Journal: Down time

Today was spent in the company of some really lovely people - so much so that the admin' was fun - amazing how being in the company of some people can raise a smile and make the day skip.

Didn't buy the wife a Valentine's card, but made up for it by buying her neither chocolates or flowers either. Consistency, it seems, is what it is all out. So, a happy wife and slightly less well of card, chollate and florist - sounds like a bargain, doesn't it?

But the school assembly on Valentine was loud, quick and had some electronics and chocolates, so that's another win. In fact there was magic too, but I never got round to using it as the time went so quickly and the children were so full in, no need to do stuff for the sake of it.

270AD, middle of the month, Valentine buys the farm and the world seeks to make money out of it!

2000 years back, a man dies in a cross to show what love is, and we struggle to give it away!!

Thought to myself, "A week without a funeral, that's odd," and then remembered that Inhad one on Monday, so all is well on that front. A couple more just come in and there's a wedding or three on the horizon too. Where are the baptisms?

But today has been a chilled and reflective day, daily bread means I've been fed, man leaving an empty grave shows I've been forgiven, Spirit within me means I'm the light of Christ wherever I go.

Just need to live up to all that now, don't I?

This place of reflection is here for me to dialogue internally and gain insight and perspective. It first appeared in this current form for some of those looking at creating their own journal as part of the their journey to discerning vocation. The Morning prayer is there also for that same purpose: to create the discipline of prayer. 

Fridays that matter: Black or Good?

Living is a world where people are possessed by their possessions and being a consumer is, by the words some I meet, more important than being a Christian, today is a very black day indeed!

A couple of years back, looking to buy a replacement for a piece of broken kit, I went into a shop to make my purchase only to be advised by the sales assistant to leave it a week if I could as the price would be drastically (around 20%) less thanks to 'Black Friday'; so I went home and waited for a week and saved almost £200!

When I was a child, one of the New Year rituals in my family was the annual trip to Knightsbridge for the sales. My Mum would have a list of things we needed and we'd head for the stores to buy new bed linen and other stuff we needed at much reduced prices. We didn't have much money and the buying of things in this way made the most of what we did have and although not a Christian home I have to say that this was good stewardship indeed!

Today we have two 'Black' and one 'Good' Friday on the calendar - today's 'Black Friday' is a day (now stretched to five by some companies) where spending on stuff, to excess, is billed as the thing to do - the other 'Black Friday' is the Friday before Christmas when people tend to eat and drink to excess and this too is billed by our society as something that 'has' to be done too!

The other Friday on my calendar - the 'Good' one -  is about getting too, but with this one it's not about cheap - it's about free! But there's no such thing as 'free' - someone, somewhere always foots the bill - and with this one, the person paying is Jesus!

Today I'm being encouraged to 'have it all today' and pay for it with a card. Who cares if you can't afford it, you can put off paying for another day. How odd then that so many live their lives as the choose, never looking to the day of reckoning of a different kind!

So here are some thoughts as Black Friday gets going:

Do you really need to buy what others are encouraging you to get today?

Will having something really make you happier, better of more successful?

Why have Christian companies and charities jumped on the Black Friday bandwagon - aren't we supposed to encourage good stewardship in others and work hard to stop our weaker brothers and sisters from stumbling?

Aren't we supposed to be living in a counter-cultural way? So why are we buying in to the 'have this and look cool' mentality - shouldn't we have an image of Jesus and His teachings and look like that?

Me? There's nothing I need today and so will not be spending anything except time on my knees thanking Him who gave me everything.

And a thought

Look at the image above - that's people fighting in a British store a few years back, fighting for flat screen TVs.

A friend of mine who works in refugee camps asked me this:

"If they fight like that for TVs, what will they be like when they have to fight for food from the back of a lorry to feed their kids like those in the camps around the world?"

OUCH!

This is my Son ...

Listen to Him!

These words from the transfiguration, and those when Jesus is baptised ("This is my Son in whom I am well pleased!") are two of the greatest statements I know when it comes to affirming Jesus.

The problem is that the people I meet, those who claim to be Christian that is, neatly seem to split into three main groups:

• Those who do listen to Him (Jesus) and, acknowledging Him as the Christ (His job title)the prayer, read their bibles and try to live as He would have us live (which means taking up our cross, denying ourselves and following Hiim - a topical thought being Lent).

• The next bunch might listen to Him but they also listen to every TV evangelist and every mega-preacher that's out there. When they consider the words of God to fall short (because of their own attitudes, lifestyles and  the like) they turn to whatever teacher they are following at the time and look to them, repeating the mantras and claiming their promises (rather than the those of God) in the hope that they will magically get them off their behindside and make the dross that is their life turn to gold. Their lives are beset by peaks and troughs and the muttering of, "I do, I do, I do believe in fairies!" OR whatever it is their current spiritual worthy has told them is true.

• The final group listen to God and to everyone around them with little use of Scripture or reason to temper things. They are tossed by every breeze of opinion and the only consistent thing about their faith is their inconsistency in this area. They wobble along and ask why God gives them such a tough life. Those who know them sigh (or snigger) behind their backs and mutter about them and their life, shaking their heads as another positive start, which is usually accompanied by some new mantra ('God wants you to claim ......; Everything you wants it yours all you need do is ..... ; Don't accept anything less than what you want - you deserve it!' ) appears.  These are the one's you avoid when out shopping.

Is it any wonder the Church gets such bad press?

The flakey people (not just the lunatics as Richard A Rowlands had it) are running the asylum and those watching from the safety of a fallen world see no consistency, little reason and even less opportunity for positive engagement - and so, the keep us (Christians and the collective Church) at arms length.

Many of us, those with dogcollars and pulpits, seem to have given up the fight to bring some consistency in their people, being taken up with the issues of parish share and numbers and the resolution of decline through the putting on of 'Worship Bands' and other crowd-pullers. I end up taking with more venue managers than pastors these days - more concern about footfall and being appealing than preaching the Gospel (sorry, but it is true of the small number who are still trying to 'draw people in').

Whatever happened to preaching and living the Gospel I wonder?

When did that stop working?

Pax