How long?

I have been watching the brilliant, but occasionally farcical, The Passing Bells. A drama about a young German lad and a young British lad who volunteer in WW1. Whilst watching accounts of these young men, some as young as fifteen, going off to war and the pain felt by their families left behind I had a chilling thought; how long before our children have to go off and fight a war. A whimsical thought you may think, but just look at the world today, what would it take for all the current conflicts in the Middle East to merge into one major conflict that draws all the world in? Not that much I am sure and that is disturbing. Jesus said that "blessed are the peacemakers" and the time is long overdue for the politicians of this world to stop thinking about their own careers and pushing their own personal, self-seeking agenda's, and to start thinking about how peace can be brought about in our troubled world. I accept that this may mean further and greater conflict, even though I find this distasteful, but something must be done to halt the ever-decreasing circle of violence and hate that will eventually see the children of all nations going off to war on a global scale.

Just Friends?

I heard someone use this statement on TV this evening and it stopped me in my tracks, its a statement I have heard many times before and often used myself; a statement that means that there is nothing going on between them. In short that a boy and a girl, or a man and a woman are not having a sexual relationship. Then everyone breathes a sigh of relief "Oh there just friends! Well that's all sorted then."

But there is no such thing as "just friends"; friends are there for you in your time of need, they give everything unconditionally or without expecting anything back, they are not easily offended, they get more joy out of seeing you happy or succeeding than being happy or succeeding themselves. In the relationship, no matter how deep and maybe intimate it is, there is no expectation of a sexual relationship, indeed it is on neither parties agenda. Friendship, true friendship, can never be described as "just" a friendship, it is earth shatteringly huge. It can change the way people think, change the way people live, and even completely change the world. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) Jesus demonstrated the significance of friendship with the ultimate sacrifice that changed our world. So please, lets drop this “just friends” as an escape clause when describing relationships and lets treat friendship the way it should be, with awe.  Perhaps when someone asks you if there is something going on between two people and you know the truth then perhaps the response should be: “No they are not lovers, but they are friends.”

Rough and Ready

My dad always used to say to me that if something is worth doing, then it is worth doing well. He had a good point, but in some cases if we wait until everything is perfect before we do something then it may never get done at all. In the case of our faith if we wait until we are perfect before we start contributing to the work of the kingdom then we will never get going, indeed our study in James will explore the fact that perfection can only be achieved if we actually get on and do something; teaching that is diametrically opposed to my Dad's nugget of wisdom. 

I am sure we are all aware of the amount of effort that goes into a Sunday morning service, sometimes I get frustrated that there is always something else to do on a Sunday morning before I can  get on with the business in hand. This can often lead to some of us who are involved starting the service flustered, confused, agitated or even angry.....not a good place to be when  coming before God, especially when one is required to lead or teach others.

At the beginning of my ministry at Station Hill it was my intention to spend most of the morning before the service in meditation and prayer, and although I have managed to more time in prayer compared to previous years, my desire (and it is a desire, not a goal or objective but a heart-felt desire) for fervent, sustained, focused prayer for at least thirty minutes before the service is yet to be met. The evening services are supposed to be quite different, more relaxed, less formal. Yet the last two, despite being all these things, have been a little "rough and ready" particularly when it comes to organising the music. I was encouraged last night, not only by the number of people who attended, but also by the way people faced our disorganisation with humour and grace. Hopefully we will get into our stride and be a little more organised in the future, but without creating the organisational challenges that face is on Sunday mornings. Wouldn't it be so much easier if we could just turn up and it all worked? Yes, but I would rather find perfection through the works that I do, than strive for perfection before I do anything.