Category Archives: faith

RIP Granddad Brown

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Sarah’s granddad is being buried today.
Please remember the family in your prayers.

It’s been a real privilege knowing
this man of God.
His deep faith
is something that struck me
when I first met him
some 20 years ago.

I shall always remember
his great sense of humour.
The glint in his eye when
he saw the children.
His love for his family
his wife
his son and daughters
his grandchildren
his great grandchildren
even his ‘grandchildren-inlaw’
His heart was massive
He always had time
Everyone loved him
Because of that he will be missed
He set a great example for us all.

The last few years we have seen
him slow down
but when he was awake
when he was ‘with us’
the eyes still sparkled
the grin appeared
with the God given faith that
was so dear and close to his heart.

I am grateful to God
That I got a chance to meet this man.
I am grateful to God
That my children knew their great grandfather
I am grateful to God
That grandad Brown is now at peace with his creator.
If there was anuthing he wanted more than
to be with his family
it was to meet his creator.

With certainty these words rang out when they met:

Well done my good and faithful servant

acclimatisation

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Today as I went around my normal everyday stuff I met a young woman from Russia who was visiting friends in Gillingham. Why on earth would you come from Russia to Gillingham!!?

Anyway … we got talking and in typical British style I got onto weather as I attempted to show some intelligence by guessing that in Russia the temperature would be around -20C. Apparently I was spot on but the girl then aid something that surprised me. Although she has only been here a few weeks she said that when she left the house she still felt very cold which I found quite bizarre! She is used to -20 at this time of the year and she is feeling the cold in 10 degrees! Could it be that her local context tells her she should be cold as its winter and so she is cold!

Isn’t it amazing how quickly the human body acclimatises, or adapts, to the surroundings it finds itself in? It seems to like to find, and rest in, an equilibrium.I wonder if this is one of the issues with church today – we are no more than a bunch people who have adapted into the sort of church we are told to be by our local context – the church should stay out of politics, the church should not make unnecessary demands, the church should not rock the boat. A good steady equilibrium is good for us all!

Have we acclimatised?
Have I acclimatised?
Is this such a bad thing?

I think maybe it is. I think maybe we have succumbed to trendiness and a longing to be accepted. I think maybe this longing has resulted in a watered down slightly corny faith. I think maybe this has resulted in cheap gimmicks to make Jesus acceptable.

I’ve remembered Jesus was unacceptable 2000 years ago to the majority mindset.
Should it be any different now?

I want to live out an authentic faith with others, not an acclimatised one that people don’t notice or see no need for.

lots of thoughts and no time

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I have loads of thoughts meandering around in my head at the moment.
Sunday night at Moot, Ian challenged us to think about how we were living – were we living at our edges or at our centres.

I kind of relised that I have been at the edge for such a long time that I have lost the grasp of what my centre is, my core being, who I am in Christ, who I am in myself. Somehow I need to regain a perspective by retreating from the edge and attempting to re-establish where I am.

But not just now … tomorrow I have a busy day to look at Love Gillingham, beofre driving to Cambridge and then Newmarket to catch up with the excellent YFC people the before coming back home to watch Gillingham play football (in the looser sense of the word!)

I’m writing this here as a commitment to myself to refocus, rediscover, relign myself with my centre. I’m writing here in a kind of accountable way: maybe if you see me around you can ask me how this re-centreing is going.