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

Five Alive

For some reason when I thought of the title for today’s blog I was thinking about a fruit juice that I think was called the same name because it had five different fruits that contributed to the juice. I’m not sure if it’s still around or if it’s been taken off the market. It would be a pity if it has ... only for the purposes of this blog, not because I like it or anything. Those juice combinations didn’t always work out for the best and if my taste bud memory serves me faithfully that particular juice concoction wasn’t among me best.

All of which provides an insightful, though completely irrelevant set-up for today’s blog celebrating the fifth birthday of my firstborn child Deborah Dryden. I’m not sure if I’ve written that much about my experiences on being a father. I don’t think I have which is interesting when a significant part of my life and evident vocation is to be a father to my children. As me wife currently struggles and hobbles and waddles with our third child steadily developing in her tummy it is an apt time to reflect on the first one out of our relationship.

I didn’t prepare myself that much for marriage and even less for parenthood. I didn’t read up on it that voraciously. I didn’t do the usual sit down with the significant elders in my life who could pass on words of wisdom. Indeed the season before the firstborn’s appearance was a traumatic one for me and the marital relationship. So even if I did make the time to have those reads and chats I would not have had the emotional capacity to take it on. Such as it is then, at the most precious time in a man’s life when he beholds the miracle of childbirth I was not fully with it to appreciate it. No tears rolling down me eyes at the sight of this fluid covered baby.

Thankfully all that has changed significantly over those five years and whenever I look at Deborah now, I know the grace of God is real. Even whilst I was writing yesterday’s blog I was thinking about grace and how it works very much in the parental analogy. In a real way that child has done nothing to deserve the fuss made over her. She hasn’t worked for it, she hasn’t put in her hours, she hasn’t done anything and yet she is the beneficiary of being fed, clothed, catered for physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually by doting parents who evidently love to do it.

Therein is the rub – the bond is love. It’s not based on works done, it’s based on love. That is exactly how I often think it works with my relationship with my heavenly Father. He doesn’t love me for the things I do, He loves me because He is love and thus is the essence of loving out of His character. Thus to a large extent my actions and behaviour does not alter His character. Of course that doesn’t mean I then just stay in baby mode and just be a beneficiary taking it all in and only responding by crying when I’m hungry and belching when I’m finished with the food. The act of gratitude shows my active engagement in the grace exchange.

At five, though, Deborah has developed a number of attributes and characteristics that makes her quite a different being than the one that emerged from the womb of her mother all those years ago. Now she is a most verbose little girl quick to point out when something is not fair as well as give ongoing commentary on the many aspects of her busy life. Albeit a soft girl, she is very wily and knows what note to play at a given time. She is also a courteous girl, which delights me so. I do enjoy some of her verbal ramblings and her general conduct makes me pleased. Beyond that though, I still look at this now five year old girl and thank God for her. She is amazing and to know the circumstances in which she popped out and how that has not doused any sense of joy in her makes my heart glad. Seeing the creative developments flourishing in her and noting her God-given special characteristics makes it ever so exciting to be her dad.

So as five comes and goes today and as she milks being the centre of attention my heart’s desire is that she will still bear in mind that the real centre of attention is her heavenly Father who has given her so much good in her life. My prayer is likewise that her mother and father will also grow in being examples of that life of gratitude in the light of God’s grace, so that she will have an idea where to go as her own spiritual journey develops.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Thanks For The Things That Last

As I’ve noted before I’ve just suffered for the umpteenth time the fact that me hard drive has been corrupted seeing the end of a lot of work over 2009 and usually bringing on a season of mourning and great sadness. It did cause considerable inconvenience over the time I was without it and I won’t pretend it didn’t hurt at the time. Yet unlike on previous occasions the feeling of loss wasn’t overwhelming and causing a sense of misery in me life.

Likewise as you may have noticed Liverpool have been doing poorly in the Premier League at a time when we were expecting them to be challengers for the title. Result after result has been disappointing as display after display has been less than good enough. I recall a time when these kind of results would cause considerable misery in my life and make my moods less than pleasant at the best of times. Yet unlike on those previous occasions the feeling of loss wasn’t overwhelming and causing a sense of misery in me life.

The nature of the move we’ve made has been quite traumatic and what it has involved has been really taxing emotionally, physically, relationally and spiritually. It would usually be my style to be thrust into an intense season of depression and inactivity where I feel rejected by those near and dear to me. That would usually bring about questioning and suspicion on anyone and everyone and a seeming inability to get on with my life. Yet unlike on previous occasions the feeling of loss wasn’t overwhelming and causing a sense of misery in me life.

You’ll probably notice a trend in recent events in the life of dmcd and there’s a good reason for that. This came to the fore of things recently. The wife and I were watching Gladiator yesterday. Now when I offered to watch that with her, she was concerned that I actually said Gladiators. Now let’s be clear, I’m not sure if you can two more opposing programme and media concepts as these two. I won’t try to look for similar things of great difference. On the one hand you have a moving tale of loss and retribution and on the other you have a tacky show of ‘athleticism’ with a catchphrase by one of it’s presenters that was ripped off from Red Dwarf.

In any case so we’re watching the movie starring Russell Crowe and enraptured with the story of a general of men who just wants to return to his home – his family, his wife, his precious son. Then because of political conspiracy and the insecurity of a power-hungry weak son, all that he holds dear is ripped away from him. We are left to wonder what can you live for when all you have is gone?

So what am I talking about? The extension of the question is, why invest in something that can be taken away from you so easily? How fragile is life? How temporary are the things around us – like the success of football teams, like hard-drives, like relationships? I’m not saying have a negligent approach to these issues. When it comes to relationships our whole time on this earth is to make the most of them and share those intangible qualities that make them so special. Herein, however, lies the point behind the different approach I’ve had to the above issues.

Those intangible qualities refer to the eternal characteristics of God – what makes a relationship worthwhile? Love. Unconditional, supportive, always faithful, always encouraging and in every sense a force that looks to see the positive and walk through the negative towards that positive. It’s not a tangible quality. It’s not something that is sold at this year’s sales before VAT rises. It’s not something that was being pushed that well when the recent season was being held. It’s not something that is popularised for what it is through the year, although it is often perverted and distorted to lure and entice mugs into their lair.

I’ve been able to cope a little bit better under these and other storms in life because I’m learning that the investment that matters most to me in life is the investment in life with Christ. The crucial elements of life worth living for are the eternal treasures to be found in the Kingdom of God as found in a relationship with Him through His Son by his Spirit with the promise that this will not be ripped away by the insecurities of man and the powers that be, but will last forever. When I invest in something like that, there’s just no way that I can lose, even if hard-drives, football teams and relationships go by the wayside.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Just Chilling - Just Blogging

When you get the chance to be with your wife and children and enjoy time with them it is so cool to treasure time with them. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be able to do that over today and much of this week. Today sees the end of the first full week we’ve had since we’ve moved here and it has been fairly eventful without being a strain. We’ve been to Nottingham, went to a wedding and also found out a bit more about what can be received online.

It is so important as well as enjoying your time with the family when it presents itself to also be clear on who you are and where you are going in life. It’s been great being able to ignore the mobile phone for two full days and just reflect on those fundamental questions as it is my desire to keep on working out the answers to those issues in the days and months to come.

I have so enjoyed being able to catch some movies with my wife – it’s what it’s all about really, getting to watch these and talk them through with her and get her insights. Lots to be eeked out in them and values that can be applied. Keep praying.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd

And On We Go

Today has been a very good day for me and the family. We be chilling up here in snowy Salford and the family Dryden be here settling in the new crib. The girls were away for a few days whilst we had to attend a wedding. Now we’re all back together and have enjoyed Thursday in each other’s company.

What’s really been a boost is the return of IT to the life of dmcd! Hooray! So expect some more blogging and news on the updates in me life! Hooray! Especially in the run up to year’s end and with the move and everything, there be much to write about! Hooray!

All that is still to come though, I’m really enjoying the time settling into our new crib and thinking through loads of things. Thinking through things all the more means more writing and planning and doing and changing and stuff like that which will all be reflected in more blogging.

Keep on praying.

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

John P Kee Chill Out

It's a Sunday morning where I should be chilling, but I'm here in Stoke traipsing all over the place with a 6ft 9in settee which me mate reckons can fit in the window of the crib in which we live. It will have to as it can't fit in the door! Then as well as that there's a wedding to attend this afternoon. As long as I've got this evening to chill and can also get me own stuff done tomorrow including finding a solution to me ongoing IT problem, I'll be fine.

So enduring all that it's good to have some good music to encourage me at a lull point. Enjoy this quality batch of JPK material.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

When I'm In A Funk In The Twilight Zone

As I’m appreciating all the more, life is not about what we want and desire at any given time. I am appreciating that it is about flexing around the needs of others and being sensitive to the responsibility that vocation brings about in your life. So even when you don’t have your own ICT equipment, the world does not stop turning, your pregnant wife does not stop requiring your love and devotion, your children do not stop needing your paternal attention and care, your workplace does not stop requiring your services for the people that live and work there. Life goes on.

Ideally, left up to me, I’d be at me own home this evening merrily typing away at some inspiration that I’d want to turn into something or other, whilst listening to quality music and also having the girls scampering around to the music. We don’t live in an ideal world and as people know at such a crazy period as moving, the interim period can be a bind. So I find myself in that crazy twilight zone of having moved to Salford already – the vast majority of the earthly possessions of Christopher Dryden are now there. Yet my time at work in Stoke has not yet ended. So mentally, emotionally and in every other way I’m already up there busy thinking about to sort things out for the next step. Physically though I’m still here. Tough life, but someone’s got to live it because the pregnant wife, the children, the workplace, etc. don’t stop even if I want to!

Something that provides encouragement and motivation in this limbo period is good company. I’m blessed to have a Saviour who doesn’t just save to fly away, but saves and then settles within and through the Comforter I am not alone in limbo. So He keeps me going with promptings of opening up things that I didn’t see before when I considered even the most basic scriptures. For example did you know that the end of Genesis 2 defies the most basic thing we learn in mathematics? The implications of that are greater than just a maths quandary. Not only things like that, but he also gives me an insight into the kind of fun things that are ahead even if it would be challenging.

Good company takes you out of the funk you maybe in and keeps your eyes on the prize – that prize is the high calling in Christ, that prize is eternity with Him – no more moving, thank God!

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd

Culmination of Things

So much to say, so little time as Take 6 once put it. In many ways it is the culmination of a number of strands that have been buzzing around in the atmosphere for the last two years or so. I would love to be able to write at length, but time does not afford me to do that at this time.

Here’s what is going on in nutshell. Throughout 2009 there have been a number of developments through each quarter of the year that got me seriously thinking about some of the things God has been bringing to my attention.

In the first quarter of this calendar year (Jan-Mar) there was the big deal about moving from COG Phase 1 to Phase 2, which was a pressured and stressful time for me and me family.

In the second quarter of the calendar year (Apr-Jun) we as a family moved house to a more spacious location, but as you know I hate moving and the process itself was pressured and stressful.

In the third quarter of the year I moved the location of work from the main hub of accommodation activity to the COG Centre which held lots of promise of space to do stuff, but that process was also pressured and stressful taking place at a particularly pressured and stressful time in me life for a number of reasons that maybe God will grant me the grace to share at a later time should the return of His Son permit.

Now you don’t have to be Columbo to know that there’s a common thread in the activities of the year thus far. In the light of that I reflected on some of the thoughts I was having earlier on in the year about being in my element for my season and really moving away from being a misfit that doesn’t fit towards fitting exactly where God would have me to be.

Part of the pressured and stressful element of my life was grappling with enacting some serious decisions to do with that and as I approached the final quarter of the year I enquired of God what would be next to complete the set. Moving church building, moving home, moving work place location – what next? Could it be moving church? How about moving from work altogether? What of moving home? I was prepared for one of the three in the light of the grief that I’d gone through in the year.

As it turned out, God had it mind to do all three. Hence the lack of blogs lately – that and as you know the failing IT situation, which is till ongoing, I’m typing this on a proper desktop computer!!! Can you believe that?? Yes indeed as things would turn out there was a call to move on from church (local expression), from the job and from Stoke-on-Trent and in the last month or two it’s been about working on enacting those decisions.

These are not light decisions as you can appreciate and indeed they have taken the previous stressful and pressured situation through the roof, leading to some most unfortunate scenarios including personal illness, disappointing work performances and strained relations. Still in it all God has remained faithful and in accordance with His Word has allowed me to experience His peace as long as my mind has been stayed on Him. I’m not doing these things on a whim or because of personal issues or general discontentment; this is part of being obedient to what He calls of me in line with the ethos of Psalm 1:3.

So at present we’ve just completed a move from the house we only moved into in April to our new home in Greater Manchester. Just working through the work deal but to all intents and purposes the North Staffs YMCA season in my life is over for the time being. As for the church situation … watch this space for more interesting details on that.

Hopefully an IT solution will emerge in the next week or so in order that I’ll resume regular service especially in the run up to the end of the year.

Indeed as He leads me it really is as if He reads my mind and prepares me in advance for the stuff that’s coming my way and assures me that He is in control however pressured and stressful the situation may be. This is a most comforting thought and will need to be so for the challenges and excitement ahead. Keep praying for me and the family as we enter unchartered territory and see what God has in store for us there.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd

Errr ... About That Hiatus

It’s been a while and there’s good reason for that too – the dreaded technological difficulties. I even have to use the wife’s one to put this together and anyone who knows about the wife’s cute little machine knows that it has to take something for this to be the case.

I hope to have my equipment working real soon.

As ever there’s been a lot going on with me and there are a number of big changes to announce ... in the near future.

I watched Law Abiding Citizen this evening and it got me thinking about the problem with morality. What’s the problem, you may ask. Well the problem as I see it starts in the Garden where it all goes horribly wrong because that enticing tree with fruit good enough to eat was about knowing good and evil. Sounds awfully familiar to me. Since then, without God we’ve got an idea about what’s good and what’s evil because we’ve been doing a lot for both ever since. What’s happened as well is that we have constructs that have endeavoured to enforce good against evil. Constructs we’re respecting, but because its run by people – seriously flawed and open to corruption – then it is no surprise that even these constructs – and that won’t be the last time you read that word in a blog by me – are subject to the same flaws.

Where does that lead us? We can blindly trust the system, or we can cynically denounce it being surprised when it gets it right, or resign ourselves to this being life. Or ... there is another way and that way is ... going to be explored in some future posts.

In the meantime I was really convicted again about the importance of being compelled by the compassion of Christ. Not about right or wrong, or what the compassion of Christ compels you to do. Some may read compel and see it as a negative, but we’re all moved by forces external and internal and when a force like the love of God is moving us to do things that reflect His character, then that cannot be a bad thing.

Ho hum, here’s praying that things will work out for my tech equipment. In the meantime, don’t forget God loves you which in itself is an amazing thing when you consider how good and evil we can be.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
da man cd

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

Where Do I Fit In The Larger Scheme Of Things

This is not designed to be a long blog at all. I’m here in the midst of assignment fun where I’ve got something like three assignments to get completed before Monday and that’s not straightforward at all, but by the grace of God everything is possible. In my case, it has to be really.

Today I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how the Sermon on the Mount is about the character of God being lived out. I’m sure I must have mentioned before how this whole sermon/teaching has to be taken as a whole. There is a piecemeal approach that means people miss out on so much that holds it together and the themes that run through it. For example anxiety is only a real issue and treasures on earth will bug us when our focus is away from brings us into a relationship with God in the first place. That is to say when I think my issues are more important and humility is no longer an issue then it’s no wonder I get anxious. Likewise loving my enemy is nigh on impossible when I’ve forgotten my perpetual state of mourning because of the helpless and hopeless position I find myself in without God. I haven’t even touched on the characteristic of being merciful or being pure, because these cannot be an issue until I recognise just how greatly in need of God I am.

In my current circumstances a desperate dependency on God cannot be over exaggerated. Not just in terms of the assignments and other pressing decisions, but in getting the whole life balance thing right. I am endeavouring not to be anxious about everything, but in everything by prayer and supplication and with thanksgiving making my requests known to God. I want to maintain a sane mind before God, one that remains ever connected to Him. One that recognises that without Him I am nothing and that all I do is only possible through Him.

What these events continue to do is expose my own heart to me, which is another crucial element about the teachings of Christ that cannot be overlooked especially in the craze of ‘what does it mean to me’. It is just more obvious than ever that rather than make the bible fit my world I need to fit the world that the Bible is painting and ask myself how do I fit here. How do I fit in what God wants from His children? What becomes ever more evident and all the more harder to live up to is that this is a theocentric business and God does what He does for His glory and to be a part of that is a privilege in itself. The sooner I get that in my system, the sooner I feel liberated to enjoy the part I play in God’s orchestral symphony classic.

Right. Now back to those assignments.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

What Have You Got To Say For Yourself?

It was a pity, really. I didn’t plan to end it that way at all. As I’ve noted on a number of occasions I love the writing gig and particularly the rhythm of blogging. So to have it abruptly cut short with apparently no explanation was not of the plan at all. Here is an attempt to explain it which has to be as niftily put together as possible so as not to over-step the mark.

So from 17^th and 18^th. Now if I’m not very much mistaken, that was the weekend where the youth had taken over the new facility – let’s call it COG Phase 3. As a result the deal about going to the Potteries Centre was meant to be covered by Hughie and myself. OK what do I mean by the Potteries Centre being covered? Well October was Missions Month for the church and doors had been opened and favour found to be able to put up a presentation on black history with all the cultural effects and to be able to promote the community elements of COG. That was to take place in four of the five Saturdays in the month.

As it turned out I hardly spent that much time at the Potteries Centre and spent most of it staying on at Phase 2 in case anyone turned up. I was also scheduled to be seeing a bible teacher I respect highly who was popping into the city. So I curtailed what was left of the Potteries Centre gig to go up the other end of the city and really enjoy some outstanding material on conflict, which as things are developing will be ideal biblical principles to follow! They had a veggie chilli on offer during the session that was simply delicious! The following day was meant to be completely dedicated to the preparation of the micro-teach assignment that’s been taking up blog space over the last Tuesday or so. Hence me not saying much online at that time. I did blog on the DTLLS interblog … but that doesn’t count here does it. So I was meant to focus time and energy into it, but it didn’t really work out. The Monday was spent thinking about and preparing for the event on that Tuesday.

Tuesday came and went and I was thoroughly disappointed with the level of performance I gave. It was a truly disappointing work put in and made me think that enough was indeed enough. You see there had been a driving issue that I had procrastinated over for a number of weeks which was linked to an issue that’s been outstanding for a number of years. Things had finally come to a head on that Tuesday night. It was a very significant time and I procrastinated no longer. I put finger to keyboard and finally put together the hardest letter I’ve ever had to write, but let me tell you it was the most liberating letter I ever had to write. The consequences of the letter are rather wide-reaching indeed, affecting every area of my life from the most intimate to the seeming most mundane. I would understand someone thinking I’m being over-dramatic, but in actuality even now the full effects of what that letter contained are yet to be experienced.

In any case, that Tuesday night/Wednesday morning letter writing exercise was immensely releasing. So we’re on Wednesday 23^rd October and this was the day where I was able to get some semblance of settling down to the regular hum-drum busyness of life. That included going to a multi-faith event in the evening. That proved to me once and for all that multi-faith initiatives are fraught with inherent problems that cannot be wiped over by joint community projects. The event was nauseating to my spiritual antennae only in seeing different faiths evidently competing for just how good they are on values that show their ability to co-operate with each other. I was glad to be gone from there. So that was another late night and so no time for blogging.

We move onto Thursday 24^th October where there was a meeting of those in a community organisation in which I’m involved. One thing I can definitely say about the experience of working in these areas is that it’s so important to make the time and exercise the passion for such things. It’s also important to ensure these don’t become personal fiefdoms where however the systems are set up they are still heavily dependent on an individual being the key to all information. That’s not always possible, but the level of energy required to keep it accountable is substantial – especially for a voluntary organisation. If there is no infrastructure for that to take place, sometimes the most notable course of action is withdrawal. Thankfully because of other far more overwhelming factors that is the least challenging issue. Another late night, especially as under the stresses of the week I had not been able to maintain a good sleeping pattern. That night was a good night’s sleep especially having dispatched some important correspondence in the appropriate location.

This is only giving part of an explanation of what I have to say for myself. There is still plenty to share, including more on what the correspondences were all about and where I’ve been in the last week or so, or more accurately how to get a break whether you want one or not. That’s to come in a future blog entry. For the time being. Know that I still love God, I love life, I love people especially my wife. God has been so amazing to me and I’m looking forward to continuing to spend a lifetime of gratitude in going where He wants me to go. Stay tuned for more updates.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd