Of life and risk…

We only truly begin to live when we, without hesitation or reserve, spend the personal gifts and resources we cherish in the healing of the brokenness of those God brings, moment by moment, across our paths… it is in the risk that we find life…

God speaks…

God clearly speaks to us through the varied individuals He draws our attention to in a day… if we take the necessary care to sustain that attention. Sometimes their unique language, which may be non-verbal, or even subconscious, means more to our reality than our own… often these encounters are the keys we need to unlock something that we don’t have the power to unlock alone… if we don’t give in to the prison warden of Pride.

Towards a bigger picture…

We can only grasp one another’s vision, when we cry one another’s tears. When we grasp one another’s vision, together, we discover the will of God.

At Home…

Something of our own deepest reality is reflected in the depths of others who are aware of it within themselves. The depth of who we are is revealed in the intensity of process, and mysteriously preserved in our relationships with others… sometimes even subconsciously. This is the full and most genuine expression of any ‘at homeness’ we could feel.

The Difference

The difference between optimism and reality is a courageous vision and a miracle.

On Happiness

“So to those who keep promising other Christians happiness on God’s behalf, when He has never promised it Himself, please stop. I know too many unemployed people, too many heart sore divorcees, and too many homeless saints trying their best to seek God through their problems. They don’t want to go to your church because they know you will likely only make them feel worse about their situation. If you have a practical way to help them, go for it, otherwise learn to hold them in their pain and confusion. Stop suggesting they ‘deserve happiness’, and that something must be wrong with their spirituality, or their lives would be just peachy”. Sean Tucker (www.unlearning.co.za)

Very few people, let alone Christians, honestly know how to ‘hold’ others in ‘their pain and confusion’. I think this is because very few people are able to hold themselves in their own pain and confusion… they are too busy trying to avoid it… and honestly, yes, a great deal of ‘Christianity’ is a thinly cloaked form of avoidance, which is why it can be so much-the-more hurtful to genuine people with genuine struggles in life. It is clear that Christ was no avoider of pain. For Christ, true happiness comes by facing reality head-on, in faith that a genuine resolution will come at the right time, bringing with it genuine transformation of the self.

 

Learning Compassion

There are those in this would who are hell-bent on living life as a total incarnation of their own inner selfishness, secular and/or religious, regardless of the effect that it has on others around them… and we ‘worship’ these people… They will go to any length to ensure that the ridiculousness of their state remains secure. Learning compassion and humility is the only remedy for their sad and sorry condition. For this they must become the students of the very people they have learned to hate… and few ever do.

Cruise Ship Spirituality

Luke 18:35-42; Mark 6:30-37, 45-52; Matthew 14:28-31

January is a busy month!

We only really start ‘seeing’ each other in February…

One of the really tough things in life is dealing with the feeling that arises when, from time to time, you realize how effectively the intense complexity of life has robbed you of the freedom to be truly present with others… and especially your children. It’s like finally getting round to really enjoying a crazy little gift of artwork when they’re already all sleeping in bed… and the feeling we’ll have one day when they’ve all left home. It’s not a bad thing, it’s an invitation… to value life and others more for what it and they really are.

The disciples were very busy people (laying foundations for a ‘political messianic kingdom’ – almost like kingdom salesmen)– and they had arranged a ‘conference’ to tell Jesus all about it!

Jesus had to transform their business into service – he had to help them exchange their perception of the kingdom for the reality of the kingdom and so he cut the conference short and, instead, offered the disciples a Spiritual Retreat they would never forget!

A Storm for a Spiritual Retreat:

Even though the disciples were engaged in the business of ministry, their hearts were far from the people.

Sometimes we are so busy doing ministry that we miss the actual reality that the people we serve are going through – sometimes a cup of coffee is more important than a Bible study.

Jesus had to bring this to the disciple’s attention in a way that was vivid – “and so he made His disciples get into a boat.”

Jesus knew that the only way to teach the disciples how to really serve His people was to put them in touch with their own helplessness and need – the disciples were building a ministry empire while Bartimaeus and the 5000 actually, like the disciples themselves, needed God more than anything else.

Our deepest insecurities (which surface only in crisis), if faced honestly and gently, become our love and healing passport into the lives of others.

Jesus leaves them to battle it out for a long time and then in their darkest hour, he appears to them… and they don’t recognize Him – sometimes we too don’t recognize God’s presence when we are at our darkest point. This is because God often uses the unexpected to minister life to us when we are ‘at the end of ourselves’.

Jesus does not calm the storm immediately, rather, in the midst of the storm, He calls the disciples to take risks of faith to strengthen their understanding of the reality that only God can carry us… that only God can satisfy our need.

Peter represents the ‘coming to the end of one’s self’, when we reach that point, God intervenes because it’s at that moment that we exchange our personal agenda for a kingdom mandate.

For Jesus, real ministry means feeding sheep and this is the ultimate challenge that Jesus presents to Peter in terms of defining his ministry (John 21:15-17)– Simon do you love me? Feed my Sheep.

Feeding sheep means, simply, being Christ to them – feeding people on the sufficiency of God alone. It involves giving our lives for them in service without counting the cost.

2012 will bring its fair share of heartache and darkness. Are we ready to embrace the true nature of our call to service that God offers us through our difficulties? Are we willing to take from what we go through in life and feed Christ’s compassion and presence to those who are crying out to be heard and served?

Border Crossing

Our deepest personal insecurities, if faced honestly and gently, become our love and healing passports into the hearts and lives of other people.

Excellence, in Humility

A life without a genuine desire for and an earnest pursuit of excellence will not inspire anyone to achieve anything of great significance. But a life of excellence without humility will never inspire anyone with an authentic sense of their own humanness. True excellence, which involves humility, is the desire to see people do the very best that they can with what they have, and in so doing find contentment and fulfillment. How much of what we do as human beings is characterized by a deadly mix of sloppiness and pride?