Another Step On The Journey

As much as I want to ignore the goings on of this particular time of year I don’t need to on this occasion – it plays into my favour.

My dad was never one for these kinds of thing – not a party man, not one for the big festivities and all that kind of jazz. He is a man who takes most things in his stride and takes every day as it comes. Each day was another day to him – another day to do things and enjoy his day as he does regularly – whether that’s working hard, or enjoying his church or really enjoying his allotment. It was just another day – each filled with the potential to be a good one and for each day he would find contentment. Even when it came to birthdays or anniversaries it was hardly a big deal to him. That level of equanimity really puts the fuss that people can make of days into perspective.

I really value those priceless times of life, and as I’ve written elsewhere, I’m a big believer in landmarks and milestones. It’s important to celebrate these things and mark them as steps along the journey of life. I like the thing we do for Lord’s Supper annually in getting to know the story behind the festival – why it’s a big deal not just from Jesus’ position but where it was coming from in the Exodus and how it was foreshadowing the great work to come.

That’s brilliant – that whole symbolism and involvement in the story of what has been that defines you and what that means for your identity as you go forward. It’s all very encouraging and to note that that is what certain times of year means for people males it fine with me to see people celebrating and having fun at this time of year.

For me, though, it’s not that big a deal because nothing significant has ever happened on the 31^st December or 1^st January. The year might be celebrating a birthday, but I’m not. Lots of things have happened over the year, but they in themselves will be things worth celebrating in themselves as the year comes around. For example, April is a special time for me, because I remember that as the real spring of my spiritual renaissance in 2006. December, as you know, is special because of the birth of my firstborn. August is precious as it marks the birth of my beloved wife. September is special as that is when my sister and my dad were born. My second daughter came along in the same month as my mother, so that’s special.

On it goes, special times to remember special things that have happened in life that are worth celebrating and rejoicing over and over. They provide the opportunity to remember the story of how it came to be, what it has come to mean and where it can help shape the future expression of the identity that it has established.

So it is on this evening I’m chilling in me crib with Abigail. We’re sorting out the washing and drying for most of the laundry that has clogged up over the last week or so. We’re catching up on some Dr. Who from the end season 3 with Martha and Captain Jack joining the Doctor in fighting the Master who has become the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Other than that there’ll be plenty to keep me occupied for the rest of the evening (you should see the laundry!) and then I’ll retire to sleep at the end of what my dad would tell me is just another day. Just the end of another day, at the end of another month, at the end of another year.

Oh but it’s more than that – it’s the end of another step in the journey. God has allowed you and me to see the end to another step and for whatever was in that step and however we viewed it, that we have made it here is worth being thankful for. It is not guaranteed that we’ll make another step and for some of us in some shape or form, just as it has been for us in life, it will be journey’s end. While there’s breath in the body, though, for all the highlighted special times, let us appreciate every moment of every day as another opportunity to enjoy another step in this mysterious, fabulous, frustrating and glorious journey of life.

Speaking of the end of journeys, this entry spells the end of the journey of blogging ... on Blogger. I’ve really enjoyed blogging on this and will always be grateful for the platform they’ve given – hey it’s free – to be able to put these witterings and wonderings for the past four years. As I’ve hinted at here and there over the year I’ve been thinking about alternatives and as you may have gathered, I’ve been blogging through WordPress for both Life Journey Notes and Among Friends and have found it to have a few advantages to Blogger (as well as one or two drawbacks). After wrangling over it for months, I came to the conclusion that it was time to give it a test run for this main blog. It’s a work in progress and obviously a few things will have to be ironed out over the time, but like a number of things occurring in me life it’s a time of new beginnings and so it should be for me blog.

I’ve been really grateful for the improved prolific writing this year on the blog. I think there’s been more good than bad over the year and hopefully in the year to come I can step up the level of consistency especially with the written material, accompanying the YouTube posts. To maintain this level of posts and have a level of consistency throughout the year, is my desire not for my own sake as me tagline suggests. I want to build on these things and see where we go from there. I didn’t have a clue just what would emerge in 2009, but overall I’m grateful to God for some good things that have come up with. So who’s to say what will happen in the time to come – whatever may come I hope to enjoy what happens and take it in some ways better than I have this year.

God bless you in whatever steps along the journey you make – hope you at least get to see His presence in them and like one writer be able to say, whatever your lot He has taught you to say ‘it is well with my soul’.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Power of the Story

I enjoy spending some time reflecting on the issues of life. It’s good for me. It keeps me sane when I want to go berserk. So anyway, today I was given that opportunity to do some reflecting and it occurred to me that the story has a lot to do with whatever success I have in life. I do like a good story. I enjoy a good story whether it’s true or not. Indeed some of the best stories are true and are good for helping me along in life and even some of the ones that don’t relate to reality.

When I think about the steps in life that I’m taking at the moment, it is amazing how they fit well with concepts of the story. It is fascinating how they work well in fitting in with so many things. So for example the story of the Beatles and their rise and fall up until that whole 1969/1970 fiasco is just so intriguing. Why did they fall apart the way they did? Why didn’t someone do something earlier to ensure the parting of the ways would be amicable? But in all those questions, what a story!

Then there’s the story of Manchester United. Now I’m not a United fan as you know only too well, and you’re also aware that as a Liverpool supporter, they are meant to be the enemy. Still, I like a good read and I like football so it’s only fair that I read up on some good stories. The story of Manchester United as written by Jim White is a really gripping insight into how the club that started off as a form of recreational relief for workers went onto become the multi-million pound going concern of the early 21^st Century. The ups and downs, ins and outs, figures and personalities, principles and power-plays are not just about football or a city, but relate to elements of life to which we can all relate in some sense. Not only is it about where we were, it informs where we are and where we could go. All imaginatively and creatively outlined for us in the power of a story.

Lets face it a lot of people get concepts better through a story than they would through it being logically outlined and explained in a matter-of-fact way. Even lectures can rise above slumber-ville when inhabited with the characterisation of someone in a story form.

My own love for the word of God was not through the passionate preaching of our church pastor, or through the insistent children’s classes we had to endure back in the day. It all came about reading those interesting stories and even seeing them in comic form about this relationship between God and man, through the story of God and Israel. Then the widening of the relational picture through the mission of Christ and subsequent spreading of the gospel and the stories we read of the bigger pictures in the letters of the New Testament.

Now as I walk through life these stories inform aspects of it and help me to at least appreciate it in the light of a larger story. After all that is all that history records – what role we play in the story and we know that if we don’t learn from the lessons of history in some sad cases we can be in danger of repeating it. Who wants to live a bad ending?

So that’s the story of the story for the day and as you can see I’m glad to be back and blogging on a regular basis. As you also know I’m intrigued to keep on going with the blogging as an exercise in writing and bringing it together in whatever way I can. In the light of these passions and interests expect some more changes in the upcoming future ... but that’s another story!

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Just Like Starting Over

Our life together, is so precious together, we have grown.

So starts one of the last big hits of John Lennon. I used to be big into the Beatles. Not so much collecting all their records - I had mates who would give me tapes and I would ensure they would get the tapes back having kept a copy. I was into their material especially the stuff from Help onwards. I was also eager on following their solo careers, especially John and Paul's. So it is of supreme benefit that the lyrics and indeed song title to one of John's hits is so appropriate for a blog post.

So I'm here settling in Little Hulton. There was some messing about, but more or less this is it. I'm here and all being well here to stay. In so many ways, however, it's just like starting over. For example, as you would have surely read I've had some IT grief of late and yesterday whilst in Bolton, which is the nearest significant town to me (no offence, Walkden, but ...), I got confirmation that me laptop is as good as dead. (Cue sombre music) It was a faithful laptop for the year that it lasted and amassed a great deal of information that enlightened me and brought great joy to me life. It will be sadly missed as I look onto the next model.

Losing the laptop, though, puts me in a limbo until the new one pops along, but that loss along with other developments was indicative of how the time here in Little Hulton is effectively the end of an era, the closing of a chapter and the start of something else. So with the search for a new laptop (nah I won't go for the Apple MacBook yet, gotta wait til the funds are amenable), it is significant of the new start. New start for church as we search for that; new start for job as I search for that; new start for family as we search for that; new start for what God has in store for this brand new chapter in the life of dmcd.

I really have no idea how things will work out, but I'm excited about all that awaits me. For the time being I'll be laying low as much as I can and with me blogging from the cute little library in Little Hulton, and them shutting for Crimbo after tomorrow I wouldn't expect heaps of blogging til 2010, but I hope to somehow cobble something together to review the year that's been. Here's hoping I may even be in possession of new electronic quill and pen before then in which to record such a review!

In the meantime back to reflecting and considering what next - it's literally like the old is passing away and the new is coming.

It is just like starting over.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

He Will Be There

The nature of a blog like this is to give room to be fairly frank and open in a way that you wouldn’t get in the regular run of things. So if you are eating, or about to eat or have just eaten you will have to excuse this next word picture. I am somewhat verbally constipated. In fact I really mean there’s so much to release through words and ones especially written that it’s a challenge to be disciplined and stay on track with what is to be shared. So if this one rambles on and on don’t be surprised. Although something tells me that won’t be an issue, still, you have been warned.

So as mentioned, and not for the first time, there is so much I could say at this time about some significant developments in my life that have enormous bearing for life as I live it and those around me. For this season, however, I have to keep things under wraps (although thankfully I get to unload and unleash in prayer and through journaling or note-taking as I prefer to refer to the exercise). I am confident there is a time coming soon where I’ll get to share at least some of what’s been going on for so long. Until then …

One of the scary things about spirituality outside the safety of my confines and upbringing is that God really is bigger than I made Him out to be. He thus pops up in the most surprising places, or maybe they’re just surprising because I’ve not dared to believe God is greater than my small mind. That’s of course very scary because then it means that I no longer have a hold on exclusive truth as I comfortably had because of the doctrinaire that I swallowed as a child and took into adulthood. It doesn’t leave things open to the relativistic, individualistic set up that a pluralist society would want to promote, God isn’t that wild. It keeps me, however, from making cast-iron judgements on all spiritual expressions, and it keeps my eyes more keenly open for where He will express Himself.

So in a move that really surprises me, I’ve only made scant reference in this blog to Michael McDonald (oh but it is a good entry, read it, I think it’s alright). Over in the other place I’ve not been that generous to the brother either. That’s a crying shame. He really is a most gifted singer and songwriter as well as pianist/keyboardist. What I like about the brother is how generous he is in collaborating with other artists on other tracks. He’s sung with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Billy Preston, Christopher Cross and others and he’s just a generous operator – or he appears that way and that’s always important.

One particular collaboration for which he’ll be forever famous is with James Ingram on their 80’s hit Yah Mo Be There. Now I’d heard it before growing up, but didn’t pick up on the lyrics. It sounded alright at that the time, but I never really embedded it into me system. It was another pop song, so just let it go. In the last year or so, especially as I picked up interest in McDonald (not by his farm or fast food franchise) I came across the song again.

With the wonders of YouTube we don’t just have to get the official music video but as you’ll notice we get live versions as well in different contexts. Now this isn’t necessarily the best live version of the track – scoot around for yourself and you’ll probably bump into better renditions. What I like in all of them, though, is Mike’s open reference to the Deity as the one to whom they are referring who will be there.

That puts the whole song on a really interesting slant, because it’s an appeal to people who are slipping in life to reach out and call on God and He will be there. Not just as a spectator in your situation, but to get all biblical on you, a very present HELP in the time of storm. That appeal is made in the light of recognising being in a world where ‘take from each other, and give nothing at all’. How insightful are those lyrics?

I cannot say enough for the truth of this sentiment that God/Yah will be there. In these challenging times for me on so many different aspects of life, He is a very present help. He is right there. He is encouraging and challenging, prompting and stimulating, providing and amazing along the way in a manner that I could never expect even from my best friend. Just when I think I know Him, He surprises me again with another encounter through another situation. He is there. He is not there to necessarily pander to my ‘felt needs’. Nor is He there to boost my self-esteem. He is there to remind me that I am His and He is mine and my identity found in Him is a very safe place for me to be in, whatever storms rock the boat in which I’m doing this life thing.

It can only be – it is only His presence that allows me to have peace and joy in what in other circumstances would be stuff to send people over the edge. Because He is there, because he cares, because He leads, because He chastises, because He challenges, because He remains by my side when even I have given up on myself, that is more than words could ever mean to me.

So as I relax and enjoy this Sabbath evening in the company of a loving wife and two beautiful daughters, the experience of rest is heightened not just because of knowing I’ll have some kip and can chill, but also knowing that the Greatest Company of all is right there with me. That’s good news.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Messy Genius Necessary? And Happy Birthday Sesame Street

When last I blogged (not that long ago was it) I was sharing about the assignment run that I’m on at the moment and you catch me right in the middle of another assignment, so again this is not going to challenge War and Peace for length in any shape of form whatsoever.

I tend to use these blog breaks as a way to keep the old mental matter ticking, but give it a break from whatever rigours it has undergone in the time previous to it. As a writer I need atmosphere and momentum to get stuff done. Although I can work off inspiration a great deal, I’m not always one who can just sit down and start typing on the given subject matter at hand. Sometimes I need to gear myself up for what I’m about to write and that takes a bit of mental doodling and messing around online or with other documents and electronic stuff knocking about on the laptop on which I work, before that clear zone is seen and I can effortlessly shift into hyper-work gear and get some serious stuff done. It’s how it worked last night when I got that first assignment complete and although it wasn’t perfect, for what was required in the circumstances I was fairly pleased at getting the job done.

At this time I find myself in a similar situation in at least getting the job done in the perspective and context of that which has been asked of me, for that I’m really grateful with the opportunities to set the infrastructure in place for me to have the run that I’ve had tonight in completing the job.

As I mentioned, though, I need to create the environment. That environment is as much an audio one as it is a spatial one. So for example, I’m more than content working in what others call a mess, because my only focus is the writing implement that I’ll be using as the receptacle in which to pour the mind-juice. However the sound has to be right. That’s why I’m not always keen on working in the same room with other people when I’m doing some typing work or the likelihood is I’m going to be distracted. So I have to be alone. Not only that but there has to be a good background stimuli sound. Usually that’s a playlist I’d have set up with the appropriate tunes determined by the subject matter on which I’m writing. Sometimes however a playlist or the range of songs I have doesn’t quite cut the muster and I need a little something different.

Tonight was one of those nights. After a bit of a listless time searching through to discover what would be appropriate I started wandering around YouTube to see if they had anything that would be of interest. I came across this intriguing playlist in the life of Miles Davis. How I am able to do it is something that God Himself knows, but I am able to pay attention to the nature of the documentary whilst still rattling off the words for the assignment which perhaps says something about the assignment as well as the level of commitment I need to get job done. Hey perhaps it also says something about the level of preparation that’s been put into this in the first place.

Anyway, I was mostly troubled by what was being stated about the man’s life. Now these were contributions made by ‘the people who would know him best’. It painted a picture of an undoubted musical pioneer and yeah perhaps a genius. There would be no doubt that his contributions not just to jazz but music as a whole have been breathtaking in how they have mesmerised and spellbound listeners and influenced those who have come behind him to make him the envy of peers. Those are accolades and tributes that many a man would be pleased with.

Yet the brother’s character comes off all wrong. Riddled with addiction issues and evident pride complexes that would sometimes make him as insufferable as it would make him inspirational to others. I know there is the thing about being driven and focussed, but do you really have to bear severe character flaws to be accepted as genius? Do you really have to be that messed up to be the perfect vessel for works that will have the world applauding? Is that the price for fame and a lasting musical/artistic legacy?

Don’t get me wrong I think the whole thing about Christianity is that it works best with people who are only too aware of how messed up they are. The whole humility and meekness deal is dependent on the implicit admission of total inadequacy and a complete competence to mess anything up given our own way. Some of the best Christian biographies are of those with the greatest character flaws and challenges – that’s not the issue. The difference between Miles Davis and Billy Graham to pull a random Christian out of the hat is that the latter was not only in touch with his ‘greatness’ but was more than aware that this was not from him as it were and the appropriate position then was one of humility. Passionate about preaching? Sure. Gifted at communicating that passion to others? Sure. But all the results and anything came from the One who commissioned him, as opposed to some sense as if his genius was inevitable and others should just be privileged to be breathing the same oxygen.

I have no aspirations for greatness as the world defines it. I’m not seeking after the fame and fortune as it were, but I am very much aware of my pride and ability to take the gifts I’ve been given for granted as if I’m just good that way. As a result I am all the more desperate to live off my dependence on God as the one who sustains me and allows any aspect of my gift to emerge, even on something like writing an assignment.

Speaking of which … we shall meet again should the Lord spare our lives.

Oh but before I go, Google were reminding today that today was the 40^th Anniversary of the most important television programme in my developmental years. I’m sure I’ve blogged it before elsewhere, but I’m happy to blog it again. Happy Birthday Sesame Street – now there’s a creation of genius that didn’t require the guy to live off any significant character failings!

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

500 Up, 500 Down

Farewell August and hello September.

When I was at university I was introduced to radio and b that I mean actually having a go on radio. I had never considered it before although I did enjoy listening to radio growing up at home. I remember especially Saturday nights with the radio on and listening to smooth tunes in the night. I also remember listening to Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman’s Pick of the Pops.

I am so grateful for Lloyd Clarke. He was the first person I met at university and I knocked around with him quite a bit in the first year. He took me to the university radio station as he had a show on it getting to play the tunes that he was so obsessed about at the time as well as develop his love for music. I went along with him and eventually was allowed to talk on it to provide a few links from one track to another.

Before I knew it I was really into the whole radio thing. Not so much the music side, although that was a great education, but the production values and creative opportunities radio provided. I absolutely loved it – all that preparation, research and thinking on your feet involved with it. I eventually got to produce and present my own programme on a weekly basis and I think I had a daily show as well. Absolutely loved it – what should go in it, what regular features, what thing to say in between, who to have on it, what creative pieces to include in terms of sound effects and the like.

I don’t pretend to be any great radio genius although with a name like Chris and the success of Chris Morris, Chris Evans and Chris Moyles I’m sure I was supposed to be good! I liked the whole concept of ensuring there was enough to keep a programme going keeping people informed and the like without ever lagging or becoming boring. Never got brilliant at it, but loved practising it. So much so that it’s still a desire today to be doing radio shows – not music based but with music in it.

All that to say that sometimes when I consider blogging, it’s the nearest I get textually to a radio show – again like the radio, not that I’m brilliant at it, but I like the challenge of putting something together, maybe on one subject maybe on more than one that will at least keep the reader interested.

This is poignant as this is the 500^th post that I’ve blogged on this my first ever blog. Now when I say it’s the 500^th that doesn’t mean there’s only been 500 that I’ve ever posted, it means that there’s been 500 that’s made it online. There have been a fair few drafts that stayed in draft mode and eventually got deleted and a couple of posts that stayed for a bit but eventually got deleted. For all of that I am so grateful to make it to such a significant landmark. I mean if you would have told me back when I wrote that first post in 2005 that I’d stick at it over the next four years and 500 posts I would have been mildly surprised. Yet here we are having covered personal, spiritual and whimsical issues covering the ups and downs of life as well as the issues that have been pestering me. Sure, I’d like to have been more consistent over that time and perhaps would have hit this landmark earlier, but I’m sure you’d agree that this year in particular business has picked up in terms of regularity and I’m hoping to hit the big 200 posts for the year before the end of the month which can be seen as progress.

What matters, though, is not just hitting targets, but being committed to doing what that radio experience was all about so long ago. That is having ideas, exercising the passion for words and communicating ideas and thoughts for people to consider. Not is it an issue of doing that, but doing it to the glory of God from whatever angle and concerning whatever issue.

Thanks for reading this blog – whether new or old. I hope it has made some impression on the thoughts running through your head wherever you are in life. In the meantime my heart’s desire is to get better at this blogging gig, and hopefully a bit more consistent. Here’s to 500 down and who’s to say there’ll be 500 more at a quicker rate? Only time …

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Just Another Late Night Update

Blogging is a bit like talking to an old trusted friend. Who has nothing to say in return. Instead just takes on board what it says and keeps it carefully.

As you’d have read I love putting stuff on here and have been a bit more prolific of late, but in the last few days I haven’t been blogging and you can ask why’s that then Chris? Well go on then. There, and in answer to your question I’ve just been really busy of late. There’s someone staying with us at the moment who was pregnant and has given birth, so that took out Friday and yesterday was a really hectic day as well with hospitality and stuff. As well as that the wife has not been well and I’ve taken some time to look after her – time admittedly that could have been invested in writing, but apparently my wife is more important than blogging. (Shocking, I know, but that’s what the good book says).

Yesterday was actually a good example of what a busy day is all about. Lots of things to do, people to see, stuff to sort through and guests to entertain. By the end for the first time I can recall I actually went to bed and sleep before 10pm! That’s right before 10pm my bed saw me inhabiting it!

It was a surprise to me too, so it was no surprise that this morning I woke up astonishingly early – like just after 5am. It was no time to be up and about blogging or stuff, especially next to me wife. So I managed to make the most of the time texting people and enjoying good company (sure she was asleep, but sometimes that’s the best time to catch her).

Later on I get to go to a party – voluntarily – thankfully I get a good few games of pool in and some fancy grub as well before engaging in a wonderful walk and talk with a precious friend. Hence blogging this so late on. So you may be a bit confuddled at the reference to yesterday as Saturday and not Sunday when you check the date of this post, but when you look at the time like Hercule Poirot you will deduce that the day today was more Sunday than a Monday that has barely just begun.

Lots of stuff going on in general with me life, mostly good at present, but all busy and keeping me occupied. In all that I am still endeavouring to remain focussed on Christ. The reading is trucking along at a good rate as well. I hope to post some reviews especially on the Richard Foster book that I’ve just completed on Streams of Living Waters. I even got something from a Roy of the Rovers special covering the 1980’s which I read in one sitting (or lying-down as I was in the bath at the time). Just started a biography of Sir Alf Ramsey by Leo McKinstry. Fascinating reading so far and I hope to share some of the finding with you over time.

Keep on praying for dmcd with the family and work and other transitions and the like it can be easy to be distracted, but I love Jesus and more importantly am aware that He loves me and has called me to Himself to get His business done. So I want to be getting on with that. Hope to slap on another blog before the end of Monday to maintain a good rate of blogging until then keep on experiencing the shalom offered in relationship with the God of Shalom.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Fast and the Curious: A Grace Expression

I was thinking – yeah shock I know – how the blogposts give an insight into what I’m thinking at a given time, but don’t really offer that much insight into who I am and what I do, which is cool in some cases, but not in all. Then remembering the series on fasting and a current theme on grace expressions everything coalesced neatly into today’s blog.

I walked home from the YMCA this evening from the Chill, Chat & Connect session I help to run on a Monday evenings. As I made my way down Watkin Street, the street on which I live, I began thinking to myself what I would probably blog this evening.

I was reflecting on the life I live and the blessings to which I am afforded at this time and the following concept came to mind. - Fasting in the Feast and Feasting in the Famine. I noticed that this has been a rich season for reading and writing – being able to do things I enjoy and feel gifted at. I considered the fact that Hughie’s invitation to use the upstairs office at Phase 1 or even use an office at NORSACA as a base of operations until my area in the main hall was sorted was part of a wave of good feeling.

So this was about giving me the space and the time to continue the one-to-one conversations as well as reading online material and more Bible study that would inform and shape the writing that would emerge from that.

I then reflected how that would help me work towards the scene of producing writing material for different organisations – COG, NORSACA and the YMCA chiefly and then also from that developing those audio recordings and projects that spin off from that.

Reflecting on such a time of plenty in terms of opportunities and creativity made me more aware of the need to be grateful to God for opportunities. As I put this in the context of making copious notes on the notepad as well as electronically and yet that didn’t cover all that I think and consider made me all the more thankful.

Then I thought again about that episode in Genesis when Pharaoh is bothered by a dream that he cannot understand. Then an imported foreign slave who was also a convicted rapist was discovered to also have a good way with these dreams. What he was about to divulge to the Pharaoh would contribute to the country being an economic superpower in a global downturn. The principle behind the success was relatively simple – in times of plenty as you enjoy remember to store up because days of famine are around the corner and how you deal with the feast will determine how you cope in the famine.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that this is a great life principle. Not every day is sunshine and not every day sees it dull and overcast. Some days are better than others, but all days can be fruitful and productive days however bad it may appear when the attitude is to make the most of every situation so that it benefits the good and the bad that comes.

It is something that has been stressed in our church that we need to make the most of the time that we have to seek God now and develop a passionate relationship with Him. We really have to soak in and retain as much as we can of the good experiences we have now. These will sustain and keep us connected to the generous Father who allows us to have all good things. It will allow us not to make the mistakes of history where a people delivered from soul-crushing slavery by mighty acts of God were only too quick to complain when bad things rather than believe that the same God who did those tremendous acts would sustain them even in time of lack and indeed the very knowledge that it is on Him they rely should not develop a complaining culture but a thankful people.

The script of God’s relationship with people is Him being gracious, loving, merciful and forgiving while we only remember Him when we reap the harsh consequences of our neglect of Him. Sometimes even this memory of Him is short term and convenience based rather than relationally dependent.

So I look at my wife and children, consider the job I have and the people with whom I work and whom I serve, the church that I am a part of with the benefits we currently enjoy and endeavour to savour these times. These are not deserved for I have done nothing to merit them, my own failings and struggles constantly disqualify me from the abundant generosity and love of God.

Yet the reality is that I am witness of His grace and genuinely believe by His grace slowly but surely as Paul and John wrote I’m getting better all the time. Better than that is that the grace of God and His character remain the same – His love endures forever, blessed be His name.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Right Thing At The Right Time In The Right Place

So as you’re aware I’m enjoying writing at the moment and I want to keep doing it on a more consistent basis. Unlike the other blogs on this one I can just about post anything and it will be fine because this is me personal blog where anything goes … within reason of course.

So here I am this evening and I’m dressed in one of my favourite outfits – black trousers, white shirt, black waistcoat and earlier on I had a cool grey and cream tie to go with the outfit. Sometimes I make the effort for church on the Sabbath – it’s all for God at the end of the day and I tend to find that the more relaxed I dress the better I am at church, but I’m sure that’s a mental thing.

In any case I’m dressed here listening to a playlist of five versions of EWF’s In The Stone and I’m reflecting on how important it is to be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing, because if you’re not then things don’t happen. As you know it’s just as bad to actively engage in the wrong thing as it is to not do the right thing. Indeed one of the biggest things that have helped in my relationship with God lately is that reassurance that it’s about overcoming evil with good, that is to say it’s not about stop doing something, but actually re-direct your energies elsewhere. It can get really frustrating being told what you cannot do, but it is of great benefit when you’re pointed to a healthy alternative that will eventually redirect your passions from the wrong you did to the right that you now do.

The next trick, however, is to be clear that you’re doing what you’re meant to be doing. Sometimes I am guilty of getting caught up in things that appear noble at first and indeed on paper they are good things, but the thing about life is the time and energy you take doing something noble and wrong is time and energy that should have been applied to doing what’s right. That’s a tricky thing when so many things are demanded of you by well meaning people, but in the long run with things at stake like eternal values it is far better to be able to say about your time that it was used to take pleasure and delight in doing the right things, rather than just pleasing people and sentiments but not fulfilling that which you’re called to do. It makes sense in the long run.

It’s a fairly hectic season at the moment and tomorrow is a highlight of that with the citywide carnival Six Towns – One City event taking place in Hanley Park. I should be there for most of the day and am believing it will be a beneficial time for everyone there – remind me to write about prayer walking – fascinating feature of life that is. Until then, the fasting series will come back online in the week to come as we address a few more issues before we wind it up. Some book reviews are scheduled in the next few weeks, so look out for that and at some point I’ll have to develop on the theme Audio August. Keep praying for dmcd so that I may be consistent in fulfilling my passion of disciplined writing.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd