the little thread

Once upon a time there was a little thread. It wasn’t sure when it was created or where it came from but it knew it existed and whilst sitting on a spool waiting to be added to the other threads in the box and made use of, it began to dream of what it was to be. Maybe the thread on a unique pair of trousers bought by an executive then it would be able to be cleaned professionally and taken on trips abroad. Maybe weaved into a cuddly toy for a new born baby to be cherished for many years to come, snuggled into at night and loved. Maybe into a cushion that could be sold to royalty and it would spend its life being adored. Deep down though its secret heart’s desire was to work with young people, it wasn’t sure how or when but each night as it went to sleep it would hope that tomorrow would be the day.
The day comes and the little thread is chosen, picked up and woven in with other threads into a piece of cloth with a pattern with lines going up and down and sideways. It seems to the thread that it is just a piece of cloth and maybe it is to be sewed onto something else but when a label is attached it realises that it is to be a tea towel, used for drying dishes. Not quite what it had hoped for but ever optimistic it knew it would be used daily, washed often and would have the opportunity to handle precious objects. It was happy with its creators choice and would work hard and be pleasing to its new owner.
It is purchased for use in a community centre and it is excited that it will be used even more often than in a household and it hoped that its secret desire to be used in youth work would come to pass. Days and weeks go by and the thread, as part of the tea towel, is taken out regularly and used to dry dishes and glasses, sometimes sample bottles and sometimes to mop up spills. It is complimented for being a good tea towel, very absorbent and holding its colours well. It becomes apparent to the thread however that young people are not interested in all the thread has to offer. Weeks pass and it is nearly a year since the thread had arrived at the centre full of hopes and dreams and whilst some of the dreams had been fulfilled it’s deepest desire was yet to be realised.
And so if you have read this and you would consider yourself ‘a young person’ why don’t you take the opportunity to realise the little threads dream and pick up a tea towel, dry a few dishes, take it home give it a wash, bring it back to the centre and place it back in the drawer. Please don’t forget it, don’t leave it getting dusty in the drawer, lonely and unfulfilled. You can be that person, you have what it takes, go on take a risk, use a tea towel today and make at least one little thread’s dream come true.


On behalf of ‘support your local tea towel’ group.
For more information see www.teatowelshavedreamstoo.co.uk

Well digging and maintenance.

Digging a Well, I understand, is really hard manual work and the deeper the Well, the harder the work. Digging out all the top soil and compacted earth and if the land is particularly dry, getting through the first foot is as hard as digging through the harder ground deeper down. Once the hole is dug and it is hooked up to the water supply it is necessary to ensure the Well does not collapse and general maintenance to keep it clear of rubble follows, together with ensuring the water supply does not dry up or become contaminated. A lot of hard work. But if you want clean water you probably have to put the work in.

We read in the Old Testament that wells used to be dug and protected, sometimes filled in by enemies and years later re-dug. In more recent times friends of mine dug a well in Albania in the middle of a hot summer and attached a pump and for a few years it supplied relatively useable water. Once a water supply was provided through pipes the well was pretty much disguarded and used only rarely in emergencies. I wonder if we get so used to water coming through pipes,with little effort, that we rarely go digging for fresh water. Perhaps the difference between Manna in the desert and living off the produce of the land in the Promised land...

Before Christmas I was thinking about my own spiritual Well and if it had been filled in over time, large bolders of disappointment were certainly present and Jesus did a great job of demolishing them. He is the perfect soul restorer. Hard work at maintaining a Well I believe is not striving to sort out the Well myself but to go to the originator and ask him to sort it out whilst I rest in him. It is a hard choice to accept I can do nothing and he can do everything.

Today I was pondering corporate Wells such as the local church and how we want to dig Wells. I am reminded of Bill Johnson talking about the inconvenience of having fresh water and how some of his congregation were having to park their cars a few blocks away because those coming to drink from their Well were so desperate for water, some having travelled thousands of miles, were in the parking spaces near to the church. Bill said one of the keys to them was hospitality and getting over the inconvenience. I think that’s great. I don’t like being inconvenienced and don’t think I’m alone otherwise the word wouldn’t exist but I am willing to be inconvenienced more if it is because there is fresh water and people want to drink from it.

I am also reminded of a story Godfrey tells about a place where they don’t have fences to keep the livestock in and the reason being that once you have dug a Well you don’t need a fence as the livestock will always return to the Well and he encourages us to be well diggers not fence builders.

I was talking to Phil this morning about conferences and events that we travel to or put on ourselves and wondered whether we travel to other places to get soaked up in order to return to somewhere that is a bit dry. But if there is no Well at home the water soon runs dry and nothing really changes, so off to another conference we go. So the answer would be to ensure there is a Well at home, personally and corporately. As far as putting on a conference Phil said that’s like the tanker coming in with a load of fresh water and tipping it into the Well and sometimes we want to keep all the fresh water for ourselves so consider putting up a fence.

I was thinking about Rebekah in Genesis 24 and her reaction to a stranger turning up at her town’s Well. She gets him a drink and then does the same for his camels, she didn’t seem to resent any of the extra work and displayed wonderful hospitality. Her story would have been completely different if she had dismissed the steward. I have no doubt that God’s story would have continued but with another wife for Isaac.

So I will try to display hospitality rather than annoyance over inconvenience and be very thankful that there is a Well that people want to come and drink from.

Time for the ‘New’

Time for a new season. We make statements like ‘it is time for a new season’ and ‘it is time for a change’ but what is it we are actually looking for and is it actually ‘new’. A new season in government, church, banking, education, media.... I think that sometimes wanting the new is just about having had enough of the old. It can be quite a negative view trying to look like a positive one. When thinking what ‘new’ looks like I struggle to find structure to my thoughts because I am looking for something new which in itself indicates that it has not been seen before. A fresh season perhaps, blowing in some clear air, getting rid of the cobwebs, the staleness. This also appears negative though as it is more about getting rid of something than bringing something in.
I think perhaps it is not something new that I want, it is something very old, something ancient, something that has been lost over the centuries. I suppose I want the original purpose, the original plan, as it was laid down in the foundations of the earth by the creator. I know this will be in my future but it is also from my beginning and I want to experience this in my present. So today when I look for a new thing what I am looking for is the new thing God is doing to restore the ancient and fulfil the promise for the future. So when looking for a new thing, a new season, I am looking for God and only content when I find him, listen to him and walk with him in the unforced rhythm of grace.

Positions, Platforms & Profiles

I’ve been pondering some issues of leadership recently and I want to write about just one today, that’s the issue of position.  Many years ago when I was tentatively coming back to a relationship with Jesus, after a good few years being very determinedly away from him, we went along to a newish church in Manchester near where we lived and one thing that impressed me greatly was that I couldn’t tell who the leaders were.  They sat with their families during the meeting, in amongst the congregation, and only when they had something to contribute did they get up and go to the front.  It was several weeks before we knew who was ‘in charge’.  I don’t know if they still do that or even if it was a conscious policy on their part, after a few months we moved to the Wirral and threw our lot in with our current fellowship and so we lost touch with them.  Over the years I’ve been to all sorts of gatherings, meetings, churches and organizations but one thing seems fairly constant no matter how staid and formal or wild and free it is and that is the ‘reserved seating’!  Often this is in the form of a row of comfy or impressive chairs facing the main congregation on a raised platform where the elders or leaders sit, sometimes it’s just some hand-made A4 ‘reserved for…’ sheets placed on the front row, but whichever it is we seem obsessed with our leaders being given or, even more sadly - them wanting, a special place to sit.  Are our meetings regularly so jam-packed that if we didn’t reserve them a seat on the front row then they might end up standing at the back or sitting on the floor?  Do we frown upon the Catholic & Anglican churches for their priests and vicars dressing up in outlandish costumes and being considered separate from the laity but then utterly fail to notice the plank in our own eye that ensures our leaders, guest speakers or worship-musicians dress up in their smart clothes, get their hair done, ‘look the part’ and are seated on a raised platform away from the ‘proles’! I’m not putting all the blame on those in leadership or saying they all want this kind of recognition or status, I’m sure many do not.  However I think we often want them to be put up on a pedestal.  We want to know who’s in charge and to believe there are some ‘special’ people controlling the meeting – for one thing it allows us to settle into the familiar role of being a ‘consumer’ rather than the much scarier and  less familiar role of being a ‘contributor’ to the proceedings.  Also it gives us something to aspire to, “One day I will be up there on that platform and then I’ll have made it.”  I’m sure we wouldn’t put it as crudely or bluntly as that, but is that how we sometimes think; we develop a better understanding of scripture, work on our ‘ministry’, share our new revelations and it earn us status and recognition?  The worldly hierarchical organizational structure is so deeply ingrained in the western mind-set perhaps we don’t even notice when the church is riddled with it.

Jesus’ one and only appearance as the centre of attention along with the recognized ‘leaders’ of his society was when he was being put on trial, brutally beaten and then crucified.  The vast majority of his ministry was on the margins, in the out-of-the-way places, the villages, the countryside, the lake shore and at the sinner’s dining tables.  We all know the ‘correct’ definition of a leader is that (s)he is a servant but it’s surprising how much ‘serving’ in the modern church requires a collection of smart suits, access to an exclusive ‘green room’, an executive hotel suite, first class travel and a hefty fee. 

I’m regularly inspired by a man I know with an international ministry who doesn’t have a set fee that you must meet to get him to come…he carries his ministry very lightly, he isn’t precious about his status and knows that God is his provider; he gives his all for a room with ten people in it just as he does for a hall holding thousands.  Maybe if more of our leaders were like this, were more anonymous and part of the crowd we wouldn’t listen to them or take note of the wisdom, revelation and teaching they have to impart, if so then I guess we’ve got the situation we deserve.

Serious Times

Mags and I recently caught the end of someone’s sermon at an event we went along to, it was only the last five minutes or so but what he said set me thinking.  The gentleman was, I’m sure, very sincere and well meaning and to be fair to him we did only hear the last few minutes of what he said so we missed the wider context.  He was imploring those attending the conference to ‘get serious’ because we live in ‘very serious days’.  He then spoke in a very earnest and measured manner about our nation being ‘bankrupt morally, spiritually and financially’ and we Christians need to take these things very seriously and respond in a serious way.  The language he used, the tone of voice and the way he expected those gathered to respond was so heavy, downbeat and, frankly, depressing that I felt temped to run out onto the stage and tell a few funny stories or share some of the miraculous healings and salvations we’re got used to hearing about from our friends Aliss & Rob in Blacon.

He’s quite right about the days being serious and our nation is, by and large, as he described it; what I take issue with is his response.  The lost, hurting, frightened people, our colleagues, friends and neighbours, who are trapped in moral quagmires, spiritual bondage or even financial troubles do not need earnest, serious, sober Christians nodding their heads glumly and commiserating with them on the evils of this modern age and offering a sombre prayer.  They need followers of Jesus who are filled with the Joy of heaven because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit; the same Holy Spirit that settled on Jesus like a dove, the same Holy Spirit that raised him from the dead, and the same Holy Spirit that filled Jesus with joy.  They need followers of Jesus who are fully aware that they are seated with Christ in heavenly places, who know their Daddy will meet ALL their needs through his glorious riches, who understand that the old sinful nature is dead and buried through God’s gift of grace and our baptism and they are now an utterly new creation!  But most of all they need followers of Jesus who understand that as C.S. Lewis wrote “Joy is the serious business of heaven” and are willing and able to share that joy, that man Jesus, with them.  Misery is NOT a fruit of the spirit, but joy certainly is.

Harsh reality and future fantasy

“Harsh reality beats future fantasy at the Oscars,” one of the quotes the morning after the Oscars when the Hurt locker was awarded more Oscars than Avatar, which I believe was expected to take home quite a few shiny golden statutes. It is one of those statements that jumps out at you and stays for a while, maybe having a deeper meaning than just about film awards. I’ve been thinking, probably too much as usual, whether that is true and that the human race does prefer to focus on the harsh realities of life on the planet rather than any future ‘fantasy’ or mystery.

There certainly are harsh realities going on and war zones are more than ‘harsh’, the depth of pain, misery, trauma and shock cannot be understood even by those in the midst of them. Ethics and debate aside, the reality is there are men and women risking their lives every day for motives such as honour, justice and freedom. And in the midst of the harshest of realities the human race is stuck in its paradox of showing the very best of human nature, hope, compassion, sacrifice and love and at the same time the worst, pain, misery, humiliation and hatred. The world is a messy place, it is full of harsh realities.

In the fantasy world there are happy endings, the good guys win, time travel is possible, basic laws of science and nature are bendable if not removed, there is harmony and order, happiness and fulfilment. Children’s fairy tales, clear cut stories of good vs evil, where good always wins and evil is easily identifiable, unless they are Roald Dahl’s. Fantasy films are characterized by highly imaginative and often supernatural elements. The harsh reality is swept away in favour of limitless possibilities. I enjoyed Avatar, I like films that have happy endings. I personally don’t go to the cinema to be traumatised I go to be entertained, the whole cinema experience is about entertainment and I tend to be pretty miffed if I’ve paid to be made miserable. I can stay home and watch the news about the state of the nation, everything is bankrupt apparently, the economy, morals, education....there’s all the trauma’s in the world to watch, wars, famines, disasters or even think about some of the life journeys my friends are on, there is enough harsh reality to engage in sitting in my front room without going to the cinema to see it.

So for film choices I would always choose future fantasy over harsh reality. For my every day existence I choose the time travelling mystery. I can turn my focus from harsh realities to another reality a more powerful one, full of limitless possibilities. Where the laws of science and nature are bendable, if not removed, where there is order, liberty, joy and fulfilment and where best of all the good guy always wins and so ultimately so do I. I think from this focus I can be more effective to change the harsh realities rather than getting in there with them and shift the human paradox from hatred to love.

Easter is nearly upon us and what a story of past present and future mystery. The Word made flesh and making his dwelling amongst us, dying on a cross to pay the price for us, rising from the dead!! Come on I’m choosing this story, this reality, this victory.

Sound

I find myself standing alone on a plain, there are mountains in the distance and a vast expanse of desert in front.

I hear a rumbling sound coming from the mountains and in the distance a dust cloud is forming. Something is coming, I hear the sound of marching, I see a vast army coming over the desert. As they draw closer and closer it slowly dawns on me that this is the demonic horde, marching relentlessly over the desert ground. They form a straight line in front of me, a vast ugly army filling the space in front.

I look to my left and right and there beside me is the army of the Lord. They are bright lightening white, shimmering and ready to advance. The standard is raised and they are expectant of victory and they stand. They are holding their ground. They wait for the command to advance.

Time to make the sound, I shout, the sound comes from my belly, deep and full. “Move” and in front the demonic horde is blasted like with a sonic weapon. It is the sound that destroys them. I step forward. We advance step by step and they are destroyed by the sound.

The sound we make shifts what is in front of us. Kingdom authority spoken by the saints.

Our mandate: “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.”

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed!