The bus journey

Oh the joys of having a bus pass!  Today I took the bus and travelled to Wells to meet up with my friend Diane.  It makes a nice change from driving as you don’t need to concentrate so much on the roads and traffic but can enjoy the views.  The journey took about an hour and a quarter – much time to ponder and people watch.  The cattle were out in the fields and the sheep grazing on the hillside.  The fields were a lush green and the sun was shining, a pleasant change from yesterday's torrential downpours.  I noticed in some fields the farmers had already stacked the hay high and covered the haystacks with tarpaulin ready for the winter.  How they watch the seasons and prepare in advance!

The village of Somerton, the one time capital of ancient Wessex



We travelled through villages and country towns, farmland on either side for most of the journey – past Yeovil Marsh and Chilthorne Domer, through Ilchester, calling in at the villages of Kingsdon and Somerton.  Then on through Littleton (blink and you’ve missed it!), Compton Dundon and on to Street, Glastonbury, through Coxley and into Wells.  The bus was an Easy Access one and there were a couple of baby pushchairs and a wheeled walking aid for a person with walking difficulties.  I wondered how these people managed before there were Easy Access buses?  Their time outside of their homes must have been very limited.  Things most of us take for granted, like a bus journey, can be so difficult for many people.

A baby wagon that can carry a number of toddlers.



As we went through Street, I noticed whom I thought were probably two nursery assistants with a pull/push along wagon containing about 8 toddlers who were having a great time being taken out for a ‘walk’ (or rather a ride) in the sunshine.  It made me smile.

Glastonbury



Glastonbury - what a place of spiritual battles!  Right next to the Abbey was a shop called Man, Myth and Magik (spelt with a ‘k’).  Along the main street you could see other buildings with names like Cat and Cauldron, Minerva, The Avalon Club, Inner Beauty Salon, The Goddess and the Green Man and many others.  One that did make me smile was Burns the Bread Shop.  I thought it was rather an unfortunate surname for someone making and selling bread!  One very loud and worse-for-wear man and boy got on the bus, carrying a guitar, appearing to be a remnant from the hippie era.  I couldn’t help thinking that so many people live on the margins of society.  In Glastonbury there are so many people with a desire for something more than just food and drink, a desire for something spiritual and yet have not yet encountered Jesus.  Lord how do we reach them with your truth?  Questions, questions!

The coffee shop in Wells Cathedral



Diane and I had just over 3 hours in Wells before I got my bus back to Yeovil.  It’s so good to share and catch up with friends.  We went to the Cathedral coffee shop for coffee and then walked around for a while, stopped for lunch and then walked again through the town before it was time to go our separate ways.  The journey back was quiet – no toddlers in pushchairs, no loud hippies, just quiet pondering about our conversation and remembering the different people who today had made an impression one way or another.



Family Visits

I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks as we have had people staying – two visits from different family members.  The first visit was at the beginning of last week for a few days and then my elder son, Martin, came at the weekend and stayed till yesterday.  Fortunately the weather was fine all the time they were here, only a little rain in between times but at least we were able to get out and about and not get wet.

 

Tommy, Raquel, me and Diego at Montacute House, taken by a very helpful lady who works in the grounds there.

Our first visitors were Argentinian cousins Tommy and Raquel Bell.  I had seen Tommy a few years ago when he visited his sister in Portsmouth but it was about 37 years since I had seen Raquel.  Diego was just a baby the last time either of them saw him.  That was before we returned to the UK to live.  So it was a time of much filling in the gaps and catching up.  They now live in England so hopefully it won’t be too long before we can meet again – and not just on Facebook!

Tommy, Diego and Raquel having a little rest during our long walk in the countryside park.

With Tom and Raquel we enjoyed an afternoon at Montacute House, a National Trust property about 3 miles outside of Yeovil.

Martin and Diego in the same countryside park.

We also visited Yeovil Countryside Park with both them and my son Martin.

Enjoying lunch in the country pub.  You might just be able to see the lake at the top centre of the photo.

During Martin’s visit we called in at a country pub for lunch.  It was a place we have often passed but never actually stopped at.  It was a very pleasant place and we were able to sit outside to eat and then walked down to a lake at the far end of the premises where we sat for a while enjoying the wildlife around us.

The sofabed is folded away and the room is now as before

Now the spare room is as it was before the visitors arrived and I’ve caught up with washing, ironing, shopping etc.  It all went too quickly but the lovely memories will stay!









White Van Man

We all know the reputation that the white van driver has.  At least those living in the UK will know.  For those not living in this country and not acquainted with the ‘white van man’, he (sorry fellas but it’s always a man!) is known as the person driving a (usually) white coloured van making deliveries and always apparently in a hurry and desperate to get to his next drop-off point.  He would seem not to know of the existence of the Highway Code and thinks that the rules are for everyone else but not him.

One white van, however made me smile.  The other day I was coming down the stairs in our house and looked out of the window to see parked across the road a white van.

Retired white van man!

I don’t know if the owner had in his working life been a ‘white van man’ or he was just trying to say that although he drove a white van, we shouldn’t prejudge him for that.  Anyway, it made me smile.



Doing great things for God

When we hear of someone that they have a very important position and are doing great things for God, what is it that goes through our minds?  Maybe we consider someone who has risen up the career ladder of the established church and now holds a senior position on some church council or decision-making group or has a title held only by an elite few within that organisation. How often have we travelled to a particular venue just to see and hear such a person?  It seems that doing great things for God has come to symbolise for many people (though I hasten to add not all by any means) some great gathering where many come to hear a speaker and go away amazed at their words.

Last week on the ITV News there were reports every day from the refugee camp at Dadaab in Kenya where thousands of starving people were slowly making their way to a place of relative safety.  Every day the reporter spoke to a certain Dr John Kiogora about the work he was doing.

During one of the reports, a small child was brought in who was unconscious through hunger and weakness.  If his mother had not arrived that day then the child would have died before nightfall.  He was immediately given a glucose injection and put on a drip feed.  Within 15 minutes, the child had opened his eyes and was responding to his surroundings.  On speaking to the doctor, the reporter noted that it was very hard work and long hours with little pay in monetary terms but the doctor smiled saying that to see a child recover from near death and bring hope to a family was something that could not be paid in money.

There are other doctors and helpers working alongside Dr Kiogora.  I don’t know what religion they are associated with, if any but I am sure that they are indeed doing great things for God.

The Motherhood of God

When I think of the motherhood of God, I am not thinking as a Roman Catholic who considers Mary to be the mother of God (as opposed to the earthly mother of Jesus, the human form of God).  That is another debate altogether.  Neither am I being feminist by trying to replace all male figures with a female equivalent.

I have been thinking about the mothering nature of God since I found a bird’s feather in the garden the other day.

The aerodynamic wing feather that is designed for lift and flight



You would think that all feathers are the same but they are not.  Some are especially designed for flight while others are for covering the main part of the body.  Over the past couple of months the mother bird has been using these feathers close to her body to protect her chicks and to keep them warm until they have fully grown feathers of their own.  Taking a closer look at the feather you realise that the part that goes next to the skin, and therefore the part that is used to protect and keep the chicks warm is fluffier.

The smaller, fluffier feather designed for warmth and protection

When Jesus overlooked Jerusalem and stood there grieving over the nation, he uses the same imagery: ‘How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.’  This I think is a wonderful picture of the mother nature of a loving and caring God for His children.



Lost in Translation

Anyone who has lived in a country where their native tongue is not the first language, will appreciate that many times things we want to say get lost in translation or we totally misunderstand what has been said to us.

I remember that on one occasion many years ago in Argentina, a lady who frequented the church community that my husband and I were responsible for, had attended a special ‘do’ and so had left some of her personal belongings in our home (that was situated behind the communal building) for safe keeping.  When everything had been cleared away and the helpers were going home, this particular lady came and asked me for her ‘cartera.’  As at that stage I was quite new to the language and didn’t have a great vocabulary, I tried to work it out in my head.  I knew that a ‘cartero’ was a postman and knowing that many words ending in ‘o’ were masculine while the feminine equivalent ended in ‘a’.

 So to my logic a ‘cartera’ must mean a post woman.  I insisted that I hadn’t seen a post woman that day at all.  In fact our delivery person was always male.  ‘No’ she kept saying ‘mi cartera’.  (All Argentinians can stop laughing now, please)  Finally, after he stopped laughing, my husband explained that she was looking for her handbag!

The following day she sent her son to collect something she had left.  He asked for ‘la pizzera’.  The only word that sounded anything like that that I knew was ‘lapicero’ that was pronounced the same (apart from the final vowel).  I knew that ‘lapicero’ was a sort of pencil, so I was searching for a pencil.  It turned out that what the boy came for was his mother’s tin for cooking pizzas.  With hindsight, the written word gives more of a clue to its meaning than the spoken word.

Old and new pizza tins

The child returned home with the pizza tin telling his mother that ‘she doesn’t understand anything!’  Even if you think you have quite a good knowledge of a language, living with people in a local situation can be so different.  I’m sure at the time people saw me with a permanent expression of confusion on my face.  Looking back I can smile over many incidents but at the time often felt acute embarrassment.  Patience and sign language go a long way! 

His Ways

Comments on my previous blog have caused me to be still pondering about church structure and how Jesus did things and I can’t help wondering how we have become so removed from the original idea of demonstrating the gospel by how we live and not by how we ‘do church’.  This morning I was catching up with some other blogs I follow and on one I have mentioned before (Martin Scott at http://3generations.eu/blog ) there was a comment on one of his posts by a lady called Liz.  Evangelism had been mentioned and she wrote that we should:

… … see our task as being one of getting on their page and building a bridge to an understanding of Jesus and how he answers their search for meaning.

She continued to explain this by recounting an experience a friend of hers had had.

I was recently with a friend who did an amazing job with this in his conversation with a couple of gay tarot readers. He told them about the ‘deeper’ message of the tarot images that many who use them have missed… and taking the cards, pointed out all the biblical archetype images, threading through them the message of Jesus. They were gobsmacked, told him they felt they probably had missed the really important message, and that they would be back. They returned to ask him to pray with them to connect with the Jesus they had overlooked all this time. He did. But sadly reflected to me later, ‘I wonder what church is going to be able to spiritually nurture a couple of gay tarot readers…?’

I’m sure that not many people (not just christians) would even know what the tarot cards consist of or their meanings so any who could actually relate to such people I admit would be few.  I’m sure Jesus would be able to connect with them but how many christians would?  (Although I remember once meeting a Portuguese girl called Barbara who lived with New Age groups and was a christian sharing her life and beliefs with them)  And as Liz also asks, how would they fit into church life?  The answer I feel is that they probably wouldn’t. 

Later in his blog, Martin referred to an occasion when he had asked a group of church-going christians:

How many think Jesus would make a good church member?

Why then when you confess to be followers of him are you focused on being good church members?

Hmmm. More questions and more pondering.  Where do I stand in all this? How would I react?  Am I so far removed from those who live differently that I don’t have anything in common to connect with them?  Who can relate to  those on the margins of society?  Has church become just for the (usually white) middle class?

My ways are not your ways

Following on from my last blog about playing 2^nd fiddle, I have been thinking a lot about how Jesus acted and how often we are so different.  Ok, reading the gospels we see how crowds seem to follow him everywhere because of what they had heard of him – the things he said and did.  Yet how often (not always though) Jesus said to people ‘don’t say anything about this to anyone’.

He could have talked to Zacchaeus there in front of everybody but said he would go to his house and chat with him (in private).  Many times we read of how Jesus went apart from the others on his own to pray and think.  When the crowd was so big he was forced into a boat, after talking to them, he set off for the other side of the lake.  When he went to the house of Jairus, he told everyone to leave the house so he could talk to the daughter himself.

I wonder if he were here today how we would approach his preaching and actions, particularly his healings and miracles. 

No doubt there would be big campaigns organised over a number of days and nights with a lot of spectacular advertising about miraculous things he’s done; there would be stewards prepared to deal with the ‘seekers’; there would be offering baskets ready to raise funds for more outreach; there would be specially invited worship groups to lead us all into the time when he would speak to us and it would all be recorded on discs for posterity – which of course you could buy for a reasonable amount of money.

But Jesus had a different way of doing things.  He often went away with his 12 close friends to spend time together and talk of kingdom things.  As with Jairus’s daughter, Zacchaeus, the mad man among the tombs, the Samaritan woman at the well, Nicodemus who went to see him at night (and many more) it’s about friendship and relationship one-to-one. 

Is it because he is showing us that relationships are more important than organisation; that kingdom priorities are not so much about structure, big campaigns and slick advertising but about lives being changed?  In large, organised campaigns lives are sometimes changed and I accept that.  I have both attended and been involved in many such events over the years but can’t help wondering if the spirit in which it is all done has sometimes become somewhat removed from what Jesus intended.

2nd Fiddle

Leonard Bernstein, the famous orchestral conductor was once asked which instrument he thought was the most difficult to play. 

Without hesitation, he replied, ‘The second violin.  I can always find many first violins, but to find anyone who plays second violin, or second trumpet, or second flute with the same enthusiasm, is difficult.’  He continued to explain that if nobody played the second instrument of any group of instruments then there is no harmony.  It is the harmonies and chords that make a melody into music and give it depth and richness. 

Harmonies are so important

A number of years ago I was privileged to attend a concert in Manchester of the great Luciano Pavarotti.

Taken from the programme of the night of the concert



At the end of the concert it was good that when he accepted the applause he acknowledged the hard work and support of the accompanying orchestra and choir that assisted him during the evening’s performance.  Without them, his performance wouldn’t have had the same depth of richness and fullness.  And what an important role they had to accompany the great singer!

The Manchester Chorale that accompanied Pavarotti at his concert that evening

It may seem more rewarding in personal terms to be a solo artist, but without the support of the accompanying instruments or voices, it wouldn’t sound as good.  In fact it would sound a bit empty and hollow.  There are those who crave attention and recognition but don’t worry when others seem to get all the limelight and attention.  Playing second fiddle is so important.



What time is it?

I realised that the open door of the shed would blow back and forth with any breeze and I didn’t want it to become loose or bang and be damaged so I really needed a stone to keep it open.  I wanted a stone that was big enough to have enough weight not to move in any wind but also small enough for me to be able to pick up easily.  I found it amongst many other similar looking stones when I was digging over the garden.

I had used it many times for the purpose of keeping the shed door open but had never really looked closely at it.  After all, it’s only a stone.  Until the other day I noticed some markings on it so took a closer look.

I thought they looked rather like the marks of some prehistoric fossil.  I had earlier found a stone with markings that looked like an ammonite – a type of fossil - but didn’t take much notice of that either and can’t remember what I did with the stone or where I put it.  But it set me thinking.  Knowing that here in Yeovil we are not very far from the Dorset coast that is known as the Jurassic Coast where people go and walk along the beach looking for genuine fossils from the Jurassic age (some dinosaur fossils have been found there), I began to think that maybe in the far distant past dinosaurs may have roamed in my back garden!

Whether the imprints on the stone are from the prehistoric age or not, loads of thoughts about time and eternity came flooding into my mind.  We have been in this house now for 2 years and have seen some changes in the garden in that time but suddenly it all fell into insignificance in the light of the much bigger picture in terms of millions of years and back nearer the dawn of creation.  I marvel today at God’s creation but was in absolute awe thinking about God there at the beginning and all through the millennia.  How many things have changed on that plot of ground alone over those millions of years and yet God is the same.  He is the only constant in life and I couldn’t help but say ‘My times are in your hands’.  How can I not be at peace when this great, great God who created all things is also my loving and caring Dad and I know that in all things His timing is perfect for me. 

Sweet Answers

The answers to the fun quiz about confectionary:

1.  You find them in Quality Street.

2.  They go to Mars Bars.

3.  They are called Smarties.

4.  They are Dolly Mixtures.

5.   That pleasure is know as Turkish Delight.

6.   He takes them down the Milky Way.

7.   That’s in a Dime Bar.

8.   They are Jelly Babies or Jelly Tots.

9.   You could say that they are After 8s.

10. They’re Pontefract Cakes.

Sweet Questions

This is just for fun.  The answers to the following questions are all types of confectionary.  See how many you can get right.  Answers tomorrow, just so you can’t cheat!

1. Where would you find refined people?
2. Where do Mums go for refreshment?
3. What do you call clever people?
4. What are confusing toys?
5. What gives you pleasure from the orient?
6. Down which road does a farmer take his cows?
7. Where can you buy a drink for 10 cents?
8. What are little ones that are wobbly?
9. How would you describe 9s?
10. What are teatime treats from a West Yorkshire town?

Mr Cameron's Fathers Day Message

Today Mr Cameron had a message for Father’s Day – that fathers who run

away from their responsibilities should be treat the same as drink drivers and shamed for their actions.  I know what he is trying to say and in an ideal world all families would be father, mother and children living happily ever after.  Sadly in the real world things are often quite different.  It would also be ideal if father goes out to work to provide for his family and mother stays home to look after the children but again in the real world not many people can afford to do this and also many women want to work and have a career and a life outside of the home.

Mr Cameron also says that fathers should be a part of the family and take their share of responsibilities and spend time with their children.  Again in an ideal world this would happen but in the real world things are sometimes a bit different.  I know of some fathers who are no longer with their partners and would love to be an important part of their children’s lives but ex-partners are not always forthcoming in making arrangements easily or giving in to regular access and not everyone can afford the cost of going to mediation or court to gain the access they long for. 

Some single mothers choose not to have anything to do with their ex-partners to the point that they prefer to go without maintenance money so they don’t have any obligation to arrange access or allow any contact with them for themselves or their children.  They prefer that the father walk away and leave them in peace to get on with their lives without him.  Often the living off benefits is the mother’s choice and not always a lack on the father’s part.

So, yes, ideally all men will take responsibility for their children both in time and money but not all the fathers are to blame.  So to all the fathers who today have not been able to see their children and who would have loved to, I just want to say, I have been thinking about you.

More Creativity on Board

As I mentioned in my last blog, there was some hidden creative talent among the crew of the Island Escape.  One afternoon, the poolside entertainment was a demonstration by one of the chefs of ice sculpture.  He worked very quickly to make his creation in only a few minutes as it was a hot, sunny afternoon (25+degrees) and he was working in the sun at the side of the swimming pool.  I’m sure that given cooler conditions, he could have created something more elaborate before the ice started melting.  Under such conditions I think his art form was really good.



Another afternoon was given over to another couple of chefs who showed their skill in carving different animals out of fruit and vegetables.  We had already seen some of their food sculptures in one of the three restaurants.

We didn’t manage to get to all of the different demonstrations as much of our daytime activity was taken up with sightseeing on land.  But it was good to know that the crew had catered for our entertainment if we chose not to leave the ship or if the weather wasn’t too good for sightseeing.  It was a great holiday with a real difference.



Unexpected creativity

Those who are my friends on Facebook will know that I have just returned from a very enjoyable holiday – a cruise around the Mediterranean.  For the past few years we have organised our holidays through the internet but remembering the problems that people had last year with volcanic ash and strikes, we decided it would be best to go into town and book this particular holiday through an agency so that financially we would be covered in the case of some untoward incident.  We actually booked it last year.  My son had said that the fellows at work were talking about cruises and that he had never been on one.  I hadn’t actually been on a cruise but I had travelled on an ocean liner before – three times between London and Buenos Aires (Argentina) in the days before flight travel took over the travel world.  So we did our sums and decided to go for it.  He still had some money that he had kept from his motorbike accident 2 years ago and thought that this would be something nice to spend it on.

The final part of the bill had to be paid by the end of March.  At the end of May my son was out of a job.  Under normal circumstances we would have cancelled the holiday losing the deposit but as it was already all paid for we decided to go for it and enjoy it.  And that we did!

One of the surprises was the way in which the cabin crew left the clean towels in our rooms every morning – in the shape of various animals.  Very creative and unexpected.  I’m often surprised by the hidden talents of very ordinary folk.  Each day we smiled when we returned to our cabins after breakfast to see the new artwork of our stewards – a very pleasant start to our day from people who just did the extra in order to please.

So now it’s back to reality and job hunting so we can save up for next year’s holiday.

Two more sayings

How often have we had to eat humble pie?  There may have been times when we have said or done something and later regretted it.  It seems that the only way out was to back track on whatever it was we said or did and have a more humble attitude to those we have inadvertently wronged. 

In medieval times, the lords and ladies, the landowners and other dignitaries who made up the upper class of the nation, would dine off wild venison and other such culinary extravagances. 

Fine dining in medieval times



They would enjoy the flesh of the hunted and slaughtered deer while those lower down on the class scale of society would have to make do with the bits that were left – the entrails and offal which they would bake in a pie to try to make it as tasty as possible.  These parts of the animal were known as ‘umbles’ and so it was understood that the humble folk ate the umble pie. 

An umble pie

In time it became known as humble pie and nowadays refers to someone needing to show humility of attitude rather than any class position in society.

The saying of having to take Hobson’s choice means that really we have no choice at all – it’s what’s on offer or nothing.  Mr T Hobson lived in Cambridge, England in the early 17^th century.  He was a horse keeper and loaned his horses to anyone who wanted them.  But he made a condition that whoever wanted to hire a horse must take the horse nearest to the stable door or none at all, thereby allowing them a horse but the choice of which horse to hire was Hobson’s. 

There was no real choice, you had to take what he offered or none at all.  The meaning of the phrase is virtually unchanged and still means that Hobson’s choice is no real choice at all.

Local service

I have always enjoyed the benefits of belonging to a library.  Over the years I have used it mainly for borrowing books but many people use it for studying from their reference books, borrowing dvds, reading the daily newspaper and now-a-days for connecting to the internet.  I used to be a frequent visitor, particularly when I was looking for information on a particular subject, or a place we were hoping to visit while away on holiday. It does seem that modern technology has become more the norm, partly because you don't even have to go out of the house to find the information you are looking for and books can so easily be available online to read or to buy.  And after all, using less paper means cutting down less trees and in turn benefiting the planet.  And so in these days of cut backs many libraries in less populated areas are facing an uncertain future.  I must admit to feeling that if our local library closed, I probably wouldn't miss it, at least not that much.  I would cope fine without it. 

This week, I needed to copy a letter I had received, sign the copy and return it to the sender.  I switched on my printer/copier only to discover that the copier was not working properly.  Oh, no, not now when I needed it.  So I got ready and went into town.  First of all I went to a street where I knew there was a small business that did all that sort of stuff - copying, faxing etc for a small charge.  But when I got there, the said business was no longer in business.  Instead there was a beauty salon!  So I made my way to the library - dear old faithful public service and yes, getting a copy was no problem.  When I asked how much it was the librarian told me that the person before me had put too much money in the box and so my copy was already paid for.  It made me feel a little bit guilty of my previous thoughts and instead I said a silent 'thank you' for a service that is still available for my use, even if I don't use it quite so often.

Fire and Water

This afternoon we had a great time with friends and family chilling out, catching up and eating a barbeque.  At the very start, fire needs to be applied to the firelighters and charcoal in order to create the necessary heat source for the food to be cooked. 

Lighting up

The charcoal that was added to the fire gradually began to take hold and began to burn.  After a while the charcoal itself became the fire.  It reminded me of what I wrote a few blogs ago about the intake of food that eventually become an integral part of us.  So what was added to the firelighters eventually became not just an extra part to the fire but the fire itself.

Not our barbeque but a fire that has been going for a while

Everyone who is familiar with the workings of the kitchen will know that a colander or sieve is used to strain liquid out of food or to separate the solid part from the liquid part.  We would never think of trying to carry liquid in a colander or try to fill it by pouring water into it – it would disappear straight through the holes.

Filling a colander with water is an impossible task



  

But exactly the opposite happens when we put a colander into a sink or bowl full of liquid.  Instead of draining the liquid from the inside of the colander, it lets the liquid into the colander.  The only way for a colander to be full of liquid is for it to be immersed in the liquid itself.

Totally immersed, the colander retains the water

We don’t need to be as intelligent as Einstein or have a degree in rocket science in order to understand the principles of how things react in the above two examples of fire and water.  Following on from what I mentioned in my previous blog about things in the natural, physical world having a corresponding truth in the spiritual realm, what Kingdom truths does this teach me? 

I think as humans we often get things the wrong way around.  We decide on a project or a course of action and then go to God and ask Him to bless our efforts and our plans and to give us success (whatever we feel that success in a given situation looks like).  We should be doing things the other way around by asking God what He wants to do in a given situation and ask Him what part He wants us to play, if any.  We talk of inviting God into our lives, almost as though we are doing Him a favour by allowing Him to occupy a part of our busy lives.  God is everywhere, so we should really be thinking in terms of living constantly in God’s presence and not about inviting Him into a part of ours.  Like the colander in the bowl full of liquid, not seeking to pour the Holy Spirit into my life but rather to be totally immersed in the presence of God and like the fire I want to be so caught on fire for Him that I am not just a part of fuel added to the fire but totally consumed for Him and by Him and thus become the fire itself.



Paradoxes

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary a paradox is:

1. a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement
2. a person or thing conflicting with a pre-conceived notion of what is reasonable or possible.

In the natural world there are a number of such situations.  I am always amazed in spring to see what seemed dead suddenly burst into life again.  On several occasions I have thought that I had completely lost a particular plant.  One such plant is a beautiful clematis that I planted last year.  Over the winter it completely disappeared.  When I started to prepare the garden this spring, I was about to dig it up and replace it with something a bit sturdier but I noticed a few leaves beginning to open.  So I left it and have had such lovely flowers from it this year.

Such beauty out of what seemed dead



Whatever truth exists in the natural world corresponds to a similar truth in the spiritual realm.  Out of death comes life.  The Bible says that a seed must fall to the ground and die in order to bring forth fruit and Jesus on another occasion said that only if I am prepared to lose my life can I save it.  Of course the ultimate example is of Jesus himself who died to save all.

Another natural paradox is that you need to cut back in order to grow.  It does seem absurd that cutting a plant right back is the only way for it to grow big and strong.  You would naturally assume that cutting back would take away strength and make a plant weaker not stronger.  Sometimes in our lives we need to let go of some things in order to become strong in spirit.  Our dependence on certain things (and people) can actually weaken us and only when we let go of these can we gain strength within ourselves.  A young sapling tree has a prop in order to support it until it has grown but then the prop is removed and it learns to stand in its own strength and thrust out its own roots in order to grow.  We all need help from time to time but there comes a point when we need to stand up straight and grow without depending on all the props around us.  The writer to the Hebrews reminded his readers that they had been followers of the Way for a while now and should be past the baby stage of drinking milk and should be growing stronger in their faith and not relying still on others to feed them all the time. (Hebrews 5:12-14)

In the autumn farmers set fire to the stalks left in the land to make way for the new seed and growth that is to come.  Forest wardens cut down some trees in order to give light and space for others to grow.  Sometimes we have to cut out even what has been useful but has served its purpose in order for future growth to take place.  The trouble is we humans tend to hang on to things that we have enjoyed and so institution is formed instead of new life and future growth.  What has passed has been good and served me well and was very useful for my spiritual growth at that time but maybe some things need to go in order to make room for new and future growth in Him so that I don’t just become part of an institution instead of having a living, vibrant spiritual life.  So I look at the world around me and learn about Kingdom truths and, as part of God’s great creation, about how I should be living.