell it as if I'm involved for comic effect. If you are squeamish or can't stand stupid and inappropriate games played by students I suggest you find other reading material for the next short while.

You see, at Uni we used to get a little bored, so we played some games. Some of these games you will have heard of; twister for example. Others, we invented. The best of these was, as most university games are, played to most perfection when in a state of drunkenness. It had simple rules, inherent in the name of the game: Hide the Poo. Yes, a simple game involving hiding the most recent poo you have done somewhere around the house. Everyone else has to find it.

Usually this game worked well, with poos being hidden in wardrobes, under beds and, on occassion, in dressing gown pockets.
Of course, sometimes the poos did not get found very quickly, and less often they weren't found until the next day. However, one day, when in a particularly drunk state one of my housemates hid a poo very well. He hid it very well indeed. No matter where we searched it could not be found. We searched in cupboards, by the toilet, under beds, under duvets, on top of dressers, in shoes, underwear drawers and behind the fish tank. It was nowhere to be seen. It was decided to leave it until the following day, by which time the person who had the genius to hide it so well had lost the genius in a kind of forgetful kind of way. He could not remember where he had hidden the poo. Not good.

Time passed. We slowly forgot about the poo over the next few days. We went about our daily lives, getting up, brushing our teeth, buttering our toast, microwaving our dinners, attending lectures but hiding no more poos. It was quite good really.

Then we had a guest to stay. It was a couple of weeks later. He slept soundly, and got up yawning in the morning. Sitting around eating breakfast, we welcomed him to the kitchen. There he put on some toast and chatted about the day ahead. It was when he buttered the toast that his face became slightly perplexed. He looked up at us, questions sweeping across his eyes. At this point he said the never to be forgotten words,

"Why is this butter brown?"


As you may have worked out at this point our drunken friend had taken the poo he was to hide, lifted out the butter, placed the poo below it and replaced the butter. For two weeks we had made sandwiches and toast with poo infested butter! It was, perhaps, a fitting end to the poo game, switching the famous saying round to say "Out one end, and in the other!"



I am sorry to those who are now vomiting.

Pretence?

"Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem."
- Maugham

There is a truth in this statement, because for a long time I have said that if you pretend to be able to do something or to be something you often find yourself able to, or being that.

This situation can of course be both useful and displeasing. If one has a vivid imagination and pretends to murder, one may find dead bodies close at hand one day. However, if one struggles with life, and day to day living, but pretends to be fine, one may find themselves coping admirably and gaining friends to help them out of their pretence and into a real independence.

However, I am also sure there are some deeper issues here, but it is late and I am unable to discover them enough to put them into words.

Your Church Needs You!

"You can either hold yourself up to the unrealistic standards of others, or ignore them and concentrate on being happy with yourself as you are."
Jeph Jacques

I realised something the other week.

I had been praying for more humility and the next day found myself greatly fed up because I thought myself useless. It is at these times we text our friends. I did this and my friend text back, inevitably, "You are not useless, you are important."

Of course he is right, and I realised this almost immediately. But I also realised that it was true for everybody else as well.

I realised for the first time that I am important. I am part of a whole, of a movement, of a Church that is always aiming for Jesus, but not always setting the crosshairs right. I am part of this so that I can do my bit to point us in the right direction, and no one else will do what God has assigned me to do as well as me.

And I won't do what everyone else does as well as them.

Hence, it is important you realise YOUR CHURCH NEEDS YOU!

Sing your heart out

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

Consider the song in your heart.

What is your heart yearning for?

Is it singing?

Did it ever know a song?

Could you teach it a song?

Is it a song worth singing?

Do you know anyone with a song worth singing?

I think we all need a song in our hearts, for it is here we find our purpose. We just need the song to be a worthwhile one, one that will make a difference. And make sure you sing it loud enough that your friends will be singing it even if you forget the words.

Do you want it?

There is a love out there so vibrant, so tangible, so immense.

It is a gut wrenching love, a love to outlove all others. A love of such beauty that Angels fear to tread in its presence.

A love undefinable and undefeatable, a love uncontainable and out of this world.

It is a love that demands, compels, strives, expects, understands, forgives and pours.

It is given freely.

The question is, do you want it?

Passage from the Bible

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

English Lit: What is the point?

"I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning , or destroyed it altogether."

Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947)

This is a summary of why I despise the subject of English Language. Here is a subject in which you read a piece of literature, and often a very fine piece, and you flip it around and shake it about a bit and make it mean a hundred different things. For me, authors usually write so that one can enjoy what they are reading, not take it apart. If authors do want a meaning to come out I think it must usually be only one, not a hundred from various perspectives.

I think that English should consist of two things: Creative writing and reading. And maybe a little time to discuss. This would make it far more interesting.

A Bit of News

A whole month!

I am very sorry.

I had a weekend away with some young people this past weekend. It was awesome.

I managed to keep the confidence to be myself.

I have a new job starting in September as a Youth Worker!

It's all change for me. Just hope I'll be up to the task.


I'm really quite happy and have very little to say. I feel I have lost my ability to tell a story well, otherwise I'd have a few to tell you, but I seem to not know how to write anymore.

I'll try to relearn some time.

Sorry this is a rubbish post. I just felt I'd let anyone who ever reads this know I'm alive.

A Better Expressed Version of What I Believe

I believe that Jesus came that everybody may have life in all its glorious fullness. He lived, died and was resurrected for that to be made possible. Jesus was a radical, a Rabbi who accepted those who weren’t good enough and empowered and enlivened them to tell the world that “not good enough” can be flipped on its head through a renewing of the mind and faith as tiny as a mustard seed. Jesus commissioned his followers to tell the world about him and his Father, about his Father’s love for the world and about his unspeakable and eternal glory.

A Small Story

One of my friends told me this little story from their life the other day:

They were out somewhere and they really needed to go to the toilet, so they went into the nearest one.

They took their time to relieve themselves and were glad to no longer have a bursting bladder, but they were a little perplexed by the sinks, for they could not work out how to turn them on. Fortunately, they soon enough came on and my friend assumed they automatically came on when needed so my friend cleaned their hands.

She was mightily pleased to have had such a successful trip to the loo when she left, and saw the ladies next door.

She had wondered why the sinks seemed a little low.

Stuck (metaphorically speaking, not a humorous anecdote, I'm sorry)

I'm thinking about what I want to do with my life. Fortunately no six-fingered man killed my Father when I was eleven. Unfortunately that leaves a certain hole in the velocity of my life.

So, I am considering. I thought about doing more writing, but I'm not sure I'm that good at it.

I thought about teaching, but what degree to do?

I thought about being an estate agent, then the credit ate a Crunchie.


I thought about being a banker.


I didn't really.

Honestly, I didn't. It has too much association with greed and self-serving, which is not what being a Christian is about (for me, anyhow; some right wingers might disagree but I think they need to read what Jesus said, though I'm now being a hypocrite since I am typing on a computer I haven't sold. I am rambling. I apologise. Well done if you kept up. Because I'm lost).

So, I have decided to continue as I am for now. Perhaps I will soon have a revelation. Perhaps not.


I am aware this blog wasn't about much in particular, but if you're stuck about what to do, so am I. Just so you know.

The Possibilities are Endless

I watched a programme about Maths the other week. Maths being the tool of physics, the programme ended up considering the shape of the universe. They seemed to think that, like pacman, if you go out one side you come back in the other. This, they believed, applies to light as well. So they concluded that one of the stars out there might be a younger version of our sun. I went one step further and considered:

What if millions of the stars out there are younger versions of our sun? What if there are really only about fifty stars in the whole universe, and we are just seeing each one hundreds of times over?

That would be pretty cool. Our Universe is awesome. I mean, it takes recycling to a new level.

"Recycle light, the possible star constellations are endless."

A Bit of What I Believe (at this present time, subject to change, terms and conditions apply)

I was listening to Five Live this morning.

(I feel a small aside is necessary here:

My brother thinks that Radio Four is better than Five Live because it is more intellectual. I think that people who are truly intelligent care about the people, and the people are more interested in Five Live. I also think that people who call themselves intellectual need to consider the word 'humility'. But I am being judgmental and therefore hypocritical, I'm sure. Incidentally, someone told me the other day that anyting completely logical is always contradictory, or collapses in on itself or something. I wonder whether the person who worked that out did so logically.)

They were asking the question,

"What do you believe?"

This made me think, and realise that I have recently come very far in my beliefs and my certainty of them.

For a long time I have believed that Jesus was God's Son, came to earth and was resurrected.

It is the niggly bits in between that have caused me problems.

Now I think that Jesus lived and died not only to forgive sins but for so much more.

Jesus showed us how to be compassionate, how to love, how to protest, how to forgive, how to guide, how to teach, how to give, how to serve, how to think and how to serve.

Jesus showed us how to follow God the way God wants us to follow him.

One of the niggly bits is 'Why does God want us to follow him?' but I think that that is almost irrelevant, because I am awed and stupefied by the fact he wants me to follow him.

Jesus came to begin the salvation of the world, and the rest of wondrous creation that we might live as God first intended.

As you can see I believe Jesus was pretty important. There are a lot of things I don't know, and I wonder at, like God being omnipotent and omniscient and not thinking through the fall. But this is the nature of faith, and I think it is faith that brings about change (even if, unfortunately and too often tragically, not for the better), because faith in ideals and the future and mankind and even selfish faith in ourselves is what has made humans progress (if that is an appropriate word for the ruin we've made this incredible planet) so far. This is why I continue to believe; faith may have been a large part of our downfall, but it is faith that will be the reason for our revival.

My Friend

My friend doesn't understand the importance of mystery, they joy found in the incomprehensible. He does not look up at the stars and say "Wow!" He does not see a buttercup in a field and begin to skip for joy. He cannot see that forgiveness is liberating. He cannot comprehend that to believe is not to see. He fails to grasp the concept of faith.

My friend worries only about practicalities. He wants proof. He needs something tangible. He looks up at the stars and talks about red shift and blue shift and the Time-Space Continuum. He sees a buttercup in the field and couldn't care less. He does not believe in sin and redemption. He says he needs to see to believe. He says he can do a better job than God.

My friend despises suffering. He wants people to live forever happily. My friend believes in the power of words, but does not see the force of actions. That's why my friend moans a lot and seems to do very little.

My friend is one of the best I have, but I hope that one day soon he sees a buttercup and begins to skip.

A New Dawn

I can't be bothered with setting days to do stuff. I don't have enough to write about. But I shall try to do two posts a week.

I think this recession is a farce. It is stupid that people of great significance in this world cannot manage to recognise patterns of failure and then not copy them.

In the 1930's the USA and much of the rest of the world experienced a depression. It was, rather idiotically, labelled "The Great Depression", as if it was some kind of wondrous achievement of enormous virtue and happiness. Instead it was actually a time when families struggled to feed their children.

This was brought about because of the excessive lending in the 1920's, when prosperity seemed to flow.

So now, because our economy has again accomplished a terrible collapse because of lending, we are going to borrow our way out of it.

We live in a world who's leaders are wise beyond their years, I am sure of it. Why else would they be so obviously stupid? They clearly have an Ace up their sleeve. I hope.

Questions

I apologise for my lack of blog posts. I got fed up because only two or three people read them. But I decided I need to do this one.

Two questions have plagued me recently, the first being on that has niggled for a very long time, the second being one I, foolishly, only recently understood the significance of.

1. (It is a little more complex than this, but...) If I'm in Heaven forever, won't I get bored?

2. Why would God, an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being, bother to make a people like us, then put them in charge of such an unnecessarily complex planet? Is it not just a little arrogant to assume that this is the case?

I hope these are food for thought. Enjoy your evening.

Anecdote Day

Some time ago now a young man of about 13 years asked me for a lift home from church. I, wanting to appear a good Christian (as we all do), duly obliged. The same boy made the assumption I'd do the same for him each week. Though this seemed slightly presumptuous I continued my service, secure in the knowledge that I was "holier than them".

You can imagine my surprise when, one morning I stepped out of my door for the drive to work and a smiling 13 year old said, "Are you all right to give me a lift?"

The same presumptions have continued and each day I give him a lift to school (it's not out of my way, and I have learnt to be a bit humbler; you're soon to see why) and he says thank you.

As you may have noticed, the weather recently has been extremely cold. Each morning I often peer out of my window to see an unfriendly and freezing frost gripping the grass and enveloping the cars in my street. This happened one day before setting out for work and I stepped out of my door to see that smiling face. I said good morning out of courtesy, and put my key into the car door. I turned it. At least, I tried to turn it. The lock was frozen. I walked round to the other side of the car and tried that lock. It, too, was as frozen as an ice cube.

What to do?

I do like to think of myself as a successful problem solver and I soon came up with a solution.

The boot!!!!

The boot was open. I opened the door wide and clambered over and between seats. I bent and flexed and squeezed and, eventually, sat.

"Come on," I called over my shoulder to a chuckling and mildly surprised thirteen year old.

My pride slightly hurt, and my already mild resentment of lifts evaporated I now gladly and genuinely wish a good morning to him each day.

Barack Obama: Will he make a difference?

Today I heard Barack Obama's speech. He appears to be someone who wants to change the lives for those such as this man. I just hope he means it.

Reflections

Monday is Reflections day.

It seems to me that we need the new American President to do some good.

This is, admittedly, one of the most obvious statements ever; especially so in the light of the last one. Change is what is needed, progress. Uncompromising progress. This may, ironically, involve compromise but we must forever be striving for better lives for people across the world.

Criticism is something which I take on board and accept if it is constructive. Once I was criticised for being too idealistic. I cannot see the logic, especially as it was given by a teacher; someone whose very life should run on idealism. Of course, we need to be realistic but all teachers want to teach the children in their class everything they can, and they want the best for them. I did make the point that the very best teachers have been idealistic. And the best political leaders. And the best religious teachers. If we do not have ideals we lose our sense of purpose. If we lose purpose a loss of hope all too often follows. Hence we need to be idealists and activists and doers to help Mr. Obama change this world. Where do we start? By saying good morning/afternoon to as many people as you can tomorrow.

Quotation Day

I have decided to set aside certain days for certain types of blogs. Firstly, to force me to update the blog; secondly so you know what to expect. Sunday can be quotation day.

“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”

- Shakespeare

A song of hope for Gaza

A song of hope for Gaza:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfhoU66s4Y

Why the radio can make you cry

I was deeply saddened when I listened to the news yesterday and discovered that in Gaza four children were found cowering among 12 dead bodies, huddling closest to their dead mother. The place had been attacked four days previously and the children had remained there all that time. They were too weak to stand up. But there's worse. Just 80m away an Israeli base is situated. A place where soldiers knew what had happened and could check the situation but who did nothing!

The question I ask is, what can we do?

What I'm Looking For

“You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Oh my shame, You know I believe it

But I still haven't found

What I'm looking for”

- Part of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2

These are some of my favourite lyrics of all time; simply because they express what I believe to be the truth. Some may, however, be perplexed by the last two lines. Let me explain. Jesus was born, lived, died and was resurrected that we may have life in all it’s fullness. I know that I have not attained life in all its fullness and I am pretty certain that most of the world have the same problem. Therefore I haven’t found what I’m looking for, but I maintain the search. I search and question and probe and discover and share and learn that I may one day be completely certain of the hope that is within me and be able to tell the world. I may never be certain, but I will always search.