I don't like cricket, i love it!

Last week I was involved in a cricket final. Check out this link for more info.

A piece on peace

Before I start writing (although technically I already have), I would like to make a few apologies. Firstly, for my lack of posts over the summer (been quite busy) and secondly, for the title of this post (it seemed appropriate for the content).

Ok, so I'm back in Guildford, with a new Transit year starting next week and I've found some room to breathe a bit. It's been a bit manic the last few weeks finalising the curriculum, sorting out things for the houses, arranging transport etc. I do really enjoy it (in a weird kinda way), but mid-way through this week just gone, I found myself exhausted, not sleeping well, worrying about the 'what-ifs' and running all the worse case scenarios through my head. The worries and anxieties were really beginning to overwhelm me. Then on Wednesday night, we had a small gathering at our house to eat, pray and worship together and God just reminded me how much rest and peace there is in his presence. As I took my eyes off myself and my own problems and focused them on Him, they didn't look so big anymore. I was able just to sit and soak in His love, not feeling that I had to earn it, but just enjoy it and as I did, my burdens were lifted from me.

As I look back over these last mad few years, I can see again and again that he has given me peace when I have needed it. He hasn't always changed the circumstance or made the problems go away, but he allows us to face them them with a peace that our God is bigger than these things and that He is in control.

Philippians 4:6-7 says "Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Wow! What a promise. It's in God's presence, when we commune (share thoughts and feelings) with him, when we worship Him (even when we don't feel like it) that we find peace. A peace that doesn't make sense to us. A peace that guards our hearts and minds from further attack and allows us to see God as He should be seen, in control of all things!

I'm holding onto this promise again as I enter another busy season of life. I pray too that you would know His peace in your life and that the stresses and strains that we experience from day-to-day would not overwhelm you, but that you would know the Father's joy and love for you in a real way.

Amen.

The Log Carrier

I'm sat outside our prayer room here in Guildford, and find myself with a bit of time to blog! My last few weeks have been so busy as we finished this years Transit (2006-2007) and began to plan for next year's, as well as planning for a mission training time with 24-7 (which we are in the middle of), which mainly consisted of trying to accommodate 25 people from all over the world around the city, so I apologise for my lack of writing. Looking back, I don't know how I kept going as I was juggling all of these things. His Grace is enough I suppose!

There have been many moments I could share with you about God's goodness, provision and guiding from the last few weeks, but one moment in particular has really stood out for me and given me great encouragement.

A couple of weeks ago, I took the Transit guys to the Gower in South Wales for a time of reflection and fun. A time to just enjoy each other and the beautiful creation around us before we went our seperate ways. One night, we decided to have a bonfire up on the hill and needed to get some wood for it. One of the guys remembered seeing some big pieces on the beach the night before and suggested that we walk down and get them. He did warn us that we might need two people per log as they may be heavy.

'No problem' I thought.

So a few of us started out on the 5 minute walk to the beach through the grass and the dunes. When we were about half way there, one of the walking party remembered what the logs that we were fetching were like and started to panic a bit, while trying his best to convince us that it wasn't worth the effort and that we should just have the fire on the beach instead. But our leader had other ideas.

'We will be fine', he said.

So I continued to follow. When we got to the beach, I started to appreciate the apprehension of the others. These logs were big, pointy and awkward. But, I wanted to support my friend. He had a vision, which I could see meant a lot to him. We loaded the weighty log onto our shoulders with a grunt of effort and started out on our journey.

After 20 minutes of carrying, dropping, pain and encouragement, we reached our pit. We gave out a moan as the log fell one last time from our shoulders and hugged each other, with a few back slaps thrown in for good measure. What a great feeling! We did it! We were dripping with sweat, covered in cuts and unable to lift our arms above shoulder height (they were bruised for days after), yet it felt so good.

That night, we had an amazing bonfire, which everyone enjoyed. Stories were told, marshmallows eaten and hands warmed. A memorable last night together.

The next day as I stood in the shower (which I shared with a few spiders and a rabbit briefly that morning), God spoke to me through the previous days events.

For a long time now, I have struggled with the idea of me being a leader as I have been told that they must have vision and lead from the front, which I think is true, but have never really felt described me very well. Sure, I have dreams and ideas, but I've always seen them as very general and nothing really that grand. What God gave me in the shower that morning was my vision. He showed me that my role in life is to be a log carrier. By this I mean, a supporter and carrier of other people's vision's.

My friend had a vision. To carry a log from the beach to our fire pit. He could not do it alone and needed someone to go through the pain and ultimately the joy of seeing that vision come to fruition. I had to stand with him when others were doubting and push him on when he was struggling. He also did the same for me. There were many times we had to stop on our journey and take a breather and then will each other on a bit more. To see and feel his joy at the end, gave me a sense of joy too. To experience his pain was also important. As I said, my shoulders were bruised for days afterwards, but now they are fine. They were marks of our journey.

God was showing me, that he wants me to be a carrier and supporter of other people's vision's. To journey with other's and see them live out the calling that God has for them. Ultimately, it's not about me, but about God and His plan for others. The great thing is that if others do this for me, then suddenly we have a community that loves and supports each other and who long to see God outwork the plan He has for each other's lives come to fruition.

This really excites me as I think about what God is birthing around the world with Boiler Rooms and other such communities as we seek to live this life before us with others under God's guiding. I find it liberating to know that there isn't just one type of leader and that we don't have to be someone we are not. God knows our strengths and weaknesses and places us in communities were they can be complimented by others (a bit like a body).

I pray that we would all become log carriers for others and that together, we would see God's Kingdom come in our towns and cities as we support and love one another.

Amen.

Family tree

Over the last two days I've had the privilege of hanging out with people from the older generation. Just spending time with these guys, hearing their stories and drinking their tea has both encouraged and inspired me. I love the pace in which they live life. Each day is important to them, so they make sure they live it to the full. Now to the younger folk, that may look limited, but they really do push themselves. I also love the openness in which this generation has when sharing. They know the value of verbal communication (see previous post entitled FaceSpace).

Yesterday we spent some time at a couples house who are both in their 80's who have a lot of experience in praying for healing and have some great stories to tell. It was amazing to meet a couple who after years of serving and giving, were still so in love with Jesus and wanting to serve others. It really was amazing.

But the thing that really got me thinking was when they talked about how their greatest joy in life was to have children who grew up loving Jesus, who in turn had children, who in turn had children. 4 generations knowing and loving Jesus.

This set the daydreaming part of my brain (which is most of it) off on a walk!

I started thinking about how amazing family is (again) and the importance of passing down the story. By this I mean the story of God. We see in the Old Testament, that a nation was formed as the story and blessing was passed through the generations. The Israelites would set up monuments to physically remind them of what God had done. They celebrated festivals. They had laws. All of this was done to remind them of how good God is, not just for their own benefit, but for those that would come after them. When the story was not passed on, the people forgot about God and usually found themselves in a lot of trouble.

This leaves us with a challenge. Are we passing on the story? Are we telling others about how good God is? Are we setting up monuments to remind ourselves and others? How are we communicating the story? In an age that has forgotten God, we have a responsibility to remind them of who He is and what He has done.

The other thing that blew my mind was the thought that somewhere in my family history, somebody made a decision to follow Jesus. I have been fortunate enough to be born into a family that knows and loves Jesus. My parents, my Grandparents, but somewhere along the line someone made a decision. Someone stepped out in faith and shared the Gospel with that relative and in that moment, my life was affected. How crazy is that?

Who knows what will happen when we just obey God?

Our decisions affect not just ourselves, but the generations to come. We need to start thinking outside of ourselves. It's not all about us and now! We are part of something much bigger that we will never fully understand this side of heaven. This is why it's important to obey God when He speaks.

Off the back of these ramblings, I've decided to do a little research into my family tree.

Maybe it's something you'd like to do too?

Summer Colds

How annoying are they? I have one at the moment and I just find it very confusing. How can I have a cold when it's warm outside? How do you treat a summer cold? Wrap up warm? I don't think so! Maybe rest is the answer?

Does sunbathing count?

FaceSpace

After months of constant and prolific peer pressure as well as a curiosity that would have killed a whole alley of cats, I have become a member of the unstoppable phenomenon that is facebook. Having already been a part of myspace for a while, I am some what used to this quite surreal world of friendship.

It has many benefits.

I can keep in contact with friends from all over the world. This gives me a chance to see how they're doing, encourage them and steal their photo's!!!

But I also have concerns.

When does it become a security thing? My identity? An ego trip ('How many friends have you got?')? An escape? What is the point where we lose touch with reality? With those around us? When the time spent on myspace/facebook replaces time spent with family/housemates/neighbours then I don't feel it's healthy. If it eats into our time with God, then it becomes serious. It can take the form of an idol.

Is it even true friendship?

For me, friendship requires sacrifice. Syber friendships provide a safe, easy way to keep in contact that means we can hide behind our screens and let people know what we want them to know because that's all they'll know.

So what am I rambling on about??? Well, I just feel that we should enjoy and use these means of communication, but not forget those around us!!! That we should really think about what friendship is and make sure we live it out.

Here's a challenge.

For those of you on facebook/myspace, try fasting it for a week (or even a month) and make an effort to get to know your neighbours, work colleges, shop owners. Learn their names, invite them to your house for dinner. Love them!

Let me know what happens!

Thoughts at 24

I spent yesterday reflecting on my year as a 23 year old. It's been a year of highs and lows, but one thing has remained constant, and that's God. I've experienced Him in so many different ways this past year, but particularly in the area of provision.

It led me to read again Matt 6:25-34. This is the well known passage from Jesus' sermon on the mount, where He tells us not to worry about our own needs in life, but to put the Kingdom first. For many, they interpret this to say that we don't need to work, because God will supply, for others it becomes another burden as they worry about not worrying. Here is the key to this passage;

'Seek first the Kingdom of God', or as the Message translation puts it, 'Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God provisions.' Our main priority in life should be to love God and love each other, in order that God's Kingdom would advance, but we get so caught up in our own lives, that we don't have the time and energy for anyone else!

How much of your prayer time is spent praying about yourself?

What happens when we put the Kingdom first in our lives? Well, Jesus says our needs will be met. I've experienced this recently. Money has been a pressing concern over this year as I have no regular income, and my outgoings well outweigh anything that's coming in. So I've prayed (and worried) about it for some time and not much has really changed. So in the last month or so, I've been travelling around, visiting and supporting friends in different parts of the World. I've been so busy, I haven't had time to pray (or worry) about money, yet it's been the time where I've received the most.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that God deals with us on a commission basis or that we shouldn't ask God for things, but what it does say to me is that if we stop worrying about ourselves and live a life of wild abandonment for others in obedience to Him, which doesn't always make sense, God will provide our needs, whatever they may be.

As we put the Kingdom first, our problems seem very small in comparison to an almighty God. As we care for the poor, the abused, the lonely, the hurting, the dieing, it puts our problems into perspective.

In a society that tells us we need more, we need to stop and ask why!

Jesus said in Matt 10:39, that those who let go of their life will gain it, but those who try to keep it will lose it. As we let go of ourselves and our worries and embrace the goodness of God and live in obedience to him, we will find this life to the full, as we have been promised. It may not be a life that Hollywood sells, but it's the life I want. A life that brings freedom and liberty. A life with no constraints, totally connected between mind, body and soul. A life led by the spirit, not by the world. A life of adventure and mystery. A life of learning and discovery. A life of pain, but also of healing.

Are you putting the Kingdom first today? If not, why not? What is distracting you? What are you worried about? Give it to God.

Ask Him how he wants to further the Kingdom through you today and let Him worry about the details!