Craving connections and a bit of a rant

So, there's a few things going round my mind at the minute. A friend of mine text me the other day saying he feels lost and lonely and like he's going round in circles looking for purpose and love but all he gets is pain and disappointment. I bet we can all relate to this to some degree.

 I think the one thing for me that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning is the prospect of having meaningful connections with people. When I get to chat about life, about meaning, about dreams, about stupid things, about opinions, about faith - that's what makes me feel really alive. And when I seem to lack those deep connections I feel deeply unhappy. But the irony in my life is that though I crave connections I tend to shy away from them too - I have a strange habit of keeping people at arms length and doing my own thing. Why do I do that?! Where does it come from?

And then there's the temptation to look for those connections in the wrong places and end up trying to depend on people who aren't able to live up to our expectations. And there's times when I get close to people (perhaps a friend, perhaps a potential partner) and get excited at the deep connection that's developing but then something goes wrong (they move away, we drift apart, they turn out to not be the right partner for me etc.) and I end up in pain and disappointed once again!

How can this cycle be broken? I know the answer lies with God and his unfailing love - that's what I need most. But how do I experience the fullness of His love and how do I learn to be satisfied in Him and only Him?

And one more thing - a friend of mine who's not a Christian has been struggling with this need for connection and is aware that he's going round in circles and needs to experience God's love but the more he tries, the more he feels likes he's hitting a brick wall. Why? Why has God revealed himself to people who aren't looking for him and not to people like my friend who are aware of their need for him? It doesn't seem right!! How can my friend break this cycle and meet with God? After all, experiencing God isn't something we can choose, it's something God does by his grace. I find it so hard to sit back and watch my friend hurting and struggling to find God and wish I could just wave a magic wand and make it happen but I can't and it breaks my heart!!! :(

The true Jubilee!!!

When I saw this story I was totally blown away and inspired - what a great way to make a point about poverty and inequality...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ETBMhEzYKU

Making the world a better place

So, we may not be able to change the world or our whole town but let's start with what we can do. How about we all make the effort to change the street where we live - to build community and make it a pleasant place to live.

Last night I sat and wrote a few ideas for how to do this:
1)Welcome new neighbours by going round and introducing yourself and taking cakes or something. Perhaps give them leaflets on useful information about the area.
2) Invite neighbours round for open house, a coffee morning, a meal
3) If someone is ill offer practical help with chores or childcare or take a meal round for them
4) Celebrate together and mourn together (births, death, marriages etc)
5) Organise a street party
6) Save energy by sharing machines and doing your washing together - and hang out and chat together while you wait for your washing to be done
7) Set up a co-op. Swap items of furniture, borrow tools, offer skills, share childcare... It could be in the form of a website or a weekly newsletter through everyone's door?
8) When you go to buy groceries, ask anyone who's stuck at home (eg elderly, single mum, ill) if they need anything from the store.

That was just a quick list I came up with. Please add your ideas to the list.

The Passion

Last night I stumbled across the mini-series on BBC1 called 'The Passion'. It's one of those stories I've heard so many times that I wasn't really expecting to see anything new but I was pleasantly surprised. There were two things in particular that stood out to me.

The first was the political situation and the tension between the Jews and the Romans. As I've read about it in the Bible before I never really got the full picture of what it must be like to live in that place and that time or what a crazy place Jerusalem was during Passover. It really helped bring the story to life, put things in context and help me understand the points of view of different key players in the story (Caiphas, the Romans, the disciples, the Jewish revolutionaries, the pilgrims...).

The other thing I loved was how Jesus was portrayed. He's a gentle revolutionary who's trying to teach his small band of followers how to live differently and see the world and the people around them through different eyes. And often they don't quite understand what he's doing or why because they're still thinking the way everyone else does. (For example, I love the bit where Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem on a donkey - effectively proclaiming himself as a new leader. One of his disciples turns round and says 'don't you think we should make a slightly more subtle entry, especially during passover - we're likely to get our heads kicked in!' He doesn't understand that Jesus has to enter Jerusalem in that manner and that he's fulfilling prophecy.) I wonder, how often do I misunderstand Jesus way of doing things?

Anyway, I would highly recommend you watch the rest of the series. Check it out on BBC 1 - Monday at 8:30pm, Good Friday at 9pm and Easter Sunday at 7:30pm.

Who've you robbed today?

The other day I read this really challenging quote from Basil the Great...

"When someone strips a man of his clothes, we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and does not - should not he be given the same name? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat in your wardrobe belongs to the naked; the shoes you let rot belong to the barefoot; the money in your vaults belongs to the destitute."

And then I was reading Luke 3:10-14 and read John the Baptist expressing the same sentiments. He was preaching and baptising people and crowds came flooding to see what was going on and join in. I'm guessing a lot of people who came to be baptised by John were just doing it cos it was the latest thing and everyone was doing it. John pulled no punches in challenging the people's wrong motives. He challenged them about their heart attitude and about allowing themselves to be transformed by the gospel. So the people began asking what they should do, what should a transformed life look like? How did John respond? Did he tell them to go to church? Read the Bible every day? Pray 5 times a day? No. What was his first response?

"If you have 2 shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry."

None of John's responses had anything to do with religious rituals. Instead he talked to them about treating the poor right, about acting with justice and about being content with what they have. Today, when the Christian church encourages people to be transformed and follow Christ we often begin by telling them about religious things they should do and don't even mention the things John the Baptist taught. We appear to have got a mixed up view of what it really means to follow Jesus and have given others the wrong idea too and for that I'm very sorry. Thankfully, the church seems to be beginning to rediscover the heart of what Jesus taught and the importance of justice and loving our neighbour over performing religious acts.

Children of the revolution?

In church, a lot of people seem to have the view that doing God's work is the job of the guys up the front, the 'pros', the pastors, teachers, apostles and prophets. But check out this verse...

"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work..."

It says that their job is to equip God's people (aka the church) to do his work - not to do it all themselves! Doing the work of God is the job of us everyday ordinary people in the pews and the 'pros' up the front are just there to help us.

So, when you go to church, what's your reason for being there? Do you go to be trained, equipped and inspired ready to go out and do the work of God and build his Kingdom the rest of the week? If not, maybe you should just have a lie-in on a Sunday morning instead - seriously, just don't bother coming. Ok, maybe I'm being a little harsh (or perhaps not?!).

God didn't design church to be just some comfortable social club. If that's all you want then go join the gym or take up golf. And God's not interested in us performing a bunch of empty religious rituals once a week. The way I read the Bible, it seems to me that God designed his church to be a bunch of rebels and revolutionaries who are willing to take risks to build his kingdom. I was reading some stuff last night about the early church and the radical way they lived. For example, if they couldn't feed the hungry people in their community, the church would fast until they had enough food for everyone to sit down and have a meal!!! And many of them were persecuted and even killed for pledging allegiance to Christ and to God's Kingdom instead of any earthly kingdoms. How did something that started out as a radical, dangerous community become so safe?!!

Selective blindness

As you sit comfortably in your nice warm home or office in front of your computer screen, take a moment to consider those who don't have a home or a job. These people are so often forgotten and invisible. Well, no, not invisible actually - it's more that we're blind, we refuse to see!!

So often as we read the Bible we interpret it through the eyes of our own experience; we see things how we want to see them and interpret them in the way that we feel most comfortable with. But when read properly the Bible should make us feel distinctly uncomfortable about our comfortable lifestyles. Let's not forget that Jesus was a homeless bloke!! So how is it that so many Christians (myself included), supposed followers of Jesus, are often so oblivious to the poor in their community.

Why not spend sometime allowing God to show you the poor, oppressed and forgotten people around you and allow you to see life through their eyes for a little while. Check out sites like http://www.slumsurvivor.com/ or http://www.geezmagazine.org/affluence/ and take some action!