Psalm 1 From A Personal Context

Don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I was brought up by two loving parents and one loving television. OK there were a number of televisions in the time of being brought up at home, but we never had multiple televisions in the home, only one in the living room that was the focal point of the room. As is the nature of technology these televisions would die out from time to time and it was a significant time in family life when we got a new one.

In any case, my two loving parents were devout Christians, firm in their faith and their intentions of bringing up their children to have an appreciation of that. I don’t feel they forced their faith on me, they were not that way inclined, but they did exercise their responsibility as parents in ensuring we were looked after as best they could. That meant respecting them as our parents and abiding by what they said. Whenever we abided, we were fine and enjoyed life at home, whenever we strayed from it then there were necessary consequences that we had to face – they actually got worse as we grew up, not in terms of intensity or abuse, but in the sense that they would lift their hand of protection and allow us to suffer some of the deeper consequences to appreciate the value of abiding.

Reflecting on it now as a 31 year old father of three with two young daughters with boundless energy and an equal capacity to be ‘fresh’ (negative) as well as ‘sweet’ (positive) I appreciate the methods of my parents all the more.

I think I was around 10 years old and we were living at 128 Albert Road in the pleasant town of Wellingborough. There we were living the usual routine of school in the weekdays and church on the Saturdays and domestic stuff on Sundays before the Sunday night meeting. It was very rare when we were not at church on a Saturday. It was one of those rare occasions that saw us at home for some reason.

Dad had to go somewhere, which left Mum having to look after her three children. Seeing the opportunity for real freedom and fun we proceeded to create a growing amount of chaos that got to the extent that Mum put her foot down. When Mum put her foot down, even Ruth (the oldest member of the three of us) took notice. As we had transgressed this day of rest with our antics and our foolishness, our Mother set us about the task of doing something more constructive with our time. As well as memorising the Ten Commandments we also had to memorise Psalm 1 and by memorise she meant word-for-word perfect as seen in the good ol’ KJV (because at the time we were of the belief that the good Lord only spoke in the language of Shakespeare).

For hours we were consigned to our bedrooms to complete the task. It was not straightforward – as it was a word for word deal, we couldn’t afford to let anything slip and whenever we tried it off, our Mother, who wasn’t the world’s most literate person was still sharp enough to notice and so it was back to the drawing board. It took the rest of the afternoon to get it done and dusted and by that time the energy was expended and we were going to be of no mischief to our beleaguered mater. At the time we considered it to be punishment in hindsight it’s one of the best things my Mother’s ever done for us

Years passed. I developed a love for drama which required the skill of learning a script by heart, a skill I’d picked up through that episode. I developed a love for philosophy and politics. I grew and did the GCSE’s, A-levels and degree at university. I settled in London and then moved to Stoke-on-Trent. In all the growth and development the Psalm grew in me and I grew to have a greater appreciation for it. When Kevaughn entered my life, one of the few decent things I did in establishing relations with him in the beginning was go through Psalm 1 and get him into appreciating that life is all about being what God-like and what God-no-like and how that life is established. When I got into relationships with fellow travellers with Christ I would often refer to this Psalm as a point of mutual discovery and benefit.

As you would have noticed I feel compelled to come back to a Psalm within which the foundations of life itself can be found. It is a straight talk about people who enjoy their lives and people who don’t. It’s about the company you keep and the passion that drives you day and night. It will either lead to continuing to enjoy life with God eternally or being like the ‘chaff the wind drives away’.

Coming out of a month where it was looking at Proverbs and understanding the key principles and practical tips to managing life well and in the larger context of my life being destined to do good works that Jesus has already prepared for me, then this month and this season is really all about intentionally pressing into what it is to live a life that finds itself succeeding in any endeavour I go on. What is it to have evergreen leaves and to be thoroughly replenished regardless of the season? So I’ll be spending some time along with LJN just going over what lessons can be learnt from this key Psalm.

For His Name's Sake
Shalom
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Abigail Dryden's Blessing

On the last Saturday of 2006 my daughter Abigail was blessed that is to say we made a huge deal of her dedication back to God (after all He gave her to us in the first place). This also coincided with birthday celebrations for Deborah who turned two years old the day before.

Now when Deborah was dedicated in June 2005 things were very different for me personally. I kinda wasn’t really with it, which was a bit disappointing seeing as do it was such a special day for our first child together. I remember the highlight of the day was just being with my brother and sister again, which, as it turned out, is the last time we’ve all physically been in the same place together as my sister then nipped off to Ghana to get married. Other than that, I just wanted to get the day over and done with and as a result, for me, the day of my first daughter’s blessing was a let-down.

Therefore in the light of the blessings of God during 2006 and how I was in a significantly improved position personally, I really wanted to make the most of the blessing of Abigail. For me my family are not just blood relatives, but people with whom I share a significant part of life. That for the most part is the church that I belong to including the Lawrences and our dear friend Deon among others. This family all chipped in to support the preparation for the day and I’ll never forget the extent to which they went out of their way to bless us with their help.

In this different season of my life I was hoping that a lot of my loved ones from around the country as well as in the community could make it to the blessing. As it turned out for one reason or another one or two dear ones couldn’t make it. However, someone who did make it deserves special mention. Charlotte (pictured with Abigail right) – Charlie to her friends – is an angel. I met her early on in 2006 when I was doing temp work at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). Anyone who’s done temp work knows that it is a challenge sometimes to remain optimistic in surroundings that can sometimes be demeaning, belittling, boring and tedious (and those are on good days). In my time working with Charlie (that makes me a friend then!) she went out of her to make sure I was treated like a human being! She was friendly, helpful, amiable – someone to make the job interesting and a genuine pleasure to work with. Now you don’t make hard and fast friends in the temp world, but Charlie (and her colleague Sarah among others) left a great impression on me for the way they looked after me. As a result I said I’d invite them to the blessing and sure enough I did and she said she’d be there. Now that’s something in itself for someone who only knew me over a few months, it would be understandable if the request was ignored or politely declined. What’s more, Charlie was in New York City when there was dodgy weather on the week of the blessing. So it would have been even more understandable for the decline. Yet cometh the hour cometh the (wo)man. It was brilliant. I was well chuffed, I felt even happier for Abigail to have been blessed with coming across this angel!

That in itself would have made the day memorable in itself. The whole day though went well. My mum was there which made it even more pleasant – she’s attached to Abigail so much we needed pliers to draw her away from the baby when she left the next day. My brother and his wife made it as well and it had been almost a full year since I last saw him, so I was incredibly pleased to see him again and we had a good laugh. The turnout for the event was terrific including someone who’s been another angel for us – St. William Sayer, a guy who’ll you find out more about when I eventually post up another entry on my latest squash craze. Anyhow this guy came with his family and they were brilliant.

So the ceremony went really well, my mate Ray (the dude on the right in the photo left) gave a testimony which moved me to tears and I’m sure had an impact on those seeing if faith is for them. My boss Danny did me a huge favour and stood by me as the official part of proceedings took place – he really was a tower of strength for me and I appreciated it hugely. Surely this man will be blessed ever more abundantly. Hughie – mentor and friend – blessed us with a word on the importance of life even at this early age and how it’s crucial for us as parents to bring up these gifts of God by using His manual. He’s a good talker is Hughie! The food afterwards was brilliant, which is only to be expected as it was made by our First Lady Angela Lawrence (she's the lady next the dude in the photo right), my Beloved Authrine and of course my Mother. In the afternoon after the grub we had an interesting conversation on relationships which got me looking at how Jesus related to people even more.

The day ended for me feeling better for having experienced the day with friends and family. It was definitely a day that will live on long into Dryden folklore as it passes it on from generation to generation. I’m so grateful to God for blessing us with a superb day, with superb friends and family and with two superb daughters in Deborah and Abigail.

4 His Name’s Sake
Shalom
da man cd