Month: January 2025

Categories
others prophetic

Preach Good News To The Poor

My local park Christmas day 2024 Photographed by myself

I’m always amazed at God’s timing [and do need to learn to trust it more in my daily life] and also God’s subtlety.

I’ve just been reading the reflections my mum sends me from her church and of course, as all good Anglicans know, this is the week where Jesus reads the piece from Isaiah in the synagogue.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
    to proclaim release to the prisoners
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to liberate the oppressed,
    and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Luke 4:18-19

I’ve often heard it preached that the reason the people got upset was because Jesus was being a bit of a smart-arse and saying “look this is me and what I’m all about”. But this reflection says to look at the verses around it and the verses around when this was first said in Isaiah. In Isaiah it talks about the congregations looking after the poor, the prisoner, the blind, the oppressed.

It is very much what Right Rev. Mariann Budde was saying at President Trump’s inauguration ceremony. We’d all like it to be to Trump and also to those billionaires on his front row. But what if it isn’t just the President Trump, those billionaires, or to include the cabinet people on the second row? We’d like that. We’d like to say “they need to do that” – and oh yes so they should as they are in power.

But what is she is actually saying it to each and everyone of us? To all of human kind?

We need to do whatever we can to give the poor dignity [which is more than leaving food in the box for the Foodbank] by not letting those who have not feel like charity cases. We all need to be helping those who are blind, and who we don’t seem to be able to miraculously heal, to be able to see and understand the life out there, and I think, this includes those who might have physical sight but miss out on really seeing the world in all its glory. We all need to be helping those imprisoned by circumstances and life choices to be freed from their mistakes, their addictions, their limiting ways of thinking. All of us not just those in leadership – though I do also think they should be leading the way, hence why they are called “leaders”!!

What I love though is the timing of this as well as the challenge. It is so easy for us all to point the finger but it is much harder too look inside out hearts. But that amazing timing where these are the verses in the lexicon for this season and there is the opportunity for us, for our leaders, for the rich and famous, to all live out what Jesus calls us to do in all the mystical, diverse amazingness.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
    to proclaim release to the prisoners
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to liberate the oppressed,
19     and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Don’t point the finger at others but look at yourself!

Photo by Juliano Astc on Pexels.com
Categories
being relational

Relationship with God

A cafe somewhere in the UK. Photographed by myself sometime in 2024

A group of us were talking about our relationship with God and someone had heard a couple of stories from nuns who say that they are so encouraged to think of other people and other people’s needs that they forget that they have a personal relationship with God.

So does that mean we need to be self-centred to have a relationship personal relationship with God?

Well, as I’ve explored before, it does say that we are to “love our neighbour as ourselves” which, I believe, means that we can only love our neighbour as much as we can love ourselves. We can really only give to others what we can give to ourselves. I know many who would say that you see people doing good things for others who are then hard on themselves. But my question would be, firstly, why are they hard on themselves? And also wonder what their motive for being kind to others is?

For some people, and I know because I’ve been there, we are kind to others in the hope that they will like us more, will be kind back to us, others will think we are good people when deep down we know we’re not. For others, like the nuns, they have been taught to value others higher than themselves, even though this isn’t what God is saying – possibly isn’t walking in “The way, the truth and the life”

I got a great example of how we should be with God from my dog. I’d done some housework and was taking a break to finish a book I’d been reading. So I gave him a shout and said I was going up to lie on the bed and read. Well you have never seen anything so excited. He bounded up the stairs, leapt on to the bed, jumped on me when I sat down, and the curled himself up between my legs and was asleep snoring gently perfectly surrounded by me.

Now I think that is what God wants for us, for us to be excited when God says “let’s go hang out together and do nothing”. We should then be rushing to be in that place on God’s lap and then we can just let go of what is going on in our world, trust that God has it covered, whatever else God might be up to. We don’t need to talk to God, ask for things, do things. We just need to contentedly lie with God just like my little dog does with me .

As those who know my dog will know that he is at his most content when he is with me. My husband says if I go out without the dog then he’ll stand and look at the back door and he has to really encourage him to come upstairs and wait somewhere more comfy.

To have this personal relationship with God we need to remember that God doesn’t go out without us, is always there, and for a lot of the time really does just want us to snuggle close and enjoy being together.

Categories
life The Jesus Way

I Am The Way, The Truth and The Life – Part Three

Small dog full of life in the snow. Photographed by myself January 2025

So yes as you would expect part three is looking at Jesus saying “… I am the Life”

I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full

John 10:10

I think this is another one that means different things to different people. What I see as having life to the full is not the same as others.

I’ve written a couple of pieces around thoughts of what doing life meant to me back in 2015 – here and here Just glancing back at them I would say my thoughts haven’t changed much, though I have because of the QEC work I’ve done, the clearing out of traumas rather than just regular counseling.

The Alpha booklet says Jesus came to deal with things that spoil our lives and deal with our guilt, and I would add that he also came so that we would know that The Creator of the Universe loves us unconditionally, which I think we can often only fully see when we have cleared out the detritus from our childhood.

So when I am feeling lonely I am not living the fullness of life. When I get angry about something someone said that hurts me then I am not living the fullness of life. When I am trying to people please because I want to be loved then I am not living the fullness of life. When I am doing things because I ought to or should do, whether that is a job, a hobby, a way of dressing, an acceptance of something, then I am not living the fullness of life.

I do think we can still be angry about somethings but then we need to check in with God to see if there is anything they want us to change, either with ourselves, with the other person, with the situation. I think we can still work and do hobbies and dress in a certain way so long as we are doing it because we get a feeling of contentment from doing it but not because we ought to. Even with loneliness we can still stop and ask God what it is that this feeling is saying to us.

Actually any feelings we get – whether those we label as positive or those we label as negative feeling – I think, we need to take them to God and ask what these are showing us about ourselves.

And as I wrote this last paragraph I realised that alwasys taking what we feel, think, say, back to the God who loves us Unconditionally then we start to walk in the truth.

Revelation – it is not Jesus is three different things – Way, Truth and Life – but that Jesus is all three of these rolled in together. Jesus is the WayTruthLife and if I can walk in going back to God to find out the Truth of my thoughts and actions then I can be fully alive and can then be walking in the way of God.

When I do this I realise that I am a writer and very often I think through my pen or the tips of my typing fingers, that truths become revealed as I write rather than beforehand. So for me that is my Way,Truth,Life. What is yours?

Categories
The Jesus Way truth

I Am The Way, The Truth and The Life – Part Two

Early morning beach walk photographed by myself January 2025

Of course part two is “Jesus is the Truth” but what does that mean in our post modern world?

Again ask different Christian groups, especially on subjects like same sex relationships, sex outside marriage, abortion, even how much and how to tithe, what is the truth that Jesus want for us in these areas, and each group would give different answers.

My friend was telling me the other day how her 11 year old niece is now idenitfying as a boy. That is the truth, they say, about themselves.

In the Alpha booklet it says about intellectual truth [head knowledge] and experiential truth [heart knowledge]. I think even that is open to interpretation since learning all these things through Gabor Mate [Body Keeps The Score], other doctors exploring that field, and through what I’ve learned about myself through QEC and writing my story. Both our intellectual truth and our experiential truth are faulty. They are open to interpretation depending on how we have remember situations, how we’ve dealt with things, what has been hooked on to our DNA, who we are trying to please.

So what does Jesus mean by this?

I think firstly we do need to do work on our own hearts and our own ways of looking at life. I was with a group of people the other day and at one point I took a breath because I realised we were all trying to put our truth forward and our truth, even our truth about how we see Christianity worked out, was all to do with how we had reacted to certain things because of the traumas and worldviews we all had.

An example comes to mind of how, many years ago, at a large charismatic Christian event the speaker said something along the lines of “I can see Jesus wanting to enfold you in his arms”. Well the person I was with walked out. Turned out she’d been abused and the idea of Jesus just randomly coming up and wrapping arms around her frightened her. Now if someone had said Jesus wanted to come and have a gentle chat with her she would have been up for that. I’m sure the speaker would have been very upset to know they had upset someone like that. So again one person’s heart truth is not the same as another’s.

Do I have a rounding-off final paragraph for “what is it Jesus means when he says “I am the truth”?” No I don’t. But what I do think is that we all need to take our hurts and our traumas to God, to Jesus, and be willing to let them take our traumas, etc. We need to let got of our idea of what is truth and what is right because we don’t know because we have all been hurt. And I think once we are ready to do that then we might get close to know what Jesus means when he said “I am the Truth”.

Categories
The Jesus Way Way

I Am The Way, The Truth and The Life – Part One

Near Capel Currig, photographed by myself December 2024

I have the privilege to meet with two 15-16 year old girls in McDonalds on a regular basis to discuss things from the Bible. We’re using the Alpha guide “Why am I here?” as kick-starts to discussions.

We’re starting with the verse

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life”

John 14:6

One of the sentences in the booklet is “Jesus is the lens through which we see God” but that got me thinking “how do we see Jesus?”

If you listen to the evangelical American right then Jesus is brutal, full of rules and knows best. If you listen to those who have left organised religions then you get a very different picture. But are either “correct2?

My mum sent through a reflection from her vicar for this Sunday and in that he talks of how we need to see God in creation and also in the troubles of the world; in the good, the bad and the inbetween; to see Jesus turning water in to wine and in gifts of the Holy Spirit, which he lists as

Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and
the Fear of the Lord.

Jesus is found in the miraculous and the ordinary, the individual and the community.

Interestingly another verse on the first page of the Alpha booklet was

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”

John 6:35

And the immediate response from my girls was that Jesus is sustaining and filling.

So if we take their thoughts and other bits from our discussion then, I think, if following Jesus isn’t sustaining and filling is it really the Jesus Way? [and remember that the early followers were called “Followers of the Way” and the term Christian was used as an insult] If following Jesus doesn’t encompass the troubles and the joys of this world is it really the Jesus Way? If following Jesus can’t be done in a group and alone is it the Jesus Way?

So to me when Jesus says “I am the Way” he is talking about a life that is sustainable, filling, can be found in the troubles and the joys, and is something I love to do alone and also love to do with others. To me this is the The Way Jesus talks about here.

Categories
fire good

Use of Metaphor

Photo by moein moradi on Pexels.com

With all that is happening politically in our world many of the first posts of the year started with “World on Fire” and then large chunks of California have either been burned away or are being burned; for which reasons are being given to do with climate change but also that the undergrowth is growing faster, not being cleared and so fire fighters couldn’t get through to deal with the fires. Those fire breaks had gone.

Then yesterday I was at church and we were talking about the Baptism of Jesus and sung songs with lines like “let your fire come”, “set your church on fire”, “set our hearts on fire”.

What do we mean by these words? Do we really want that all consuming out of control fire that has raged through Los Angeles recently? Do we really want that in our streets, in our homes, in our churches?

Having heard stories from a friend who lost her house in a massive fire Ventura, California in November, which we didn’t hear about because the media was caught up in the US elections, seeing a fire race over the hills towards a home you have designed and built yourself, have untold memories as well as possessions inside and you just stand there in the clothes you have on, it is a horrid experience, and one I would not want to face. So I do wonder if that is why when we sing these songs about God sending fire we have a mental picture in our heads of something contained and safe.

Like it says in the Chronicles of Narnia when Susan asks if Aslan is safe, Mr Beaver says

“Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”

I wonder when we sing these songs about God’s fire coming if we really want a safe fire like the candles we burn or the fires we have in our grates at home where they give out warmth but are contained. I don’t think we really want a wild raging fire sweeping where it chooses to destroying things we hold dear in its path.

I think we are really singing songs asking God to send a calm, cleansing, controlled fire that will get rid of the bits we don’t like but we’ll be able to keep an eye on where it is going and what it is doing.

But as Mr Beaver says God isn’t safe. Good but not safe. Do we pray to a safe God rather than a Good God? Do we even believe God is good all the time?

Are we willing to let go of what we think is important and let God have free range to cleanse and destroy and change what we hold dear in our lives? Are we willing to look for a Good God?

As I sat there in that lovely Victorian building singing a song I’ve sung in many other places I know I didn’t really want something I couldn’t control raging through the routines of church, the routines of my life, the norms as I see them. Oh yes I would like to choose what gets burnt away because I think I know best, but I am suspecting my “knows best” is different to other peoples “knows best”.

So I think we need to be careful with our metaphors, careful with what we wish for, careful with what we pray. What we need to do is spend some time alone with God getting to that point of really being able to pray “Your Will Be Done” because that is a real letting go and takes us to a place of really being able to say “Ok God I trust you. Have your way in our land”. And believing, as my friend in Ventura still does, that God is a good God no matter what.

Categories
growing learning

Is Everything Really a Lesson?

Renly relaxing on Boxing Day after a big hike. Photographed by myself December 2024

Ok yes I know dogs get trained to sit, stay, wait, and random things like roll over, etc but I don’t think dogs see everything that goes on in their world as a lesson but too often I hear it from people.

I read an interesting article and when I commented on it the author of the article said he’d been waiting to share as he couldn’t work out what the lesson was. My reply to his reply was “did there have to be a lesson?”

I think too often we humans think every thing that goes on is meant to teach us something and I’m sure some things are, but really is everything?

In 2012-2013 we went through a series of untimely deaths and other random changes in our lives. Was that a lesson? If so I’m not sure what it. Or was it just “things happen and sometimes they happen at the same time”?

The more I’ve seen and done and prayed and pondered the more I think that even though not everything is a lesson per se – because God isn’t some great big teacher wanting us to pass tests all the time – I do think that I have learned things from them and have changed as a person.

It might sound like splitting hairs but I think there is a big difference between learning things and things being a lesson. I think that we can choose to learn things but if something is a lesson there is a specific “thing” to be gained from that.

Also I think if we are open to learning things then yes “every day is a school day” but also it doesn’t mean that we are waiting for a specific something to happen to learn something.

It also means that we have no fear of what the “teacher” is going to say or if we miss the point being made. There is no worrying about what that lesson was.

I home schooled my children up till they were fifteen and people used to often ask what “lessons” we did and how we worked in school holidays. Well because every moment of every day was a chance to learn something all of us, myself included, were always open to what was going on around us, always curious, always expecting something to show up. Not every moment was a lesson that came with outcomes and things that I could tell the home schooling inspector but, on the whole, we learned and changed and grew and explored things on a regular basis.

So I don’t think God is up there with a lesson plan for us but I do think they want us to be open and aware of what is going on around us. They want us to become more who we are called to be, to know and love ourselves, those around us and of course them more and more.

So not everything is a lesson but everything is an opportunity to be open to learning and growing.