Episode 124 - Wanting the best

I’m the kind of guy who always strives to have the best life can offer and to be the best he can be. Now this may surprise you a little, as I’m also the kind of guy who drives an old Toyota and wears scruffy jeans, and is quite happy about it too. I guess this is because what I consider to be the best isn’t always what everyone else might think of! I don’t worry too much about cars, or clothes, or well-paid highly esteemed jobs. I care more about quality relationships and developing better character. And I don’t think that this is a bad thing. The funny thing is though, that whatever you strive for; good, bad or indifferent, there’s always a temptation to continually want more and want better. This in itself once again is not necessarily a bad thing, but wanting more should never get in the way of you enjoying and making the most of what you have. Today God spoke to me not through an hour long sermon, but through a simple one sentence quote by A. W. Tozer; “when a man has met God he is not looking for anything because he has found it”. When I stumbled across that this morning, I realised that whilst it is good to try to be better and to do better, I will never have anything better than what I already have in God. I really should live like it too.

Episode 123 - Digging Holes Just To Fill Them In Again

For the last couple of weeks I have been helping to make foundations for an extension to a building. We use the analogy of building foundations a lot in our everyday life, whether it be about relationships, or business projects, or anything else. But having now helped to create actual foundations, I think from now on it will have a deeper meaning. The most striking observation that I have made of the process so far is the seeming absurdity of the whole thing; you work really hard to dig out a big hole, then you work really hard to fill it back in again. And at the end of it all, nothing much seems to have changed other than all your clothes are now redecorated in cement.

There are two things to note from this. Firstly, building foundations is hard work! Like really hard work! The second is that whilst it appears like no progress has been made, it’s just that; appearance. The work which has been done is hidden, but it is no less valuable or effective for it. It can be quite disheartening to put in all that effort and see very little change and yet in reality what has been achieved is the most important work and determines the effectiveness of everything that will follow. Unless you clear out all of the rubbish underneath well and dig deep enough, and then fill it properly with good quality cement, all that is built upon it will suffer and most likely ultimately fail. How often in life do we feel like we’re just going around in circles and making no progress at all? I wonder how often in those situations maybe we have made great progress, just our work has been hidden. I also fearfully wonder how often I caused future trouble for myself by not working diligently enough at things that I could not instantly see the fruit of.

Episode 122 - Keeping Your Feet on the Ground

This week I joined a Frisbee club. I have to admit I was a little nervous having never been part of a Frisbee club, but thankfully no-one took it too seriously and it was a lot of fun. It was a warm sunny day and the ground was dry. The funny thing about grass though, is that even when it’s dry, it’s slippery. On TV it’s the banana skin that’s king of the unexpected slippery substance list, in real life though, grass has to be up there somewhere. Every time I tried to turn quickly or come to a sudden stop, my feet would slide out from underneath me and I would end up in a heap on the ground. The famous expression which extolled the need to keep one’s feet on the ground came to mind. But what does it really mean?

We tend to immediately think it calls for the need to sacrifice excitement, or creativity, or adventure, to make place for caution and sensibility and seriousness. Our culture often tells us that we are either one or the other, that the two cannot coincide. Indeed, I did sacrifice in order to keep my feet on the ground. I moved less, and when I did I moved less suddenly. I did in fact keep my feet on the ground, but at what cost? I became unable to create much space and had to settle for less incisive passing, in short, I became a worse player, but one which was at least stood upright. But if we keep our feet on the ground by not moving at all have we really gained anything at all? 

Well in the end I decided no, I just gave into falling over sometimes. And after the game what really should have been obvious was expressed by one of the other players; what I really needed was a pair of studded boots. Perhaps that’s what we all need life; something to help us adhere our creativity to caution and our seriousness to our adventure. Perhaps even, what our world needs are people who are willing to be those studded boots and hold the two worlds together.

Episode 121 - Lost Bees

As I walked down the street the other day, I realised that I had picked up a passenger along the way. No, someone hadn’t stealthily jumped on my and taken a piggy back ride without me noticing, my passenger was not a person, but a bee. I looked down and right in the middle of my jumper was a little white tailed bumble bee. He remained there seemingly contented for the duration of my fifteen minute walk. And as I walked I watched him as he walked around a little a repeatedly pawed at my jumper with his little hands (or whatever it is that a bee has at the end of its arms/legs…). Now not being an entomologist I don’t really have a clue what he was doing, but to me it looked for all the world like he was trying to gather nectar from my jumper. 

Which if he really was, was crazy because not only was it not a flower, it in no way resembled a flower, it wasn’t brightly coloured and didn’t really smell particularly nice either (not that I’m saying my clothes smell bad…). But the craziest thing of all is that after fifteen minutes of trying and presumable failing, he was still unable to see his mistake! As I watched him persist in his mistake I gained sympathy for my new little friend. I realised how easy it is to get trapped by your mistakes. How sometimes it can be very hard to see that what is going wrong is not some small detail, but rather the very thing you were so convicted about in the beginning. I pray to God that I may have the humility to see the places where I have mistaken woolly jumpers for flowers so that I might not waste my time trying to harvest where there is no nectar!

Episode 120 - Special

I am probably by most definitions, not normal. I look different to most people, think different to many people and behave pretty different sometimes too. I am unique. You’re unique too. I find that amazing; 8 billion people and no two of us are the same. Each one has their own identity, and each of us has a unique set of gifts, talents and character to bless the world with. Of course some of us are more different than others. I have always felt like one of the more different ones, not that this ever bothered me. I’ve never cared too much about what other people thought about me and I imagine that for the most part who I am is met by bewilderment. I think on the most part my differentness is inoffensive, even likeable, although there are always some who are opposed to it, but I figure that’s their prerogative and I don’t let it bother me.

Recently I was criticised for something which I thought was quite unfair and couldn’t really understand where it had come from. The funny thing is, it wasn’t that I felt I had been falsely accused because what they said about me was true. I felt it was unfair because I couldn’t for the life of me understand why this aspect of my character would be a bad thing! But that was because I was different and so I see the world differently. But whilst this wouldn’t normally bother me, it got me thinking, could it be that my differentness which God gave to me to bless those around me was actually getting in the way of me blessing those God intended me to? I don’t actually have an answer, and don’t worry, I’m not going to start being any less me, but has made me think more about understanding other people’s differentness and how we might be able to complement each other better.

Episode 119 - Happy Easter!

It's Easter Monday! Which is very exciting, because it means we get a day off work! But more than that, as a Christian, Easter is a time that I remember all that Jesus has done for me (not that I don't remember it ever day). Even if you're not a Christian, I imagine that it's a time that in between the chocolate eggs and the hot cross buns you're inclined to wonder even if just for a second, how people can really believe all that crazy stuff about Jesus. Well whatever you make of Easter, today I want to share a couple of Easter articles from the Guardian which I hope you will enjoy whether you consider Him your Lord and saviour or as real as the Easter bunny. Here they are;

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/14/what-is-the-historical-evidence-that-jesus-christ-lived-and-died

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/aug/03/christianity-resurrection-religion

If the links don't work for you, you can copy them directly into your address bar at the top of the screen. Don't worry they're safe I promise!

Epside 118 - When There Are No More Signs

Yesterday I went for a walk somewhere I'd never been before. It was a well marked path. Or at least it was to begin with. As I started the walk there was a big footpath sign that pointed across the field ahead, to a stile. When I got to the stile there was a little yellow arrow pointing across the field to another stile with another little yellow arrow pointing across the next field to yet another stile with another little yellow arrow. And so it continued. Or at least so it continued until it didn't. Eventually I came to a field so big and so hilly that I couldn't see the other side, and didn't know where there the stile was. So the only choice I had was to trust that the sign was pointing in the right direction and keep on going until I could see the next one. And lo and behold, there it was, eventually, and my uncertainty had been proven to be for no good reason. And all was good again. For a while. But then later I got to a stile that had no sign on it! How was I supposed to know which way to go? How I was I supposed to know that I was even on the right path at all? 

Much like the piece of wood in the corner of the field that doesn't belong to me... 

...it's not my stile

Well I didn't. But going backwards wasn't going to help me at, so I had to just keep going. Going wherever looked most like it was the way I was supposed to go, looking for signs and stiles or anything else which might indicate the way forward. In the end I made it. There were a few sign to reassure me, but often I was on my own just trusting what had come before me to direct me towards what was ahead. Sometimes life is easy, with clear directions and a straight forward path. Other times it's not. It can be hard and confusing. Vague and unclear. In those times we just have to trust the direction we have been given and trust ourselves to follow the path the best we can.