bionic man?

When I was in at the school again today, I was asked by one of the staff - "Are you the bionic man or something?"

'Something' sounded like the better alternative!

It wasn't as though I was even very long at the school. Just in for the teachers' coffee break.

I'd taken the chance to prepare for the P5 teachers a short little pamphlet for each of the children, to help them remember at least something about the 'covenant'. They were pleased to be given that.

And I ran past one of them also the thought that with it being the start of 'Lent' again this coming week, then I'd gladly do a bit with them all about that. Just a suggestion. A seed of a small idea to root in the soil of their planning. We'll see where it leads!

But the bit about my being the bionic man? Well, I haven't a clue what on earth she was getting at there! I simply declined a cup of tea. That's all.

And it seemed to suggest that I somehow survived without either drinking or food!

The whole thing made me smile. We'd been thinking, this Sunday past, we'd been thinking about how Jesus spoke when his friends come back from their lunchtime trip to the shops to get some food.

How he told them he had food of which they didn't know. An engimatic saying which they didn't get at all.

So he explained. His food and drink was simply doing the will of God. And by that he meant the time he'd spent in chatting with this woman at the well.

Sort of like the different people who call by on us for a coffee or their lunch. And the chance we have to chat with them.

It wasn't that busy today. (The weather was such that most sane people stayed indoors!)

But the postie was in. (I mean, he's sane, too: it's just he's got a job to do). And stayed for his lunch. Which is definitely a first for him! I think he feels just more and more at home among us here.

Like the woman at the well began to feel quite comfortable the longer she was there with this guy Jesus.

Another man was in as well today. Purely on business. An admin sort of matter. Nothing more than that. But he got talking, too. About the needs there are. The big and basic needs there are out there in our society today.

And how it might be possible for he himself to somehow get involved in meeting needs, as we so clearly did. More seeds were sown with him.

And he left with a copy of the DVD we did of the Holiday Club last year. Promising to watch it himself. So who knows where today's whole round of conversations all will lead!

The Holiday Club's beginning to loom quite large! I know it's a couple of months away, but there's a lot of preparation to be done.

Including the DVD. The actual filming, of course - that has to wait until the week itself (in the main: there's a bit I can do before): and the putting the DVD together, that as well can only be done at the time.

But the whole thing must be planned. The ideas conceived, the 'shape' of the whole thing sorted out, and the script all written up. I mean, there's a lot of 'ad-libbing' as well! But we have to start with a script.

So I spent some time on that today, to try and get the whole thing underway.

Between all that and seeing some folk and giving some thought to this coming Sunday's services, the day's flown by again!

And I think I know what Jesus meant. You know, about his food being simply that of doing God's will. It's really hugely satisfying to be involved in something that the Lord himself is doing in our midst.

It kind of keeps you going and makes you feel you don't need food and all you want is just to press on with this amazing work that God himself's accomplishing.

I'm not a bionic man, of course! Just a down-to-earth and mixed-up lump of flesh and blood. Like the next man.

With this one big difference. In me, as a follower of Jesus, there dwells the Spirit of the great life-giving God!

eightsome reel

Some days are like a good old fashioned eightsome reel!

This was one of them. A non-stop round of different 'steps' or 'movements', with barely a moment to breathe between each one.

(If you've ever danced an eightsome reel, you'll know what I mean! If you haven't .. you can probably guess!)

From start to close there was one thing after another. All part of the 'dance' that living with the Lord involves each day. And I love it all!

The school assembly was the first of the 'steps'. Primary 4-7.

I tend to play a low-key role in these affairs. Handing out certificates and saying the prayer. But not the talk itself. I'm not sure why. But since the Head's the one who almost always gives the talk - I guess he simply likes to do it all himself!

He's got these basic 'values', one a month, he wants to have instilled into the school's whole life. And I guess because he knows himself just what he means and what he wants the school in its entirety to grasp, he takes the talk upon himself each time.

Maybe next year will be different once the pattern's been imposed.

Not that I mind at all! I'm happy to be there, to share in these times and to have the sort of input that I do.

From there I moved on to an hour with the P5 children once again. This time on 'the covenant'.

Not the easiest theme. Especially since the teachers were keen to have some sort of 'time-line' taught as well.

But I think I got the point across and helped them see a little bit the nature of the promise that God's made. And how the ten commandments tie in with it all. And just where Jesus comes in, too.

All in an hour, as I say! With questions, too!

You can see what I mean about the eightsome reel. I was starting to sweat (as it were) and the time was only half-past ten!

I was barely back from the school before a slowly growing problem was rehearsed before my ears. There are times when situations sort of reach a 'tipping' point. And something has to give.

Action is required. And it's important that the action that is taken is appropriate and wise. The temptation's always there, as well, to try and somehow sweep the whole thing right beneath the carpet and just hope it goes away. Which it doesn't, of course.

It was a day for addressing problems. Some of a personal nature in the lives of some of our folk. Some more centred round the life we seek to live here in community.

Problems. Issues. Challenges.

It was that sort of day. Three lengthy sessions with three different folk which took me through from half past eleven to well on after six o'clock. But I think in the case of each of the folk - three very different issues being addressed - it was time well spent. (And the midweek lunch-time service in betyween, of course!)

And in each of the situations, it was trying under God to tease out where and how his future's brought to pass.

Because that's who he is and that's what he does. He's the God who opens up a future when there sometimes doesn't seem much hope of that at all.

And a large amount of time, so far as I'm concerned, is spent in figuring out before the Lord just what the next step is. And then having the courage to take the step and follow where he leads.

Like the dance. A thousand different steps. And you end up where you're meant to be.

Exhausted. But enormously fulfilled!

variety

It's generally with making the soup that my Tuesdays begin.

Today was no exception. Two soups as usual. One the blander, more 'traditional', 'safer' sort. The other with a 'license to roam' and the scope for a bit of experimentation.

There were some complaints. Well, maybe complaint's too strong a word: maybe it's more like 'observations' people made. And I have to remember the customer's always right. Which can be just a shade on the irksome side!

Anyway, the complaint was about the lack of variety.

Given that one of the soups I hadn't produced for more than a month or two, I wasn't entirely persuaded the complaint had a great deal of substance. But, as I say, the customer's always right.

It just seemed the customer wanted a particular sort of variety, which included some certain specific soups. Which the customer went on to name.

Almost like the customer made up the menu a week or so in advance! It could become chaotic if they all did that - I'd end up making maybe 50 soups by the time they all were done! (You can see that it irked me a bit!)

They're right, of course. The customers. They always are.

We do all need variety. In all of life, not just the choice of soups that is available.

And as I thought about all this, it struck me that, despite the fact we all need that variety, we often sort of gravitate towards a set routine.

Perhaps because it's easier. Requires less thought. Involves less change. All in all more comfortable.

I guess it's both we need. The adventure of variety. The 'order' of routine.

Most days, I suppose, subconsciously, I try to combine them both. The structure of a settled, clear routine. The stimulus of a colourful variety.

Today had both. Routine tasks - like making soup and meeting up with Douglas over lunch: like him and I then joining in a time of prayer: like different strands of all the preparation which I'm needing to be doing at this time: like responding to the catalogue of e-mails which soon build up in my 'Inbox' at the blinking of an eye.

Those sorts of things.

And variety as well. Many different people whom I chance to meet: people passing by and calling in: people in their homes and at their work: people all so different and with such a range of need.

Variety.

And things I do on the spur of the moment: in response (so it seemed to me) to the promptings of God by his own Holy Spirit within. Unplanned. Unscheduled. Unpredictable.

But great the way they work out! Great to see the Spirit of God at work, and using the likes of me. Finding myself in an unexpected place, but the right time, right place and right person. And God himself so wonderfully at work.

There was much that was routine today. But being free from the need to be hide-bound by all the routine gives life the necessary balance.

And makes it more than interesting all the time!

the dentist's chair

"That's a good way to start the week," the man said to me this morning.

Since the man in question is my dentist, and at the time he was gazing into my dutifully opened mouth, I wasn't entirely sure what he meant! My grunt in reply could have meant anything, I suppose.

I don't actually think he meant that seeing your dentist on a Monday morning is the best of all ways to begin the new working week. Though he may have, I guess.

I think he meant that if you've got to see your dentist at that time, then needing nothing done has got to be good news.

But dentist or otherwise, I did in fact have a brilliant start to the week!

I was along at the school for the SU group again. Last week the numbers were small. But the children had prayed and they'd asked that the Lord would make the little group grow.

They were looking, I think, to double the numbers. Which would've been more than we'd ever had meeting before. And involved a sizeable leap of faith on the part of Chris and myself!

As it turned out today the numbers were three times as many as last week's small group! It was great. Talk about answered prayer!

I had children pitching up at the door at one point and asking if this was the place where the Christian thing took place and could they come in and join in what was going on!

The time just absolutely flies! But I think the children love it all and they're quick and eager to learn.

Who knows how many there are going to be next week!

It's always hard to get back down to do fresh preparation when a Monday comes.

My mind and heart have both been so pre-occupied with all that I've been working on the previous week - culminating always in the three big services yesterday - that it's hard to switch from that and go right back, as it were, to square one. And start the thing again.

It's hard, I say. And it takes me quite a time. Especially when I'm tired, which on Mondays I often am!

Sometimes I think I'd be better just forgetting all about such preparation. Taking a break and starting in on Tuesday with a 'fallow' day between.

But then the week itself becomes quite short!

And so I mainly try and make a Monday different and ease myself quite slowly into preparation mode - and do a load of other different things as well.

Not that it always works like that, of course!

I was in at the hospital seeing a lady there. And later called on one of the youngsters who comes along on a Sunday night to the time we have for the folk in S4-6.

She'd been pretty upset last night again, after a series of sorrows and burdens she's had to bear this past wee while.

The others were really good with her there last night. Supportive and caring and .. well, just being for her the friends she needs us all to be.

I wanted to check she was doing OK.

So it was good to have the chance to chat a bit and see her Mum as well and pray with them both about it all. And let them know in a kind of tangible way that the Lord is always with them and is always there to help.

This girl, she's had a sort of dentist's chair experience these past few years. At least in the sense it's something we would all of us prefer to do without. Painful and sore and touching some pretty raw nerves.

But sometimes the fears and the anxiety we feel are not matched by the way things in the end turn out. The dreaded dentist's chair becomes the platform for the start of something new.

A good way to start the new week, as the dentist himself declared.

The sorrows and the griefs we sometimes have to bear, the dark and dreadful valleys we pass through - they sometimes are the avenues through which a whole new work of God begins to flow. I'm praying that's so for this girl at this time.

We'd looked with the children who'd come to the SU group today - we'd looked at the story Jesus told about the wise and foolish builders. How important to listen and hear and simply obey what the Lord directs us to do.

And we'd stressed at the end that the Lord is the same himself. He listens to us and hears what we say and acts in response to our words.

And does far more than we could ever ask or even think.

My day and my week began today in the dentist's chair.

And it may well be that as often as not the new things God's intent on doing in our lives begins in the dark and dreaded valleys full of sorrow, pain and fear.

welcome

There was a crowd already gathered in the entrance to the superstore when I went to do some shopping there this afternoon. A crowd of no small size.

And the moment I walked through the doors they broke out in eager, spontaneous, rapturous, thunderous applause!

It's not the sort of welcome I'm accustomed to when entering a shop (or anywhere, for that matter!): and it quite took me aback for a moment or two.

I mean, what had I done to warrant such fulsome acclaim? I racked my brain in vain. Was I the millionth shopper to have walked in through their doors? Something like that?

All sorts of thoughts ran through my mind in the thousandth of a second that it took between my hearing their applause and my grasping what was really going on.

It wasn't for me at all, of course. The applause.

My entrance coincided with the ending of a little speech some guy promoting whisky had been giving to a crowd of listening shoppers who had gathered there.

And because there were freebies on offer and the bagpipes were coming next, well, they were all enthusiastic in the clapping and applauding that they gave!

Burns Night! I should have guessed immediately.

But strangely in that instant when I walked in through the door, it felt as if the welcome was for me.

My mind was not on Burns at all, I must confess. I'd just come from the funeral I'd conducted. My mind was working still along some rather different (but related) lines.

The welcome that we may receive from the Lord at the end of our earthly lives. I was thinking of that.

When we die and our time here on earth is all done - what next? Will we look back with all sorts of wistful regrets? Or be bathed in the grace of a rapturous welcome from Christ? His big "Well done, you good and faithful servant..."

So you can see why I found myself slightly taken aback when I entered the store!

As I've said before, though, a funeral tends to dominate the day. Especially when it's pretty much in the middle (this was early afternoon).

It's never a thing I can do or approach in a routine sort of way. It's like being there at the finishing line of a long and arduous race. It's one of the major marker posts in a person's and family's life.

It's a big deal. Always.

And I can't prepare for services such as that - far less conduct the things - without myself being challenged by the finitude of life.

My life. The way the days just shoot on by. And how I've long since passed the half way mark (unless I live to 110 or more I suppose!).

To live my life in such a way that God's own rapturous welcome at the last is what I can expect - well, that's the way I want to live I guess. Each day.

That's whay I've always thought the welcome that we give to folk is absolutely vital all the time. It's a foretaste, a glimpse, a tiny little picture of the way God wants to be in all our lives.

So when I'm preparing for Sunday, as I was the large part of today, I guess it's that, as much as anything else, I'm hoping to convey.

The welcome that the Lord extends to us in Jesus Christ. The open-armed, enthusiastic welcome which he gives to one and all. I want people to feel that. To know that. For that to be the heart of their experience.

And every part of all our public worship, thus, should give to all who share in it a flavour of the welcome which awaits us at the end.

I mean, if walking into a superstore and being 'hit' by that applause can bowl me over as it did, then what will heaven do!!

The bulk of my time today, then, as I say, has been spent in preparation.

I did pop across to the school at one point, to hand some information to the teacher of the P5 class. And I did pop round to a local home as well.

But mainly it was solid preparation. There are three communion services this coming Sunday, so there's a fair bit required in terms of preparation.

And I'm thinking through it all, as I say - how best can I give folk a feel for the welcome we're given in Christ?

I want folk to feel what I felt myself today.

Applauded, acclaimed and welcomed with obvious delight.

I mean, it lasted for at best a milli-second, truth be told!

But for that marvelous, albeit very fleeting milli-second, it was like I got a breath of heaven's air!

It was, as indeed it will be, just wonderful.

Easter already

Easter comes early this year. About as early as it ever can be.

Which means, although we've barely got past Christmas at this time, it's Easter now I've got to start to get my head around.

As in an Easter Card.

The folk we use to print these cards have fairly standard deadline dates. And working back from when we need the card to be to hand, it means we've got to have material to the printers in a few days' time!

So this morning I started by putting the card together. I'd done a bit of work before on this, so it wasn't entirely from scratch.

The card is striking and simple and stark. A bit like the story itself, I guess.

And I'm hoping that its message will be clear and be the sort of thing that makes the people in the village here all think a bit about just what it means.

Anyway, that was another box to tick, as it were. One of the tasks which needed attention today. It was good to get it done - and fairly moved me in to 'Easter mode'!

I took the chance as ever to be round at the school for the teachers' mid-morning break. I never know what to expect. But I go in with an open mind and ears attuned to where the Lord may lead!

The guy I do the SU with (on a Monday now) was keeping me up to speed with what had been going on. One of the girls has been asking her friends, inviting them all to come too! So who knows just how many there will be next time!

The children are brilliant that way. They ask the Lord to 'grow' the group - without a doubt that that is what he'll do. And then they go and get on with the business of inviting friends they know to come and join the fun.

An object lesson in how the Lord means all of us to live. Asking, trusting, going, sharing. Not that hard really!

I also took the chance to chat some more about God's covenant with the teacher of the P5 class who're doing that next week. We arranged that I would come in and run them through the theme.

And the teacher herself was asking if I would get her material - she wanted to know for herself at least something of what the children were taught!

The morning just went, by the time I'd been round at the school and got back, and attended to all of the e-mails (which required, at least some of them, quite a substantial time).

So I didn't really get much done in terms of preparation once again! What's new?!

Lunch was the 'working' variety. A meeting here, along with a couple of other leaders here, with a man from another church. They too have gone down the road we're on and altered their pattern of leadership.

It's good to know we're not alone. And good as well to learn from those around. I think we ended up ourselves feeling informed about the processes involved, affirmed in terms of what we've been aspiring to, and inspired to take it on along our own specific lines.

The soup was great as well, of course! And the place, as it often is these days, was simply a cauldron of chat. How the girls cope with the numbers there are these days and make them all so welcome and attend to all their needs, I really do not know!

But it's lovely to see it like that and be caught up in all that's going on.

I'd set aside the afternoon to do some preparation for the service of thanksgiving that tomorrow holds.

It needed a good few hours and I don't like ever being rushed for a thing like that (well, I don't really like being rushed at all, I guess!). So I didn't want to leave it any longer and chose to get it done this afternoon.

At night I was out and around once again with the couple I've mentioned before. I think I've not for a long, long time been quite so moved as I was tonight round there.

The guy started speaking about how they've changed as the weeks and the months have gone by.

How they now as a family, when they get round the table to eat, 'say grace' - give thanks to the Lord, that is, for all of his goodness in all of the gifts they enjoy.

How even at work when he starts a new project, he stops and he asks that the Lord would himself be the author of all that is done: that he'd be helped in his work to give it his best and sort of do it for God himself.

I was thinking as he spoke about Saul of Tarsus.

That was the guy who was dead against Jesus, got pulled up short by the Lord himself as he headed off north to Damascus, was blinded as he saw the Lord for himself and realised the error of his ways, how wrong he'd been. That guy. Saul of Tarsus.

When he finally arrived in Damascus, the Lord told a Christian called Ananias to pay this man a visit. Ananias wasn't convinced. I mean, Saul had a reputation. And it wasn't a good one.

And all the Lord said about Saul, all that he saw in a sense, was this - "Look! The man is praying!"

That's what came to my mind tonight. It moved me to the core. Like the Lord said to me as well, "Look! This man is praying!"

His wife is the same. She has problems at work and she's looking and asking for help. From the Lord.

So I took a deep breath, because I was getting the sense of what the Lord was telling me now to suggest. And I asked at the end, as we rounded things off, if they would be willing to pray. Out loud. That sort of thing.

They always ask me (which is great). So tonight I asked them.

And they did. He started off by saying simply, "Lord, this is a first..." and as he went on, giving thanks to the Lord, he was deeply and wonderfully moved. Almost to tears. At the goodness of the Lord. And what the Lord had wrought in him. And how the Lord was leading them and working in their lives.

There were tears in my eyes as well. It was humbling and moving beyond all words. Like watching a child being born and crying its embracing of life.

Did I say 'Easter comes early this year'??

It arrived tonight! It was absolutely wonderful.

"Look! The man is praying!"

preparing the way

The prophet of old was told by God to prepare the way of the Lord.

And there's a sense in which that call he had is one that's addressed to us all. That's the daily business of our living here on earth.

But some days, though, it feels like the Lord reverses the role and he goes ahead and prepares the way for us!

Today was that sort of day. Days like that are wonderful!

At the start of the day there was a school assembly. (The start of the school day, that is: my day started a couple of hours earlier!)

I like being along when the children are gathered like that. It was Primary 1 to 3 today. And they're all eyes and ears and full of the wonder of life.

The Mind Lab folk were along again. (They were there for the older girls and boys a while ago). And again they played what they simply call the king's game.

All good fun, if predictable (I mean, I know how it's done, having seen them in action before!). And, as I say, it's lovely to see the children all 'spell-bound', engrossed and enjoying the whole thing so much.

The school had a letter of thanks, as well, from a girl in a village in Africa. The school had acquired some water containers and somehow this purchase obtained for the village a pump. So now they have clean, fresh water all the time. And less in the way of illness, of course, as well.

Anyway, they wanted me to read the letter out and say a prayer. Which I duly did. And I took the chance to say how amazing it was that the little thing the school had done had brought such a massive change to a village so far away.

On the way back out I looked in at the classroom of the Primary 5s. The teacher saw me straight away.

"What perfect timing!" she exclaimed. "The expert has arrived!" (I humbly looked behind me to see whom she might mean!). And the class all broke out in shouts of "Yes!" and they gave me a lovely welcome again.

Moments like that keep me going for days on end!

They'd been doing a bit on Judaism and were sort of getting lost in the list of people somewhere between Jacob and Moses. I'm not surprised!

So they wanted a bit of advice. And I was simply given the floor! I think it's great the way this class adjust and seem so happy just to take myself on board. But that, I guess, is the benefit of always being around.

We sorted through all sorts of different issues that they had (things like what was the wife of Levi called? and how come Joseph was hated so much? and any number of other questions that they had). They kept me on my toes!

And then the teacher asked me all about the covenant, and the ten commandments and whether the two were the same. Just so she knew what to teach them next week!

I asked when it was they'd be doing this and I said I'd be glad to come in. To keep them right! That sort of thing.

I mean, covenant's really a pretty important theme. And the fact that the Law was not a set of rules they had to keep to earn some brownie points with God - well, that's kind of important, too.

So .. another open door. Same time next week, she said. And I guess I can see it happening that I end up there each week!

They let me see the work they'd done for a project on the RNLI. Some paintings and some plays that they had done. They were great!

I love being in at the school like that and seeing the Lord at work. Opening doors. Providing opportunities. Preparing the way up ahead for me.

Which is really what I should be doing for him!

The service at lunch was great as well. The mini-bus which we hire to bring folk here - the thing had broken down. So I took my share in the 'taxi rank' and was out and about on my rounds before the service. Rounding them up and bringing them in!

Though the numbers are relaatively small, maybe 30 or 40 at most, there's a great sort of spirit at the service each week. And the preaching is always a joy. That short half hour of worship meets a huge big need folk have.

One of the ladies afterwards was saying that each week when she goes back home her neighbour remarks what a difference she sees in her friend! So she asked (I mean, the lady who's here each week), could she join?

It's a thrill when that happens!

I was seeing a couple of folk as well in the afternoon. A bit like a doctor's surgery in fact. Next one, please. That sort of thing. People and planning and problems. And the Lord and his future and all of the ways he amazingly works in our lives.

That's really helped, one of the people said at the end. We'd talked through the issues and I hope that I'd managed to clarify things the person had been pretty mixed up about.

And we'd prayed as well, of course, and ... well, I think the Lord just loves it when we pray and he releases his power all over again. And he opens up the future for his people. Like he opened up the Red Sea long ago and ushered in a whole new thrilling chapter in their lives.

Sometimes it feels like I'm simply always watching him at work. I'm there, involved - and yet I'm really a spectator and I'm watching him at work.

Speaking, talking, teaching, guiding, helping. It's just him at work. Amazing!

At night I was out, away across town, at a meeting regarding another growing ministry in town. The Lot. 'A good place to be', as the 'tag' line says.

Same again. The Lord is out ahead, preparing the way. And step by step that way became much clearer as we talked and prayed it through.

It's humbling to find myself caught up in something so big. The work of the Lord.

I want to do the John the baptist thing and get out there and myself be preparing the way for the Lord.

But he gets in first! He's out there ahead, preparing the way for me!

fixing it!

The man came to fix the boiler this afternoon.

Which was great, since I couldn't get warm at all last night! But it also meant a couple of hours of my time today were spent with a stranger exploring the life of a boiler.

Two long hours when I might have been doing a load of other things. Which squeezed, a whole lot more, a week which was already pretty squeezed.

The guy was exceedingly pleasant, I have to say. Courteous and careful and happy to chat about all of the things he was doing.

He fixed the fault in less than a couple of minutes, mind! My spirits soared at that. I thought I'll not be detained that long at all.

It was finding the reason the boiler had failed which took the time.

In most other walks of life I guess that it's often the other way round. Diagnosis is relatively easy. The cure is slow and hard.

But he figured out what he thought the problem had been. A fault in the electronics which meant the pump shut off before it should. I'll take his word for that (though it means another visit in a couple of days).

The final diagnosis was an interesting one. He took his time to reach it, as I say.

But that was because he read through, and then pondered at some length, the finer print and pretty complex diagrams, which come with the equipment.

He even tried to explain it all to me! And I nodded with a dawning understanding as he showed me what it meant! The manual is beyond the likes of me. I need the thing explained in simple terms. He was good that way as well.

But the final diagnosis, like I say, was interesting. Both the boiler and pump were actually working fine. In themselves. The problem had come in the sort of link between the two. Which made me think of parallels in other spheres of life.

I love to watch a craftsman at his work. The careful, thoughtful, bit-by-bit analysis of where the problem lies and then the simple, step-by-step restoring of the thing to what it should be like.

An object lesson for a guy like myself who's eager to make things work. In life. In our nation's life. And in the lives of all of us. I'm keen to see things work.

Diagnosis and cure. And sometimes prevention as well, I guess.

The gas man does for boilers what the doctor does for bodies. And what, I suppose, I'm eager to be doing day by day in the body of Christ's church and in the 'body' of my nation's life.

Something's far wrong with our national life. That's for sure.

And I wonder if much of the problem today is actually bound up with 'connections'. I wonder if the hidden 'electronics', which help ensure the 'boiler' and the 'pump' of national life are working well in tandem - I wonder if it's that which has a fault.

I mean, our national life is not all bad. And things in many ways within the church of Christ are far from dead or pretty much defunct.

The boiler and the pump are working well. Or well enough. But I wonder if it's in the 'electronics' that the problems lies.

The power of the Spirit is there. The pump of grace and truth is there in place and functional.

I think it's in the way we followers of Christ engage with our society - I think it's there the problem maybe lies.

Our need is for that bit of hidden 'electronics' to be carefully renewed. The way that we 'connect' with, or engage with, our society. It's there that God's renewing grace is needed most.

We, too, we need another 'visit' from God's 'gas man', as it were! The Spirit of God coming back once again to fit us for future days.

Well, that was the bulk of may afternoon! With a meeting at night and my sisters being here in the morning ... well, the day was rather short!

But it was good to have time with my sisters again: and they popped across for lunch as well. Sorting things through in my mother's flat.

I can't say I was much of a help myself, or contributed very much! When I went across to join them there we seemed to do nothing but chat!

But that, I guess, is important always, too. Part of the hidden 'electronics' of relationships.

You can see that this is weighing on my mind!

The meeting at night was all about how the 'resources' (of people and buildings and more or less anything else) we have in the church today are best 'deployed' throughout the city here.

One building, we learned, needs major repairs at a cost of over a million pounds. Elsewhere, it transpires, there's work being envisaged on another large church at a cost of perhaps a million and a half.

Monopoly money!

But it made me wonder again about the time and the money and so much of our spiritual energy being pumped in the way of our 'plant'. Buildings.

Which the first and early followers of Christ simply did not have. And managed to cope without!

We've reverted, it seems, to the Old Testament pattern of seeing things all in terms of buildings, events and a day.

When the Jesus way is more about people, relationships, life.

The gas man looked at the boiler today and said straightaway, 'This is one of the old school sort, of course.' Of course!

He wasn't being dismissive or rude. Just stating a simple fact.

Maybe that's part of our problem, too, today. The model we use in our following Christ is actually the 'old school' sort.

Not the one it's meant to be today at all!

Maybe there's more than just the 'electronics' needs a change!

not as planned

There are days when things just go wrong! Or at least when they don't go as I'd planned.

Today was one of those days. And I guess the acid test of a trust in God actually comes on days like that. How do we cope when life goes a little bit pear-shaped?

Not that today was disastrous! Not at all. I mean, everything's relative - and when I say that things went wrong today I'm talking on a very small and low-key scale.

But it seemed to me quite apt that today the stock market sort of 'crashed' as well. The biggest daily fall since the so-called 9/11. It's a good symbol of the sort of day I had.

The boiler ceased to function. No hot water. No heat. It's no big deal in the whole broad scheme of things. Just a bind!

And it's chucked it down all day. Minor and inconsequential, again, compared to the floods that folk are having further south.

But an inconsequential inconvenience, since it always throws the regular lunch-time arrangements at the school. And having shifted the SU group to a Monday, the number of children out was smaller than ever (in fact to start with I began to wonder if there'd be any at all).

When I say it was a day when things went wrong, it's that sort of thing I mean. Like I say, no big deal really. Just irksome, a series of little niggles. But like grains of dirt in your shoe soon start to blister your feet, so these sort of little niggles can rapidly knock a guy off his stride!

I actually quite enjoy the challenge of coping with tiny little setbacks of this sort. They're sort of good for me.

For one thing, they help me get a true perspective on my life and on my world.

They make me think of others far less fortunate than myself.

I counter my annoyance at a boiler breaking down by reminding myself of the millions in this world today who don't have any water (let alone hot water) and don't have any shelter (let alone the heating I'm accustomed to).

The smaller number of children at the SU group today turned out to be just fine. I ended up having to 'make it up' as I went along - so far as the form it took.

But it worked out fine and the children were great and I think they enjoyed the time. We played some games (made up on the spot!) and then got down to the story Jesus told about the mustard seed. How it starts really small and ends up pretty big.

God's kingdom's like that, Jesus said. They got the point. They thought the SU group was a pretty good example. And so as we closed one of the girls led us all in prayer and asked that God would make the SU group here grow from being small up to a size where maybe all the school would like to come!

I'm not sure what we'd do with them all if they did, mind you! But that's a problem we'll tackle in days to come!

And then I got word that someone else had died and would I be OK to take the funeral on Friday of this week.

Not the way I'd planned this week!

We've an extra service coming up this Sunday afternoon and I'd figured that I would be needing all my time this week to get the preparation for these services all done.

But I've long since learned I simply have to trust the Lord in all these things.

And if there are five different services now to be led and conducted this week - well, he knows what he's taking on and I'll simply look to him to give me both the time and, as I take the time, his word for all these services.

I called by on the family at night. The family where there'd been the death, I mean.

I can't say I know them as I don't think they've been much around our services of worship through these latter years (I think they maybe used to be more regular - but health has not been great, advancing years have crept up on them both and ... well, there are doubtless all sorts of different reasons why I haven't got to know them much before).

It was good to have the time with them. And they seemed to be appreciative. Indeed, when it came the time to leave and I prayed with them, they said they were astounded at my memory.

I try, when I pray with folk like that, I try to incorporate all that we've discussed. Mainly because I want them to know that the Lord's like that. He knows every smallest detail of our lives - and remembers the things that mean so much to us.

So my day got knocked about a bit. And the weather got colder, too, which didn't help!

But it makes for a bit of adventure! I never know what to expect.

The one thing I did, though, according to plan, was to do a little bit more of my writing! I can still be creative when everything else is collapsing around me!

demolition

Today there's been a demolition job going on outside the window where I work.

Not that I noticed at first! It didn't cross my mind that all the rumbling which I heard was that. Mainly because the word we'd had was that the work wouldn't start 'til next week.

So I wasn't exactly expecting it today. Even though I knew it was coming.

A bit of a shock to the system, I have to say, when I went outside and saw just what was going on.

It was really rather personal. I used to live there!

The building's been there for 150 years and more. A lovely, stone-built building which has stood the test of time. And then, in a single day, it's gone. Reduced to a pile of rubble.

It crossed my mind that this in fact provides a very graphic picture of what's going on among us here right now.

Demolition. That's putting it really pretty starkly. But I guess that that's the truth of it.

I'm referring to what the Lord is intent on accomplishing here in our midst in these days. Re-forming, from the ground, just what it means for us to be his 'church'.

We, too, are pulling down a framework which has stood there like some fine, impressive mansion, over very many years. And here we are, effectively knocking it down.

The builders are not vandals. And neither are we!

The builders will transform that space and build there something new. But the old must come down before the new can emerge.

I mean, they've been waiting for something like 20 years for this. Preparing and planning and waiting until the moment was right.

And then today the fateful day arrives, the action starts, and a big deep breath all round - because from here on in there is no turning back!

The process we're involved in is the same. We've known, I think, for long enough, that things will have to change. We've known that God's intent on his rebuilding our whole life here as the followers of Christ.

And so for us, as well, there comes that fateful day when all the action starts. And .. well, there's then no turning back.

As I say, it crossed my mind that these are days when just exactly that is going on.

For many, I guess, it looks and feels a bit like demolition. And I guess it is just that.

And I know that people aren't that comfortable with that. In the same way as I felt a measure of discomfort when I saw the house demolished in a day.

What was wrong, after all, with that fine, old building that they knocked to the ground today? Nothing much with the shell of stone, for sure.

And what is wrong with the way it's always been in our life as the church of God? Well, again, nothing much, in some ways.

So I know that many surely think, 'Well, why starting knocking the whole thing to bits and pulling the whole thing down?'

If you'd asked the builders that today, they'd have said it's because the've planned on something better in its place. They couldn't simply leave the shell and renovate inside. The sort of work required inside would have rendered the shell unsafe. And the roof was rotten, anyway.

So they really had no option, I suppose. To build they first required to knock the whole thing down. Another sort of building will emerge from out the rubble of the past.

It'll be different, for sure. But good, I have no doubt.

A series of buildings in place of the one. Community in place of solemn isolation. Geared for the present and future instead of a stately reminder of days that are past.

A bit like it is and will be with the church of Christ. We're seeing some demolition in these days because of how the Lord now longs his church should be. A community of believers. Living in the future tense.

That put a fresh perspective on the work I've done today! Mainly preparation. Preparing the word God brings to his people these days.

A word which in many ways dismantles, first of all, the framework which has hitherto been all that we have known.

A word which sees the dust start to fly. A word which reduces to rubble so much that the past has built up.

It's a daunting thing being the driver of that demolition digger here today!

stepping stones

Funerals are always sad. Sorrow. Loss. Grief.

But some are tinged with darker threads of hidden pain, and suffering, burdens, torments which are only full known to God himself. The sadness in such funerals is larger than it normally is.

Today's was one of them.

An early start, first thing in the morning for the crematorium staff. And as well that it was, in many ways, at least so far as I was concerned: for the early time ensured that I didn't have its shadow hanging over me throughout the day.

I'd known the lady well. And knew her back in earlier days when life was somewhat brighter than in latter days it'd been. Her last few years have not by any means been easy for her, not at all.

So her passing in the end was very much a mercy, I suppose. Her death, in truth, a stepping stone. From darkness into light.

The service was marked by a sense of God's presence and care. I was glad of that. And glad that God had very plainly given me the words to give some helpful focus to the very varied memories folk had.

For many there as well, I guess, the service was the moment when at last they could move on. A sort of stepping stone for them as well.

Funerals often have that sort of function in a person's life. And bringing to moments like that a sense of the presence of God is hugely important and what I'm attempting to do.

I was hardly in the door from that than I was off and out again. This time across to the school once more, for my 'touching-base' time with the staff at their mid-morning break.

As well that I did, since it gave me the chance to confer with the teacher who's running the SU group. And who told me it wouldn't be on today and would it be fine if we actually changed the day and made it a Monday instead.

I long since learned it's wise to be quite flexible in life!

It meant I had a bit more time to catch up on a couple of things round here that needed done. Letters, notes - that sort of thing.

Perhaps not that important in the grander scheme of things, but nonetheless it's little things like that, attending to the details and articulating thanks, it's little things like that which often prove to be the building blocks of God's transforming work in people's lives.

Further little stepping stones which open up the future in God's purposes for us.

My afternoon was taken up with meeting folk. Two very different people with two very different sets of pressing issues to be talked through and discussed.

And yet there was a certain common strand which ran through both. God's future. And the way we cross into that future. And, yes, it's very much 'we', since I'll be involved in them both.

Stepping stones again.

The way we move forward in terms of the purpose of God.

These are exciting days all right! The Lord is at work and he's doing something new and he's leading us on and transforming his church and .. well, I don't want to miss it at all!

So I'm always really expectant day by day. I hardly know just what he'll be at next! But I'm open to his leading and I'm trying to hear his voice. And I'm seeking to be figuring out just what he means to do.

I was out at night once more, calling on different folk. Folk with whom I've had a bit of contact in the recent past. On account of their bereavement and the service of thanksgiving that I led.

Which is back to the point where my day began. And the way that such bereavement, and the service of thanksgiving which ensues, can often be a God-appointed stepping stone which helps a person on towards a deeper, fuller knowledge of the Lord.

There's a lady like that (whose husband died a month or two ago) who's started in recent weeks to come along and help around the place. It gets her out and gives her something to do, for sure.

But it's also helped to draw her that bit closer to the Lord. It's been for her another major stepping stone.

And often when I call on folk and start to grow relationship with them, it's just these little stepping stones I'm laying in place. Opening up the way into God's future for their lives.

God's future for us all. It's really quite exciting!