lent Day 33

There are certain words which seem to catch on in the language and develop a life of their own.    For an entire history of the world they don't feature significantly at all, and then something happens and all of a sudden everywhere you go there's that pesky word.
I first noticed this when the word ' iconic' started to be bandied about.  Seriously, it gets applied to everything from David Beckham to ice cream - it's ridiculous.  I used to play a game of counting how many times the BBC breakfast news would use the word in one morning.   It got to be more than annoying.   And still is.

Then it was the turn of the word ' insurgent'.   Have you noticed how everyone is an insurgent these days.  They arent a guerilla or a mercenary or a terrorist.

And now its the word radicalisation.   Aaaarrrrgh.  Stop it!   Today Theresa May was on the news going on about new legislation aimed to stop people from becoming 'radicalized'.   But what does that mean?  According to the dictionary

1. Radicalization (or radicalisation) is a process by which an individual or group comes to adopt increasingly extreme political, social, or religious ideals and aspirations that (1) reject or undermine the status quo or (2) reject and/or undermine contemporary ideas and expressions of freedom of choice.
2. Which makes Jesus a prime suspect for being out of favour.   And makes His disciples every bit as ' dangerous' as members of ISIS.   
3. We need to be careful as we legislate away the rights of people to be radical.  Whilst it all seems very reasonable on the surface of it - who doesnt want to stop nutters with bombs blowing up innocent civilians and destroying whole cultures? - we might just be signing our own death warrants.   As Christians we are called to adopt extreme religious ideals and aspirations which reject the status quo.   Is it not increasingly our role to question contemporary ideas and expressions of freedom of choice as the world heads into a hedonistic morass of self-serving madness?
4. Just posing the question.

Lent day 32

They are re-burying Richard 3rd this week amongst much pomp and circumstance.

Everyone knew he was killed at the battle of Bosworth - it was well chronicled and there were plenty of eye witnesses who saw the poor chap meet his rather grizzly end.  It was also known that he was hastily buried in Greyfriars in Leicester - and that his resting place was lost in the chaos of the Reformation.   It took 500 years for him to be found again.  And this week we shall watch the last of the Plantaganet kings be given a right royal re-burial in Leicester Cathedral.  Im sure it will be quite a spectacle

2000 years ago another King was killed on the field of battle.  His death was witnessed and recorded by many.  He too was placed in a makeshift grave.  But unlike Richard, his bones have never been found.  Despite many many people standing to gain massively from being able to produce them almost from the moment of his death.

The Romans knew where Jesus was buried - they posted soldiers at the tomb to guard if from possible grave robbers.  They knew fine well that there was the possibility that someone would want to remove his body for political or religious purposes and they were determined to avoid that at all costs.  

Jesus's followers knew where He was buried.  They had taken Him down from the cross and hastily prepared His body just before the sabbath started.  They were ready to complete the process after the sabbath had finished.   The final resting place was not a secret.

The religious authorities also knew where He was.  They were glad to see the back of Him and thought that His death nipped in the bud a possible dangerous and difficult uprising.  They had a vested interest in being able to prove He was dead and buried - gone for good.  Over and done with.  Ended and finished.  Full stop.

And yet..... and yet....

When it came to the crunch the Romans and the religious authorities were unable to bring out the body or bones of Jesus.   And for the past 2000 years nobody has been able to do that either.
Because there are no bones.  There is no body.  Three days after interment Jesus walked out of His tomb and a short while later He bodily ascended into heaven.

So this week as we watch an English King being laid to rest in the pomp and ceremony of a regal funeral service let us rejoice that we worship a risen Lord.  His bones are with the rest of Him seated at the right hand of the Father.  He is the only risen, everlasting, eternal King.  And He is ours.

lent day 31

Walking in someone elses shoes.

In my attempts to purge the house of unwanted and unnecessary stuff Ive been up in the attic today sorting out the shoes.   When you have three boys its amazing how many shoes you have.  They each have school shoes, gym shoes, slippers, pumps, sandals, wellies, football boots ( with varying arrangements of studs depending on the playing surface) wet shoes ( for the wetsuits) as well as any number of trainers and casual shoes.  If they dont get trashed along the way ( and things like the footie boots are worn once a week for a very short time before they are grown out of)  they get put up in the roof for the next boy to grow into.

Except of course one forgets.  And then on a day like today I go up there and root through a huge pile of shoes and realise that half of them are now too small for Ben!   So out they go.  Very satisfying.

It got me to thinking about wearing handed down shoes . And walking in the shoes of those who have gone before us.

We all do it - we stand on the shoulders of giants.  Starting with the disicples we owe all that we know of the life of Jesus to those who have gone before.  The heroes of the faith - most of whom are nameless and faceless to us but who are seated in heavenly places with great honour.  I cant wait to meet them.  People who risked everything to bring us The Lord.  Those who preached, translated and printed the Bible, were martyred for proclaiming truth.  Those who were faithful Sunday by Sunday in showing generations of children the way to Jesus.   Without all of those people I would not have the faith I have today.

And then there are the specific individuals who went before me.  The leaders of the youth group where I first heard the gospel.  Rupert Madeley who prayed me in, bought me my first Bible, explained so much of what was, at that time, still a mystery to me.   Ted Collington, my first pastor - who put up with alot of nonsense from a very wild but super keen young Christian and helped to ground me in good teaching and lay the basis for a solid character.  My amazing church family in Edinburgh ( you know who you are)  who for ten years discipled and loved and rebuked and taught and showed me God in action.  And gave me the most amazing opportunities to watch, try, fail and then succeed in so many areas.  Especially the prophetic.   Brian and Shirley Hayes.  Colin Symes, David Hewitt, Rupert Ward, Bill Nisbet.   I owe these good and godly people so much.  Thank you.  Yours are big shoes and following the ways in which you guys have walked has been a challenge.

As I look behind me and see where I have walked its an immense privilege to see that a few people are also following in my footsteps.   My children ( I hope) and a handful of precious friends who have been influenced by some of the things I have said and shared and done and prayed over the past few years.   Its an honour and a huge responsibility.  And quite a thought - all those footprints over two thousand years leading onwards and upwards to heaven .

Lent day 30

Profound thoughts on a solar eclipse.

In this part of the world this morning there was much excitement about a solar eclipse visible for most of the UK  ( although not here in Ireland where it was, or course, raining until an hour after the event when the sun came out !!)  Ridiculous amount of coverage of the thing on the telly.  But I felt God speak to me about it.  This is what I thought

The moon is tiny in comparison with the sun.  Its a speck.  Of no significance whatsoever.  And yet when it gets itself in between the sun and the earth it can blot out the light and warmth of that huge star and plunge us into darkness.

This is a picture of what Satan does,

He is insignificant compared with the might and majesty and power of God.  Utterly meaningless. He has no power, no light, no warmth and nothing at all that can do us any good.   His main objective is to get himself between us and God so that the lights go out and darkness descends.   I have friends who are in a very dark place at the moment.  Ive been in darkness myself in the not too distant past.   Its cold and scary and it feels as though God has left and all there is is hopelessness.   But its a matter of perspective.  In a solar eclipse its all about the position of everything relative to everything else.  I think it might be the same spiritually.

God hasnt died, gone away, ceased to exist or even never existed in the first place.   Satan would like to put himself between us and God and tell us so.   But he has always been a liar.  A physical eclipse lasts for a matter of minutes.   A spiritual eclipse can last for longer.  Sometimes much longer.   But just as God has set the sun and the moon on their courses to run to a plan which is in constant motion, so He has set the spiritual world to be in constant motion.   Satan is on his road to eternal doom.   He is marching inexorably towards the day when Jesus wraps it all up and throws away the key.  God is drawing ever closer in anticipation of Jesus return.   We cant stop it.  We cant change it.   It is so.

SO if you are sitting in the dark today, wondering where the sun has gone and trying to remember if it ever shone at all :  if you are cold and miserable and cant see your hand in front of your face....  hang on in there.   This is but a season.  The SUN is still there and Satan is defeated.  Jesus is alive.  Your hope is secure.  One day very soon you will be able to say

LENT DAY 29

Oh for a thousand tongues to sing

the glories of these days of spring

when buds appear and birdsong soars

in loud crescendo o'er the moors

when daffodils and snowdrops rise

beneath the blue benevolent skies

and fish are rising in the lake -

what glories their creator makes!

We dare to hope that winter's past

Our countenances lift at last

and hearts swell to the spring's refrain

as life bursts forth from earth again.

lent Day 28

Short and sweet today.   Or at least not sweet.  As you shall see,

For thirty odd years I have taken sugar in my tea and coffee.  I think it used to be two spoons but over the years I cut down to one.  I have had spells on sweetners ( but they are supposed to be bad for you aren't they?) but have never been motivated to cut out the sweet taste altogether.   Until last Christmas.  When for some reason, between Christmas and New Year, I suddenly decided I was going to give up sugar in my drinks for good.

Now they tell you that it takes your taste buds a short time to acclimatize and that within a couple of weeks you wont notice the difference.  There is also a school of thought which says you have to taste something ten times before you ' like it'.

Not so,

Its now the middle of March and I've only just started to feel that I like the taste of my coffee without sugar.   I drink alot of coffee.  Several cups a day.  And every day since the New Year I have tolerated my unsweetened drink, determined to stick with the plan and push on through.   It has taken MUCH longer than anticipated

And the lesson in this dear friends?   Bad habits are hard to break.  Sometimes very very hard indeed.  We have to re-train ourselves and do things differently ( Ive had to remind people who automatically give me my coffee with sugar that Ive given up.  And for the first couple of weeks I had to remind myself not to reach for the sugar bowl on auto-pilot!)   We might have to remove ourselves from the path of temptation by changing practical things in our lives.   We need to tell people that we are no longer doing that thing - and be accountable if we slip up.   More than anything else we have to be realistic about how long it will take.   The longer established the bad habit the longer it will probably take to break.  We shall get terribly disheartened if we think we can achieve our goals overnight.  Some habits take years to break.   People who give up smoking can still have the cravings for a very long time after they smoked their last.

We all need to do better at the healthy living stuff.  More exercise, less fat, sugar salt. It's hard.   If it wasnt hard we'd all be doing the right thing all the time.   Lent is a time for giving up certain things.  probably some of you will have stopped drinking alcohol or eating chocolate for forty days.  And that is wonderful.   Well done if you have managed it.   If you have done that, then you can do the next thing on your list.   You can cut down your spending, get fitter, write that novel you've been thinking about for ten years.  You can learn a new language or stop watching too much telly or give up Facebook.    You know what it is.   And you can do it.   it just might take longer than you think before its completely out of your system.

Lent Day 27

What is it about human beings that makes it so easy for us to moan and complain about things and so much more difficult to be positive?

I was visiting a friend recently who had been invited out to lunch by mutual friends I hadnt seen for ages.  I was looking forward to hearing all about it and catching up with some news.  But instead all I got was a list of complaints about the food which was served!!!  I felt like yelling ' For goodness sake, the food wasnt the important part - the friendship was, and the fact that you were invited in the first place!!!'    But I didnt.

I am hardly one to judge.  I kinow how easy I find it to be critical or negative.  It just seems so often to be the first response.   The Bible tells us that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.   So I guess that tells me what my heart is like.   :(  After 30 years as a Christian I still find that moaning is my default setting.   I wonder why God bothers with me!!

It always seems to be easier to be pleasant and upbeat and positive with complete strangers than with those nearest to us.  If you want to know what Im really like ask my husband and kids.  They will tell you that Im grumpy and selfish and negative so much of the time.   I try not to be.  I know its bad.  But somehow they all manage to bring the very worst out of me - they know how to push my buttons and wind me up.  And of course Im with them for hours and hours a day longer than Im with anyone else.  There are fewer places to hide.

Matthew 12:36New International Version (NIV)

36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.

That is one of the scariest verses in the Bible.   EVERY useless, negative, judgemental, critical, self-promoting, untrue, and empty word I have ever spoken will be replayed to me and I shall be judged by what has come out of my mouth.  Not because God is particularly bothered by the words I say, but because those words betray what is in my heart - and He is very interested in that.

So my challenge for the rest of Lent - and for the rest of my life is to be more careful with what comes out of my mouth,   I suspect the key to this is to be more careful about where I let my mind focus.

These words from Philippians 4:8 could be used as a mantra for the way we see, think about and speak of other people.  Lets not focus on what people do wrong, how they annoy us or ways in which they could up their game.   Let's instead focus on the things we appreciate about them,  the potential we see and the lovely and admirable parts of their personalities.    Love covers over a multitude of offences.