This has been a very encouraging read. Andy shares these journeys of young peoples faith and i like the ‘incompleteness’ of these stories.

By that I mean it was exciting to read of stories that are not the finished product. In fact I am tired of reading stories where ‘people become Christians and everything is happy ever after’. In these stories some are Christians, some are asking and searching, and all still have struggles.

The stories of these disciples are gritty – some made me smile, others made me cry – all speak of the reality of faith and how tough it is to even consider Christ, let alone follow him!

This is a good short and encouraging read!

It’s been in incredibly draining day, but a day at the end of which I feel I have made a difference and been a help to others.

I am a governor at a local secondary school who are having to restructure. Every day this week governors are interviewing most of the staff for jobs at the school. Today we started at 8.30 am and finished at 3.30. We interviewed 12 people for a variety of jobs.

Although the day was hard as we are constantly aware that we are dealing with peoples lives I felt a great privilege to ask questions and hear of peoples dreams and desires to work with, and enable young people to reach their full potential. The decisions today were hard because lots of people were obviously passionate for the work they do. Obviously with all interviews some will be disappointed as they will not be appointed – I wish that was not the case.

This evening I joined the trustees of Peninsula YFC who are a bunch of people that are also passionate for the young people of their area. Not a school this time, but a large rural area that is part of Medway. In September PYFC will be appointing their first worker and this is a dream come true for these people who have met every few weeks diligently, giving up time out of busy lives, sacrificing time for other to see their dream come true.

When Gemma starts in September it will be an exciting time as they see their vision, which I first heard from them nearly 3 years ago, become a reality. Even here, though, some will be disappointed as they see the vision go in exciting ways which are not the ways they thought it might go.

In both meetings today the key to ‘success’ has been dreaming and taking that difficult leap of faith and seeing what happens. There are no guarantees. With the step will come disappointment in various degrees, but with that step also comes a fresh insight, excitement and wonder at what God can achieve.

Lev started me thinking on this whole silver ring thing today in the news.
After reading Lev’s blog and commenting I had lunch with the 1 o clock news on BBC1.
i saw the girl, Lydia Playfoot, being interviewed and she said
‘Christians have been pushed aside a bit ….we’ll fight for what we believe, we’re not going to be walked over.’

As I heard those words everything within me wanted to scream ‘no’. I can’t help but think What Would Jesus Do in this situation. I can’t be sure, but based on his trial, would he fight for his rights? Would he decide it was time to make a stand? Would he stop people walking all over him? 1 Peter 2 reminds us of a Jesus that did not retaliate, but I think 2 Philippians is even more explicit here:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death–
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

I think this is suggesting that our attitude should be like that of Jesus – the Jesus that did not consider equality but instead made himself as nothing. That does not sound like a Jesus who wants to fight for his rights.

I’m no doormat – but there is something about Christianity and serving others, rather than fighting for ourselves, that is inextricably linked.

I find this even more frustrating as once again the ‘other faiths’ card has been pulled. Lydia is free to challenge her school (and well done to her), but as part of her defence why is there a need to bring anti other faith views into the argument? Lydia states that Sikhs and Muslims may wear headscarves and bangles in school while she can’t wear her ring. Surely the point here is that Sikhs and Muslims have to wear that attire – it is part of their faith.

As Christians, people under grace, we have no such laws over our heads. We are not bound by such stipulations – Jesus came to free us from such things. In addition the school says she can wear a cross or crucifix (again not a required symbol) which seems very fair. The bottom line is – this school has a no rings rule as part of school uniform. I assume when the governors made such a ruling they considered if this would conflict with any faith and rightly concluded that it would not. Knowing this, Lydia’s Playfoot’s parents enrolled her in this school so I really can’t understand what all this fuss is being made for!

Abba Pastor said:

A person must breathe humility
and the fear of God just as ceaslessly
as they inhale and exhale air.

That challenges me for the rest of the day.