do it anyway!

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This piece of truthful wisdom just seemed to grab, or resonate, with me today:

People are often unreasonable and self centred.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of alterier motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you.
Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa, 1979 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

vote for Gillingham YFC

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Many of you will know that my Christian ministry roots really lay with YFC. I will unashamedly say that I think YFC is the best, by a long shot, Christian mission agency working with young people.

I was director of Gillingham YFC for a while and it is now both an honour and a pleasure to be able to work with them in a different way by becoming a trustee.

Why am I telling you all this …. well just by using a few clicks on your mouse you can help Gillingham YFC to be awarded with £6000 from the Nat West Community Force.

With £6000 Gillingham YFC can do more of the good stuff they are already doing …. you can check them out at their website.

But please …. use just a minute of your time and go to the Nat West Community site and vote for Gillingham YFC …. it would be really cool if you did ….. and if you are in Rochester and find me drinking a beer well I’d love to buy you one as a thank you!

Go …. click the link and vote!

sunday reflections

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Sarah was away at the weekend in Florence with friends celebrating Jo’s birthday. Sounds like they had a great time.

I did as well! Being home alone with the children (for just a weekend!!) it’s quite a cool experience as my children are so amazing.  I don’t know whether it is true for most children, but in the main, ours will tend to run things past Sarah rather than me. With Sarah away stuff came to me and it was a joy being involved in their lives in a slightly different way.

We also took the excuse to catch up with friends either over takeaways or at Nandos … and that was great too. I think this was massively helped by myself not being on the rota for Sunday …

Not being on the rota gave an indication of what life is like for others who do not have a church connection that requires some form of attendance on a Sunday morning. The word that summed up the experience was ‘relaxed’. With no rush to get out the door there were no arguments among people and the day was relatively stress free and happy.

With time being so precious today for families, and for most Sunday being the day when families can get together (I know this is not the case for everyone as people work Sundays too … I know!!) I have been thinking for a while that maybe ‘church’ needs to view Sunday differently.

With the gathering I am wondering whether our Sunday’s together should be more social, with less emphasis and worry on doing something that is worshipful and teaches us … so that the Sunday can be a ‘sabbath’ experience where rest, fun, socialising and eating together can be really embraced. I guess to do that though, we would need to take on a commitment to worship at another time during the week, and that could well be costly and difficult itself … or would it?

Would church on a Wednesday tea time, or a Monday evening really be any more of a challenge than church on a Sunday morning or afternoon? Do we need to think wider than we are …?

Any comments ….

consumed by truth

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Some people have the gift of praying amazing prayers with poetic language that sometimes transports you to heaven! Neil Thompson, our precentor, is one of those people. Neil led the daily office this morning and during the prayers he said something that I have been mulling over for the last hour and a half or so … and which I will take into my day today.

I cannot now remember the exact words but the essence was something like:

‘Lord, let us not be overly focussed on finding truth, but let our lives be consumed by truth’

A simple line, in a simple prayer, but with great volume and amplitude that seems to penetrate the soul.

As I consider this, lots of questions flood into the mind:
‘what is truth?’
‘surely truth is in Christ?’
‘but what about this …?’
‘…or that?’

I have written, no doubt many times, that people’s infatuation with defining, and seemingly great desire to protect, the truth are at the root of a lot of the disunity problems and arguments within the church, maybe even within the world. Certainly, the outspoken supporters of some of the arguments boomeranging around the church at this time do not, on occasions, seem to reflect the love of God which surely will be obvious wherever truth exists?

In my mind, and I acknowledge I have a good chance of being completely wrong, wherever truth exists there must also be love. If, as Christians, we believe God is truth … well God is love too … so both must go together.

What is truth?
I don’t know?
I’m not sure it is even definable or understandable!
But … whatever truth is …. I want my life to be consumed by it!

if today was my last day …

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Bishop Alan blogs about two of the Steve Jobs quotes today. They are both worth pondering.

I was only a little aware that Jobs lived his life out in this way … and I guess that is why he has been such an influential creative.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.


Remembering I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart …


That is a pretty cool challenge and gutsy way to live
You can read the rest here.



direction

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Today has been one of those slower reflective days. A walk with the dog this morning, and then an hours drive to the Sisters of St Andrew helped me prepare mentally for my time with Sister Diane, my spiritual director. The deal is pretty much that I talk … and so I needed to think about what I wanted to talk about!

Having an hour with Sister Diane every 6 weeks or so is something that I really appreciate and value. She, like any good spiritual director, listens to a lot of what I say with an enquiring ear and gets me to wonder, or hear, what God may be saying amongst the stress and crap (sometimes) of what is going on. (Life is more of the confusing crappy stuff than the exciting stuff just at this point of time!) She helps me see things in a very different light.

The room pictured is the room we meet in. It is a calm comfortable space where both words and silence seem to be both accepted, nourished and welcome. As Sister Diane says, there is no agenda, the space is here for us to use as we see fit.  

Today I was able to reflect over the last few weeks. The highs of Antigua, the lows of an uncertain future, the struggles of wondering what to do next and the frustration of feeling that people really don’t ‘get it’! (That does not mean people don’t … just that I feel they don’t; two different things!). Amazingly, through each of these, after my time at Edenbridge, I am starting to tune into what God may be up to. I’m not there yet – but I can see a way forward, whereas beforehand I was fairly blind to that.

One little exercise that Sister Diane offered was to read the lectionary text for tomorrow before I go to sleep, and then to pick this up again in my head as I pray on the dog walk the next morning. That’s an interesting idea that I am going to give a go over the next few weeks. Tomorrows Psalm is 37 and verses 3 – 8 seem to talk powerfully into my situation at present. As I walk tomorrow morning I shall carry these words in my head:

3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;
         Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
 4 Delight yourself also in the LORD,
         And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
    
 5 Commit your way to the LORD,
         Trust also in Him,
         And He shall bring it to pass.
 6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
         And your justice as the noonday.
    
 7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;
         Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
         Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
 8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
         Do not fret—it only causes harm. 

Tomorrow I will try not to fret!

the grit of a psalm

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I attended the Bishop’s Study day today which was an event for Rochester Diocese clergy. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was a pretty cool day.

In the morning we had the privilege of listening to Dr. Susan Gillingham, who is pretty much a world expert on The Psalms. Her passion and interest were great to listen to and I think we all gained masses from just listening to the stuff she had to share. Her knowledge of the context in which the 5 books of psalms were written were particularly enlightening for me. Her lectures have inspired me to delve into these songs a little more than I usually would and consider their meanings and usage today.

In the gathering we have written our own psalms in the past. It has always struck me that many of the Psalms are quite gritty and real communication with God. They contain hymns,  thanksgivings, laments and even Psalms having a right old go at God. It’s true to say they are written in a multitude of emotions.

In the gathering we talk about being more interested in how we believe rather than what we believe. In other words, how we live out our faith, or how we are trying to become Christ like. I think that to live out faith with integrity probably needs us to be real, and by that acknowledging that sometimes life is pretty crap rather than pretending everything is great when it is not.

From todays study day I have rediscovered the gritty honesty of the psalms and wonder whether the writing and reading of psalms may help us to live out our faith in a meaningful way. I can see great opportunity in both personal and communal writing of psalms that might simply allows us to be honest and open in our worship and relationship with each other and with God.

I wonder whether this is something we need to think more about …

Missional Entrepreneurship

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I’m really looking forward to attending this in November.
My diocese have agreed that I can use my CMD grant to attend this course, which is great as it means they can see the value of this as well.
The title of this module intrigues me and as it is part of the CMS pioneer training course I am looking forward to being able to chat and share with others.
The location looks pretty cool as well!
According to Jonny there are still some spaces … so if it grabs you too why not sign up for the week?

a beautiful film

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I watched Lars and the Real Girl last night; which I can best describe as a simply beautiful film.

Without giving too much of the plot away, the film is about Lars who develops a relationship with Bianca, a doll that he orders from the internet. Lars takes Bianca to parties and to church. The film outlines how the relationship develops between Lars and Bianca, but more crucially, it shows how the people of the town react and relate to the relationship.

It is the way the people of the town act towards this delusional and awkwardly shy character of Lars that I thought made this film particularly beautiful to watch. It is a great and challenging example of genuine loving community, and more than once throughout the film I wondered what would the world be like if people really could, and did, act like this.

This is not just an example of what honest loving community could look like, it is also an example of what real church could be …. actually is there a difference?

(Thanks Meghan for drawing my attention to this film … if you had not guessed, I enjoyed!)

1 in 4

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I had my games maker interview yesterday as I have applied to volunteer as one of the 150 or so chaplains throughout the olympics and paralympics.

I was impressed by the organisation and timing of the event. It ran like clockwork, and people were going out of their way to be helpful. If this is an early indication of quality of organisation then people are not going to be disappointed. (well apart from those who are looking for things to complain about)

The interview was fairly thorough and I felt quite tired, as well as excited, after the end of the interview even though it was only around 30 minutes long. I found out just before the interview that around 75% of people applying to volunteer for the chaplain roles will not be offered positions. They have received far more applictions then they thought and I guess, on the above figures, they must have had around 600 people apply to volunteer to be chaplains across the games. I think that is pretty cool.

I’m quite excited about the possibility of volunteering for the Olympics So … a 1 in 4 chance is not that bad …. so here’s hoping. I could know as soon as the end of October.