I have a brother, a brother in need.

I've been reading the parable of the Prodigal Son recently. And I guess, considering this blog has has something of a preoccupation with the idea of Grace, its not going to be massively surprising to anyone familiar with the story that its going to make an appearance here.

After all, isn't this is a story about God's lavish grace, about how he offers freely and generously to take back his prodigal son, who has gone off and wasted his inheritence, and ended up as a pig farmer - pretty much the lowest of the low for a good Jewish boy? Isn't it a great example of how God celebrates whenever one of his children realise they need him and return home to him, regardless of what they have done wrong? What a great evangelistic message there is in that story!

And yet, when I've been reading it, I've been thinking more about the other prodigal son in the parable. Not the younger son, the obvious prodigal, but the dutiful, righteous (self-righteous?) older brother, who never abandons his father, who lives to carry out his every word, and yet has the potential to be every bit as much the prodigal as his younger brother, because he fails to understand and recognise the love that so characterises his family. The story leaves with the father explaining this to him, and giving him a choice... does he embrace his younger brother, and in doing so accept his father's love and grace or does he remain bitter, resentful and cling on to his own understanding of right and wrong...

Isn't that the challenge that we, as Christians face today. There is a world of people out there, many of them with no real understanding of what it means to be in a relationship with God. Many of them live (or have lived) lifestyles totally foreign to us, completely contrary to what we know is the right way to live. And yet, their father loves and accepts them totally, for who they are, and is ready to welcome them home, to celebrate with them when they realise what they are missing, what they need.

But we, their brothers and sisters, do we really want to welcome them in? Or are we happy with our cozy, comfortable way of being church, with our club of like-minded people of similar lifestyle... Are we ready to welcome home the younger brothers, or are we setting off on a prodigal journey of our own?

And Love Is Not the Easy Thing

So, its Valentines' Day.... the day we celebrate love and flowers and hearts and all that kind of soppy thing. Even the canteen at work is trying to use the day to increase sales, offering, (I kid you not) a "Raunchy New York Deli" menu today....  

But what do we really mean by Love? As a culture, the western world has (in my opinion), a pretty low view of love - more often than not confusing it with romance and with sex - when really, love is so much more.

Not that I'm knocking romance, that is, because romance has its place (I have to say that as Sarah is no doubt going to read this!), but this is what I want to mean when I talk about Love:-

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails"

A very different view of love, and one that is much harder than the view we so often see in the films, a view where love is easy, where everything is alright when you're in love, and where, when you don't love someone anymore, thats okay, because you can just move in to the next one.

But the real love I have experienced is not just about our romantic partners. Real love, self-sacrificing, trusting, hoping, persevering love is what I have received through Jesus, and thats the kind of love that I want to see more of, to show more, to live more of in my life. And thats not easy at all.

But I can try and make a start. Tonight is our church meeting (not the most romantic of events for Valentine's Day, and one which means I'll be leaving Sarah at home on her own) - and we will be discussing some big issues - things which effect our future as a church, and things which effect the lives of real people. My hope and prayer is that as those discussions happen, as we meet, pray, discuss, debate and come to decisions together, all of us, and myself most of all will remember the love we have received and seek to share it with those around us, not to act out of pride, anger or in our service.  

Take This Mouth, So Quick to Criticise...

Some of you may have spotted, from a number of facebook posts, comments etc., that I have had the pleasure of attending a four day "Team Development" training course recently, a course which has included copious amounts of presentation skills, coaching skills, leadership skills and of course the pretty much mandatory "personality test" - the wonderful piece of pigeon-holing that is so beloved of trainers, HR professionals, and all those who want to try and turn the messy difficult world of people into something concrete!

In this case, the personality assessment in question was Belbin's Team Role Inventory, which does a reasonable job of assessing what each persons strengths and weaknesses are in a team context. In my case, the assessment identifies me as primarily a Monitor-Evaluator

"Monitor Evaluators are fair and logical observers and judges of what is going on in the team. Since they are good at detaching themselves from bias, they are often the ones to see all available options with the greatest clarity and impartiality. They take a broad view when problem-solving, and by moving slowly and analytically, will almost always come to the right decision. However, they can become very critical, damping enthusiasm for anything without logical grounds, and they have a hard time inspiring themselves or others to be passionate about their work."

People who know me well will probably recognise me in there -- it does seem pretty appropriate to me. And there's a lot of things in there I don't mind being true about me. But when I get to the "very critical, damping enthusiams for anything"  bit, that makes me squirm a little... because actually, I don't think that's the way God wants any of us to be.

The problem is, I am like that at times. I know it, I recognise its a problem, and too often I catch myself saying something I don't really want to say - something which is almost definately "true", but something which, in what I've said, and perhaps more importantly the way I've said it, suddenly I've just shot down someone's big idea, destroying their hope, their dream, their vision.... and when I realise thats what I've done, then I feel pretty bad.

Often at the moment, before meetings I find myself asking God to help me only to speak if it is going to further his will - not just for the sake of making a point... asking him to guide my words, to use my skills and talents as a monitor-evaluator but in a way that is positive, beneficial helpful. So far its working, but I know that that's because I'm conscious of my failings, and because I'm relying on someone greater than me to help.

Today's title is (as they all are) from a U2 song - "Yahweh" - and the lyrics continue --

"Take This Mouth, So Quick to Criticise

Take This Mouth, Give it a Kiss!"

-- Lyrics which always remind me of Isaiah 6 and particularly verses 6 & 7 where Isaiah, wanting to be called and used by God, but recognising that his lips are unclean has his guilt and sin taken away by the touch of a coal from the temple of the Lord... my prayer is that my unclean mouth, my critical words, will equally be cleansed and made useful and acceptable to him...

'Cause I Could Never Understand...

I saw this on Facebook earlier and thought it was so good, I needed to share it here... but then I wondered how I was going to make a proper post out of it. Mid-way through the training course I was on today I worked out what to say, and I hope no-one finds it "Very Interesting".

The thing is, there's so much truth in this - because actually, almost invariably, the "translation" on this is spot on... particularly when we're dealing with colloquial language, with the everyday kind of language we use amongst ourselves. We all understand exactly what we mean, but for an outsider to "get" it, even an English speaker, they would need to understand the cultural context of the things we're saying, otherwise they could get completely the wrong message. 

And, no doubt, as the language of today evolves and changes, then people looking back at today's communication will struggle to make sense of it, even if they speak English, or if they have a scholarly accurate translation.

And that is exactly where we are today, when it comes to reading and understanding the Bible. Because actually, if we don't take a bit of time to understand the cultural context in which it was written, we can struggle to understand what on earth it is talking about. For example, in English, we often talk about feeling things in our heart, to talk about our emotional response to things. However, at least as I understand it, the bible talks about our emotional reactions being in our "guts" -- an understanding which casts a different view on a number of biblical passages. 

Of course, with any kind of contextualising the Bible, we run the risk of overlaying the actual Word of God with our feelings, our own interpretations, our own ideas, or those that come to us from centuries of history, rather than actually reading and taking the Bible as it is written seriously. But actually, if we don't make the effort to understand the context, the history and the background as it was written, we are actually more likely to overlay our own views, interpretations and pre-conceptions... 

So do I need to learn Greek, Hebrew and whatever other languages the Bible was actually written in? Or do I need to do an advanced course in Biblical history to understand what is written. Actually, I don't think so, because I do believe the one of the many things the Holy Spirit enables us to do is to understand the word of God, even where it isn't always clear, at the time and place where it is important and appropriate for us to do so. But, I do appreciate the time, energy and effort of those biblical scholars amongst us who do understand these things, and who do make the effort to communicate the truth of the context and background and help me to understand just a little of the complexity and depth that is there within God's word. 

So, I hope you all read this, and if anyone wishes to comment "with the greatest respect", "I'll bear this in mind", or "I almost agree", then I'll be very happy to debate the matter with you further... just so long as you didn't find it "Very Interesting"!

You've Got Stuck in a Moment and Now You Can't Get Out of It

I know, I shouldn't really complain. I have after all got a loving wife, two lovely, healthy, happy children, a good job, family, friends, a church family I love being part of, and of course a house, a car and all the material things I could ever need.

But its February, its cold, grey, wet and miserable. The stimulating, interesting challenges of last week have been replaced by mountains of paperwork and bureaucracy, filling out forms that no-one really understands (or wants to understand) because that's what the law says we have to do. There are things on the cusp of happening, exciting, interesting, important God things, but we're not there yet, and the possibilities there seem a long way off still.... Nothings is really wrong as such, but for whatever reasons, I'm a bit down in the dumps - stuck in a moment of self-pity. 

The challenge for me is to still remember to give thanks and praise to God, even in this kind of state - and actually, this kind of miserable grey day is when I find it toughest. I don't struggle too much with prayer and praise when things are really tough - actually, when its really dark, even if I want to rant and shout at God, at least then, I'm communicating with him. And when things are good, then, at the moment at least (and it hasn't always been the case) I'm okay at remembering that its not by my strength, or my achievements, but through the grace and blessing of God that I get there.

But when things are grey, when things are a grind, when the day-to-day is drawing in, thats when its hard. That's when I have to make a conscious choice to appreciate the things He has given me, to remember the things He has already done and to trust that He hasn't abandoned me to a humdrum boring existence. He has good things for me, good things for us as a family and as a church and He will keep his promises. Its just not the right time yet, and I need to stop wallowing in my own self-pity and get on with it... after all,  the song which provided the title for this blog ends with the line

"Its Just a Moment - this time will pass".

I Was Punching in the Numbers...

Yes, its been a while since I've written a blog. Real Life has intervened in the last week and spare time for blogging, or indeed anything apart from collapsing and sleeping has been sadly lacking, as I have descended into a world of number crunching.

Budget time at work, Year End at church, some changes to my working conditions with knock on financial implications have all meant a large amount of time playing with spreadsheets, modelling scenarios, calculating, analysing, understanding and explaining numbers.

Sounds great.. doesn't it!? I'm pretty sure a number of people are looking at that statement thinking I'm off my trolley, but honestly, to me, that is something that is great. I am, at heart, a numbers man. Whilst I like to think I'm okay at the "softer side" of my work - the explaining, communicating, presenting, using side of the finance world, then actually, to me, the numbers themselves have a certain type of beauty, and to me, it is above all else the numbers that talk to me - from the detail of the data, I see the patterns and gain clarity. My 'first love', in terms of my work at least, is the numbers themselves.

The challenge, of course is that there's little point in being able to see patterns, to analyse and understand data if I then cannot explain or communicate that in a way that other people understand, which is why I do need to think very carefully about how to do that all the time... and there are many different ways to do that. Some people need carefully crafted prose, explaining the numbers in an easy to read manner. Others prefer a picture, or a table, or a well written speech.. there are as many different ways to communicate as there people to understand that communicate, because no two of us are the same... which is kind of the key to this blog entry.

Because as Christian Believers, our 'first love', our primary calling, should be to share the good news we have received. We are receipients of God's generous and undeserved Grace, and we are called again and again not to hold on to that Grace in a selfish manner, but to be conduits by which God's love and mercy can flow out to people around us. But to do that, we need to understand the way they think, the way they understand things, the way we can communicate with them. Our challenge, my challenge, is to remember that, although there is one Gospel for us all, there are as many different ways to communicate that as there people to communicate it to, and thats a lot of people - and most of them want something very different to me!

Jesus himself communicated in different ways, at different times to different people. To be effective communicators of the gospel we need to seperate the message from the delivery, and be prepared to change the way we communicate that timeless truth so that it is appropriate and relevant to the people we are communicating with, without compromising the message...

So if you know anyone out there who would like me to discuss the truth of the gospel in full Charity Commission approved SOFA format Accruals accounts, let me know. Otherwise I'll have to think again about my communication strategy!