Take Your Time

(You may be asking the good question – oi Chris, where’s the teacher training class blog entry for today, didn’t you go to teacher training today? The answer to that is no, I did not go to teacher training today. This afternoon I was in Leicester for the YMCA Regional Thanksgiving Celebration which finished after 9pm. Did a workshop on the Christian Spiritual Development Toolkit that’s been published for the region. Interesting document, good workshop with some dear colleagues and new friends – all very good. Also spent some time with my good friend, Ray. So no teaching today, but the lesson learnt is that not teacher training need take place in a college!)

I don’t talk to my dad that often. Not because I don’t like talking to him, or I don’t love him. Ours is just a relationship that’s not been about constant phone calls and that kind of stuff. I know he loves hearing from me when he does and finding out how things are with me, but he’s not one to make a big fuss. It’s one of the endearing features about my dad that he doesn’t usually make a fuss of these kind of things.

Another really endearing quality of my dad is his ability to just focus on doing what he can get done in the time that he can do it. There’s no rushing him, there’s not pressuring him. If he can do it, he will do it. If he cannot do it he will say he is unable and not get bogged down by it. If he’s going to do it he’ll take his time and get the job done properly.

I have yet to learn from my dad in all these areas of life. I still find myself being somewhat manic in addressing some matters and in the mania not really giving my best to a task and ending up disappointed in the outcome. There is still a significant part of me that has learnt to take my time with things. Now for me that means not being that rapid in completing things. I can read fairly quickly, but even there I’m not reading especially speedily for the sake of it. I just tend to take on large tracts of words in a given sitting. Other than that I’m a bit of a stroller. Yeah I type a bit, but even then if you look at me the fingers are doing the work, but the rest of me is going at a pedestrian pace.

I find it more enjoyable to take my time to get something done. That way I can savour it a bit more, check it out in terms of its context both what has gone before and what might be ahead as a result. It’s relaxing and soothing to be under great pressure to produce, but know that as you reach the end the goods will emerge.

I say all this to celebrate the legacy of my father, who is still with us but has left his older son with a great sense of timing. I sometimes believe that in as much as God hears the cries of His people and sees their plight, there is something about Him in which He calls His children to step out of the immediacy and see things from his perspective. See how in actual fact the end is not the end, but the beginning, and how the beginning is not the beginning but the end of another chapter. Then in viewing things from His perspective and trusting Him with all the details it is no surprise that there is a great peace and serenity even in the midst of crisis.

The sentiments of the song below reaffirm that, in as much as the rush is on according to some, and there is an element in which we have to be mindful of the time, in the Kingdom economy based on eternity we really do have all the time in the world for love.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Time, Team and Trust

Good. Those 24 hours were necessary to get a better grip on what I was going to rant on yesterday. I love football. I’m not ashamed to say that. It has been a glorious expression of many of the better qualities of life to me and has not been so much of an escape as an affirmation of some of my better capacities. As a result sometimes football informs my faith and nowadays my faith tends to inform my football. Often I would refer to Manchester United in derogatory terms for they are the foresworn enemies of Liverpool Football Club. Now I’m a lot more comfortable having a rapport with people and using the enemy lines to affirm our shared interest in the beautiful game. Facts don’t get in the way of enjoying things and now I don’t have to get involved in bitter rivalry, rather I can have fun and actually not take things so seriously.

Usually.

On Monday, however, that fun aspect went right out of the window. Tony Adams and Felipe Scolari were summarily dismissed from their managerial positions at Portsmouth and Chelsea respectively. These were managers who were not given a full season to establish their credentials at their clubs. These are managers who have suffered because of the frightening and unrealistic demands of the clubs in question. I can tell such was my rage at such ludicrous decisions that I went on a five page bender of text spilling my guts on how it upset me.

Now 24 hours later processing this through the lens of faith, here is really my issue. To do anything right and for success in anything in life calls for three T’s – Time, Team and Trust. All three are necessary and work together to produce the goods. Without one of these ingredients the cake deflates. What is apparently the case in these situations is that the managers have been denied one or more of these assets. The most important one though is trust. You’ll notice how much easier it is to say you love someone than it is to say you trust someone.

Trust is not an empty sentiment. Trust is the intentional whole-hearted investment of something of worth into someone to produce something. I trust you, therefore I invest myself in your heart and expect you to produce confidentiality where necessary. I trust you and prove it by giving something of worth, something useful for the task at hand. Now what happens when I don’t get what is necessary, when it can be given, is that I’m disabled from the task at hand. That trust that is necessary if something is going to be productive. The time then follows because of the understanding in the relationship – what can anyone do in six months? What can anyone do in three months? In a football club where it’s taken people years to be successful. These decisions are so counter-productive and if you know your best people are against you that breaks up the whole thing about team. So you don’t trust, there’s no team and there’s little surprise that there’s no time. This however breeds a dangerous environment for anyone coming in there.

With the reports about the players not being supportive either, this is not the type of condition that you would want to expect people to thrive in. So for both Chelsea and Portsmouth the developments are retrogressive steps which they will live to regret. I feel for the fans especially of Portsmouth – the Chelsea ones have been spoilt by Mourinho and are now deluded. I especially feel it for Tony Adams who has appeared to be such a decent guy and if you really want to trust the guy you’ve got to give him time to set his business his way and if you don’t have the time – don’t hire the guy!! As for Scolari – that poor brother is just another victim in the quest of the new Jesus Gil – Roman Abramovic – to conquer all. He will learn eventually that successful teams are not made that way by which time the club will be seriously ruined. This is all because he doesn’t take time to build team based on trust.

May we learn from these experiences and thank God who trusts us with life and His Son and His Spirit to produce in due season.

(For the full splurge of writing that I had on yesterday see what I put over here.)

For His Name's Sake
Shalom
dmcd

Alright God I'll Do The Dishes

So it’s almost 23:00 and I’ve come home from a brilliant Men’s Meeting to find the bedroom in a state of repair as laminate flooring is being put down. Then I get to the kitchen to see a wonderful array of crockery awaiting a man’s touch to bring order in chaos. Then in looking for me two bakewell tarts and two apple pies I discover that one of the bakewell tarts has disappeared and know it's new home.

As I survey the wondrous scene of blissful domesticity I go to grumble when I get a thought. The thought is of God asking who do I think clears up the mess of my sins and I say grudgingly that He does. Then He cajoles me to answer the question properly before which I point out to the Almighty Creator that it’s one thing to deal with the sins of the world, it’s another thing coming home from a long and tiring day to realise you can’t feel comfortable in your own bedroom neither will you be able to get to sleep without sorting out the mountain of plates and assorted other crockery that will need to be sorted tonight as I’m out and about early tomorrow.

At this list of overwhelming evidence the Lord again points to the cross and my stubborn, sulking child is replaced with a knowing gratitude and humility at the pain that my Saviour endured without a word of complaint. I consider the stripes by which I’m healed; I consider His crushing for my evil-doing and sin-nature. I reflect on the wondrous cross and resolve that I reckon I will do the dishes, have me dinner (yeah my eating patterns are almost as wacky as I am) then retire to the bedroom and give thanks for Calvary before getting the sleep that He’ll bountifully supply and should He see fit I’ll get to start another wonderful adventure with Him all over again.

Having said that, if you do have another bakewell tart, Father, you know it will find a good home in me tummy.

For His Name's Sake
Shalom
da man cd

Christ Is The Gospel

OK so far in the year it’s not going quite as planned on the blogging front. I’m evidently spending time elsewhere doing other worthwhile stuff and the regularity I wanted to get in terms of entries hasn’t quite hit what I wanted it to. I’m not beating myself over it. I realise there’s a very pragmatic resolution to the issue which is to choose one of two paths. Path one is just to be more disciplined and clinical, brutal and ruthless in separating the time required to do more regular blog entries. The second option sees me relaxing under the current regime, appreciating the fact that the opportunity and time to be as regular in my blog entries just may not be possible at the moment and I should just blog when I can. At the moment it’s actually the former option that’s most appealing as the latter is only too much in my nature. I have a tendency of not being more diligent and pushing things through, so because I want to write more I’ve got to push myself. In all that though, I have no intention to live off guilt or poor quality just to fulfil this requirement.

Right. One writing commitment that I’ve been fairly consistent with over the last month or so is the Daily Thought initiative. If that were my blogging requirement I’d be fine as more often than not, although not at a time I’d prefer, most weekdays I am producing that 100 word limited piece for staff and friends. Without blowing my own trumpet, I am pleased at the regularity and challenges that I’ve been able to produce the Daily Thoughts – 21 entries in March and 22 in April is a fair return on the commitment and I trust by the grace of God I can keep that going. In terms of web access for that, the NSYMCA web-site is undergoing some adjustments at the moment which is why the latest entries have not been posted as yet, although that could possibly change by the end of the week depending on commitments.

In any case during the month of April I was going through a series on the good news and highlighting some of the different facets of the gospel that we see in scripture. I enjoy the structure of an overall theme for the month that guides the Daily Thoughts. I was thinking about reverting back to the random nature of them, but for the upcoming month at least I don’t think that will be the case. Anyway, back to good news. As the month of April came to an end I wanted to end the series looking at the Spirit, Father and Son in the light of what the good news is all about. In coming to the final entry of the month I was really drawn again to outline my understanding of what the gospel really is. This is in no way meant to be a definitive word on what the gospel is and what life so far as proved as well as the month’s series is that there are so many avenues into understanding what the gospel is that it’s best to be relatively flexible on the issue. Having made those concessions, however, there is also something fundamental about the nature of the gospel – it’s not just about advice or a way to live a moral life, it’s not just about any god or a little thought-provoker to reflect on life. The heart of the gospel to me is the person and work of God through His Son Jesus Christ. That’s why sometimes in this pluralistic age we live in we have to be real with the fact that we’re not compromising on the exclusive nature of the gospel – exclusive in the sense that the message is about Jesus Christ being the only way back to God for humanity to be reconciled as their sins alienate.

Without going any further and spoiling what I’ve put together, here’s what I’ve elaborated on in terms of what the gospel is all about.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:16, 17)

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1, 2)

The good news is all the more glorious because it is based on bad news. The bad news was that we are by nature rebels against God. This is expressed in our consistent nature of missing God that is to say our thoughts, actions and words fall short of what our Creator designed us for. We keep missing God and not only so but we then set up for ourselves an alternative to God, namely ourselves and the idols we set up instead – whether that’s work, money, family, sex, hobbies or whatever. For all our best intentions and noble activities we fail to hit the standard of God and so we behave like fatherless children with apparently no restraint as seen in the atrocities of humanity over history and even our pet foibles.

It is in this scenario that God chooses to remedy the situation and reconcile us back to Him in the only way that would express His character of Holy Love. Love in the essence of being and doing that which gives maximum good in any situation, Holy in satisfying the qualities of justice, righteousness and perfection in all that He is and does. To satisfy this and the great chasm our rebellious nature created, God Himself took on all the punishment that we deserved. In so doing He created a way of escaping that punishment and turning rebels into the sons that He had created initially.

That is why it is only in the Son that we find hope of redemption and full life. For it is in the Son that we see how we were created to be, reflecting the image of the Father and Creator who made us in the first place. Now it is not anything that we can do to earn son-ship, there’s no great acts that can merit God’s favour, which is why good works and noble words fail to meet God’s requirement. What now meets His requirement is a Spirit-filled life that turns away from the rebellious lifestyle and towards one set to please our Father. Now, by faith in Jesus and the power of the Spirit that raised Him from death to life, we are children of God with the hope and assurance that one day we shall be reunited with our Brother, our Friend, our Lord and our Saviour and see Him as He is.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
da man cd