Monday 30 April 2012

New Trainers

Last week I bought some new sensible running trainers. Not because I want to run. I've never been a runner. Not because I've taken up badminton or anything like that (although I am open to that idea). Not even because I like the look of sensible running trainers. I don't. I bought them because when I walk my feet and my legs ache. My shoes are all too flat and I need something with cushioning and comfort to make my life easier. Perhaps its an age thing? It took me ages to choose my trainers. I don't like pink so women's trainers were out. I have them now. Sensible trainers with a luminous sole so people can see me when I am walking in the dark. They are comfortable and don't make my legs ache.


I went for a walk this morning in my new trainers. I didn't want to to get them muddy because it might dull down the bright yellow soles and then they would lose their look of newness, so I stuck to the pavement and then followed a concrete path that I have wanted to go down ever since I moved to see where it led. 


The path narrowed and narrowed and then it ended. In front was mud. I had three choices:


Stop still, don't move
Go back the way I came
Walk through the mud


Sometimes, to move forward, we need to get our new trainers dirty, we need to walk through the sticky mud with the expectation that it will take us somewhere. Sometimes in our own lives and in church life we don't want to do that because it looks messy, we might slip over, we don't know where it might be heading. If we don't though, perhaps we only turn round and go back to where we used to be or stop still and go stagnant. 


Where's the mud?


"So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!"                           Hebrews 12:12-13

Saturday 14 April 2012

Measuring Soundness......

I've had many conversations with Christians who like to test out my theology, want to know where I've come from and where I am going, working out whether I am 'sound' or not. I hate conversations like that, they beat around the bush and test the places you go and the people you meet, who you are and the way you have been brought up but never come out and ask that question 'well, are you sound?'


What's sound anyway?..... Surely soundness is measured by the soundness of the questioner?


It's always interesting how the situation you are in and the places you go can affect the view people have of you. Sometimes you go into things, you begin things and you can be so blinkered that you miss what is going on around you. We make assumptions on what we have been told rather than what we have discovered. We can't help but read things through our own lens. 


I remember when I first got contact lenses. I had to test them out when I was walking through Westfield in Derby. I glanced down and I could actually see my feet. I was so surprised that I almost tripped over them....


This verse really excites me...... and helps me to never forget that my faith is an amazing journey of discovery.


'For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.....'     Hebrews 4:12




Wednesday 4 April 2012

Everything?

There is an episode of Friends when Joey goes out on a date with a woman and the woman steals a chip. Joey gets really annoyed, but first date and all that, he doesn't say anything. On the next date he orders a plate of chips to share so that he doesn't have to go through that again. The woman then takes something different off his plate. Joey shouts. I know how he feels. I am not very good at sharing. I know it is a weakness and I laugh at myself as I tell others. I don't know why. I have never had anyone steal all of my food or contaminate my food or anything like that (I did once have a colleague dip her fingers in my tea to get my tea bag out and that really freaked me out!). 

I confess though, I am not very good at sharing, and I am constantly challenged to do better. 

After Jesus had cleansed the temple and told some stories he sat and watched people putting money into the treasury. He saw the rich put in loads, then he saw a poor woman who put in two small copper coins - everything she had, and commented on it to the disciples. 

I've been writing an assignment that talks about how we need to love God with everything, absolutely everything, our heart, our mind, our very being, our strength and our wealth too. That's a huge challenge! How can I demonstrate that in the way I live out my faith? What does it mean to give my all to God?

 

Monday 2 April 2012

Radical enough?

Yesterday I read this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745 - e-mail and web use to be monitored by the Government. I can see why, but it worries me. Someone talked about how it is like the government opening your letters, checking what is inside and then sealing them up again. There is something very Big Brotherish about it. It could so easily become an abuse of power. Could I say what I really thought? We worry about what we write on twitter, we worry about what we say out loud... if it goes against the status quo, what the people in positions of power say is 'right' then could it mean I would be taken in for questioning? 


When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he went into the temple and drove out the traders and money-changers. The people had lost focus. The temple had stopped being a place of prayer and had become a marketplace where people were being swindled. He stood up for what was right.... and the powers didn't like it. 


As a Baptist I am called to be radical and dissenting - looking for a free society and a free church - where we are not enslaved to powers but have freedom to follow Christ as Lord. 


I wonder if I am not radical and dissenting enough. I wonder if I need to be doing more overthrowing, shouting out, challenging injustice. Is that a calling we sometimes ignore?