The Ever-Present Friend

The other day I saw a video of the song Jesus Emmanuel, The Name Lives On by David Phelps.  It is from his album Life is a Church.  It shows Jesus in various situations, just being with people, sometimes talking to them and sometimes just walking with them or hugging them, depending on their need.  It is worth the 4 or so minutes it takes to watch it.  You can see it here:



 

 

 

 

I particularly like the part where He is riding on the back of the refuse lorry, helping the bin men collect the rubbish.  It reminded me of an incident that happened over 15 years ago.  It was the custom at that time to give the children at Sunday School some topics for prayer.  I was taken to task because I had suggested to them that we should pray for the refuse collectors.  The gist of the complaint was that it was understandable and acceptable to pray for professions like doctor, nurse, teacher – those people who are considered to be fulfilling some vocation - but why refuse collectors?  My short reply was simply, ‘why not?’  So I was particularly pleased to see Jesus helping the men collect the rubbish and putting it in the lorry, hanging on the back with the others as they drove along.  This is my Jesus, my God.



What I also noticed was that there were no images of church buildings or anything to do with organised religion.  It was all about Jesus being out there in real life situations.  I think it’s sad that non-Christians think of Christianity (and Christians) as having to do with a building, liturgy and candles, people dressed in long frocks and wearing back-to-front collars and listening to a particular style of music.  If God/Jesus is really in everyday life situations, as I think most Christians really believe, then why is there such insistence on going to a building usually on a Sunday morning to ‘meet with God’?  It’s as though there is some need to go and fill up our spiritual supermarket trolleys so we are able to delve into the stock in our spiritual cupboards during the following week when we need to find a suitable verse or illustration.  God is here, now.  When Jesus met with Zacchaeus, it was outside and then He went to his house to chat.  He met a crazy man among the graves, a woman at the well when she was about her daily work … ... and we could go on with many more examples.  

It’s not just about joining with other like-minded people in a particular place to sing about Him or pray/talk to Him.  It’s about living with Him every day in all circumstances.  He is the ever-present one – He’s always there with us.  Jesus Emmanuel; God with us/me; now, here; at my point of need; in every part of my life; my very real and true Friend.



Unexpected Flowers

This week two unexpected flowers made an impression on me.  The first one is on a Christmas Cactus plant I have.  It was unexpected because the plant was in full bloom in December.  I actually mentioned in a blog before Christmas that I was hoping it would stay in flower for Christmas Day and so live up to its name – and it did.  So I was a little surprised to see another flower appear in April.  There has been just the one flower but it made me smile.  It was as though it was saying, ‘I want to do something spontaneous.  I want to be different.’

As the warmer weather has now decided to make an appearance, I have been doing a bit of pottering around the garden.  There is a small strip where I have snowdrops and crocuses.  They have now died off and so I was clearing the weeds that seem to be everywhere.  Clearing out some of the unwanted growth I suddenly saw a beautiful miniature purple pansy – just the one, all on its own.  It was hidden among all the weeds.  It was still growing in all its glory to its full potential, even though it went unnoticed because of all the other stuff around it.  It wasn’t something that made a splash of colour or caught the attention as soon as you looked at the garden as some larger, more striking flowers might do.  It just did its job, fulfilled its purpose whether it was noticed or not.  And it cheered my heart.  It was as though it was wearing the slogan ‘Just do it!’  It reminded me of a very old song that has the line ‘content to fill a little space if God be glorified.’

When we go to large gatherings, conventions, revival meetings or to hear some well-known speaker, you sort of expect to ‘feel’ God near.  You almost wait for the moment when you feel uplifted and encouraged.  But I do love it when God appears out of the blue; when we’re not expecting it; when He reminds us of some truth that we have deep inside and it suddenly comes bursting up to the surface and we just want to smile and say ‘Thank you Lord’.  He is a God who specialises in the one-to-one encounter; He is so very personal; He knows how to get my attention and whisper encouragement.  It was like He was saying ‘Don’t worry about doing things differently.  Don’t be concerned with all the stuff going on around you; just do what I sent you to do.  Even though it seems that nobody notices, there is a purpose and someone will be blessed, even if you never know.  Be you.  Be the person I made you to be and I will show my glory through you.’  I’m so glad that He has a habit of breaking through the mundane.  I’m glad He is a God who is interested in the individual and thinks of me.  Thank you Lord.

Mind Your Language

The Picketty Witch pub, Yeovil

In the area where I live, there used to be a pub called The Picketty Witch.  It has recently been sold and a large chain of supermarkets is planning to convert it into another of their stores.  The sign outside the pub showed a witch on her broom.  Looking into the history of the area, however, I discovered that the name has nothing to do with a witch.  The word ‘picketty’ comes from the old English word ‘piccede’ or ‘piked’ as in a very sharp point.  There is a particular spot that used to be a very sharp corner until the 1950s when it was rounded more for traffic to be able to manoeuvre more easily.  The word ‘witch’ is mis-spelt and should be ‘wice’ or ‘wych’, another name for an elm tree.  A late 14^th century document refers to the spot as ‘Pycit Cross’ and it was later referred to as ‘Pyked Weech’ which in turn became ‘Picketwitch’.  In maps dating around the middle of the 1800s there is evidence of elm trees growing in the area and one in that particular spot.  So Picketty Witch is nothing sinister nor does it have any connection with the occult but just a gross distortion of its original meaning of an elm tree in a corner plot of land.  What a difference!

 

Old English document

I guess not many people could read the real old English as written centuries ago and even if they could, the meanings of words often change over the years.  When I was a child, ‘gay’ meant ‘happy’ – we used to dance ‘The Gay Gordons’.  Now of course it has a completely different meaning.  Hardware meant buckets and brooms and shovels – implements for cleaning and scrubbing not something to do with technology.  Other words that come to mind are cool, hot, wicked … … and so we could go on.  And so even in my lifetime, words have changed their meanings.  Often sayings cannot easily be translated from one language to another, at least not word for word.  Such idioms are peculiar to a language or even a dialect within a language. 

There used to be a programme called ‘Call My Bluff’ when team members would give three different definitions of a strange word and the opposing team had to guess which explanation was the correct one.  There were words that were peculiar to a certain region or taken from some old dialect, now forgotten.  If they can make several series of such a programme, then it shows just how much language can change, be forgotten or misinterpreted.  If all that I have written so far applies to simply the last few hundred years, then how much more change would there be over the past 2 millennia?  Much was handed down verbally rather than written.  Indeed it wasn’t until years after the crucifixion and resurrection that the gospels were put down in writing.  Taking all this into account, I find it amazing that there are many who are so dogmatic about their interpretation of particular Bible verses to be the only truth.  The Old Testament goes back even more millennia.

 

Much of the Bible is written in symbolic language.  Jesus spoke much in parables, stories, figurative speech and picture language.  It seems unwise, therefore to take every verse of the Bible literally, as many fundamentalists tend to do.  Sometimes, because of the passage of time, we really need to look more deeply at Bible narrative and seek to answer the question ‘What is God really saying here?’ and not jump to the wrong conclusions influenced by our 21^st century mindset and 2000 years of church history and tradition and also take into consideration local expressions and changing words.  Paul Leader posted a good example of this on his blog here.

Communication

When I’m standing at the bus stop waiting for my bus, I like to people watch.  The other day on such an occasion I was intrigued by a young family who were communicating by sign language.  To see the adults signing is not so unusual but what caught my attention was their small child in the buggy, about 1½ - 2 years of age.  She was ‘conversing’ with her parents by sign language and was watching intently to their reply.  I was fascinated watching her.  Of course, by this age most children are beginning to communicate with others through the spoken word so really I shouldn’t have been so surprised that she was communicating in the way she had learnt in her own family.  Thinking about it, there are many ways of communicating.  It used to be by one to one conversation or by hand written letter.  Nowadays we have many forms of communication – phone, email, social networks, Skype, art, drama, poetry, newspapers, words, looks, tone of voice, reactions ... ... and so we could go on... ... each valid in their own right.  

 

I find reading other blogs interesting and sometimes comment – another way of interacting with people, some of whom I have not met in person and some who live far away spread across the globe.  We would never suggest that the particular way we personally communicate with someone is the only valid and true way.  And yet when it comes to expressing our spirituality, that’s exactly what we do.  As Richard Rohr comments,
 

Almost all religion begins with a specific encounter with something that feels “holy” or transcendent: a place, an emotion, an image, music, a liturgy, an idea that suddenly gives you access to God’s Bigger World. The natural and universal response is to “idolize” and idealize that event. It becomes sacred for you, and it surely is. The only mistake is that too many then conclude that this is the way, the best way, the superior way, the “only” way for everybody—that I myself just happen to have discovered. Then, they must both protect ... and spread this exclusive way to others. (They normally have no concrete evidence whatsoever that other people have not also encountered the holy.)

The false leap of logic is that other places, images, liturgies, scriptures, or ideas can not give you access. “We forbid them to give you access; it is impossible,” we seem to say! Thus much religion wastes far too much time trying to separate itself from—and create “purity codes” against—what is perceived as secular, bad, heretical, dangerous, “other,” or wrong. Jesus had no patience with such immature and exclusionary religion, yet it is still a most common form to this day. Idolatry is whenever we make something god that is not God, or whenever we make the means into an end. Any attempt to create our own “golden calf” is usually ... ... eventually false religion.
 

I also read a blog by a young Portuguese woman (she writes in English) who is very New Age.  Her profile says,
 

I started my pilgrimage around the world in 1996, year that my parents also moved back to Angola where they live now. In 1998 my life totally changed when I had a personal encounter, believe it or not, with Jesus Christ...this also in Angola...since then I've been walking with Him in a great adventurous life, which doesn't make any sense without Him anymore. I don't follow religion or "church" as an institution, I follow Jesus, my best friend, and I love to be and journey with those who have the same passion.   She hangs out with Jesus Freaks and other New Age people, lives in a commune, has piercings and tattoos.  She has had tattoos done since becoming a Christian. Somehow, I don’t think there are many denominations that would accept her into their flock unless she was willing to change and conform.  Yet through her tattoos she preaches to others explaining what the pictures and writing mean.  She goes to New Age gatherings and shares her experience of God with them.  I love her sense of freedom.  It’s not for everyone but surely her way of communicating with God and showing Him to others is just as valid as others who attend conferences and the latest centre of God’s outpouring of signs and wonders.  Looking at the variety of God’s creation, whether plants, animals, mountains, deserts or other landscapes, surely we know that variety is part of God’s nature.  He loves diversity.  There are many ways of communicating and mine is only one of them.  Others ways are not wrong or invalid, they are just different.  They say that variety is the spice of life.  We are in danger of making God smaller than He really is when we limit His expression to only our way.  We cannot limit God to our small way of thinking.  He has a habit of refusing to be limited.  We are reminded of when they tried to silence Jesus.  They thought they had been successful but then God ripped down the curtain in the Temple and burst out into the world.  That's my limitless God!

The Whole Truth

I was reminded this week of a very dear uncle in Argentina.  He was one of seven children born to Henry Booth and his wife. Henry was a missionary from the UK working with the Salvation Army in Argentina.  This particular uncle was christened William after the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth.  He was known affectionately as Tío Willy (tío means uncle).  Many of the descendants of Henry followed in his footsteps and became full time ministers in the church.  Tío Willy was different.  As an adult he didn’t commit to organised religion.  He also remained single until quite advanced in years, eventually marrying a lady who had been a constant companion for many years.  Although I’m part of the family only through marriage, I have very fond memories of him.  What I do remember very well about Tío Willy was that everybody loved him.  He was always fun to be with.  He played with his nieces and nephews and as the years passed with their children also.  But amidst all the banter and fun there was always a wise comment that stayed with us, as cousin Tommy reminded me this week.  He ‘preached’ but in a different way and I think we probably remember his words more than the many sermons we heard.

E Stanley Jones

I was also reminded this week of a book I read about 50 years ago about another missionary, E Stanley Jones.  Julie Hogben is reading his life story and commented on it in her blog.  Thanks Julie for the reminder of this remarkable man. Often missionaries went to countries with a bit of empire spirit, going to convert the ‘heathens’ to a Western way of thinking, dressing and behaving.  E Stanley Jones was greatly influenced by the words of a Hindu judge when he said to him, ‘We want you, if you come in the right way’.  He discovered that a better way was to become more like those he had gone to teach and be with – being one of them and learning to understand their ways and lifestyle.  He was also greatly influenced by Ghandi with whom he became great friends and wrote a book about him and how he was a man who changed things for the better for his fellow Indians but by peaceful protest.  Ghandi was not a Christian but had great wisdom and truth.  It was this book and Ghandi’s example that influenced Martin Luther King to peaceful protest in the USA against racism.

Once on a long train journey E Stanley Jones, ever the eager evangelist, spoke to an English-speaking Muslim and shared with him the Sermon on the Mount.  When he had finished he expected the Muslim to seek conversion to Christianity and was surprised when he said, ‘We have the same thing in our Sacred Book’.  I also know of a person in my extended family who has become a Muslim of her own free will.  She had been born into and brought up in a Christian home with both parents being church ministers but wanted to learn about Islam and decided that it was how she felt she was able to express her spirituality in a better and more fulfilling way.  There is sometimes an attitude among non-Christians that all religions are the same and that only the paths to God are different.  As a Christian I can’t go along with that but believe that Jesus, the Son of God is the true way.  However I do think that we miss much by dismissing all non-Christians out of hand without really knowing much if anything about how they think or what they really believe.  I sometimes wonder if I had been born into a Hindu home in India would I be a Christian today?  Or if I had been born in Russia or China, would I be a Christian?

Someone once said, ‘everything in the Bible is true but not all truth is in the Bible’.  I do think that we can look and learn from the wisdom of others, even though they walk a different path.  It’s quite arrogant on our part, I fear, that we in the west think we have a monopoly on the truth.  For too many centuries western Christianity has sought to impose its way of thinking on others with a rather patronising, colonial attitude while at the same time missing some great truths and practices from which we could learn much.  We need only to think of history – the Crusades, the Inquisition and the massacre of whole tribes of New World Indians in order to ‘convert’ the world to our Christian beliefs and ways.  God is in all and loves ALL His creation, even those who are NOT like us and He appears where He wills.

I close with the words of E Stanley Jones in his book ‘The Christ of the Indian Road’.

Christianity is actually breaking out beyond the borders of the Christian Church and is being seen in the most unexpected places.  If those who have not the spirit of Jesus are none of His, no matter what outward symbols they possess, then conversely those who have the spirit of Jesus are His, no matter what outward symbols they may lack.  

Class

The three classes - upper, middle and lower.

This week we have been informed that now we are no longer three classes in the UK – upper, middle and lower (working) class.  We are now seven classes.  The BBC website allows you to ‘take the test’ and see which class you belong to.  I was intrigued, not to find out my social standing but to see what the questions were – on what is this decision based.  To be frank, I don’t really care what class other people think I belong to and if that bothers them then they have a problem, not me.  To be in the upper class, or elite as it is now known, much depends on your income and savings, in other words how much money you have.  No surprise there then.  Other questions are about social and cultural activities.  They give a list of various occupations and ask if you know any people in those occupations socially.  These range from Chief Executive, solicitor, university lecturer to shop assistant, farm worker or cleaner.  They want to know whether you go to the opera, ballet or listen to classical music, frequent the gym, take part in sports or have an account on Facebook or Twitter.  The answers to those questions apparently determine where I fit in society. 

There was nothing in there to ask about how I felt about injustice or if I was a cheat or frequently told lies or if I had killed anyone.  This week we have heard much about  Mick Philpot who deliberately started a fire that caused the death of six of his children.  Some attributed this to his social standing and way of living.  So I couldn’t help but think of Lord Lucan who also committed murder.  The only difference is that he somehow got away and his whereabouts are unknown so he was never judged for his crime.  It seems to me that being part of the elite (as Lord Lucan of the titled gentry is/was) or being unemployed and living on state benefits doesn’t seem to be a deciding factor.  Both committed a terrible crime against people they knew. 

Eton College

A ‘higher’ position on the social ladder depends a lot on hereditary factors, intelligence you happened to be born with, privileged background, expensive education and ‘who you know’.  There are liars, cheats, lazy, bad tempered and offensive people in all classes just as there are good, honest, hardworking and likeable people.  I’m sure we can all think of people from all classes of society who are good and bad.  Being educated at Eton and studying the classics at Oxford don’t guarantee you are a nice person just as going to the local comprehensive and leaving without any qualifications don’t make you a bad person.  But that seemingly is how the world judges us and labels us and so people desperately want to be thought of as more middle class than working class (as though somehow those in the middle class don’t actually work!).  Social status is important to them.

Does God really care whether I listen to classical music or nor?  Does it really matter in the big scheme of things whether I have an account on Facebook or Twitter?  (By the way Facebook I do but Twitter I don’t.)  Is it terribly important whether I rent or own the house I live in?  I am me, the person God made me.  Being what God wants me to be and doing what God wants me to do are what really count.  The Bible teaches that all are equal before God.  Paul says that it doesn’t matter about our gender, nationality or status in life, whether elite or lowest of the workers, we are all loved by God and are equal in His sight.  Jesus says in Luke (13:30) ‘the first shall be last and the last shall be first’.  God sees us in a different way.  He doesn’t see how much wealth we have accumulated or what music we listen to or which postcode we live in.  He sees beyond that into our hearts and sees what sort of people we are.  His ways are not our ways.  And He tells us that we shouldn’t judge others by outward appearances or what sort of clothes they wear or what sort of house they live in. 

Lord, help me to see others through Your eyes.  

Relationship

This past week a nephew and his wife, who live in Argentina, have been visiting the Iguazú waterfalls (pronounced ee-gwa-soo, emphasising the last syllable) that are on the border between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.  It is wonderful to see the falls that form part of the jungle of the very northern tip of Argentina.  I have had such a privilege twice and both times have been moved by the spectacle.  The name Iguazú comes from the two Guaraní (native Indian) words ‘I’ meaning big and ‘guazú’ meaning water – big water.  It has been so nice to see their photos and remembering the times I spent there, seeing the multitude of huge multi-coloured butterflies and the birds flying in and out of the water to the nests they have made behind the falls to protect their chicks against predators.  When you break it down there is nothing that spectacular about water and a mountainside in the jungle, but when you put the two together and see how the relationship and interaction between the two work, that is spectacular.

As I said last week I have been putting various seeds into small pots with compost in the hope that later in the year we can enjoy the produce.  I have watered them carefully and put them in a warm place and they are just beginning to show their tiny shoots.  When the shoots are big enough and strong enough I will transfer them to larger pots or plant outside.  Again the seed and the compost are nothing special in themselves but when they are put together with water, heat and protection against the unfavourable elements outside, that interaction and interdependence is what produces the wonder of a plant growing from such a tiny seed.

We can see many cookery programmes on the TV.  To take the same analogy into the sphere of cookery, you could put all the ingredients into a bowl – some flour, sugar, margarine, egg and flavouring and nothing will happen.  You will simply have a bowl of flour, sugar, margarine, egg and flavouring.  It’s when you mix them all together and surround them with heat for a specified time that they result in a tasty cake.

What set me off thinking along these lines is some meditations from Richard Rohr that I received earlier this week about the Trinity.  I think his words are better than mine:

In our attempts to explain the Trinitarian Mystery in the past, we overemphasized the individual qualities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but not so much the relationships between them. It is in the relationships themselves where all the power is! This is where all the meaning is! We can name them all with masculine words (as we have done up to now), we can name them with feminine or neutered words if you wish, but in both cases you can miss the precise way that they relate to one another—and thus miss the major point.  The Mystery of God as Trinity invites us into a dynamism, a flow, a relationship, a waterwheel of love, or a “fountain fullness of love” as Bonaventure put it. Trinity says that God is a verb much more than a noun, an energy and action more than a concept.

We tend to think of the Trinity as three, separate beings but it is in their three-in-oneness that makes the Godhead so wonderful – the three equal in power and importance and totally interactive and interdependent on each other.  As Jesus said, ‘I and the Father am one.’  We can meet together and often there is one who is ‘above’ or more important than the others, where the many are dependent on the one and we really miss the point of the Trinity.  Jesus prayed that we should be one as He and the Father are one.  It is the relationship, interaction and interdependence that show His awesome power at work.  Again I quote Richard Rohr:

 Paul says, “God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). That awesome line gives us a key into the Mystery of Trinity. I would describe human strength as self-sufficiency or autonomy. God’s weakness I would describe as Interbeing or shared intimacy.

Human strength admires holding on. Human weakness is about letting go into the Other, handing over the self to another and receiving your self from another. Human strength admires personal independence. But God’s Mystery is total mutual dependence and interdependence. We like control more than surrendering. God loves vulnerability. We admire needing no one. The Trinity is total intercommunion with all things and all Being. We are practiced at hiding and protecting ourselves. God seems to be in some kind of total disclosure for the sake of creating and loving the other.

Our strength, we think, is in asserting and protecting our boundaries. God is into dissolving boundaries between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet finding them anew in that very outpouring! The space created by outpouring is automatically filled up by infilling.

I can have an ocean of water and a whole range of mountains but if the two never meet there will never be a waterfall.  I can have a whole bag of flour but if I don’t mix it with other ingredients, the result will still only be a whole bag of flour.  On its own it will never be a cake.  Each ingredient is equally important and totally interdependent.   And so it is in relationship with others and with God.  I can be part of a huge crowd, all wanting the same experience but if there is no interaction and no mutual interdependence with each other and God, there will be no end product - we will simply be people.  I could go to a pop concert and have a great night out with other like-minded people but come out being exactly the same person as I was when I went in.  The experience was enjoyable but hasn’t made any difference to my life.  It’s not about the getting together, whatever form that might take; it is about the relationship within that togetherness that makes the difference.  

Spectacular or Ordinary

This week has seen two installments of new heads of churches – the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury.  There was much pomp and ceremony.  People travelled from far away to be part of the occasion and soak up the atmosphere.  TV presenters seem to thrive on the spectacular, as do many people.  There is a craving for the sensational, outrageous or celebrity news in the media.  It seems that such headlines sell newspapers.  But, apart from the historic setting of the occasions we have witnessed this week, in the Christian environment how often have we been guilty of the same sort of enthusiasm?  We seem to live from one big event to the next – almost like some spiritual ‘fix’.  How often have we travelled long distances to hear a particular speaker or join a well-known worship singer or band? The effort, time and expense we have put in has presumed that somehow this will conjure up some super experience of God.

In some parts of the church, particularly the evangelical/pentecostal/charismatic strain, the impression often is that the louder you pray or the longer the sermon, the nearer you are to the holy presence of God.  Of course we know that God is everywhere but our awareness of His presence somehow seems to be heightened through the spectacular.  Emotions run high and we know that God was there.  Like Peter at the mount of Transfiguration, we want such experiences to continue and try to make some sort of physical reminder that we can keep revisiting.  For many these days are over – the big meetings that go on indefinitely are fading but it would be wrong to assume that God has turned His back on us.  He is still here.  It is time to see Him in the everyday world around us, very evident at this time of year when spring is about to burst into life.  Although we have had some terrible weather in the UK this month, snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils still show their splendour.  That is truly spectacular.

 This week I have been planting seeds and am hopeful that in a few months’ time we will be able to enjoy the outcome.  When you look at the size of the seed and the crop that one tiny seed produces, what is more spectacular than that?  One of my favourite films is Bruce Almighty, especially the part when Bruce is shouting at God ‘Give me a sign, give me a sign’ and a lorry passes him that is full of road signs.  He then says ‘Talk to me God, talk to me’ and his mobile phone starts to ring.  When we ask God for signs and wonders and ask to hear His voice we really mean that we want to see some miracle or something spectacular but never consider that God might choose to communicate through the ordinary things of life.

The big meeting is mainly humanity’s organizing skills put into action but the growth and produce that is derived from one tiny seed is part of the marvelous creation of God.  For me, at least for now, it is time to stop depending so much on the spectacular to make me aware of God’s presence and begin to see His glory all around me in the ordinary things of day-to-day living.  It’s time to stop … look … listen …taste and see that the Lord is good, here and now with what is already part of my life. 

In the Wilderness

When we hear the expression of being ‘in the wilderness’ or having a ‘wilderness experience’, it immediately conjures up negative overtones.  We think of being in a bleak place where we struggle to make any progress.  There also seems to be an overwhelming sense of loneliness, of being disconnected or somehow excluded from the life enjoyed by others around us.  It reminds us of a great desert with apparently so little life. (although wildlife documentaries now show that there is much life in the desert if we look for it).  One positive outcome of this sort of desert life comes from the example of the Desert Fathers, as they were known.  They were the forerunners of the monks and nuns who set up monasteries and convents so as to separate themselves from general society.  They became known as people of great spiritual awareness and left a lasting legacy for the church.

It seems then that by taking away the customary props of everyday living, we are able to gain a different and sometimes deeper sense of the world around us.  Things that become a force of habit can have a sort of drug-like effect of dulling some senses and create a dependency culture.  Often denying those things that have such comforting results can often heighten the other senses.  This of course was the original idea behind the giving up of something for lent – not in order to cultivate a spiritual smugness mistakenly thought of as a sort of martyrdom and self-denial.  It is the freeing ourselves of those hindrances that tie and limit our curiosity that can allow us to explore and heighten our spirit to new possibilities.  It has a way of clarifying our spiritual vision.  John the Baptist, Jesus and Paul all spent time in the desert before they began their important life’s work.

According to Wikipedia though, a wilderness is not just a desert place that appears barren and fruitless, it is ‘a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity’.  The word ‘wilderness’ is derived from the notion of wildness.  In other words something that is not controllable by humans.  Looking at wilderness this way would include areas within which natural processes operate without human interference.  So wilderness is not only the desert places but also jungles or places rarely visited by humans where nature is allowed to follow its natural flow.  I can’t help comparing it with our well-kept gardens with their manicured lawns and plants all in neat rows or as part of a larger collection making a particular display, so controlled that anything that dares to step out of its allotted place is plucked out and dealt with.  What a difference with the freedom of the wilderness to just go with the flow.

It is fascinating to watch such programmes on TV that show such places.  Only a few native tribes remain in such places and it is amazing to see just how they adapt their lives to correspond with the ways of the land around them.  They have found different ways of living from anything we know in our big towns and cities.  They respect their surroundings and have learnt to live with and from the land.  Adventurers like Ray Mears show how to find new and different ways of finding food and how to cope in such a wild environment without the home comforts we are used to.  So the wilderness experience would seem at a closer look to be not a thing of barren despair or loneliness but a place of freedom and exploration, making discoveries, finding new and wonderful ways of doing things and different foods to sustain us, learning to live with the cosmic ways of the universe and creation instead of forcing creation to accommodate our fads and fancies. 

In my onward spiritual journey, I find myself in a new landscape - with challenges, yes - but instead of hankering after the controlled environment and being content to simply exist in old and comfortable ways, I want to embrace the wilderness, follow the freedom of the wild and discover more of God that until now has remained beyond my sphere of activity.  I am curious for more.    

Words and Actions

Earlier this week I watched a programme called ‘Cowboy Builders’ where you hear of heart-rending stories of how people have been deceived by those who have carried out some work on their homes.  The gentleman in question last night had given unrealistic quotes for doing jobs and then demanded more money.  When the money was not forthcoming he just left the job in a total shambles causing problems for the family concerned.  At first he gave a good impression, showing photos and with smooth words and assurances but what he actually did was something quite different.  The Ronseal advert springs to mind when it says ‘It does what it says on the tin’.  We are all appalled at such behaviour and have no sympathy for the perpetrators but total sympathy for those affected.  We would never dream of doing something so unethical. 

Much has been revealed of late about priests who have not lived up to their chastity vows.  The recent Roman Catholic cardinal in Scotland resigned over such an issue.  In public he condemned homosexuality and sexual impropriety but privately was guilty of the things he spoke against.  One reporter said of him, ‘The outside and the inside don’t match’.  Again most of us read in horror of such things and cannot see ourselves in a similar situation.  But I can’t help wondering if in maybe different ways we don’t always live up to what we like to appear on the outside.  A friend of mine describes some people as ‘the outside is different from the inside’ and I think that is a good way of describing someone who isn’t always what you thought they were when you get to know them better. 

A few weeks ago I received an email (thank you Tommy) with a story about a lady who had to stop her car at some traffic lights.  The driver in front had stopped as the lights changed to amber forcing her to stop.  She was irate, swearing and gesturing suggesting that the light was only amber and that both had time to cross before it changed to red.  She went on shouting until a police officer knocked on her window and wanted to talk to her.  Asking her to step out of the car he said that he was taking her to the police station for questioning.  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  At the police station she had to wait in a cell until the issue was sorted.  The policeman eventually went back to her and said that they needed to check that she was the owner of the vehicle.  He explained that she had stickers on her car saying ‘What would Jesus do?’, ‘Follow me on Sunday to Church’ and ‘I chose Life’, and so when he saw her reaction and heard her swearing he thought the car must have been stolen.  This may be just a story but it kept me thinking. 

God sees the inside and knows our hearts.  We can’t fool Him but often other people only see the outside.  I pray that in me the outside and the inside may always match up and that people aren’t disappointed when they get to know me.  Or as the old gospel song says, ‘I want my life to tell for Jesus’.  People won’t buy it if it doesn’t do what it says on the outside of the tin.

Meeting Together

I have been thinking all this week about meeting together.  I love meeting up with friends, whether that be deliberately and planned or unintentionally.  It is a real pleasure to catch up with news and enjoy the company.  As Christians we are encouraged by Paul to keep meeting together in order to encourage each other.  Sadly though, most who belong to some part of the organised church consider that meeting together means in a particular building usually on a Sunday morning and probably a couple more times during the week.  The meeting usually consists of some singing, prayers and listening to someone preach on some verse(s) from the Bible.  This also infers that the same people meet at the same time in the same building most weeks.  The sad thing is that this is considered by such people as being the only way of meeting up and is often the accusation put before those who no longer congregate, that now they are ‘outside’ of the fellowship of the church and by association must be limited in their access to God.

How wrong that is!  As has often been stated before, the Church is the people and not a building.  Since leaving the organised meeting, I have found many new Christian friends while many of those that I had considered friends somehow don’t consider me to be one with them anymore.  I have found that the internet is a wonderful place to be connected to friends near and far.  I have reconnected with friends with whom I had lost touch over the past number of years and also been able to visit new friends Joanna and Ian Storie, a couple living in Latvia (I have written about this visit  before in previous blogs – see posts from September 18^th – 23^rd 2011) You can follow Jo’s blog here.  I follow blogs of other Christians and find great encouragement from their journeys, especially when much of what they write seems to echo what I am experiencing.  In fact my online friend Paul Leader blogged about this very subject only the other day.  With tongue in cheek, I’m inclined to say ‘great minds think alike!’ but really sense that it has more to do with the thread of God’s presence weaving its way through it all and connecting our thoughts.  You can find Paul’s blog here.

The flip side of the coin is that God is everywhere and this seems to become more apparent when we no longer keep him confined to a church building until the next Sunday when we come together and talk to Him again, seeking strength to last us through the coming week.  The truth is that wherever I am, God is there.  There is no ‘once a week fix’.  He is Emmanuel – God with us, always, everywhere, at any given moment.  On Thursday I received a daily meditation from Richard Rohr that said:

“God Is Everywhere” (Answer to Question 16 “Where is God?” in the old Baltimore Catechism) Meditation 5 of 52

You cannot not live in the presence of God. You are totally surrounded by God all the time and everywhere. You have no choice in the matter, except to bring it to consciousness. St. Patrick said it well in the prayer attributed to him: God beneath you, God in front of you, God behind you, God above you, God within you.

 (You can subscribe to these daily meditations at this website.)

So I have discovered that God is much bigger than we allow ourselves to think.  He has more friends He wants us to ‘meet’ with and encourage than just those who gather on a Sunday morning in a particular building.  My friends are all over the world and in all walks of life and circumstances.  I like how my online friend Paul once expressed it – it’s like dot-to-dot pictures and gradually with new friends and connections, God is joining up the dots and making a picture much bigger and better than we had ever imagined.  He is not confined to a building or even one place or area. I am finding out how to ‘do church’ differently.  I am learning new and different ways of meeting together so that my horizons have grown bigger and wider.  And I am learning to recognise His touch, voice and teaching all around me in the day to day living and in things that happen.  I am not advocating that the organised building meeting isn’t the way.  For those who find it helpful and good, I’m happy for you and pray you find fulfilment in it.  But I am saying that this is not the only way and that those who find an alternative way of meeting and worship are equally acceptable in God’s sight.  Our God is a great big God!  Amen!