Rest

The world is flooding with bad news. The pandemic is throwing up moral dilemmas demanding wisdom and courage in decision-making. What is right? What is wrong? What is reasonable? What is going too far?

I may be willing to risk my own health in order to see family and friends, but what if that risk puts me on a respirator which pressurises the over-worked, traumatised health care workers? Which leads to bereavement and guilt borne by those I love and long to help?

Tossed about in this pandemic storm and washed up on a desert island, I crawl up the beach to you, Jesus, my strength and my life. I don’t know what to do, Lord, but I trust you. I shelter in your loving, everlasting arms, drawing comfort from your presence. You help me regain perspective and clear the clouds of confusion so I can see the bigger picture.

The bigger picture is that whatever is happening in this world right now, the gift of God is everlasting life in Jesus. Everlasting. Everlasting and good, because it is lived in the presence of the God who loves the world so much he sacrificed everything to save it. We have been saved. We can’t see beyond the horizon, but knowing you, Lord, we trust that there is life beyond the horizon.

Everlasting life. No more sorrow; no more tears. I rest in the promises of God.

Worship and waffles

What do waffles and worship have in common, besides the alliteration? No obvious synergy there, but just back from my first taste of the combination and I can confirm that it is a winner.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. I have tasted. The worship was sensitive and profound, deep and meaningful. Within the worship set, we were invited forward to share bread and wine at the Lord’s table. Afterwards, we queued to share waffles and coffee, laughter and news.

The Lord works in mysterious ways. Waffles and worship. Who’d have thought?

Summertime

Summertime. Gathered in the sun, in the Son. Sharing cake; sharing concerns; sharing joys. United in heart; united in mind; united in Spirit. 

Some of us eventually had to find shade. Too much sun and we’d be burned. Too much Son: impossible. 

We were a small group, but the others were in our hearts. We were a small group, but the concerns and troubles of the others were on our lips. We were a small group, but the chatter was noisy and the laughter never far away.

Next time we’ll start a study encouraging us and teaching us how to listen more effectively to God. If we can’t hear him, how can we know him? Next time we’ll open our Bibles. Next time we probably won’t eat so much cake and scones – apologies to those who missed the feast this morning!

God is good. In rain and in sunshine, he is good. 

He is especially good in sunshine.

Grandma's Recipe

So I’ve just made some devil’s food cupcakes from my Grandma’s recipe. The trouble is, when Grandma was whipping up a cake, she was literally whipping it up by hand with a wooden spoon.

A certain number of strokes. You really had to have some oomph in you in those days to bake a cake successfully. 

So the directions are sketchy at best. A couple of tablespoons of butter (oh, heaped tablespoons). Four squares of chocolate (and how big is a square, I ask?). Bake about an hour or so. Bit vague.

Well, the result is out of the oven and they look like they might pass muster with the little guys who may be tucking into them tomorrow. Whether or not they would have passed Grandma’s muster is another thing.

Sometimes directions in the Bible seem pretty sketchy, too. We look for answers there to the dilemmas that distress and absorb us. We pray fervently and would be pleased to receive an email or text from on high advising us. Or we think we would be pleased to receive such an email.

Each of our lives is made up of some identical ingredients, just like most cakes have at least one egg or some flour. But then we all vary with the rest of the mix that makes up our lives. 

God knows the plans he has for each of us. He has the recipe and though it isn’t written clearly anywhere, when we stick close and listen for that still small voice he can guide us into the right ingredients and the right ratio. 

Grandma would have expected any devil’s food cake made from her recipe to come out the same as hers. But God doesn’t expect any of us to be identical to anyone else in all of his creation. We are all unique and special and whether we look like cupcakes or layer cakes, (maybe I’m taking this analogy a tad too far here...) he loves us. 

And with that I’ll go find some sort of topping to slather on the cakes.

Pernicious Weeds

Coming back up the drive, Don paused to gather as many dandelion flowers as he could before they puff themselves up into a jillion seeds which rain down on the garden and invade the cultivated landscape.

They get put away into a bag, in the bin, where their seeds are contained, wither and die.

Dandelions flower in many areas of our lives and culture today. They add colour and variety but can be pernicious weeds if we leave them to flower and reseed. Sometimes we need to be ruthless in recognising potential future dangers and getting rid of them before they spread. Different approaches to law and order, for instance. Acceptance of sexual innuendoes which may usher in abuse. Gender discrimination over employment and pay. Tolerance of drinking which can lead to violence and social unrest. Outlandish bonuses for managers even when the work done is below standard. The list goes on.

Dandelions in my own life? Sure, plenty of them. Self-indulgence which can undermine my work ethic and sabotage the goals God has for me. Laziness which can keep me from effective prayer. Fear which can short-circuit faith and become a ruthless slave-driver. And so on.

As Paul wrote to the Romans, ‘although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ‘ Or in another version, 'the moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. ... I’ve tried everything and nothing helps ... is there no one who can do anything for me? ...

‘The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.’

I am so grateful that I can ask him to not only break off the dandelion flowers of sin in my life, but actually dig them out, and uproot them so they can’t re-flower. 

I want no pernicious weeds in my life, and I thank God that he can get rid of them for me.

Summertime Blues

Given the summer we’ve had – or rather, haven’t had – I’d feel pretty justified claiming I had a case of the summertime blues based on the rain and cool weather. But it isn’t the weather that threatens to give me a dose of the summertime blues.

Rather, it is the fact that we are at the end of August, schools are back here in Scotland, this next weekend is Labor Day in the USA which is always the signal that summer is slipping away, and Robbie is packing his bags.

He leaves on Thursday to return to Bethel Church and continue his course at the school of supernatural ministry. He’s excited and I’m excited for him – though his absence will leave a quiet space which nobody else can fill. 

We’ve enjoyed the laughter and the fun; painted some of the house together; talked into the night about ideas and God. 

Only God never changes. Only Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The rest of us are in a state of constant flux. That’s good, because I’ve never been someone who enjoys routine for too long a spell. But it’s bad, because once a moment is passed, it’s gone forever.

We enjoyed sharing laughter looking at old photos last weekend. We all looked so young. I don’t like the implication there. 

Well, the good news is that while autumn may follow summer, winter follow autumn, and spring come next, summer will return. It will be different, but it can be fruitful and fun again.

Suddenly my mind’s jukebox is playing the song from Carousel (which Liverpool stole for their own song unfortunately) – walk on, walk on with hope in your heart.

That’s the great thing about being a Christian. There is always hope. There is the expectation that tomorrow will be different – and that’s not a bad thing.