Finding life in our surroundings...

An American businessman was at a pier in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow-fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied only a little while.

The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish.

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The American then asked the Mexican how he spent the rest of his time.

The Mexican fisherman said, 'I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor.'

The American scoffed, 'I have a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and, with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York where you will run your expanding enterprise.'

The Mexican fisherman asked, 'But Senor, how long will this all take?'

To which the American replied, 'Fifteen to twenty years.'

'But what then, senor?' asked the Mexican.

The American laughed, and said, 'That's the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public. You'll become very rich, you would make millions!'

'Millions, senor?' replied the Mexican. 'Then what?'

The American said, 'Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.'

(Story taken from God360 by Andy Flannagan)

Please don't stop the music!

It only hit me the other day how important music is to my life and to many others! I love to listen to music whenever I can and often find that certain songs remind me of certain times in my life. When revising for exams, I couldn't concentrate unless I was listening to music, although in all honesty, there is always a song playing in my head (hence the constant air drums)!

It always amazes me how music (and singing) can often take us to a deeper level of fun, celebration and, at times, sorrow! It has the ability to heighten our awareness towards our emotions and gives them an avenue in which to express themselves, whether that's in song, playing or through dance (we can all dance!).

I love the way God has given us the ability to be creative and in particular to explore this phenomenon we call music!

Ecclesiastes

I think Ecclesiastes is becoming one of my most favourite books of the Old Testament. For many, it is unpopular as it seems very negative and pessimistic, but I find it touches on the deepest question of all;

'What is life all about?'

The writer of the book is believed to be King Solomon, who was the 3rd king of Israel after Saul and his father David. He had inherited much from his father, but built on it further with wise political decisions. His reign started well, with the building of the Temple and his proclamation of God being at the centre of their Kingdom, but as he acquired more wealth, wives and horses (which kings were warned about in Deuteronomy), his focus soon became blurred.

So at the end of his prosperous and what would seem on the surface, successful life, we find him writing the book of Ecclesiastes as he reflects on what has been.

1:2 - "Everything is meaningless," says the teacher, "completely meaningless!"

This is not the sort of start you would expect from a great leaders autobiography!

But, after explaining that everything he has tried (wealth, jobs, wisdom, companionship) left him feeling hopeless, he concludes in verse 13 of chapter 12;

"Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty."

At the end of his life, Solomon can see that life is short and many of the things we seek and desire from the world around us are temporary and ultimately unfulfilling, but that with an understanding of God and the things he asks us to do in this life and in the hope we have after, we find meaning and fulfilment.

Check out Ecclesiastes for yourself and try and read it through the eyes of your friends and family who are searching for meaning in life.

Maybe that person is you?

Life is meaningless...without the meaning and worth that Jesus has given it!

Boenhoffer on Disillusionment with Community...

"Inumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and try to realize it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves.

By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both. A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse. Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hinderance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intetntions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.

God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the cirlce of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.

Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients. We thank God for what He has done for us. We thank God for giving us brethren who live by His call, by His forgiveness and His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily. And is not what he has been given us enough: brothers, who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of His grace? Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day? Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother still a brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ? Thus the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together - the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship."

Jean Vanier on Authority...

"The role of authority can only be understood if it is seen as one of the many gifts or ministries which we need to build a community. It is, of course, a very important gift, because the community's well being and growth depend to a great extent on the way it is exercised. But too often authority is seen as the only gift; the role of everyone else in the community is seen simply as obedience to it. This, however, is an industrial or military model of authority. In a community, authority needs to be exercised in a completely different way. The leaders do not have a monopoly on insights and gifts; their role on the contrary, is to help all the community's members to exercise their own gifts for the good of the whole. A community can only become a harmonious whole, with 'one heart, one soul, one spirit', if all its members are exercising their own gifts fully. If the model of their relationship to authority is worker to boss, or soldier to officer, then there is no understanding of what community means."

Community and Growth

I'm currently reading 'Community and Growth' by Jean Vanier. It's a great book based on his experience of living with others in intentional community houses with the mentally handicapped and their helpers over the last 50 years or so. He has some excellent insights and the wisdom he brings comes from experince rather than just theory. I've found it very challenging.

There are many quotes I could write, but one that really struck me the other day is as follows;

"If we are in community only to 'do things', it's daily life will not nourish us; we will be constantly thinking ahead, because we can always find something urgent to be done. If we live in a poor neighbourhood or with people in distress, we are constantly challenged. Daily life is only nourishing when we have discovered the wisdom of the present moment and the presence of God in small things. It is only nourishing when we have given up fighting reality and accept it, discovering the message and gift of the moment. If we see housework, or cooking simply as chores which have to be got through, we will get tired and irritable; we will not be able to see the beauty around us. But if we discover that we live with God and our brothers and sisters through what has to be done in the present moment, we become peaceful. We stop looking to the future; we take time to live. We are no longer in a hurry because we have discovered that there is gift and grace in the present of the book-keeping, the meetings, the chores and the welcome."

As I've made an effort to slow down and be thankful to God for the simple things of the day, I've found that I have experienced the peace that Vanier talks about.

A lot of what I do in my job is planning for the future and looking ahead and I often forget to acknowledge the present. I mainly find this with regards to relationships. If the person in front of me isn't going to help me achieve my goal, then I don't often give them time and effort.

I live very strongly with agendas that are future focused.

I struggle to live in the mundane mess of everyday.

But I want to. I want to be thankful for the simple things. I want to live in the moment more. This doesn't mean I don't think or plan for the future, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the joys of today.

Each day is a gift that I'm keen to enjoy!

Old stuff...

I found this poem on my myspace page (does everyone remember myspace, poor dabs!), which must have been written about 4 years ago. I think it still describes where I am pretty well;

Deeper than I dare know.
Struggling to keep myself on track.
Clinging to the one I know will Love.
Daring to move into the unknown so that I may know life.
Desperate for more than I've known.
Simple life.
Complex world.
Finding the balance of seclusion and exposure.
Unlocking others.
Standing strong with weak knees.
Focus on the unchangable.
Pulled into comfort.
Battling to stay out.
Trying to live up to the status I have been given.
Laughing all the while.
Waiting in anticipation for what is ahead........