These are the days of Miracle & Wonder!

Redemption

I wrote this about five years ago, and yesterday re-found it whilst clearing through my old notebooks to see what to take with me to the States.  I used to write a lot of this sort of thing.

Redemption is the story of loss becoming gain;
Of slavery bought back;
Of liberty returned.
It is the dawn after a nightmare,
The postern door in an impenetrable wall,
The feast after the famine.

We have been crawling and are learning to walk.
We have been drowning and are learning to swim.
We have been given clothes but do not yet know
How to put them on.

My eyelids flutter;
Wanting at last to open,
Wanting at last to see,
Yet unaccustomed to anything save darkness.

My fingertips reach out to touch and to hold,
But my muscles are weak,
Unused,
Flimsy.

I cannot yet pluck a flower.

The new, fresh fragrances of spring are all around,
But my nose is blocked.
I cannot yet taste the festive spread I am being fed.
But redemption says I will. 

A Prayer for Success

May all your expectations be frustrated.
May all your plans be thwarted.
May all of your desires be withered into nothingness,

That you may experience
The powerlessness and poverty of a child
And sing and dance in the love of God,

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Amen.

Greed, and How to Eat Less

I like food.  Under the approving eye of my pseudo-Epicurean wife, I have been moving from the category of 'trencherman' to that of 'connoisseur', but nevertheless, among the Deadly Sins, greed is an issue for me.

And, as with all sins, I don't want to be enslaved to it.

How can I be free?

Don't know about your motives, but I eat for several reasons, including nutrition, enjoyment, communion, escapism ('comfort-eating'), and boredom.  The first three are decent motives, and the last two probably not - eating for the good of the body, the good of the soul, and the good of community is clearly the way to go.  But none of these motives are greed itself.  Greed is the unsated, never-truly-satisfied use of food (or anything) to fill us up, to make us feel whole.  It's a vain pursuit, and commonly (but not always) leads to addiction.  

The Roundhead in me wants to evade greed by chaste pietism and asceticism - mortifying the flesh - while the Cavalier wants to affirm that every good gift is from God, and that to avoid enjoying them is ungratefulness and heresy.  Both are right.

So that's my theology sorted.  But I'm still eating too much.

And it's at this point that I realise that in my right-brained desire to have a thoughtful, contemplative discussion about everything, I've forgotten some basic nuts-and-bolts.  Whilst thinking through the concept of greed, I have omitted the fact that I never set out to eat or drink excessively - I just get nibbly, and one nibble leads to another.  Rather than focus on my fallen, sinful gluttony, I need to go to a physiological level and stop my nibblyness.

These are my resulting conclusions, helping me, in the last few weeks, to eat less:

i. Eat Eggs for Breakfast.
If I choose, say, porridge in the morning, my desire for a little smackerel of something at 11ish is overwhelming.  But if I eat eggs, I don't get nibbly until early-afternoon.  It's to do with the absorption of leptin, but you knew that.

ii. Snack on Meat.
If I open a bag of crisps, I pretty much always finish it, and still feel nibbly afterwards, and reach for something else.  But if I nibble dried meat (I like chorizo myself), this spiral is avoided.

iii. Drink Rather than Eat.
A lot of 'hunger' is actually thirst; so drink.  And drink good stuff: ale, cider, water, wine, tea. 

iv. Avoid moreish stuff.
Biscuits, popcorn, crisps, chips, bombay mix, chocolate. Sidestep that blood-sugar spike etc.etc.

That's where I've got to so far.

Is Global Warming Caused By Prayer?

Christians believe that prayer 'works' - ie. that God promises to respond to it:

"Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith," Matthew 21:22
"Ask, and you shall receive," John 16:24
"I tell you, whatever you ask, believe that you have received it, & it will be yours." Mark 11:24
"Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do," John 14:13
"The prayer of a righteous person has great power," James 5:16

People - me occasionally included - regularly pray for 'good weather' (ie. hot, sunny days).  Whether it's a loved-one's wedding, an open-air evangelistic meeting, or just the annual church fete, climatic intercession is never too far from our thoughts.  Jesus did calm the storm, after all.

So is it too much to wonder whether the Almighty has been granting all these little faith-filled requests, resulting in cumulative global temperature increase over time?  Did God cause global warming by granting our prayers?

Conclusion:
No, it's because we fill the air with carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone.
Nice try though.

Things I Have Enjoyed Today

1. EASTER EGG HUNT FOR ADULTS
For the second year running, I have shared in Easter Sunday with the Gavan family: yes, the lunch was lovely, but the main attraction was always going to be the egg-hunt.

The adults hide stuff around the back garden for the kids to find, and then go into the front garden to hunt down what has been hidden there.  A great tradition.

2. THE SOUND OF WHITE PEOPLE CLAPPING
In my role of worship-leader at church, I chose to start us off this morning by forcing the congregation into a bit of epic, stadium-rock, arms-in-the-air handclapping.  Brilliant stuff, really worked.

Except that within 3 bars, a noticable number had switched from the (gospelly, soulful) off-beat to the (WASP) 1st/3rd beats of the bar.  Oh, white people.

3. HUGO BUSH THE HIP-HOP MONSTER

4. RADIO 5 FOOTBALL COMMENTARY
Safe in the hands of Ian Payne, Graham Taylor, Alan Green & Mike Ingham, a quiet afternoon in football-land is perfect for the peopled-out David.
In the Arsenal-Man City game, Arsenal went 1-0 up with a few minutes left.  Immediately, Alan Green said, "I'm going to watch Mario Balotelli now - he's the sort of player who could lose it in a situation like this."  Literally 45 seconds later, Balotelli gets sent off.  Ah Radio 5, you really are very good.

5. SILENCE
At 5:45am, in an unlit church, my vicar and me sitting in vigil, waiting for the Resurrection and the rising of the Sun.

PROOF THAT I MARRIED WELL

My wife just sent me this picture.  She knows me.

When Football Prays

I grew up loving glamorous football stars - Lee Sharpe, Chris Waddle, Jeremy Goss - these were my favourite people in the world.  As a young Christian who loved football, it was pretty demoralising to accept that these two sides of my life were never destined to find a meeting point.  That's just how it was: Football didn't do God - Maradona excepting - and God seemed to be alright about it.

So it's been quite a mind-bending few years, since Maria has dragged me back into the Beautiful Game: Hernandez on his knees before kickoff; pre-match prayer meetings at several clubs; Berbatov reading his Bible in the dressing room etc.  I mean, for Heaven's sake, the last thing Wayne Rooney does before going on the pitch is to go into the massage room to pray!

And this week it has spilled over in a much more public way.  Fabrice Muamba (another Christian, before you ask), had a heart-attack during Bolton's game with Spurs last Saturday.

Within seconds, players were praying, and after a few hours, as the magnitude of the situation struck home, I was reading tweets like these:

Jack Wilshere: 'Everyone keep praying!'
Wayne Rooney: 'Praying for him and his family.'
Kyle Walker: 'Doesn't matter who you support. Doesn't matter if you aren't a football fan. Doesn't matter if you aren't religious. Pray for Fabrice Muamba.'

The outpouring of support was so explicit in its constant references to prayer that I found myself halfway between continuing to pray for Muamba, and being overwhelmed by the fact that in the middle of a tragic event the footballers of the nations have been leading us in prayer.

These last two photos: Ronaldo & Messi, neither of whom know Muamba, passing on best wishes.  This is how we - the Church, and Humanity - should react to suffering. 'When one part suffers, we all suffer,' and when we 'bear each others burdens, we fulfil the law of Christ.'

How to be RICH!

We're off to America (in case you hadn't heard), and that means starting from scratch again: stuffing as many of our favourite books, clothes & Dimitar Berbatov memorabilia into suitcases as we can, and hopping the Pond.

Maria has already gone - 9 days ago - and I have been left  with the job of vacating our flat (I'll be lodging with friends until my visa comes).  One of the great things about moving out of anywhere is the chance to evaluate your possessions; to decide the degree to which your future life and exploits depend on them.  This winnowing process is amplified by the added limitations of transporting those few things with you over an ocean: bookcases, mixing bowls, and musical instruments need not apply.

I finally handed over the keys to our flat yesterday. It's called The Thimble, and is well named: a small, one bed, one bath apartment, with a tiny boxroom and a kitchen-lounge.  Even so, it was far from 'full' - we have not been particularly wealthy of late, and such spare income as we've had has tended to go on the odd 2 for £12 meal at ASKItalian, rather than the accumulation of stuff.

We were kind of hoping to sell as much of our furniture as possible and maybe raise a couple of hundred quid or so, then give away the rest.  Then at church on Sunday, it was suggested to me to ring a fella called Owen (a bit of a local legend) who collects and distributes furniture in our bit of Cornwall.  When I did, Owen said to me:

Yesterday I went to see a lady, to ask what she needed.
When I got there, I saw that she had a plastic garden chair and, well, that was it.

Suddenly, deciding whether to ask £20 or £25 for our sofa didn't seem like a real question at all.  I've been 'poor' ever since I left uni and, with a whole flat's-worth of 'you can't take it with you', became instantaneously rich.

I've known for a while that, in the Bible, the word 'poor' is not used to describe those on low incomes or who don't have much.  Instead, it is used of people who, in order to live, are dependent on support (ie. widows, orphans, the disabled etc.).  I knew that.  But I'd forgotten to make the obvious application: I am rich.

Views from the Office

Sometimes, life can be hard.

For example, I used to get up at 6am to give out Metro newspapers on the streets of Edinburgh, with two pairs of gloves, three pairs of socks, and a whole lot of financial necessity to ward off the bitter cold (and the gloomy commuters).

Contrast: Today my work, supporting people in tertiary education, meant that I spent six hours in Newquay Zoo.

Life wasn't hard today, and I was so thankful I took photos!!

[you're probably wondering what the top one is - it's a Fossa from Madagascar]

When Miracles actually, genuinely HAPPEN

Like most Christians, I believe in miracles - ie. I believe that they exist - although I don't really expect them to actually occur a whole lot (and therefore, I am generally to be found wearing my cynical hat when I get told about one).

But listen to this:

Two or three weeks ago, Maria was asked (by a girl from the exercise class she teaches) if she could pray for a friend: a young guy who had just been told he has two cancerous brain tumours, one completely inoperable.  He was about to start radiotherapy/chemotherapy and so on.

Maria said, 'sure', told me about it, and we prayed.  Probably for a combined total of twenty-five seconds.

And a week ago today, Maria was given the update: the tumours have both completely, miraculously disappeared.  The doctors don't know what to say or think.  They will keep checking on the guy, but he is fine and free to carry on with life.

It's a miracle.

How are Maria & I feeling about this?  Very weird.  We know that God answers prayers - we've seen inexplicable things happen before - but we have prayed for so long for so many things that we have come to expect His answer to be 'no'.  We presume that God won't be interested in what we think would be a good plan.  And therefore we tend to feel distant from Him, because being turned down all the time has that effect, doesn't it?

I am not happy to be in this situation.  I want to be more childlike in my intercession: to ask with faith and hope, but without feeling obliged to explain or understand the results.  I want to trust God more.