Posted in Delight in the details on June 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »
5 Things I love about summer.
1. The sound of wood pigeons in the distance. Don’t know why, but the soft cooing sound makes me feel safe and happy.
2. Never wearing socks or shoes.
3. The ridiculously pretty golden, pink and red and green and blue skies when the sun sets.
4. The relief of cool breezes, cool drinks and cold showers after lots of bike riding home.
5. After getting home from work the feeling of there being another day to live and enjoy because the sun is still out.
Posted in faith musings on June 30, 2009| 1 Comment »
Every now and again my brain double de clutches (no idea what that even means but it sounds bad…) and rejects a word or phrase that Christians like to say a lot. When I say reject, I mean groan inwardly at, moan about it’s overuse, hate everyone who says it too many times etc etc etc. This might not seem like a huge problem but when you realise that these words are like, gospel, grace and others, things get a little tricky. These are big words that need not to lose their meaning. These are big fat words that need to stay fresh because what they describe is mindshatteringly vital to the whole of life.
So a bit of a problem, I’m sure you’ll agree… (unless you really don’t care and have gone to make a cup of tea, make one for me whilst you are at it please…)
The latest phrase, which if I’m honest has lost all meaning to me for a while now, is “the Glory of God”. Which is a problem on the level of no longer being able to read a John Piper book without getting annoyed at his constant obsession with the ‘Glory of God’. It’s a much larger problem on the level of our whole lives being about the ‘Glory of God’ and if those words have lost all meaning I need to find someway back to the mind shattering reality hiding behind them.
I’m not sure I’m there yet but due to listening to this rather excellent lecture by the lovely Andrew Fellows from L’abri I’m starting to ponder again what on earth doing things for the ‘Glory of God’ might mean. Mostly we’ve been told it means to give Him the glory, (helpful eh) which usually translates into us mumbling back at an encouraging person, “no no it wasn’t me, it was God, it was all him, nothing to do with me” (which is, well, true on one level, but he USED YOU so, accept the encouragement gracefully, ok? ;-)). We then think we’ve given Him glory. Hmm
Or we think its about mentioning His name, doing Christian stuff, and, it might look like that in practice. But I’m beginning to think it might be more than that, more than what we say or do, and really about our whole orientation of life. Do we exist to give God weight, (that’s what glory is about after all)? Do our actions give God weight? Do our choices give God weight and worth and demonstrate to all around us that we have a flipping incredible Maker who is full of unconditional love, might, grace and truth?
Do our lives reflect how full of reality and meaning they truly are because we belong to the King of Kings? Do we embrace beauty, cry at sunsets, fall over in awe at music? Are we left gasping at the full big fat picture of what it really is to be human, to be able to love, to write poetry, to explore the make up of the physical world, to touch and taste and see and smell and make tunnels, roads and bridges? Do we stand amazed at the intricacy of a small insect, the beauty of a maths formula and the human brains ability to comprehend how to do brain surgery? Start doing that and you’ll pretty soon find yourself on your knees before the Maker of it all.
My BIG thought (and it’s taken a while to get here so bear with me a few more moments) is are we encouraging each other to take on the weight of this? Are we spurring each other to delight in life and our Maker. Do we long for each other to taste the depth of our God, Lord and King? Do we pray that each other would encounter this God each day and be transformed because they have felt their smallness and His Big Huge Overwhelming Presence?
Might things change if we did?
Hmm.
Your correspondant, high after an evening in, walk with her Maker on the downs and generally realising real Rest and Safety are only found in one place.
Thoughts of a cynical idealist. 