bigger

Out and about this afternoon, I saw an interesting 'bumper sticker' on the back window of a car.

"My Dad's bigger than yours!"

It took me aback for a moment or two. I'm naive enough to read these things quite literally.

For a fleeting moment I thought to myself - how can you possibly know? My Dad's been dead for more than a quarter of a century!

In fact, I was so put out for that second or two that I found myself thinking - I bet he's not (I mean, I bet your Dad's not bigger than mine: since my Dad was 6 foot 3 in his stocking soles).

But reality quickly set in. It was, after all, just another playful 'bumper sticker' which meant no harm. As in, 'just joking'.

When I walked on by, I thought about it some more. And the more I thought the more I reflected that this was a word from the Lord. For me. In the face of all that's presently going on.

A reminder to me of certain basic truths I need to cling to day by day.

My Dad's bigger than yours.

That's the truth nof the matter so far as I'm concerned.

My Dad is God. And you don't get bigger than that.

And I'm having to learn all over again to depend on that basic truth.

In a strange sort of way it was Jesus who really coined, if not the phrase, then certainly the notion.

He reckoned that those who were his opponents were 'of their father the devil'.

Quite harsh, the language he used! But he made people sit up, take notice of what he was saying: and think.

And when he got nailed to that wicked cross he was all too aware, I suppose, that this was what he who's the father of lies could come up with and throw in his face.

Deception leads to destruction.

The folk who opposed him - their 'Dad' had quite an armoury, and, bully that he is, is pretty strong.

But ...

My Dad's bigger than yours.

It was like today the Lord was simply reminding me once again that that's the bottom line.

Hitting me right in the face with this fact as I walked along and telling me simply - remember!

These days aren't all that easy, that's for sure. In all sorts of ways which I can't go into here.

So it's good to have this perspective underlined for me and brought to my attention once again.

It forms the solid backdrop, or bedrock, to all that I've been doing.

Which on a Monday involves a fair old bit of preparation. With the Wednesday lunchtime service coming up and soe thought to be given to each of the two Sunday services.

And then, again, there have been people to see and visits to make and a meeting at night to consider some aspects of our whole overall 'youth strategy'.

Where there's work to be done.

Sometimes it feels like it's failure on every front. Like the challenge is way too big. Like we're not really up to the task. Like the thing's getting worse as time goes on.

It's then that I have to remember that rock bottom truth on which my life is built -

My Dad's bigger than yours.

dark

Faith, someone said, means seeing in the dark.

I'm not really sure I agree.

I suspect faith means clinging on to a semblance of hope when it's dark all around and you don't see a thing at all. When little makes sense and all that you can see (even in the dark) suggests that things are bad.

The bright spot today was the service we hold here at lunchtime.

There are still a good lot of folk who come out to this time and who seem to enjoy the simple act of worship which there is. And the lunch afterwards, as well, of course. Maybe that a bit more!

A lot of them are getting on in years, and not what once they were.

I sat at lunch with a lady who's now pretty blind. I guess for her the world is always dark. And she doesn't see much at all.

She used to do loads. Now she only does a guided tour of a National Trust property here in town. Even most of that, I imagine, is done pretty much from memory, so poor is her sight.

Outwardly at least, she doesn't seem to let it get her down. She just gets on with things.

She's doing an Alpha course, for one thing, as part of a group of older folk who are getting to know the Lord.

Life may be fairly dark for her, both in fact and by way of metaphor. And there's not that much she sees. But her outlook is hopeful and always so very positive.

A further rebuke and challenge, I guess, to folk like me.

high noon

It's not often that I end up 'double booked'. But I was today!

Rather embarassing - and I'm still not sure exactly how it happened. Other than the fact that just occasionally, for reasons best known to itself, my computer kind of 'loses' an entry in the diary section. Which obviously left a space I proceeded to fill.

The whole long morning, in fact, was pretty much filled with people I'd fixed to see.

The 'double booked' folk were very good about it all.

One of them was my 'chaplain' whom I see from time to time. She understood. As you'd expect.

Normally I have about an hour with her. Today it was a much briefer stint.

But enough for me to chat through with her the issues on my heart.

Sometimes there isn't that much for me to be sharing with her. No major problems I'm having to face. Sometimes there are such issues though. And today was one of those times.

I've been grappling for quite some while with a couple of vexing issues. Trying to get clear in my head what the Lord is saying in all of the thing and what he is trying to do.

There's now a degree of urgency over it all. So today I've been working away at that, spending time as well trying to gain a bit of clarity.

The clarity came. Quite pointedly in fact.

Mainly as I gave myself to preparing for tomorrow's lunch time service. The Lord seemed to make things all clear through the passage I worked to prepare.

It's about the brothers of Joseph preparing to meet with the man (though they don't know it's him). And they're due to meet him at noon.

A kind of 'High Noon' encounter.

They happen from time to time. And our 'High Noon' is approaching fast.

So the passage, I saw, is really pretty relevant.

Present your prayers. That was the first simple lesson he underlined. Bring the matter to me. Pray about it, and trust that I, the sovereign Lord, will indeed work the whole thing out in ways far better than you fear.

Well, I figured we've been doing that for a while. And it was just like the Lord said, 'Trust me on this one'. I will and I do.

Step number two. Pre-empt all the problems. Be entirely up front and don't try to duck all the issues. That only really complicates things.

Well, again, we've been seeking to do just that for a while. It's hard to think how we could have done anything more in that regard.

Then, thirdly, ponder God's kind providences. There were strange and timely happenings which must have made the brothers wonder what on earth was going on.

And there has been with us a strange and timely providence as well. I can't really say just what that is. But take it from me, it's a very timely providence.

And it's like the Lord was saying in advance - I've got things all in place. Trust me to see this through and sort this out and see it all resolved in ways far better than you'd ever thought were possible.

So I found that pretty re-assuring!

The Lord lets us know what to pray. He shares his heart.

I've still got to battle anxiety until it's all resolved. But this sort of thing from the Lord sets my heart at rest.

He works in wonderful ways. That's for sure.

There's a person who's started to come around us here these past few weeks. I was seeing her here tonight. (Another sort of 'double booking' since I had to skip the second part of a meeting I was at as well).

It's been, I suppose, a sort of 'coming home' after years and years 'on the road'.

She was up at the doctors' here a few weeks back and passed the church and thought she must come in. Which she did, the Sunday following.

Except she arrived as people were leaving (she got the time wrong - the last place she worshipped a long while back the service began at 11.30am).

The fact that there were so many folk and they all seemed to chat with each other - that warmed her heart and made her more eager still to be part of it all.

Which she's been these past few weeks.

She's in touch with friends in the army. Out in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She told them all she's started attending the church. And they've asked her to pray.

And they've started to worship on Sundays as well out there. There's a kind of amazing knock on effect!

And all of a sudden the Lord simply moves things along at the rate of knots.

Who knows where it all will end? We only know it'll be good when it finally does!

holding hands

"If someone will hold my hand, I'll go through anything!"

That's what someone said to me this afternoon.

Don't get me wrong - she wasn't making advances on me or anything. At least, I don't think so.

She's in hospital. And she's facing a difficult day tomorrow.

But she knew the challenges had to be faced. And was stating her basic premise.

As long as I don't have to face it alone, I'll be OK.

Which is pretty much what we're all about in our work for the Lord. Enabling folk to see and to feel that they're not alone.

It's the message I'm called to share.

So there's always a fair bit of solid preparing to do. Getting my head round just what it is the Lord means me to be teaching the folk.

And there are always people to see. Mostly folk who are facing particular challenges. And who need, as it were, someone to 'hold their hand'.

So as well as preaching the message, I have to live it too. I have to learn to be there for them too.

Present at their side.

Re-assuring, comforting and strengthening.

Guiding, leading, directing, 'til they're able to see the way forward for themselves.

And all the time, the Lord himself is there.

Taking me by the hand and leading me always on.

In the face of the challenges I have to cope with as well.

Which aren't exactly small.

revealing

Does God speak? And how does he make himself known?

The answer to the first is Yes. And to the second, Variously.

A lot of my days are spent on matters relating to this.

Seeking to hear the voice of the Lord myself. And helping others to hear what he's saying as well.

We were thinking a bit about that on Monday night when I met with the folk of the fellowship group I lead. The way the Lord asks (rhetorically) 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I a about to do?'

Which, of course, he doesn't. He likes to share his heart. Same as he likes it when we share our hearts with him.

And Abraham wasn't a one-off sort of oddity in that regard. A good deal later the down-to-earth farmer-turned-prophet Amos declares, 'The Lord does nothing without first revelaing his plan to his servants the prophets'I.

Nothing! Like he always spills the beans in advance and lets his people know.

So it comes as no surprise to find that Jesus says pretty much the same. 'You are my friends, so I tell you everything..'

Relationship lies at the heart of what the whole thing is all about. Our pouring out our hearts to the Lord. His pouring out his heart to us.

Most folk are reasonably comfortable with part one of that. Our pouring out our hearts to him. At least from time to time they're happy enough (or unhappy enough perhaps) to pray.

But, hey, this whole business of the Lord pouring out his heart to us ... that's a bit more 'edgy', is it not?

So a lot of the time I'm speaking with folk, it's this sort of thing which is coming into play. What does the Lord have to say? And how can we know?

Much of my day today has been spent with folk on issues along these lines.

People with whom the Lord has been certainly speaking. And who aren't quite sure what tp make of it. And not too sure how to handle the thing as well.

Being able to talk it all through is a help. And the fact that he seems to be speaking like this, to more and more folk in these days - that's a real encouragement to me.

He's on the move. He has his plans. And it seems that he's now revelaing these plans in advance of what he'll do. Which figures. It's the pattern he likes to adopt..

Exciting times.

living on the edge

Often a day throws up, quite unexpectedly, a common theme.

Case in point today.

The common theme? The nearness of death.

Two different individuals with whom I was speaking today, the one by chance, the other more purposefully. And both with a limited length of time to go before they die.

Like us all, I suppose. Except they both know how long (or how short) they've got. Roughly.

In the case of one, the person was told five years ago that the treatment being given to ease the pain would cut back her length of life and give her ten years at most. So she's half way through the countdown already.

The other person is in hospital.

Cancer. Right the way through his body.

He's only newly learned the full extent of it all. And the prognosis isn't great.

As little perhaps as three short weeks to live. At most probably nine months.

It fairly sharpens the mind, this immediacy of impending death.

What are the real priorities? What are the things I need to make sure that I do while I've still got the time and am able?

And because we're all on the countdown ourselves (we just don't know the time-scale quite), I guess we all should be asking those questions each day.

They're questions we're asking about our life as a people, as well, these days. What do we have to do?

There are loads of things we could do. There are loads of things it's tempting to do. There are loads of things people expect us to do.

But that's all missing the point. What are the things we have to do. As down-to-earth disciples of the risen Lord, here in this place, today?

We're trying to be more focussed. That's another way of putting it.

I think we do too much. All good things, no doubt.

But because we don't have a single, clear and wholly over-arching vision from the Lord, we end up with about a hundred and fifty visions. In pursuing which we end up more and more on a stretch.

Eventually something snaps.

One of the key things leadership does is figure out the vision which God has for us.

We have a vision-statement. But that's not quite the same.

What is it the Lord intends that we should be as his church? What is he calling us here in these days to be and to do?

What are his priorities? What is his vision?

What does he want us to focus on through the course of these next few years?

We need that sort of focus. And the primary task of our new leadership body is to give this people that focus.

The folk that I was speaking with today are living on the edge. Living on the borderline of time and of eternity.

Live there and there's always a certain urgency to life.

Step back from that border a bit and I guess you drift towards a state more like mediocrity.

We're trying to live on the edge.

Jonah

Jonah arrived today.

Not that I was expecting him or anything. HIs arrival was totally out of the blue.

A complete, and wonderful, surprise. Courtesy of a kind and generous friend. Signor Cento Tre.

This shining knight and his lovely damsel in distress (well, she sometimes is) had gone to all sorts of lengths to get me this belated birthday present.

Like Jonah himself when tossed overboard into the stormy sea, I was totally overwhelmed.

Except, unlike the Jonah we read about, I was well and truly chuffed. Thrilled to bits.

Jonah. I should explain.

Jonah's a fish.

The fish that Signor CT and his damsel kindly bought and gave me as a gift today to ease the distress that I've known since my other goldfish died.

And to afford some sort of solace to the one remaining fish I've had swimming round and round the tank each day in a wholly miserable solitude.

Jonah's the name I've given the fish.

Mainly because if the other fish opens its mouth too wide this poor wee 'new kid on the block' (or fish in the tank) is going to get swallowed alive. There's that sort of size differential between the two of them.

The new little feisty fish is coloured like a tiger. And looks as if he's got a personality to match!

I could have called him 'Tony', I suppose (as in the Frosties) adverts. But Jonah's the name I've given him. And Jonah he will be.

And it's really quite appropriate that he should arrive today.

First because, as the good book says, 'two are better than one'. 'Fish', like 'sheep', is a plural word, after all. They're not really meant to be on their own. And out in the oceans I don't suppose they often are.

Well, not the wee fish, anyway. They stick together. Shoals, and all that.

Leadership, too, is a plural word. And tonight our whole new leadership team will gather together for the very first time.

In some ways it's a smaller leadership body than we've had before. Reduced from 60 or so to 16.

But in truth, I see it as being a major enlargement. Too many churches end up with a one-man leadership team - at least so far as discerning the vision of God is concerned.

And for the first time here in all my years I have that sense that I'm no longer going to be swimming around on my own in the rather public 'goldfish bowl' which this sort of leadership often entails.

It feels like the leadership body that gets from the Lord the vision he has for us here - it feels like that crucial body has actually grown. From one (namely me) to sixteen.

The 'fish' in my tank is now a plural word. A kind of symbol of what will happen here tonight.

The vision-casting leadership body is now a plural word!

Jonah has arrived.

The future God had planned for him could only ever come to pass when he'd been 'through the mill' (aka the belly of the big fish) and seen and acknowledged the error of his ways and of his attitudes.

There have been issues like that that to be dealt with today. Not easy. And quite time-consuming.

The shores of God's future on which at last Jonah would be landed lay on the other side of repentance.

The belly of the fish was a merciful provision of God. Preferable to the bottom of the ocean. The possibility of a second chance.

These are real life issues that need addressing with folk.

Jonah.

And for Jonah himself that 'second chance' opened up for him a whole new sphere of ministry.

One he was far from comfortable with. One that was truly radical. One that for most of his 'churchy' friends was really, I guess, quite shocking.

The sort of direction in which the Lord continues to lead us here may well be rather like that!

So, yeah ... Jonah arrived today!