Life in the Ordinary Lane

Stottie Cake

As I mentioned in my last post, a couple of friends recently visited the northeast where I was born and lived until my early twenties.  I later lived there from the mid 1970s until I retired in 2001 when I moved down to Yeovil in the West Country.  On their return, they called round to give me some stottie cake.  That is a sort of flat bread that is typical of that region of the UK.  It took me back to my childhood and subsequent years when I lived in there.  It is traditionally eaten with ham and pease pudding (a sort of very mushy peas with the texture rather like humus).  The thing that really stuck with me was the fact of how I had actually missed eating the simple, humble stottie cake and prompted within me a desire to rekindle those pleasurable tastes.  That's often the case with things that are part of our everyday lives - we don't really think about them.  In fact we often ignore those mundane, simple pleasures in search of something a little more upmarket or exotic.  The saying 'you don't miss the water til the well runs dry' comes to mind.  I also remembered how when we returned to live in England after having lived in Argentina for 10 years, I realised just how much I had missed having the humble snack of baked beans on toast.  it seems silly really that something so ordinary would be greatly missed.


The other day I heard on a television programme someone saying 'we underestimate normal'.  For a number of years I have taken part in a health study among a million women, receiving questionnaires on a regular basis.  I have recently just posted off to them my latest completed survey.  One of the questions was about everyday living and asked if I was able to wash myself, dress, prepare food, walk unaided, do shopping and so on.  I was happy to answer 'Yes' to all the questions and then I remembered what I had heard on the TV - 'we underestimate normal'.  You would think that to answer 'yes' to such questions would be normal for anyone but for some, these activities of basic everyday living are not something that they are able to do without help.  And I had to admit that I don't always realise that I am fortunate to be able to function quite normally in most things.  When I take longer to clean the house that I used to or find that I cannot carry such heavy bags of shopping and I tend to doze off in the chair while 'watching' the news on TV, I can feel a little sorry for myself so it was a good reminder that actually I have a better quality of life than many and should be grateful for 'normal'.


There is a tendency for this attitude to attach itself to other aspects of life.  Many people love the sensational headlines and it is claimed that this is often what sells newspapers.  Ordinary, good news doesn't get a look in.  It would seem that people are not interested in the ordinary; they get carried away on the wave of sensationalism caused by eye-catching headlines.  Sadly it's a bit like some Christians who crave the excitement of large gatherings and search after the next big thing, as if God is only found in the spectacular.  I am reminded that in the Bible when God called Moses to free the Israelites from Egypt, Moses felt inadequate and questioned how he could do such an enormous task.  God's reply was a question, 'What do you have in your hand?'  He didn't give him a list of necessary equipment that he somehow needed to acquire before he could set off on the momentous journey back to Egypt.  He was to use just what he had, what he used every day in his work, his staff.  God used what Moses already had as part of his daily life and used it to work the miracles before Pharaoh.


When Jesus fed the 5000, he didn't send the disciples off with a long list of things to bring back.  He took what anyone would have on a day out in the country - a packed lunch, nothing spectacular, just two small fish and some bread for a hungry young lad.  What is spectacular about how God works is that He takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary.  He takes the mundane, everyday, nothing special along with ordinary, nothing special people and performs miracles through their ordinary-ness to bless and feed others.  The amazing gifts of the Holy Spirit are wonderful and it is indeed great to experience such gifts and see the wonderful outpourings of God but it would be wrong to think that God only works through the spectacular.  God is in the day-to-day living and works through the ordinary everyday occurrences and speaks to us and through us to others.  It is good to seek spiritual gifts and be part of a big move of God but we must be careful that we don't waste a lot of energy craving after the spectacular in order to find God while ignoring (and sometimes even demeaning) what we already have.  It's a bit like the elder son who returns from his work in the fields and hears what a great time his prodigal brother is having back at the house and he complains to his father.  His father reminds him that everything they were enjoying at that moment had been there all the time if only the elder brother had realised it.  He is already with us in so many ordinary ways if we only stop and look for Him.

Roots and Community

I've been thinking these past few days about our roots and community.   Some friends have been visiting my neck of the woods - the northeast of England, where I was born and lived until my early twenties.  They have been visiting all the touristy places - well why else do you go on holiday?  They went one day to the living open air museum at Beamish.  The man was explaining about the mines and how the coal was retrieved and bagged etc.  Because of the broad Geordie accent particularly of miners (known locally as Pitmatic), there was a misunderstanding in what he said - it made me laugh.  It took my mind back to my childhood as my father was a miner for years until ill health caused through coal dust on the lungs and a serious stroke forced him to retire early.  He died at only 69 years of age.  I remember visiting friends who worked with him down the mine in the small mining village of Backworth and how everyone knew everyone else and the whole community was there for each other.  Those days are long gone - the mines are no longer producing coal and such village life is not so usual any more.

This was reinforced this week as we remembered those who had died in the terrible accidents in the mines of Wales and there were photos of the whole village being out, helping each other in their time of need.  Such community spirit of those by-gone days!  How many of us (and I include myself) know the names of those who live in our street or even a few doors away from us?  What do we know of their struggles or problems?  Sadly these days there seems to be an unwritten code of 'keep yourself to yourself'.  I know that life has changed and we no longer live the way we used to.  Many are very private and don't wish to share things with others.  But it seems a shame that we have lost something of that community spirit in the interests of 'progress'.

We hear of community work and think of projects where people go into communities and carry out activities for the children or elderly in order to give them something to do to occupy them.  I'm not saying this is wrong - it is commendable there are those who are concerned enough to actually do something about it.  But it isn't really being in the community - it's more like visiting the community with our plans to 'do some good' and then going back to our, often more privileged world.  Sadly it's more likely to get a reaction about being do-gooders who haven't really got any idea how the other half live.  

Many groups of Christians are known as Community churches, possibly because they consider themselves to be in and part of the community where they live.  However, many of them go each Sunday and 'commune' together and then go home.  I ask, does meeting together in small groups during the week really make us a community?  When the early Christians met together it was out of a real sense of need for each other's encouragement  in difficult times.  That's why Paul says that we shouldn't stop meeting together - we need each other's support, being a real community.  Community is living alongside each other, knowing what the other is going through because we have also experienced it.  It's not always about coming out with the appropriate verse of scripture or repeating what we feel we ought to say but it's more about just being there, crying together if that is what is needed.  The Lord's Supper shouldn't be about a small wafer or mouthful of bread and a sip of wine but sharing a meal and chatting together, really getting to know each other and being friends, regardless of sexual orientation, religious views, education or social standing.  

I remember many years ago in Buenos Aires being at a meeting with the then Assemblies of God minister Juan Carlos Ortiz and he was telling us that a lady in his church group had gone two consecutive evenings to hear him preach.  He asked her why she had come again and she said that she loved to hear him preach to which he replied, 'You shouldn't be here every night.  If you were here yesterday, today you should be at home inviting your neighbour round for a barbeque.  I don't want to see you at every meeting.  You hear me preach one night and then you go home and live what you've heard.'  Or to put it another way, from a blog I read this week - 'being the church and choosing community is more than small groups on Wednesday nights: community is doing life with the people living next door to you.'  And another quote from the same blog - 'come out of cocoons and commune.' (Taken from Ann Voscamp's blog A Holy Experience)

It's good to remember our roots - it helps us to understand so much more about ourselves.  We may have moved on from those days but it would be a great shame if we lose the real sense of community in the pursuit of progress and modern living.

What a harvest!

I have been inspired this week by two particular blogs.  The first by Sarah who writes about harvest; how she remembers celebrating the harvest festival in her post 'Harvest in a tin' and asks how can we relate to it today?  The second was by a lady called Jamie who considers how we often seem to be thinking that things will be 'Better when'.  We seem to pin our hopes in the future instead of enjoying the present.


It's true, as Sarah says, that most of us who live in towns don't really relate to harvest as being produce that we have nurtured from seed.  How many can truthfully say 'we plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land'?  I know my friends Jo and Ian in Latvia can but most of us reading this won't.  Many have moved away from the traditional celebration with fruit and vegetables displayed on a long table.  In modern times many congregations opt to bring tinned food for the celebration so that it can later be given to food banks and help the homeless and those who are unable to provide for their families.  Financially things are not as we would like and we need to count our pennies more than ever.  We no longer have the luxury of eating out occasionally but on the other hand we have never gone without a meal or needed help from a food bank, not like many others in the UK and in other parts of the world.  And so at this harvest time I thank God for His continual provision.

We are hearing much in the media these days about the National Health Service.  The great thing is that it is free at the point of need.  Ok, you may say that nothing is free; everything must be paid for at some point by someone.  It is true of course that all my working life, I like all other workers in Britain, have put my required share into the system each month.  While I worked I was fortunate in my health so didn't need to use the NHS as much as some people might - although I cannot say that I never went to the doctor's!  But now in my more senior years I do need regular medication to help me live with the physical failings that seem to be part of getting older - and as an OAP my prescriptions are free.  What I need is there when I need it without worrying about how much it's going to cost me.  What a blessing!

The other day while in the garden I saw a beautiful butterfly.  I love butterflies.  I think that most gardeners don't like what they have evolved from - caterpillars.  The caterpillars seem to love to eat everything that we want to eat.  But I'm reminded that the birds also love to eat the caterpillars and nurture their young on such treats.  So as I love butterflies and enjoy having the birds visit my garden, I guess I need to have the caterpillars - as long as they don't eat too much!  To get back to the butterfly I saw the other day - a rare sight now in October - it was just resting on the trunk of a tree, wings open, soaking in the benefits of the autumn sun.  (See photo) Such a sight is priceless.  I don't need a load of money in order to enjoy such a beautiful creature.  I stayed for a few minutes just watching it and realising how little time I just sit and enjoy the blessings of the moment, not worrying about the future or what if ... ... Soak up the pleasure of now!

So although harvest isn't maybe what it used to be, I have been considering all the blessings I do have. 
I am fortunate enough to have a pc and access to the internet in order to shop, browse, learn and communicate with friends and family. 
Harvest time/autumn is a wonderful time of the year bursting with incredible colours, especially in the trees as in this beautiful photo. 
I have two wonderful sons and a very inclusive extended family. 
I woke up this morning grateful that I have another day full of possibilities.  I take my tablets and carry on doing all the things I enjoy doing.  
Things may be better when ... ... as Jamie reminded me but right now I have much to thank God for.  I am taking great pleasure in the now moment - a bountiful harvest of countless blessings.

Pioneers

There is a television advert that talks about doing things differently and uses the example of the man who changed the way athletes do the high jump.  Before they used to jump facing the bar but this man changed it by jumping with his back to the bar and his legs following.  That now is the norm.

Throughout the history of humanity there have been those who have pioneered new ways, thoughts and practices.  Galileo Galilei (known by his first name, Galileo) was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher.  He was born in 1564 and died in 1642.  Throughout his life he played an important role in the scientific revolution of his day, improving the telescope and compass among other things.  His improved telescope along with his love of astronomy and his observations of planets and the sun led him to conclude that the earth moved around the sun and not vice versa.  He was condemned for his beliefs and brought before the Inquisition.  The church took verses of Scripture to 'prove' that he was wrong.  Psalm 104:5 states 'the Lord set the earth on its foundations' and Ecclesiastes 1:5 says 'and the sun rises and sets and returns to its place'.  From those verses the church believed that the earth stood in a fixed position and the sun moved around the earth while Galileo was stating the opposite.  In the end he was judged guilty of heresy and kept under house arrest until his death.

In more recent times doctors Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards became well known for their pioneering work into IVF treatment for women who were unable to bear children the natural way.  The first baby to be born in this way was referred to as the first 'test-tube baby' and that was Louise Brown.  This was a ground breaking medical achievement.  But there were critics who raised some ethical questions about surrogate motherhood, 'baby factories' and wondering just where such knowledge would ultimately lead.  The photo is of Dr Steptoe, Louise Brown and her mother and also her own child who was born naturally.  This treatment is nowadays very common and an accepted part of life.

In 1966 the National Association of Food Chains met to discuss the possibility of automated check-out systems.  The scanning systems had been in operation in various forms for nearly 30 years but not on a commercial level on the High Street.  After this meeting, various tests were carried out until on 20th June 1974 a 10 pack of Wrigleys Juicy Fruit gum was scanned at 8.01 am.  This was the very first item to be scanned in this way in a shop and the Universal Product Code was born.  It was ridiculed claiming that there would never be enough for it to be worthwhile.  Some Christians thought that codes hid the number 666 and one TV host called it a 'corporate plot against consumers'.  At the time in the UK the programme Tomorrow's World was shown on TV.  They tried out new gadgets and gave predictions as to how well they might do in the future.  The then presenter Maggie Philbin famously said that she didn't think it would catch on.  How wrong she was!  Almost everything we buy now has a bar code and is scanned at the check-out.

It seems that all who move away from what is considered the norm and offer new ways of thinking and practice, are usually criticised, some persecuted, others questioned, not believed or taken seriously and even ridiculed.  There are many others - Christopher Columbus and his belief that there was land over the ocean, Martin Luther and his struggles against the established church, Lord Shaftesbury and his fight against slavery, the example of Nelson Mandela fighting for equal rights for all the citizens of his country, to mention just a few.  Although they all came across opposition, persecution and ridicule they all held on to what they believed was right and kept on fighting.  So I guess the lesson from these pioneers is to carry on and follow you heart in what you believe no matter what others say or think.  Who knows where it will lead?