I don't believe it

Yesterday, after dropping Abby off at school, I went back to the car only to discover that the remote central locking unit isn't working.

I pressed the button on the fob over and over again...nothing. I had to be at work in a few minutes. I decided I would just unlock the door manually with the key and hope that the alarm doesn't go off and I can somehow get the car started. The key won't go in the lock, it just doesn't fit.

This is ridiculous! How am I supposed to drive my car when I can't unlock it, and the key doesn't even fit?

I gaze through the window of the car, wondering what on earth I am going to do. It's then that I see stuff all over the passenger seat that I don't recognise. Seriously, what is going on?

And then it dawns on me, slowly and painfully...it's not my car! A mixture of embarrassment and relief washes over me.

Just then one of the other parents drives up and asks if I was just trying to get into the wrong car...I laugh nervously...they laugh loudly...but to be fair the cars did look very similar...honestly...no they did, I promise...d'oh!

Time well wasted

The busier we are in life the busier we need to get in spending time with God.

How can that be? If we are busy in life then we can't be busy with God too, something has to give. Not so. The need to spend time with God increases exponentially in relation to the busyness of our lives.

A great poem by Adrian Plass, entitled 'When I Became A Christian', contains the lines;

He said, Look, I’m not asking you to spend an hour with me,
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sanctity.

God desires to have our full attention, not the leftovers at the end of a busy day. Or, in the words of John Ortberg, "However much time you spend exercising and cleansing and dressing the outer you this week, spend at least that much time exercising and cleansing and dressing the inner you."

Heavenly helper

Abby is off school today because the teachers are having a training day, so I decided that between us we would get some jobs done.

Part of our morning conversation went something like this:

Me: What shall we pray about this morning?

Abby: We don't pray in the morning, we pray at bedtime.

Me: Well, today we are going to pray in the morning as well. What shall we pray about?

Abby: We could ask God to help us get our jobs done quickly, then we'll have more time to play.

Me: OK. What can we thank God for?

Abby: We can thank God for our food and our health.

So, I pray a short prayer based on the above. We get changed into some old clothes and start on the jobs. We wash the car, and each other as it turns out! We clean out the rabbit hutch and give them fresh food and water. By now we are wet and dirty, so we decide to go in and get changed before we tackle the next task of tidying the playroom. We also decide it is time for a drink and a snack.

Me: We are getting through the jobs pretty quickly.

Abby: That's definitely God. He is helping us get the jobs done quickly.

Simple as that, then!

Where to start?

I remember wondering a few months ago if the word blog was short for backlog! It feels that way again right now, although having told someone on Tuesday that I'm not a fan of long posts I feel compelled to be brief.

Books, cd's, conversations with friends, studies for Lent, plus any number of other sources all keep giving me the same few messages over and over again. It's almost getting to the point where I am actaully going to have to stop and take notice!

So, where to start? Well, the long and the short of it is you can't put new wine into old wineskins. It would seem that God has got some new wine for me, but first I have to undergo the transformation into a new wineskin, and as I'm sure many of you know that can be something of an uncomfortable experience. Of course there is one thing I can be sure of...it will be well worth it.

Step up to the plate

There will always be situations which require each of us to 'step up to the plate'.

We will be filled with a mixture of emotions, feeling anxious and excited.

The important thing is that you have taken a big gulp of courage and are standing there ready to swing the bat.

Who knows you might even hit a home run!

Seize the season

These days Lent seems to have become about what you give up for the forty days before Easter. People give up chocolate, watching TV, or some other 'vice'. It is undeniably good to learn the discipline of giving up things we desire, the discipline of sacrifice, but it strikes me that it is what we replace those things with that is more important.

According to wikipedia, "the three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigour during Lent" are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It is worth noting that they are to be practised with 'renewed vigour', implying that we already do all three regularly. It is also worth noting that they are all things to be done, they are activities to participate in.

So, when you are deciding what to do for Lent this year, remember it's about more than what you choose not to do.

Seize the season!

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Philippians 3:12

Ahem!

I was feeling tired this morning and was tempted to give church a miss, but I decided to drag myself out of bed and get over there.

As it turned out the pastor was preaching about Jonah. Every time he said the name 'Jonah' I instinctively looked up as it felt like he was addressing me directly.

Somebody was certainly trying to get my attention!

Don't just stand there...

Pray something!

I first read this book by Ronald Dunn when I was a teenager, and recently there has been a story from the book that has been playing on my mind. I went round to see the friends who lent me the book all those years ago and they promised to try and find it for me. When I got home yesterday the book was on the door mat. I read the whole book that night. Here's a summary of the bit that had been on my mind.

Basically, the story goes that while Ronald Dunn was pastor of a church, the youth choir were to go and do some performances in shopping malls, parks and evening meetings as part of a big evangelsitic event. They needed $4000 to enable the trip to take place.

In what he describes as a moment of "sublime unconsciousness" the pastor agreed they would do a fundraising event. The young people held a pancake breakfast in which they sold pancakes from a marquee under the slogan WhatAChurch! WhatAPancake! The marquee was conveniently situated next to a hamburger outlet called WhatABurger.

They raised $2000 that day. For the next three days the pastor says God beat him over the head until he repented of his foolishness and agreed to trust God to provide the remainder of the money through one person. A few days later the prayer was answered.

The conclusion...

"We raised $2000 selling pancakes and $2000 praying. When we sold the pancakes we thanked the choir members for standing in the middle of the street. We thanked the deacons for giving up their Saturday to cook pancakes. We thanked WhatABurger for the silly-looking chef hats. We thanked Aunt Jemimah for selling us mix at a discount, and Log Cabin as well - and then we worried that we might have forgotten to thank someone.
When we raised $2000 by prayer, we simply thanked the Lord. He got all the glory and all the credit. After all, that's what prayer is all about."

I'm not anti-fundraising, but I am pro-prayer!