A Fairtrade Christmas Greeting

Little Town of Bethlehem

Motivation - Conclusion

Over the last month or so I have written three posts on Motivation. If you missed any of them you'll find them:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

These posts were regarding the things that motivate me to run. Essentially the motivating factors I talked about were:

• Enjoyment - it is something I really enjoy doing (but it is more enjoyable in the daylight when it is warm and sunny, rather than in the winter when it's dark, cold and wet).
• Targets - if I enter a race then I need to train to make sure I go either as fast as possible (say for a 5K) or simply am able to complete the course (in the case of a marathon).
• Accountability - if I share my training schedule or my short term goals and targets with others, then I'm more likely to achieve them.
• Give yourself no choice - in part 3 I said that the best way to complete a long run is to make sure that the half way point is a long way from home - this way the option of cutting the run short is not really there.

One of the things about motivation is that it will be different for everybody. I am very competitive and therefore the thought of just entering a race and getting round doesn't really cross my mind. Even if it was my intention at the start, as soon as the race starts I want to set a new personal best.

But how does all this relate to my life as a Christian? Discipleship and discipline go hand in hand and the Apostle Paul used illustrations from athletics to draw conclusions about the Christian life (e.g. 1 Corinthians 9:25-27).

Enjoyment

There will be times when it is easy to be disciplined in the Christian life - to attend church, to pray, to read your Bible, to talk to people about your faith. But those times won't last forever. There will also be times when it is 'cold and dark and wet and 4.30am'. What we need to remember is that these times are not a sign that God loves us any less. Rather they are a natural part of our spiritual discipleship.

Of course our ultimate motivation is love for God. But there will be times when we need a little help to keep us on the right track.

Targets and Accountability

All too often we see our Christian life as a thing that is between God and us - as an individual. And yet something is always a lot harder when we're trying to do it on our own. Having someone who turns up at your door ready to go for a 5 mile run with you, or having someone who will ask you how many miles you ran in the last week, are both incentives to keep training.

Likewise having someone to pray with regularly; or agreeing to follow a particular Bible reading programme - and share that goal with someone who will ask you how you're doing and what you're learning; or meeting with a house group every week - these are all ways that will make the hard task of discipleship that bit easier.

Stepping out in Faith

Being 7 miles from home half way through a 14 mile run, requires that you run 14 miles. If you just do 14 one mile loops around your house there is always the option to cut the session short when you start to get tired.

Sometimes we are aware what it is that God is asking us to do - we're just reluctant / nervous / scared about doing it. And so instead we look for mini-steps, so that there is always the option of bailing if things don't turn out as expected. Instead we should trust God and take the risk. When we're '7 miles from home' we don't have any choice - we have to trust in God.

As I said earlier, we're all different. What motivates you?

It's the end of the world...

People seem to be posting Mayan calendar jokes like there's no tomorrow.

The evening news had a story on the Mayan calendar and how it is predicting that the world will end tomorrow - and the measures that some people are going to to be prepared. A very few have access to end of the world proof bunkers (although I'm not sure how they're supposed to work) - but most of those who were interviewed seem to see this as a chance for one last party - but I'm guessing that most of those people will have done their Christmas shopping, just in case...

If we truly believe that the world will end on Friday, we don't bother making plans for the weekend. We certainly wouldn't have spent a whole heap of time and energy getting ready for Christmas - and I wouldn't have planned a Carol Service for Sunday morning. Nor would I have written and scheduled three more blog posts to go through to the 24th.

Jesus tells us that the world will come to an end, but no one knows when it will be, and therefore we are to be ready at all times. This does not mean having a bomb shelter at the bottom of the garden, or having the kitchen cupboards stocked with tins of baked beans. What it does mean is that we are living right. It means our relationship with God is right and our relationship with others is right.

The news that the world might end tomorrow should not cause the Christian any great concern...because as a Christian I should be living as if the world could end tomorrow - and that's how I should be living every day.

A Song for Sunday

I'm starting to put together the list of carols for our carol service on Sunday. Some of you may not have heard this version of a traditional favourite.



The original words were written by Isaac Watts based on Psalm 98 and was first published in 1719. The music is believed to be based on a melody by Handel. Handel spent some time just up the road from here at St. Lawrence church on Whitchurch Lane. I'm sure he would have liked what Chris Tomlin has done.

Jubilee

Following on from the instructions on Sabbath in Leviticus 25, God gives instructions on The Year of Jubilee. This event was supposed to take place every 50 years in Israel - after 7 x 7 years. Essentially it was the year when debts were cancelled. If at any point you had fallen on hard times and had been forced to sell either your land or yourself, as a slave, then the Year of Jubilee was the year when you got your land back or you were freed from slavery. Future generations of your family were not saddled with the consequences of your misfortune.

Now depending on your perspective this is either a really good or a really bad idea. For those at the bottom, clearly it is a good thing - a year to look forward to. But for the rich and the wealthy clearly it would not be looked on in the same way - how are you supposed to build up a property portfolio if every 50 years you're supposed to give everything back?

It is perhaps no surprise that there is little or no evidence in the Old Testament that the Year of Jubilee was ever celebrated as God intended. We do find a possible reference in Jeremiah 34:8-11. Here it seems as if the people become aware that they have not been doing what they're supposed to do, and so they let their slaves go - but afterwards they changed their minds, and enslaved them all again.

What we think about the Year of Jubilee very much depends on the perspective from which we read. But we should never forget that God is concerned for the poor and the powerless, and his disciples we are called to that love and concern too.

 

Christmas Flash Mob

How was your weekend?

How was your weekend? I'm guessing that weekends this close to Christmas are fairly busy shopping days - lots of stressed shoppers all preparing for the season of peace and goodwill by getting angry and cross at each other...

Regular visitors to this blog will know that we have been going through Leviticus since September. And a couple of weeks ago we had a visiting speaker come and cover the topic of Sabbath from Leviticus 23:3-4 and 25:1-7.

Christmas is traditionally a time for lots of people to get stressed - and there are lots of reasons for this - but one is simply that we try and do too much. We don't get the rest that we need. It is important that we see ourselves as total human beings - and so the physical, the mental, the spiritual...all the different bits that make us who we are - they are all interconnected. So when we are physically run down that will affect everything else. When we are tired we don't perform as well as people - we react to situations in ways that we wouldn't do normally.



In the Sabbath regulations of Leviticus, God builds a day of rest into the lives of people. Six days of work. One day of rest. Each week. Every week. But it is important to realise that it is not simply a case of what you don't do on the Sabbath that is important. It is also important to think about what you do do. The purpose of not doing certain things is to make space for things that are more important. It is a day that is special. It's a day when there is a specific opportunity to focus on God and on our relationship with him. It's a day to spend time with family and friends. To rest, to relax, to recharge the batteries, to refocus, to get things back into perspective.

For most Christians Sunday is the obvious choice for this day off. We are able to meet together with others at church and worship God together. But increasingly we find more and more people who are required to work on Sunday. What are they to do? Which ever day of the week is your day off - make sure you take it - and don't fill it with so much busy-ness that you go back to work the next day totally exhausted. Get enough sleep. Maybe your church has a house group you can attend that day. Listen to a sermon on the internet. Take the time to read and pray that you don't normally manage in the rush of the normal working week. Meet up with a friend for a long lunch. Go for a walk in the park. Schedule in a long run. If you are able make sure you spend time with your family - eat together.

If you haven't had a day off this week maybe it's time to take one. That's how God designed you.

It's about Santa - right?

Someone showed me this at the weekend; thought you might enjoy it...

Making Sense of Leviticus (part 3)

If you were to divide Leviticus 19 in to those bits that still apply to Christians today; those bits that don't apply to Christians today; and those bits that apply to some Christians but not to others - and colour those sections green, red and yellow, the chapter would end up looking something like this:

But who gets to say which bits should be red, and which bits are still green? And if you can do this for Leviticus 19 then why can't you do it for any chapter of the Bible? What is to stop you finding the bits you don't like and claiming them to be yellow or red sections?

This is exactly the problem we get in to when we forget that none of the Bible was written with us in mind. When Leviticus was written down, or when Jeremiah was speaking or when Luke wrote his gospel, or when Paul wrote the letter to the Christians in Rome - none of those authors had you in mind. They were not writing to you. They were writing to people in a very different culture, in a very different situation, a long long time ago.

But, as I said last time, we read from a position of faith believing this to be the word of God. In the pages of the story we encounter God, and we live our lives in the light of that encounter - rather than following a series of rules that we have read and therefore obey.

So, when we read, the first thing to do is to ask what the text actually says. We read it through a few times, carefully. This part, for Leviticus 19 is fairly easy - for example, verse 11 simply states: do not steal, lie or deceive each other. That is what is says.

But then we need to try and put ourselves in the shoes of the original audience and understand what the words meant to them. And this is often the tricky bit - because we are so far removed from the original audience. So we need the help of Bible teachers, commentaries, a study Bible or the kind of books I recommended last time. So for example, after reading a commentary we might learn that the instructions about not cutting your hair or beard in verse 27 are not simply fashion statements, but they are instructions that relate to not adopting the mourning rituals of Israel's pagan neighbours. They are about not getting involved in the sorts of things that are linked to worshipping other gods.

And then once we've worked out what the passage meant then, we can ask the Holy Spirit help us apply it and determine what it is that God is saying to us now. This is that all important 'So What?' question.

This application may well be different depending on who is doing the reading. Those reading the Old Testament from a very rural, agricultural setting, surrounded by communities who practise ancestor worship, for example, may well find the application of Leviticus very different to those reading from their office in London. They may even find it easier to apply because their context is not so far removed from the original setting.

None of this is particularly easy. Therefore we need to ask God for help, and we need to find other people who will help us on this journey of discovery - ideally a good local church.

Getting the big picture

As we've been talking about making sense of the Bible a bit recently I thought I'd post this video, which I came across on Wednesday. 

I find N.T. Wright challenging and stimulating as an author - and here he has some interesting things to say about reading the Bible.

(Unfortunately I could not embed this video so you'll need to click here - this will take you to youtube)

Making Sense of Leviticus (Part 2)

Last Friday we started to think about how you make sense of a book of the Bible like Leviticus, which seems so out of touch and out of date with our lives as Christians in 2012.

Our starting point has to be a position of faith. We have to believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that God continues to speak through the Bible. I could back those statements up with verses (such as 2 Timothy 3:16 and Hebrews 4:12) but of course if you don't believe the Bible you're not going to be convinced by those kind of arguments.

We also read believing that the authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit and the same Holy Spirit will help us to understand and apply what we're reading - so we read prayerfully, asking God to help us.

If you wanted to you could sign up for courses, degree courses, you could write a PhD all on the subject of understanding and applying the Bible - so a few lines here isn't going to do more than just brush the surface. So just a few pointers.

Parts of the New Testament were written about 2000 years ago, and the Old Testament is much older than that. And it is not until relatively recently that we have moved from reading the Bible in community, to reading it as individuals. Obviously this was because people simply did not have a copy of the Bible, or they could not read. But as we struggle to understand and apply the Bible we need to remember that we are not doing this on our own, but we are part of a wider Christian community - maybe a local church, a house group, an on line forum etc. And so we are always able to share with others what we think God may be saying - and those who are further along this road than us will be able to affirm, question or challenge our interpretation and application.

We'll look at how to read in a couple of days time, but if you are looking for a couple of really good books on this subject you could do a lot worse than How to read the Bible for all its worth by Fee and Stuart. They also have another very good book called How to read the Bible book by book.

Are you ready for Christmas?

Are you ready for Christmas?

Usually when we ask that question we mean: have you written the cards, is the food all ready, are the presents wrapped, is the Christmas tree up...

As a minister it often means: are the posters printed, have the invitations been distributed, are the services planned...

Last Sunday was Advent Sunday - the first day of Advent. Advent is a period of preparation in the run up to Christmas. Not preparation in terms of those things listed above, but the kind of preparation that comes from reflecting on the true significance of Christmas.

Preparing to celebrate Christmas really only makes sense when we recognise the past, present and future nature of our faith - this has nothing to do with Dickens' Christmas Carol!

Past: We celebrate that Jesus came and was born as a baby about 2000 years ago. 

Present: We thank God that we can know the reality of Immanuel - God with us, right now in the present, through the Holy Spirit.

Future: We look forward to day when Jesus will come again.

Our lives in the present should reflect our belief in the past and our hope for the future.

So, are you ready for Christmas?

Of course there are some people who just can't wait...

Youngest daughter caught red handed on December 3rd

Motivation - Part 3

This is the third of four posts on Motivation. If you missed part one or part two click these links and read them first.

One of the inevitable things about training properly for a marathon is that you have to run a long way in training. Depending on the programme you're following this will usually mean at least one run of about 20 miles a few weeks before the big day. Of course you build up to this slowly, adding a mile to your weekly long run over the months leading up to that final 20 mile training run. And for most people who enter a marathon I'm guessing that the furthest they would normally run (when not training for a marathon) would be somewhere about 10-13 miles.

So once those long runs get beyond about 12 or 13 miles, and start taking over 2 hours to complete, you start to ache a bit during the last few miles.

One thing I realised during this week's 14 miler was that running anywhere close to home with about 4 miles to go provides incredible temptation to take a short cut and call it a day. After all, 11 or 12 miles is still a good effort - right? Instead it would be much better to be 7 miles from home at the halfway point because then the motivation to run 14 miles is simply the motivation of getting home. 

So this week, this is roughly where I'll be at the half-way point of my long run - and once I've got this far I have no option but to turn around and run the 7.5 miles back home again.

Making sense of Leviticus

We've now almost finished our series on Leviticus, just a couple more Sundays to go - and I think most people have found it surprisingly interesting and relevant. I guess for a lot of Christians our only experience of Leviticus is the book we get to when our 'I'm going to read the Bible in a year - this year - yes, I really am, honest' intention comes unstuck. That will be a mix of initial enthusiasm wearing off combined with some accounts that seem to be neither inspiring or relevant.

I also guess that a lot of Christians approach the Bible with the attitude that it is the word of God, that it is inspired by God, and that it should be teaching me something - it should be making a difference. The trouble is: how do you make sense of a passage on what to do when you find mildew in your house - it doesn't seem to teach us very much at all. If you go and tell the local vicar that you have mildew she probably won't be that interested - and no one is going to knock your house down because of mildew. Also there are large sections that relate directly to the sacrificial system that is no longer a part of our lives as Christians in 2012.

So how do you make sense of Leviticus?

I guess the first thing to remember is that none of the Bible was specifically written with you in mind - and therefore we should never simply read something and think that it automatically applies to us. The trouble is that that is often how we treat large parts of it - and then we come unstuck when we come across a part that clearly doesn't apply.

We'll have a look at this over the next couple of weeks - but basically we read the Bible and ask what the text actually says; then we ask what the text meant - to it's first hearers or readers; and then we ask that if that's what it meant then - what does it mean for us today.

Take it out

We're now into our third week of processing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child and have sent off around 2,700 shoe boxes so far. Part of the reason the boxes need checking is to make sure that people have followed the rules on what is and isn't allowed in a box. Certain things, such as food items, are not allowed in because of import/export rules. Some things are not allowed in because they would be dangerous - such as marbles in a box for 2-4 year olds. Some things are taken out because they have the potential to spoil a whole box, or a whole carton if they were to leak - such as a large bottle of shampoo.

So what do we do with all the things that we take out? If something is broken or in a poor condition it will get thrown away. If there are cuddly toys that are just a bit grubby then they will go through the washing machine and get cleaned up before heading off to Swaziland. Most other things will be sold and we use the money from these sales to purchase new items to use as 'fillers'. Fillers are used to top up boxes that are not full.

Chocolate, shampoo, toy guns and novels - some of the items taken out of shoe boxes this year

Crates of fillers ready to top up boxes as needed

Blood on the door frames

Every now and again something happens in our lives that can be described as a 'defining moment'. Something that happens that changes everything. An event that changes how we see ourselves; changes how others view us. Changes how we view the world. Maybe a series illness or accident leaves us unable to do some of the things we once took for granted. Maybe after years of being told we're no good we gain a diploma or a degree - and we start to believe in ourselves for the first time. Maybe we get married or have our first child. 

For the people of Israel in the Old Testament a key defining moment in their history was the Exodus - the day that God brought them out of Egypt, out of slavery. God and Pharaoh had been in a battle over these people, and finally God had won, and Pharaoh let the people go, in order that they might go into the desert to worship God.

The story of the rescue is told in Exodus 12, and the people are instructed in Leviticus 23:4-8 to remember the story every year. The Israelites were to kill a lamb at twilight on a specific day, and paint the blood on the door frame of their houses. Then when God passed through the land he would pass-over any house where the blood was on the door post - but any house where there was no blood the first born in that house would die - people and animals. This final act of judgement was too much for Pharaoh and he allowed the people to leave.

In the previous nine plagues God had no trouble distinguishing between Israelite and Egyptian - so why the need for the blood on the door frames now?

In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul refers to Jesus as our Passover lamb who has been sacrificed. Only the blood of this sacrifice is able to save us from the judgement of God. Nothing else will do it.

But the Passover and the Exodus was not simply about being saved from something - it was about being saved from slavery in order to worship God. And for the Christian we are saved to worship God. To do what God wants us to be doing. To be serving God.

Just as Israel looked back to the Passover every year, to remember where they'd come from and who had rescued them; so as Christians we look back to the cross where Jesus died and we understand ourselves, we define ourselves in the light of the events of the cross. Everything changes when a person decides to follow Jesus.

Blowing your own Trumpet

There is one remaining festival that we have not looked at over the last few weeks. If you read back you'll see that at church we're currently looking at the Old Testament book of Leviticus and a few weeks ago we looked at the Feasts of Israel listed in Leviticus 23.

The Feast of Trumpets takes place on the first day of the seventh month with the Day of Atonement occurring on the tenth day. This ten day period is a time of preparation and repentance and may involve fasting and study of the Torah. This year Rosh Hashanah was celebrated on 17 September and Yom Kippur on 26 September.

If you read this blog on a regular basis you might have picked up that I occasionally run. On one of my September runs, back from a local park, I noticed a group of people gathered beside a lake reading from a book. Given their location and their dress it was obvious that they were Jewish.

It was not until a few weeks later when I was preparing for Leviticus that I came across a paragraph that explained that on or around Rosh Hashanah it is customary to visit a body of water containing fish and recite a specific prayer - in which the people symbolically cast away their sins in order to start the new year anew (Rosh Hashanah is Jewish New Year). This recalls God's promise in Micah 7:9 that God will cast all our sins into the depth of the sea.

In preparing for this talk I began to think about Lent - which is for Christians traditionally a time of reflection and preparation in the run up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday - remembering the death of Jesus and celebrating the resurrection. But it is a tradition that is more evident in some parts of the church. The Bible does not talk about Lent and therefore it has no place in some church traditions. But in doing away with Lent I wonder if we've not thrown the baby out with the bath water. Anyway - that's something I'm thinking about at the moment. What do you do for Lent?

It's the Cycling Santa

Today we had a visit from Mark, the cycling Santa - travelling around visiting all of the various centres helping out with Operation Christmas Child. Yesterday was a bit wet; today was a bit windy.

Then this afternoon it was off to the local Warehouse to help packing the container which is now on its way to Swaziland with nearly 8000 shoeboxes on board.

150 days to go

My countdown calendar tells me that it is only 150 days until the London Marathon 2013.

The trouble with big problems is that they often seem so big that we can't imagine how we can possibly make any difference. As a result we often end up feeling powerless and doing nothing. The statistics relating to world poverty can be totally overwhelming. And yet in the light of this situation Christian Aid has a vision - to end poverty.

Rather than being overwhelmed by the situation Christian Aid looks to work with its partners across the world to help people out of poverty, with long term solutions. These solutions are often creative and imaginative. They provide people with the resources they need to help themselves. They are often quite simple - but have an incredible impact. It's about breaking the problem down into manageable bits. About taking a global problem and looking to tackle it at not just the global - but also the individual level. Making a difference one person and one community at a time.




On 21 April I am going to be running the London Marathon for Christian Aid and I would love your support. Together we can make a difference. Whether you give £10, £25 or a £100 your kindness and support will allow Christian Aid to make a difference in the lives of some of the poorest people on the planet.

The easiest way to sponsor me is to head over to my Virgin Money Giving page by clicking here. 

Otherwise you can simply get in touch by leaving a message below.

There are 150 days to go until the marathon so I will keep you posted each week - I'll let you know how my training is going, as well as post news and videos from Christian Aid

Motivation - Part Two

A few weeks ago I blogged about Motivation - if you missed it you can catch up here. And the question I ended that post with was about what is it that gets me out of bed to run. This morning it was dark and it was wet - although not particularly cold - when I left the house at 5.15am for a 5 mile run. And when the alarm clock goes off in the morning quite a few of the motivating factors I discussed last time probably don't apply. 

When it comes to my running I think there are two main motivating factors that get me out the door in the early morning - there are a lot more that apply on a warm sunny summer afternoon whilst on holiday in the countryside.

The first is a goal or a target. For example, a race that has been paid for and is in the diary. My competitive personality will then ensure that I train for that race. When there is nothing to aim for it is a lot easier to stay in bed. Running becomes a lot more hit and miss. But when there is a date in the diary, a start line to aim at, then it is a lot easier to drag myself out the door in the mornings.

The second motivating factor is accountability. When you're doing something with other people it is a lot easier because you encourage each other - but you also check up on each other. I haven't joined an actual running club - but that is a great way to get and stay motivated. Instead I have joined an online running club - the various groups and forums on there provide the necessary motivation not to skip a run. I receive virtual cake at the end of each month for running 100+ miles a month. Then there is the longer term target of a total of 1,500 miles during 2012 - being done with a whole group of people aiming at the same target. Sharing how we're getting on, encouraging each other back after injury, sending smiley faces to those who have already reached the goal, and virtual hugs to those who are going to miss out for one reason or another. There are words of advice - a virtual kick out the door for those who are just being lazy; and advice to see the bigger picture for those who need time to recover from injury.

There's more to this than just running though - part three: coming soon

World Toilet Day

You may not be aware, but today is officially World Toilet Day. Why, you may be asking, do we need a World Toilet Day?

Can you imagine not having a toilet? Can you imagine not having privacy when you need to relieve yourself? Although unthinkable for those living in wealthy parts of the world, this is a harsh reality for many. One in three people in world does not have access to a toilet - that's about 2.5 billion people.

The health risks of poor or no sanitation are obvious - but we might not be aware of the deadly consequences. Diarrhoea, for example, kills one child every 20 seconds - that's more that HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

There are also issues of dignity and safety. Poverty and poor sanitation are closely linked. Improving sanitation often leads to a move out of poverty - as people get healthier they are able to work more, children are able to stay in school ... 

Many charities are working with communities across the world to improve sanitation and build toilets.

That's why we have a World Toilet Day.

Let's have a party

I'm sure we all like a good celebration. The skies around here have been full of fireworks over the last week as the local Hindu community celebrates Diwali. I was talking to a dad outside school on Wednesday - he was off to Toys-R-Us to get Diwali presents for his children and complaining that they are abusing the system as they are expecting Christmas presents as well.

I'm sure that within every culture there are celebrations or ceremonies that take place at points during the year - events that are significant in helping those communities tell and remember their story.

The Old Testament people of Israel were no different. Each year they celebrated seven annual feasts. These feasts were ordained by God and God had told them when to celebrate and how to celebrate. Last Sunday, we looked at four of those feasts as we continue our journey through the book of Leviticus. The instructions are laid out in Leviticus 23.

[We looked at the Day of Atonement a few weeks ago and we're looking at Passover and Unleavened Bread next week.]

The feasts of Firstfruits, Weeks and Tabernacles are directly linked to the harvest. In Israel there were two harvests each year - the barley harvest in the spring and the wheat harvest in the autumn.

The Feast of Firstfruits happens right at the beginning of the barley harvest - the very first thing that is done with the first sheaf that is harvested is that it is offered to God by the priest. It is a thank you to God for the firstfruits and also an anticipation of the harvest still to come. The firstfruits are a sign and a promise of what is to follow over the coming weeks of hard work and labour.

This feast is a reminder to us to be thankful for all that we have, and to give back to God out of the first and best that we have. Not to wait until everything else is taken care of and then give to God out of what is left.

A Bible without verses or chapters

This blog covers a whole range of topics from running to geocaching to shoe boxes to understanding and applying the Bible. Earlier this week I went to a great presentation by Stephen Cage from an organisation called Biblica.

As you will see from the following couple of clips, one of their concerns is how people are engaging with the Bible - or how they are not engaging with it to be more specific. In many countries we have more access to the Bible then ever before. We have multiple translations at home, we have it on our computers, we can access it on our phones, we get it emailed in daily chunks...but are we really engaging with it? Are we getting into it and is it getting into us? And if not, why not?







The observant among you will have noticed that I wrote a blog a few days ago about Motivation (part 1) and you're probably wondering when part 2 is coming. It's in the pipeline! But I'm sure most of us are motivated by doing something with others - which is what makes the community aspect of this project so exciting.

At the moment I'm thinking about how we might use this resource in the new year as a whole church. Let me know what you think...

First Boxes off to Borehamwood

The first 138 shoeboxes have been checked and are now on their way to Borehamwood.

The boxes will be stored there in a large warehouse, until there are enough to fill a container lorry. Once that number is reached the container is filled and begins its 28 day journey to Swaziland.

Check a shoe-box

Tomorrow morning we begin processing shoe boxes at the church for Operation Christmas Child. The first batch of boxes arrived over the weekend, with more coming in regularly over the next few weeks. So after church this morning we removed the chairs, and we brought in the tables, cages, boxes, cartons, fillers, tape, etc etc so that the church now looks more like a warehouse than a church. 

Fillers ready to be added to boxes that need filling

Checklist Poster - what can and can't go in a box

Unchecked boxes in cages down the side. Flat cartons at the back.

A number of volunteers will be coming in to check boxes over the next 2-3 weeks. Here's a video to show you what it is all about. If you want to come and help out then please make sure you watch this video first. All the boxes from this part of North London will be going to Swaziland.

First Shoeboxes Arrive

This morning I was at the local primary school talking about Operation Christmas Child's Shoebox Appeal. Each class is hoping to do at least one box for a boy and one box for a girl. Next week I have a couple more assemblies, one primary and one in the local secondary school for year 7 and 8 pupils.

Then early afternoon we took arrival of our first batch of boxes for processing. I reckon there are about 400 boxes, and another 400 are scheduled to arrive tomorrow evening.

After church on Sunday morning we will transform the church into something more resembling a warehouse and as long as we have boxes people will be in processing them throughout the next three weeks. 

Motivation - Part One

Why do we do the things we do? What is it that motivates us?

I run. But why do I run? 

Well there are all kinds of reasons. I run because I enjoy it. Because I feel better after a run than before (about 95% of the time). I like being outside. It's a good chance to escape the pavements and get out into the 'countryside' - or the local park at least. It gives me time by myself. It keeps me fit. It helps to maintain a healthy weight. 

Then there are the reasons that are more to do with preparation for something else. One of the things I enjoy doing on holiday, when we escape the city, is going for long runs - along the river; along the coast; through the woods; exploring new places. But to be able to do that I need to be fit to run - and that means putting in the miles on the pavements of N London.

Then there is the preparation for a race. One of the first things that new runners are encouraged to do is to enter a race. This focuses the mind and focuses the training. It gives you something to aim for. Going further. Going faster.


But what is it that gets me out of bed at 4.30am when it is dark, cold and wet, so that I can get in some miles before breakfast?

Because in that moment - when the alarm clock goes off - I'm enjoying the warmth of the duvet a lot more than the prospect of feeling good after a 5 or 6 mile run! After all, what harm can it do if I miss just one session? I know I'll feel better for having run - and I know I'll feel guilty if I stay in bed. But the darker, wetter and colder it gets the more often the duvet wins...so what is it that motivates us?

Playing the Blame Game

Last week Chelsea beat Manchester United 5-4 in the League Cup, the game going into extra-time with the score at 3-3 at the end of 90 minutes. So with 120 minutes of football and 9 goals it's unlikely that there was only one United player at fault. Yet the United manager singled out the experienced player Nani for the blame. 

The match was already into injury time, and United were leading 3-2. Only seconds to go and the Manchester side would have won. All that was needed was sensible and safe play. What you don't want is someone trying something clever and getting it horribly wrong. What happened next? Well to quote Alex Ferguson, “But Nani decided to try and beat a player, lost the ball and they got a penalty kick against us.” That penalty brought the scores to 3-3, took the match into extra time and the rest, as they say, is history.

How often, when things go wrong, do we look for someone to blame? There is an inbuilt instinct to look for a scapegoat. Shifting the blame from us on to someone else.

The term 'scapegoat' originates in Leviticus 16 where God gives Israel the regulations regarding the Day of Atonement. The 'scapegoat' was a live goat, that was selected and brought to the centre of the camp. 

The High Priest placed his hands on the goat's head and confessed the sins of the people - and in this way the sins were somehow transferred to the goat. This goat was then led out through the camp and into the wilderness where it was released - carrying the sins of the people away to a remote place - where they could not be found and from where they would not return. This was a very visual and dramatic demonstration to the people of what was happening to their sins.

When we come into the New Testament we discover that part of what was going on when Jesus died on the cross was that he had become the ultimate scapegoat. Although totally innocent, our sins were transferred onto him. As a result it is as if those sins have been carried away to a remote place and we can know forgiveness instead of guilt. 

In Psalm 103:12 it says, 'as far as the east is from the west, so far has [God] removed our sins from us'. Micah 7:19 it says, '[God] will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea'.

Sometimes we find that hard to believe. We struggle to accept that Jesus' death can totally deal with my sin. Maybe the next time you're at the beach you need to find a pebble, lay your hands on it, and throw it as far into the sea as you can - and thank God that we can know full forgiveness.

We can all make a difference

Hide and Seek

If you read through my post about geocaching a few days ago and thought, 'why would anyone want to waste their time doing something like that?' then probably best to stop reading now...because today I'm going to tell you a little more.

Some caches are very small - like the magnetic nanos in the pictures a few days ago. Others are 'micro' caches - often old 35mm film canisters. Obviously there is little room in these caches for anything other than the log - in these cases: a small roll of paper. As caches increase in size, from small Tupperware style boxes, to old metal ammo boxes there is more and more room for them to contain other items. The general rule is that if you take something out you must put something of similar value in - a game of swaps that makes geocaching an ideal family activity.

In addition to swaps, a cache may contain a 'trackable'; typically a travel bug or a geo-coin - each with its own unique reference number. Both of these items function in the same way. They are registered by their owner on the game website, and then their owner places them in a cache. Once they are found by another player they are removed from the first cache, and then moved on to another cache within a few days. These actions are also logged on the website. Some trackables simply move from cache to cache - others have specific tasks such as to visit every country in Europe, or to be photographed in every football league ground. The progress of a trackable can be followed on the website, where it is possible to view photos of its travels, to see the distance travelled, and to see its progress on a world map.

A travel bug is a metal dog tag - and owners often attach a small item of significance or relevance to the task. 

So far I have released one trackable.

I have called it 'Find your Ps and Qs' and its task is to travel to caches whose name starts with either a P or a Q - or failing that to visit a list of caches whose first letters cover the whole alphabet. I should have mentioned that all caches are named. So far my travel bug has travelled over 300 miles and visited 16 caches. Currently it is in a cache called 'Riverside Park Jewellery Box', north of Southampton.

During the recent half-term we found a couple of travel bugs and one geo-coin. Here the girls are helping to find a new cache for a geo-coin called 'Rosie' - a 32 point compass.

It was a bit muddy underfoot, and would soon start to rain. But the views were great.

Whom shall I fear

You may know that I am a Chris Tomlin fan - and am therefore looking forward to his new album, Burning Lights which comes out in January 2013. Here's a little taster of what is to come: Whom Shall I Fear



Although the album isn't out until next year, this track can already be purchased on iTunes, if you're interested.

If you have to ask why...

There are some things that people do, and our first response is 'why?' Things like climbing a mountain - why? - because it's there. Sky diving from 23 miles up - why? - because it's never been done before. Running a marathon - why? - now that is a good question! But I guess there is a sense in which if we have to ask 'why?' we simply don't understand what makes that other person tick.

I enjoy geocaching. Geocaching is basically a treasure hunt. A cache varies in size from a nano-cache which could be no bigger than 1cm in any direction, to a box the size of a large packed lunch. Nano-caches are so small they can be hidden in plain sight and most people will not realise they are there - and even when you're looking for them they can be hard to spot.

This nano-cache is magnetic and is stuck to a metal ring

Can you spot the nano-cache?

Larger caches are usually well hidden out of sight, under rocks, in holes ...

Other caches will be designed to look like stones, snails, fir cones and logs etc

A cache will contain a logbook - this may be a note book or a roll of paper - for visitors to sign as they find the cache. It may also contain a pen or pencil, and other items that may be swapped. The cache is then hidden somewhere on the planet and it is recorded on an official geocaching website (such as www.geocaching.com) - along with co-ordinates and maybe a clue.

To find a cache you need to note down the co-ordinates, and enter these into a GPS enabled device - either one specially designed for the purpose or on a smart phone etc. These co-ordinates will take you to within a few feet of the cache, and you then have to use the clue and your searching skills to find the cache.

Once you've found a cache you log it on line.

I guess, if you've read this far, and you have to ask 'why?' then geocaching probably isn't for you. But if you like the idea of hunting for small plastic boxes, or even hiding your own caches then maybe give it a go. I have visited so many different locations, even within a few miles of my home, simply because I am looking for a cache.

If you're still interested then come back in a few days time and I'll tell you a bit about travel bugs and geo-coins.

What do we really mean when we say 'I'll pray for you'?

Standing in the gap can be hard work - sometimes it seems as if you're being pulled in two directions at the same time. Last week we were thinking how followers of Jesus have taken on the role of the Old Testament priests and bridge the gap between God and the world. This means getting involved in the world and bringing people's hurt and pain to God in prayer.

In Romans 12:15 it says that we should 'rejoice with those who rejoice; and mourn with those who mourn'. Often it's easy to rejoice with those who have good news. But when we hear bad news in someones life often the easy thing is to say that we'll pray for them. And so we change Paul's message to 'rejoice with those who rejoice; and pray for those who mourn'!

Of course praying for people is good - and it is right that we should do that. But sometimes do we say that we'll pray for people because we don't want to get too involved ourselves? Our offer to pray keeps them at arms length.

Being a priest in the Old Testament was a messy business - you can't sacrifice a bull or a sheep or a goat without getting a bit messy. One thing I have found is that however clean and tidy a person's life may look on the surface - often those lives are quite messy under the surface. And if we're going to stand alongside people in their times of difficulty - if we're going to bring them to God - if we're going to allow God to reveal himself to them through us - then we need to be prepared to get messy. It will take time. It won't be easy. Messy Church has nothing to do with children's craft - church is messy because life is messy.

We can't do everything, and we can't be involved in everyone's life, otherwise we will simply burn out. But are there people that you're praying for, when really God wants you to get a bit more involved?

Is there another way?

I'm not sure which annoys me more: the fact that energy prices keep on going up, or that people seem surprised that this is the case. 

Rises in gas prices have once again been in the news recently and once again we have interview after interview with members of the public who seem to be under the impression that fuel companies (whether gas, electric, petrol...) are there to provide a service rather than to make money.

When you take the decision to privatise something - energy providers, railways, schools, hospitals - you have made a shift in terms of priorities. Now it is the shareholders who are more important than the consumer. You are now about maximising profit - not providing a service.

Now of course in the free market you might argue that if you don't provide a good service which gives value for money then you will lose customers - and therefore it is in the interests of the shareholders to provide a good service.

There has been comment made recently about changes in education and a move to make governing bodies smaller and to pay governors for their work. 

But what does all this say? Are we saying that as a society people only give of their best when they're paid for it? That the main driver, the main motivation, is greed?

I know the issues are complicated, that's why I don't often make political comment. But sometimes I wonder whether there has to be a different way, a better way. A way in which we put the interests of others first. A way in which money isn't the most important thing and people aren't driven by greed...