Happy Christophermas

On this day a child was born, at this time a son was given and his name was called Christopher Luketon John Dryden.

Up until last night I wasn’t particularly bothered about putting together a blog about a day like today. I don’t think I’ve done it in the past. That all changed when I got the package from my sister which turned out to be my birthday gift. On the back of the packaging she put on a greeting that I couldn’t ignore. The text on it basically said Merry Christophermas! I’ve never had that before and it got me thinking about how good it is to celebrate someone’s birthday on his birthday! That’s a novel idea, might work in other areas as well if it was called for.

Anyway on this Christophermas Day I give God thanks for all the contributors to the life of Christopher Dryden. Thanks to my wonderful parents who invested their lives into making me a man who feared God and understood that without Him I would not make any progress in life. Thanks to two precious siblings who kept me sharp and have stuck by me, encouraging, scolding, rebuking, consoling, inspiring and sharing life with me.

Thanks to the church in which I grew up in Wellingborough which was a reliable stalwart of faith during those crucial formative years and brought a lot of smiles to my face and grounded me with an appreciation for the Bible.

Thanks to those schools that kept me occupied in those crucial formative years of my life – Croyland Nursery, Hardwick Infants, Victoria Infants and Victoria Junior. Thanks to those teachers who oversaw what educational development I made in those years. Thanks to the neighbours in Minerva Way and others in that Queensway estate who for me made my first seven years of existence appear in mind’s eye to be rather idyllic.

Thanks to Wrenn School for the years spent from naïve youngster to naïve know-it-all teenager. Thanks to the great teachers who irrevocably impacted my life not just with their love of education and teaching, but their obvious delight in helping people. Thanks to the other pupils whose engagement with me over that time was memorable for one reason or another.

Thanks to Essex University for the essential growing up years that needed to take place in exposing me to the big bad and good and indifferent world. Thanks for the people who opened my eyes to the fact that people don’t fit easy boxes and life is so wonderfully messy, diverse and complex. Thanks to the Windsor Fellowship and the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (at the time) that also significantly gave so much in terms of work-life

Thanks to the folks at the church in Peckham who took me in during the university years and made me feel a part of them. Thanks to the love and grace of some people who took me under their wing and tried to help cultivate someone still very rough around the edges. Thanks to the care, attention and wider perspective of fellowship and church than I had previously known.

Thanks to the people on the CAMP Committee and in the CAMP Choir for years of insight into worship and offering God the best in song and through music. Thanks for the lessons of voluntary team work and administration – commitment and being at your best giving all you can and not performing to impress others.

Thanks to the British Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day) that has given me the foundation of the faith in which I grew up. Thanks for the many characters who over my time on earth so far have made this journey so eventful, rich in incident and fascinating in its insight in religion, spirituality, culture, fellowship, worship, organisation administration, leadership, communication and building corporate identity.

Thanks to those who have journeyed with me in my years in Stoke-on-Trent – UCB/Cross Rhythms, Blue Mountain Housing Association, Staffordshire University Library and Learning Resource Services, MA Broadcast Journalism at Staffs University, North Staffordshire Racial Equality Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Manchester Metropolitan University Education Unit, North Staffordshire YMCA, North Staffordshire African Caribbean Association, Saltbox Christian Centre and the various partnerships made with individuals over that time. Thanks to the various individuals I’ve come across in this time who have tremendously enriched my life through their example, conversation and inspiration. Thanks to the friends that I’ve made over this time who have really impressed me with the love they share and the way it has changed my heart and head.

Thanks to the members, associates and friends past and present of StokeCOG who have all played their part in affecting my whole understanding of what it is to be church. Thanks to that faith network that has made life so rewarding even in its darkest hour. Thanks to the exciting journey of church development and walking and talking the faith.

Thanks to all those people who popped up on the journey in those one shot moments of life never to be seen again but whose input has undoubtedly help write the story thus far. Thanks to the characters, personalities and figures across various media – books, magazines, web-sites, blogs, music, TV, radio, movies, etc. who have imprinted their creativity into my psyche.

Thanks to two delightful daughters who give me the honour and privilege of fathering. Thanks for their uninhibited love and smiles which they unfurl to melt my heart. Thanks for their stubbornness and insubordinate behaviour that hardens my resolve to let them know how out of love I need them to change their ways. Thanks for their capacity to learn and grow and their infectious spirit of life that reminds me that the purpose of life is to live so that others may enjoy their purpose to life.

Thanks to the partner of days that changed my life and my whole way of seeing the world around me and showing me that true love is more costly and more rewarding than could possibly be imagined. Thanks to the lover of my life who has such a huge heart that overwhelms me in its manifold expressions of that love. Thanks to the companion on life’s journey who loves to offload the issues that oppress and depress as well as excite and delight. Thanks for this supporter of her husband who has dedicated the rest of our days together to love in all of its fullness.

Thanks to the Heavenly Father who has allowed this wayward son to blunder from mishap to tragedy and been there to console and pick him up. Thanks to Him for calling me His son and marking an identity for me and giving me a purpose with gifts and abilities to assist but an innate dependence on Him for all that He is and does. Thanks to the Son who stands as a role model and focus of faith whose self-less life, passionate ministry, dynamic teaching, engaging healing, solid companionship, brutal death, triumphant resurrection, magnificent ascension and glorious return gives more than hope for life lived now. Thanks to the Servant King for showing grace and truth and equipping me with that desire and ability to keep that Kingdom agenda going in all of my life.

I have been a noted loner, but as already evidenced in this abbreviated roll-call of times and places, there are so many different faces that have been a part of the story and made it what it is today. Thanks to those and so many others who may have been overlooked. Thanks for your input good and bad. Thanks for making this a happy Christophermas.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Food, Focus, Football and Changes

Quite a lot to put out tonight and it’s a job to keep it all in perspective, but I’ll give it me best shot.

First of all there is a saying that in terms of the meals of the day that it’s best to have breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. I’ve never really lived by that ethic at all always looking forward to dinner like a king, lunch like a prince and breakfast like the pauper’s apprentice. Still, today I enjoyed the benefits of such a lifestyle.

Not sure if I’ve told you, but my dearly beloved mother is currently with us here in Stoke-on-Trent. That means she cooks. Authrine has no problem with that at all and doesn’t see it as a slight to her cooking. In fact I get the impression she sees it as a weight off her domestic responsibilities. In any case the mother cooks and of late she has been feeding me as if I needed to be bolstered with the goodness that comes with heaps of food. Seriously two full plates of food are not unusual for meals whilst the rest of the family muddle through their single plate. She loves me, I guess. I’m not complaining.

This has a bearing, though, for Sunday breakfasts because such is the filling nature of those breakfasts that I seriously don’t have to think about eating again for the rest of the day. That was definitely the case yesterday when another one of her beauties had me almost out for the count for the rest of the day. It was bad enough that I had a real long relaxing soak in a bath, to come out of that into the kind of breakfast that I received; I was seriously of no use to anyone until I had a two hour nap!

Anyway, because of that I seriously didn’t need anything to eat for the rest of the day and we came back home from the party rather late as I may have mentioned. So this morning now, Mum wants to make the most of the food that’s been coming in so sets up a breakfast for me. Well you shouldn’t need me to tell you how big that breakfast was. And as a result again I did not require another meal for the rest of the day.

I got some chips from a chip shop and it was meant to be a large portion but it was fairly pathetically small in content for a large portion, but even that didn’t bother me as the morning’s shipment would see me through with that minimal top up.

Moral of the story – if you’re filled up properly in the day it should last you for the rest of the day. That’s not just about the importance of breakfast – that’s about the importance of feasting full of the Spirit to be able to motor through the day because you’ve been filled.

Also as a sub-plot moral – it’s good to have a generous, loving mother on your side and an equally kind and loving wife only too willing to allow the mother to get on with what she does best so that her son can keep on trucking through the day.

Believe or not, that’s not the main reason for blogging this evening.

I had the privilege of watching Liverpool vs. Aston Villa at my mate Matt’s house this evening. Last season we watched the equivalent fixture in a pub in Shelton (a district of Stoke-on-Trent for those who live outside the centre of the known universe). In that match Villa was soundly thrashed 5-0 by Liverpool.

On this occasion Villa deservedly walked away from Anfield with the three points for the first time in about eight years. They won 3-1 and it was no less than their performance merited.

Now you may recall that I’ve resolved to look at my approach to football in the light of looking to honour God in that pursuit, so it’s not about being emotionally distraught at the result of a football match or getting over analytical on what that means for events still to be decided over the next nine months. What it does provide is good entertainment for watching the match with a friend.

Young Matt, you see, is a Villa fan and although he’s relatively young in the Lord, he’s not young in the Villa and as an engrained fan it too everything in him not to gloat at the victory. Although that did not stop him celebrating at the key turning points in the match. It was amusing watching him endeavour to compose himself as we related further just to see if I was still alright and needed anything … like tissues. All good quality fun and a privilege as I said to just watch it with the brother at his crib.

I could go into analysis about why Liverpool lost the match, but there’s a principle in it that has bearings for far more significant issues. I link that, however, to the reading that I was doing as I walked from Matt’s house back to my own. As you may know I love reading and I especially enjoy reading whilst walking if I can manage to do that on a long journey from one place to another. Doing so increases the reading time – which is a good thing, and also drastically cuts down on any transport costs that may have been incurred had I sought a taxi or public transport.

So as I stated in a previous blog I’m reading McKinstry’s bio on Sir Alf Ramsey and it has reached the point where Ramsey has taken a small provincial club like Ipswich and got them promoted up through the Third to the Second to the First Division and now in their first season in the top flight they win the League Championship itself to the surprise of all the pundits. Such a remarkable achievement eventually gets him recognition from the FA who approaches him to become the next England manager back in 1962.

One of the provisos of accepting the post is that he completes the 1962/63 season with Ipswich. It is during that season that the Champions suffer dramatically and the principle to which I’m referring emerges. A critique of Ramsey is that he remains too loyal to the players and the system that won him the Championship. By now other clubs have sussed it out and are taking points off the team. The decline sets in so that the season after he leaves the club gets relegated.

So what is the principle in question? It is this – what gets you somewhere is not necessarily what will keep you somewhere. Different methods are required at different stages to maintain growth otherwise stagnancy sets in and worse still rather than progressing we regress.

McKinstry points out that Ramsey’s loyalty to players and systems would also be at the heart of his downfall as England manager. The link to the Liverpool match is that although Rafa adjusted tactics, he was slow to change them sufficiently sticking to a system that no longer met the need of the time. Such loyalty to such a system when you don’t really have the personnel for it can lead to results like the one tonight.

Likewise every day’s challenges have a specific tactic that will ensure success in that day. That particular tactic, however, is not applicable to the following day, or even the day after that. The overall objective remains – to grow – but the method in which that is done must be relevant to the circumstances.

We have to be sensitive to divine instructions to allow us to know how to approach every day, not by relying on yesterday’s methods alone, but seeing what wisdom there is for today through God’s Word. Otherwise we run the danger of not progressing, but stagnating and regressing.

Its application in my life is that I’m clear that I’m all about glorifying God in body with all I have in me. To do that, I need to focus on the author and finisher of my faith – Jesus Christ. In order to do that, however, I need to be filled by, led by and able to walk in the Spirit that rose JC from the grave. Getting all of that done is to be on the look-out for the daily bread God provides me every day in my YMCA work, in my family life, in my church interactions, in the books I read, football matches I watch, conversations I have, food I eat – especially at breakfast, etc.

Being responsive in this fashion allows me to know when my season is to bring forth fruit and then work in line with the season that I’m in.

Just wanted to share that with you.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Updates and Churches vs. Denomination

Now I could just go back to the series on fasting and give another part of the amazing journey of learning about God all the more. I am excited to do so and have lots to write. In as much as I want to do that, and this is not the launch of another side-track series of posts on something else, I did want to create a gap in going from one series to another to establish another personal update.

First and by no means foremost I’ve already fallen off the wagon. Yeah, that’s right after spending a few months back in the library swing of things taking the books back on time having read them and everything recently I slipped back into the pattern of gaining loads of books, reading some of them but just not being diligent in remembering when they are due. As a result a number of books are overdue and I owe some money to Stoke-on-Trent libraries. I’m not proud of that, especially seeing as though I could have renewed the books by phone as well as online. I will learn from that and get better. Hopefully.

My mother is currently with us. It is still weird having a parent living in my home. It’s just odd having her ask me if she can use stuff and do stuff. I’m like … errr … this isn’t right … shouldn’t I be the one asking you? Still, it’s good to have her around. She is a great help with the children as Authrine and I need to get to work during the week. So I’m grateful to God for her life.

July has been a better month blogging-wise here than it has been of late. I’m particularly pleased to note that all the entries posted this month have been pure writing entries without the aid of YouTube clips and I hope to continue this for the rest of the month. From there into August, should God spare my life I won’t be too fussed. It’s just good to church out this material and be able to post it for your perusal as well as for posterity. The LJN’s have also picked up business a bit more over this month which is positive and I’d like to keep that going in August likewise.

Since 2000 if not since before I’ve been asking questions about church and how it should operate according to scripture. I have not come to a firm hard place where that exploration is concerned but there are some things I’m beginning to see. Firstly I’m not sure what benefit there is to denomination. Not ruling it out completely, but it’s something doing local church stuff it just appears as though there are more administrative man-made problems to do with the concept than the alternatives. Not to say I’d leave the denomination I’m in but it does remind that my faith in Christ and His church is not necessarily the same as wholeheartedly following the whole denomination game.

Secondly I’m very interested in growing as church – especially as a group of individuals committing to live life together and support each other’s spiritual development as they get to share their faith with others. Some things that should not be taken for granted are and it’s as though relationship with God and the brethren is not approached seriously. Then, however, there are glimpses of grace that reassures me that it’s worth persisting in and keep the faith in the Christ who gives His life for His bride.

These thoughts are set to play a significant part in some future developments, but just watch this space for more details as and when they arrive. I’m keen to focus on God and what He wants of me in this particular season and I believe He will guide me in every aspect of life in a manner that fulfils His call for me. I’m nervous about it and excited. Keep praying.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

DMCD Family & Friends

I won’t have time to blog properly tonight especially in continuing the fasting series although the good news is there that more material has been developed for it and I’m excited to publish it as soon as I can. Also on the good news front this is a very important week for me writing wise as I have at least three opportunities to really let that light so shine as it were. There are two articles for certain areas of the press that I’m putting together which is rather exciting. Then there’s a report I’m putting together with a friend in an ongoing series that I’ve got to knuckle down and churn out before the deadline. So this week is set up to be a challenging and promising set of days should I walk with Jesus closely through it. Your prayers are very much required in that regard.

This weekend has been a very good one for a number of reasons. Firstly it was a family weekend in a special way. I may have mentioned that my Mum’s in the country to help my brother following the joyous entry of the first child in the wonderful union of he and his beau Nicola. Recently we were able to send Abigail to spend some time with Mum in her child-minding role. This weekend we’ve gone down to MK where the second Dryden family live and have been able to spend some quality time with them.

So it’s one thing to be reunited with my Mum who I haven’t seen in a while. To top it off though my sister and her son Mattaniah were also in the neighbourhood and I haven’t seen her in quite some time. To see her again was especially pleasing and to catch up with her on how life has been was especially rewarding. The time with them all, however, showed just how much time has changed and for all the similarities and family connections that keep us tight, there is still the inevitable fact that things have changed.

I’ve changed, they’ve changed, things have happened and as a result things have changed. We are not the same three children running around our parents causing grief and mayhem. Indeed now my Mum is the proud grandmother to four of five grandchildren that she had around her this weekend. It’s a tremendous blessing and a significant landmark in how things have changed. I’m grateful for the different relational dynamics that make up family both that which makes us connect and that which apparently makes us repel against each other. It’s all a part of the mix and a good founding for similar issues that we can expect in church family and other social expressions of family.

The cake was already quite something, but what crowned everything off was a visit from an old friend who I caught up with. For privacy reasons I won’t disclose that person’s identity per se except to say it is a ‘she’ (which narrows it down significantly … not) and her impact on my life has been great in ways not known especially by her. It was so brilliant catching up on how things have … yes you’ve guessed it … changed. Also great reflecting on the challenges those changes pose for the future and those changes that lie there. It was also fascinating to explore a bit more into what makes up a person and sometimes it’s great fun realising just when you get a hang of the jigsaw pieces in your hand, another load falls into your lap and you have to work those out as well as fitting them in with the current pieces. People fascinate and it was such a pleasure and a thrill meeting my long lost friend.

So, all that to say, with the preparation for that and other work commitments, blogging has not been a priority for the last five days or so. This could also be reflected in a reduced amount of blogging this week with the things planned, but I hope not as there are so many wonderful developments to share and of course this series on fasting has really captured my writing bug and I don’t want to let that go until I’ve done justice to it. So plenty to keep dmcd busy and off the streets! As ever just keep praying, having Mum around the house should be interesting and a tremendous blessing to the family dynamic here. It is also a precursor to a very hectic end of summer affair in and among which, I really want to stay focussed on God and what He’s calling me to do and responding faithfully to that. Thanks as ever.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd