An Early Start

I'm off to Exeter for the day tomorrow, and want to leave fairly early - partly to make the most of a day, and partly to avoid as much traffic as possible!

I was just thinking about travel plans and recalled the expression, "It's the early bird that catches the worm" - it's quite true that in life we try our best to race to get the best offers, to make the most of it all, to avoid the queues... Ultimately to avoid disappointment, maybe?

I heard another expression once, by Joe Pasquale, which said, "It's the early bird that catches the worm, but the second mouse that gets the cheese." A slightly morbid expression, granted, but it made me chuckle! It's quite true, also - that sometimes it is actually a good thing for us to be able to sit back, and take our time, without rushing - a case or "more haste, less speed". Catching the worm is one thing, but it can often pay to sit back and take in the sights - and also to be able to look a bit more in depth at an offer, a journey, or whatever, so as to discover any possible pitfalls, or traps that might snare us.

So often, in the Christian walk, we are so keep to want to see god working 'now', and can get so frustrated with Him & life when this doesn't happen, that we lose focus on the need to think things through, to allow God to work through us, rather than expecting God to work for us, in order that He might fulfill our plans.

So, tomorrow I will still try to be that early bird, but sometimes I need to remember to be that second mouse - because it's in the waiting patiently that the real prizes can come.

The joys of modern technology...

Well, if all goes according to plan, this should appear on my Blog
once I've emailed it.

It's completely random, and no atual use of any sort, but I'm gonna
keep it for sentamental reasons.

Ooh, there's a question for you all - is it okay to be sentamental?
What, in fact, does it mean to be sentamental?!

<fontfamily><param>Lucida Grande</param>שלום

Shalom</fontfamily>

Muppet Personality Test

Sad, isn't it! But, yes, I took the muppet personality test, and this is what it came up with for me:

You Are Fozzie Bear

"Wocka! Wocka!" You're the life of the party, and you love making people crack up. If only your routine didn't always bomb! You may find more groans than laughs, but always keep the jokes coming.

The Muppet Personality Test

There are a few other things on there to try.

I believe a bit of randomness never hurt anyone - and in the words of one of my favourite comedians, Mr Joe Pasquale, whist talking about his stage show: "There's too many bad things going on in this world, if you can't come out and enjoy an hour of cack every so often there's something wrong with you!"

Many people laughed at this comment - but as funny as it is, I think it's quite true. It's so easy to get caught up with negatives that we forget it's okay to be positive and enjoy life.

The 'honeymoon' period

I can't quite believe how amazing my new life here in Frome is for me still, after almost five months! The area is great. I have good friends already. The role in Frome Community College is amazing. My support structures are the best they've ever been. My new church is so welcoming and heading the best they can towards God. And, to top it all off, I've now got an amazing young lady in my life - who is an absolute blessing to me in so many ways. God's hand has definitely been in this next step of my life.

I'm sure all the positive feelings for all these parts won't last forever, but while these things are easy and good, I am going to make the most of them. When the tough, boring, difficult times come in the future I will deal with them as I need to. When they come it doesn't mean that God's hand has left me - it just means that I'm going through a time where things aren't so easy for a time. After such highs, the lows are not welcome, but out of the lows, the high points seem even better, and it's also usually the lows that bring growth to the richness of life.

So, for the moment, I am happy to keep plodding along, it's okay to be happy, or content, or peaceful. It's also good to be able to be content and peaceful when things aren't going well - it's a God thing, really!

"...You discipline the one's You love"

Something I've come to do a lot more when I'm singing / prepping to lead worship, is trying to really think through the words and what they mean. This generally has four responses after looking through:

1. Yep, I agree with that
2. Oh wow, I never realised that or thought about it like that before!
3. Do I actually believe this, or
4. That is completely wrong - why is it in there?

I find that I will occasionally stop singing if I think some of the more negative things, otherwise I begin just going with a flow that is against my own belief system, or against some of the doctrine I've thought about.

In one recent song, the following line appears, "With the blessing of Your Father's heart, You discipline the ones you love. There's kindness in Your majesty." - Do I actually believe this?

In our lectures at college at the moment, we are looking at the theme 'Faith & Justice', and the theme of God's discipline came up. It's been a really helpful module so far, and hopefully will continue to be! It got me thinking - do we, as humans, have a squewed understanding of the word 'discipline'? Many people, I would think, would immediately think of a good smack bottom, or being grounded. If this is the true meaning of the word discipline, then of course I don't for one minute believe that Jesus disciplines us with the Father's blessing. If, however, we think of the word 'discipline' as a way of concentrating our efforts onto ways of focussing more on God, such as prayer, Bible study, sung worship, etc. then it can put a whole new meaning on this word. I can't think how to word it better at the moment so will end it here!

Is it possible to think too much?

I often wonder whether the comment made to me that I 'think too much' holds any weight at all or not.
In the one hand, I can very easily be lead down long, windy and very pointless paths, where I come out none the wiser, but a lot more confused. On the other hand, these paths may eventually lead to some new thinking - if not for the rest of the world, then even just for me - and this could be a life-changing walk.

I guess getting tangled up in thoughts, in itself, isn't a bad thing - but its whether getting tangled up prevents you from being alive, strangling the life potential out of you.

Where - if at all - should one draw the line and say, "Okay, time to stop thinking now and just focus, albeit ignorantly, at the life in front of me"?

Taking it seriously but not literally... Part 1 (of potentially many)!

Whilst listening to an amazing sermon being preached over the summer of 2005 on the subject of the book of Revelation, the visiting preacher said, "Take it seriously but don't take it leterally". I like this expression, and it certainly links well into hermaneutics - that is, taking the Bible within the culture of the time it was written in, which means taking into account context, the people being written to, culture, to name a few things. It also means that we must then review again within the culture, etc. of our own time, immediate environment, and so on, in order that we may gain the best insight that we can to the meaning of this within a today context.

Anyhow, hoping that makes sense, I will launch into part of the letter of 1 John, and in particular, chapter 3 to something I was reading and thinking about yesterday:

(v10) The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.

NRSV

This passage began getting me thinking about God's kingdom - His kingship - His reign on this earth - the now and not yet.
We will be perfected in Him - we are being perfected in Him - yet we are not fully at our human potential. Part of us is still acting within the super-structure of this world, although we are already God's. Just because we work for God one minute and then do something against Him another, doesn't meant that God and Satan are continually swapping ownership of us. If we have faith in Christ, that is enough - we are God's. We just ain't quite sorted yet. But that takes time, and time we have - most of us get one shot at life on this earth before we are transformed to be like him completely. Live life to the fullest and do the best that you can today - let tomorrow worry about itself when it becomes today. And tomorrow, let today's troubles and turmoils will be yesterday's - history which we can learn and change from.