looking up

Day 2 at big church.

This is the day when big church sort of tackles all the problems of the world. Well, not quite, I guess, but it feels a bit like that.

And no bad thing, of course. It's right that there's that genuine concern for justice and compassion in all the many areas of our life and our society.

It makes for quite a long day though. There are quite a lot of problems in the world, for one thing. And quite a lot of people in the hall who want to speak. And most of them get given the chance.

So a day for a good deal of listening, when it would be easy to get depressed by the volume of need that there is.

But outside the hall where big church has all its wide-ranging big debates, outside the hall there are wee church types of moments which in many ways top the lot.

Like today when I put in my coat at the start of the day (well, not quite the start, I'd been at a funeral first) - I chanced to meet a man there whom I'd first met maybe 25 years ago.

Back then this guy was in the 'Gospel Hall', and his daughter was at the school where I was chaplain. Largely because of me, he said, he'd left the 'Gospel Hall', and here he was, a Church of Scotland chaplain with the forces.

He told me of how so often it's in the darkest, hardest, scariest sorts of times that young men come to faith. He instanced a few. And he told me as well of his running an Alpha course a while ago in a pub where the publican came to faith.

It was thrilling to hear of the way the Lord works in the lives of so many folk. That's real 'church without walls' sort of stuff he said. The way it's meant to be.

There were others as well that I met with from my sort of 'former life'. And others, too, I got chatting with from different congregations I've had contact with across these latter years.

I went up for a coffee in the room that's really set aside for big church's Mr Big. This wasn't a case of gate-crashing, I hasten to add.

I was there by invitation!

But not from Mr. Big, I confess. He was away doing his stuff. It was the guy who heads up all of the stewards and folks - he asked me in and gave me the coffee and cake.

The most fruitful part of the day, though, was the lengthy hour-long session that I had over lunch with a guy I've got to know just a bit.

I'd been up and awake for hours last night as I pondered the 'issue' that's down on the cards for tomorrow. I'd begun to see how the thing might best be tackled, and I wanted to run what I'd thought before this guy.

This guy is a lawyer, I should say. So he knows the legal ins and outs of things like this.

We both felt there was progress being made. It felt like the Lord was showing a way to proceed.

There are moments like that in a busy, noisy coffee house on the city's ancient High Street when, right in the midst of the hubbub all around, you're really aware of the Lord himself being there.

So now I've got to get down to some thorough preparation.

Tomorrow's important and I need to be well prepared.

It's big church, wee church stuff in many ways. At least it feels a bit like that.

Goliath the giant and David the gangling young lad. Big man, wee man.

David believed that the Lord was far bigger than any big man he might face. But he did his preparation. He figured out the weak spot and he went and got his stones.

Today feels a bit like that.

So I'm off to the 'river' right now to pick up those 'stones': the little lines of argument that may yet win the day.