You're probably reading this and wondering "what the heck was Mick smoking when he wrote this?" Well surprising as it may be I'm not high on anything, perhaps a little life but nothing more. The reason eyeball licking is making an appearance in this blog is that I joined an exclusive club tonight, and no it's not the mile high club, although there was an exchange of bodily fluids... mostly spit and tears but thats it. Yeah, I can now say I've licked an eyeball, and we're talking one that is definitely in situ, still functioning.
Normally my blogs have some sort of deeper meaning, something that people can take away and think about. This one is no different. The way I see it, licking eyeballs has overtones of opportunities of significance, more specifically the opportunity to become a christian. The link may seem a bit tenuous but bear with me.
For starters it's not every day that you get the opportunity to lick an eyeball and this is for many reasons. For starters eyeball licking isn't something that comes up in conversation that often. There's social and cultural constraints upon us that simply prevent us from talking about it and for most people it's not a concept that they think about. But once it comes up it's normally brought up by someone who's in the club and is quite enthusiastic about the topic. It's the same with Christianity, there are perceived constraints that might stop us from talking about Christ with our friends or family but once you've joined the club you get quite passionate about the fact that you're a member and you want to bring it up in conversation despite the odd looks you get.
One of the other things is that the opportunity doesn't always come along that often, and when it does it sometimes takes a bit of working up to it before you finally take the plunge and go for the lick. I've got to admit it took me a bit before I actually went in, tongue out and took the lick. I was in the right circumstances, the arguments had been made and so I went for it. It was the same when I became a Christian, it took God quite a bit of effort before he convinced me to make the decision and live for him. He got me in just the right place, made his arguments and I couldn't refuse. I said the prayer, meant it and the rest is history, although that said, the future is not guaranteed.
Once I'd licked the eye well it was the turning point between being a non licker, and a member of the club, someone who's licked someone else's eye. The event marked a threshold that I'd crossed from one state to another and now it's quite difficult to turn it back. When I became a Christian, I said a prayer and committed in my heart to follow Christ as my Lord and Saviour. Now when that happens the Holy Spirit moves in and it becomes quite difficult for you to turn back from your new status. Sure the evidence may not show to look at you from the outside but it's something on the inside that determines the difference.
Post lick there's the benefits of being a member of the eye licker's club. You're probably wondering what those benefits are (and it took me a while to work it out so I had something to write here) but it's mostly the cred you get and the simple fact that you can say "Yes I've licked someone's eye". There's also trade offs. Sure you get some odd looks from people if you do tell them that you've licked someone's eye, but now you can ring up the radio station and actually have a story to tell when they put the call out for the oddest thing you've done. Christianity has it's trade offs. It's not your life any more because when you commit your heart to God, it's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. It doesn't mean that life is going to be peachy from now on and may mean that it could get tougher (probably will get tougher) but the benefits are that you can stand on the promises of God, that your steps are ordered, that He has a future and a hope for you and that no matter what you're going through it will be used for good.
So when you get the opportunity, think about it. Will I regret this later on... probably not. Do the benefits outweigh the pitfalls? Yeah they do, but you won't get to really find out what the benefits are until you take the plunge and lick the eye, or make that decision to accept Christ into your life and live it out.
So have you licked an eye recently?
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Do Us a Favour
Kings Christian Church has started it’s relationships series in November and has got off to a screaming start with a good down to earth relevant message on why Christianity is relevant to how you conduct your relationships. Good practical stuff and really quite worthwhile getting into you regardless of where you are in your relationship lifecycle, be it single, going out, engaged or married, and for those who have unfortunately had to go through it divorced.
One of the best bits of the night is the panel segment where people, not necessarily preachers, but those in the church, get up and are asked about how they did things, are doing things and how it’s going for them. All sorts of probing questions get asked, and the closing question that was asked was “What is your advice for those single people who are wanting a relationship?” My good friend Richard Griffiths, who was being interviewed that night, came out with the gem “Stop Looking” which is absolutely golden.
There’s a few reasons why looking isn’t such a good thing and my favourite is “you find what you’re looking for” which basically means that if you’re actively looking for a relationship you’ll find it in pretty much every girl that you cross paths with because you’re constantly asking the question “Is she the one?” (Please bear in mind that I’m writing this from my perspective, so if you’re of the female persuasion and reading this substitute the opposite pronoun) Basically you’ve got your target sensors switched to high, your standards overridden and are on a mission to bag yourself a target… well probably not quite that harsh but a wife is to be seen in every girl, even if it’s not the right time and she’s not the best thing for you.
So, do us a favour… a favour to all of those people who are currently single around you. Help us to stop looking. Stop reminding us that we’re single. Stop joking around about going looking for girls, or making comments about the fact that a girl is pretty or nice. If we’re not smart enough to figure that out on our own what hope do we have? If anything the constant reminders, while well meaning or joking, are a bit of a drag really.
If this singleness thing is a season then I want to be running as hard as I can for those things that God has for me in this season without being distracted and slowed down by constant niggling that I should be looking somewhere else. If I’m going to be less effective in this season because I’m getting distracted, I don’t want to be distracted!
If it is a season then God, in his wisdom, will draw that season to a close in his own time with a peace that passes understanding. After all it’s written that God gives us the dreams and desires of our heart. I choose to believe that this is a twofold meaning, in that he puts the dreams and desires there in the first place, then fulfils them once their time has come. God cannot be defined or contained so who knows how he’s going to bring those dreams to pass.
I’ve heard it said that often times God brings a person into your life when you’re running full on. You glance to the side and see someone running along side you. That’s not the end of it though, if you glance over again and they’re still there, and again and they’re still there then you’re probably on to something but don’t stop to find out, just keep running. If they’re meant to stick around they’ll keep up.
I ask the question a whole lot about whether or not I really do trust God in how I live my life and really when you trust God, you let go. I can’t trust God while I’m trying to hold the reins and look for myself. As the words from “Your Sweet Voice” by the Paul Colman Trio go:
So excuse me if I don’t laugh at the jokes or respond that well to the suggestion that I should get together with such-n-such because she’s such a nice girl. I’ve got a race to run and I don’t need the extra drag right now.
Do us a favour if you’re friends of single people, get around them and be their pit crew (to continue the racing analogy). Encourage them in the things that they are doing, support them and ask the hard questions when they need asking and keep them focussed on the racetrack, not the pretty girls they’re passing on the sidelines.
One of the best bits of the night is the panel segment where people, not necessarily preachers, but those in the church, get up and are asked about how they did things, are doing things and how it’s going for them. All sorts of probing questions get asked, and the closing question that was asked was “What is your advice for those single people who are wanting a relationship?” My good friend Richard Griffiths, who was being interviewed that night, came out with the gem “Stop Looking” which is absolutely golden.
There’s a few reasons why looking isn’t such a good thing and my favourite is “you find what you’re looking for” which basically means that if you’re actively looking for a relationship you’ll find it in pretty much every girl that you cross paths with because you’re constantly asking the question “Is she the one?” (Please bear in mind that I’m writing this from my perspective, so if you’re of the female persuasion and reading this substitute the opposite pronoun) Basically you’ve got your target sensors switched to high, your standards overridden and are on a mission to bag yourself a target… well probably not quite that harsh but a wife is to be seen in every girl, even if it’s not the right time and she’s not the best thing for you.
So, do us a favour… a favour to all of those people who are currently single around you. Help us to stop looking. Stop reminding us that we’re single. Stop joking around about going looking for girls, or making comments about the fact that a girl is pretty or nice. If we’re not smart enough to figure that out on our own what hope do we have? If anything the constant reminders, while well meaning or joking, are a bit of a drag really.
If this singleness thing is a season then I want to be running as hard as I can for those things that God has for me in this season without being distracted and slowed down by constant niggling that I should be looking somewhere else. If I’m going to be less effective in this season because I’m getting distracted, I don’t want to be distracted!
If it is a season then God, in his wisdom, will draw that season to a close in his own time with a peace that passes understanding. After all it’s written that God gives us the dreams and desires of our heart. I choose to believe that this is a twofold meaning, in that he puts the dreams and desires there in the first place, then fulfils them once their time has come. God cannot be defined or contained so who knows how he’s going to bring those dreams to pass.
I’ve heard it said that often times God brings a person into your life when you’re running full on. You glance to the side and see someone running along side you. That’s not the end of it though, if you glance over again and they’re still there, and again and they’re still there then you’re probably on to something but don’t stop to find out, just keep running. If they’re meant to stick around they’ll keep up.
I ask the question a whole lot about whether or not I really do trust God in how I live my life and really when you trust God, you let go. I can’t trust God while I’m trying to hold the reins and look for myself. As the words from “Your Sweet Voice” by the Paul Colman Trio go:
I’ll wait for Your sweet voice
Guiding me to the right choice
I’ll wait for Your sweet voice
I’ve gotta let it go, let it go
Yeah your sweet voice
So excuse me if I don’t laugh at the jokes or respond that well to the suggestion that I should get together with such-n-such because she’s such a nice girl. I’ve got a race to run and I don’t need the extra drag right now.
Do us a favour if you’re friends of single people, get around them and be their pit crew (to continue the racing analogy). Encourage them in the things that they are doing, support them and ask the hard questions when they need asking and keep them focussed on the racetrack, not the pretty girls they’re passing on the sidelines.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
how bad do you want this?
I've been challenged by God over the last couple of days regarding quite a few things that are going on in my life and it came to the point tonight where I just had to get it down in some kind of tangible way, and could think of no better way than blogging about it. It's been a while, and I figured this one was worth it.
The title of this one pretty much gives the whole thing away, but it's been the question that God has been asking me all week. I've been praying that I'd get into uni to do medicine and get into the military so I can actually finance it and praying to God that he'd get me in, and the response that I've been getting back has been "How bad do you want this?"
The question led me to the conclusion that I'd better be able to prove it. One of the ways I can is by putting my actions where my mouth is and put the work in to getting ready for this, put the hard yards into training for the physicals and getting my physical endurance up. Putting the time into research and talking to the navy types and getting my knowledge up to scratch about the military and preparedness for the interviews.
The one that really brought myself to the point of writing about this was praying in the car that I really wanted a deeper relationship with God, that I wanted his presence to be written all over my life in a new way... and God came back with "How bad do you want this? well prove it to me!".
There's a couple of things that I'm learning out of this. One is that the scripture that says "Where your treasure is there your heart is" is so true, and the reverse of it works, in that if you want your heart to be somewhere then put your treasure there. Sink your time, your knowledege and your money and treasured things into where you want to be. For me that means spending time on the net researching the job I'm going for, spending time on the phone speaking to military doctors and finding out what they do.
It also means getting down on my knees every night and every morning and praying, reading my bible every day. It's not a religeous thing, but I want my heart to be deeper into God and so I need to put the time in and just do it. It doesn't matter if I'm tired or busy, I need to put my treasure into the places I want to go to.
The second thing I'm learning is that God honours effort. If I put the time in and really work at something that I want He honours that. Sure if I'm not meant to be somewhere in his will then I just won't get there and will end up somewhere else, but if I put the treasure in then God will meet me where I'm at and help me over the line. Mind, it may not be in the timeframe that I think it should be... but that's a whole other story!
The title of this one pretty much gives the whole thing away, but it's been the question that God has been asking me all week. I've been praying that I'd get into uni to do medicine and get into the military so I can actually finance it and praying to God that he'd get me in, and the response that I've been getting back has been "How bad do you want this?"
The question led me to the conclusion that I'd better be able to prove it. One of the ways I can is by putting my actions where my mouth is and put the work in to getting ready for this, put the hard yards into training for the physicals and getting my physical endurance up. Putting the time into research and talking to the navy types and getting my knowledge up to scratch about the military and preparedness for the interviews.
The one that really brought myself to the point of writing about this was praying in the car that I really wanted a deeper relationship with God, that I wanted his presence to be written all over my life in a new way... and God came back with "How bad do you want this? well prove it to me!".
There's a couple of things that I'm learning out of this. One is that the scripture that says "Where your treasure is there your heart is" is so true, and the reverse of it works, in that if you want your heart to be somewhere then put your treasure there. Sink your time, your knowledege and your money and treasured things into where you want to be. For me that means spending time on the net researching the job I'm going for, spending time on the phone speaking to military doctors and finding out what they do.
It also means getting down on my knees every night and every morning and praying, reading my bible every day. It's not a religeous thing, but I want my heart to be deeper into God and so I need to put the time in and just do it. It doesn't matter if I'm tired or busy, I need to put my treasure into the places I want to go to.
The second thing I'm learning is that God honours effort. If I put the time in and really work at something that I want He honours that. Sure if I'm not meant to be somewhere in his will then I just won't get there and will end up somewhere else, but if I put the treasure in then God will meet me where I'm at and help me over the line. Mind, it may not be in the timeframe that I think it should be... but that's a whole other story!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Promises
Man, after the weekend that's just been I'm glad I'm a god botherer. Lets just say that I'm glad that I have the promises of God to stand on when life isn't fun. Promises like "The steps of a Good Man are ordered by the Lord" and my LifeVerse which is "All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes".
It's been the kind of weekend where you're left standing wondering why a whole lot of things happened. Why I had to meet a girl, fall hard for her, and have it all fall apart, to still have it kick me in the guts every time I see her. Why I got to achieve my dream of leading a production team making all the production needs of my church happen, to have it crumble to bits. Why it has to hurt and feel like running through treacle.
And then the foundation that I stand on tell me that it's pointless looking back, pointless to think why, but to think where to from here?
I guess without if things had worked out with me and this aforementioned girl, I wouldn't have had the guts and the impetus to apply to go back to uni and apply with the defence forces. Sure I can't see what the things I've been through are going to be used for but the promise is there, God doesn't say how but he'll use the things that have happened.
It's the promises that mean I can stand up face the new day. Thank God that He promises, also, that His mercies are new every morning!
Yeah, this one is very much a testimony as a faith builder, more for me than anything else. Thanks for the patience!
It's been the kind of weekend where you're left standing wondering why a whole lot of things happened. Why I had to meet a girl, fall hard for her, and have it all fall apart, to still have it kick me in the guts every time I see her. Why I got to achieve my dream of leading a production team making all the production needs of my church happen, to have it crumble to bits. Why it has to hurt and feel like running through treacle.
And then the foundation that I stand on tell me that it's pointless looking back, pointless to think why, but to think where to from here?
I guess without if things had worked out with me and this aforementioned girl, I wouldn't have had the guts and the impetus to apply to go back to uni and apply with the defence forces. Sure I can't see what the things I've been through are going to be used for but the promise is there, God doesn't say how but he'll use the things that have happened.
It's the promises that mean I can stand up face the new day. Thank God that He promises, also, that His mercies are new every morning!
Yeah, this one is very much a testimony as a faith builder, more for me than anything else. Thanks for the patience!
Friday, September 14, 2007
care for some porn with your coffee?
Straight up this is an article about pornography. I’ve been challenged recently in my life by this issue and by talking it over with a few close friends and members of my family am discovering that this is a bigger issue than my previously closed eyes allowed me to see. This discovery has pushed me to put my thoughts down for a few reasons including letting guys know that they’re not along in this and giving guys hope that there is a way out of the problem that you find yourself in. I figure that being able to put a face to a problem somehow makes it more real to people and somehow makes it easier to grab hold of.
I started out with the intention of writing a single post that would sum up my thoughts on the issue but quickly found that it was much bigger than one post could hope to sum up. In this day and age of the internet and the world wide waste of time the issue has escalated to greater heights with kids being able to access porn with the click of a mouse button, and more often than not unintentionally. Problem is once the claws are in, they’ve got barbs and are quite difficult to remove often leaving scars.
Analogies are my thing, as you would have discovered if you’ve been following my blog for any reasonable amount of time and this time it’s no different.
I’m a bit of a coffee lover. Not one of those “it’s gotta be just coffee, no milk, no sugar, straight from the beans” coffee lovers, but a lover of coffee because of what it does for me first thing in the morning. It has the effect of the full moon setting on a were-wolf in turning the monster into a human. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy a good cup of coffee when I drink one, but first thing in the morning (or at other desperate times) a cup of Nescafe Blend 43 goodness doesn’t go astray.
The normal method that I use to make said coffee is teaspoon (or two) of 43 beans worth of goodness, two teaspoons of sugar, hot water, then milk and stir. The amount of milk in the coffee will then determine how soon after I can actually consume it. Sometimes, however this routine is altered a little to the effect of two teaspoons of sugar in the mug, and a quarter to half a teaspoon of sugar in the mouth. Yeah, that’s right, I don’t have a problem with eating sugar every now and then. It just tastes so sweet in the mouth and at the time it really doesn’t seem like it’s affecting anything else. Problem is, after eating the sugar and experiencing the concentrated sweetness, the coffee that I’ve been looking forward to just ends up tasting bitter and foul. Not the pleasurable experience that it should be.
Nothing changed with the coffee, just the fact that the sweetener was consumed out of context. In this way sugar and porn are very similar. The way I see it, sex and all that fun stuff are the sweetener in a marriage. I know I sure as heck want a little sugar in the coffee of life when I get married because it makes being married taste the way it should. Thing is if I start to look at porn and get my sweetener elsewhere, when I come back to the relationship that the sweetener should be enjoyed within I end up with a foul taste in my mouth.
The terrible thing about pornography is that it doesn’t just affect me. It’s a bit like passive smoking in that one person enjoys the experience but other people pay the price for their actions. If I’m looking at porn then it doesn’t just affect me. It affects my wife (well, when I have one), my kids (when I have those too) and my friends and family. How does me getting a little pleasure out of looking at skin affect my wife? Well to quote “Marriable” by Hayley and Michael DiMarco
The more someone looks at porn, the more the person’s senses become deadened sexually (and the greater appetite they have for images that go further than the last ones viewed). While one might thing that porn can be compartmentalised in secret, married men who are honest will tell you that if you look at porn nightly, weekly or even once every couple of months, chances are your wife will look less and less attractive to you. And we can all agree that can’t be good for a marriage relationship.
To take that further, if it is affecting my relationship with my wife then if I have kids it can’t be a good thing for them either! They need to have a healthy example to follow of their dad being in love with their mum and that lead is endangered when pornography is brought into the picture.
This one has been focussed quite a bit on why porn is such a nasty and insidious thing and on it’s own would really leave people wondering if there is anything they can do about the addiction. It’s not a situation without hope, sure not easy to get out of but it’s do-able, so the next few posts are going to be focussed around the problems that I feel face guys who are wanting to kick the addiction and how I managed to get to where I am now. Sure, I still fall and stumble, and I have to be on my guard every day and night to prevent slips from happening but it is possible to do!
The best part is that even though we sin and fall God still picks us up and dusts us off and sends us on our way and if we want his help to kick the addiction then he will move heaven and earth to make it possible!
I started out with the intention of writing a single post that would sum up my thoughts on the issue but quickly found that it was much bigger than one post could hope to sum up. In this day and age of the internet and the world wide waste of time the issue has escalated to greater heights with kids being able to access porn with the click of a mouse button, and more often than not unintentionally. Problem is once the claws are in, they’ve got barbs and are quite difficult to remove often leaving scars.
Analogies are my thing, as you would have discovered if you’ve been following my blog for any reasonable amount of time and this time it’s no different.
I’m a bit of a coffee lover. Not one of those “it’s gotta be just coffee, no milk, no sugar, straight from the beans” coffee lovers, but a lover of coffee because of what it does for me first thing in the morning. It has the effect of the full moon setting on a were-wolf in turning the monster into a human. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy a good cup of coffee when I drink one, but first thing in the morning (or at other desperate times) a cup of Nescafe Blend 43 goodness doesn’t go astray.
The normal method that I use to make said coffee is teaspoon (or two) of 43 beans worth of goodness, two teaspoons of sugar, hot water, then milk and stir. The amount of milk in the coffee will then determine how soon after I can actually consume it. Sometimes, however this routine is altered a little to the effect of two teaspoons of sugar in the mug, and a quarter to half a teaspoon of sugar in the mouth. Yeah, that’s right, I don’t have a problem with eating sugar every now and then. It just tastes so sweet in the mouth and at the time it really doesn’t seem like it’s affecting anything else. Problem is, after eating the sugar and experiencing the concentrated sweetness, the coffee that I’ve been looking forward to just ends up tasting bitter and foul. Not the pleasurable experience that it should be.
Nothing changed with the coffee, just the fact that the sweetener was consumed out of context. In this way sugar and porn are very similar. The way I see it, sex and all that fun stuff are the sweetener in a marriage. I know I sure as heck want a little sugar in the coffee of life when I get married because it makes being married taste the way it should. Thing is if I start to look at porn and get my sweetener elsewhere, when I come back to the relationship that the sweetener should be enjoyed within I end up with a foul taste in my mouth.
The terrible thing about pornography is that it doesn’t just affect me. It’s a bit like passive smoking in that one person enjoys the experience but other people pay the price for their actions. If I’m looking at porn then it doesn’t just affect me. It affects my wife (well, when I have one), my kids (when I have those too) and my friends and family. How does me getting a little pleasure out of looking at skin affect my wife? Well to quote “Marriable” by Hayley and Michael DiMarco
The more someone looks at porn, the more the person’s senses become deadened sexually (and the greater appetite they have for images that go further than the last ones viewed). While one might thing that porn can be compartmentalised in secret, married men who are honest will tell you that if you look at porn nightly, weekly or even once every couple of months, chances are your wife will look less and less attractive to you. And we can all agree that can’t be good for a marriage relationship.
To take that further, if it is affecting my relationship with my wife then if I have kids it can’t be a good thing for them either! They need to have a healthy example to follow of their dad being in love with their mum and that lead is endangered when pornography is brought into the picture.
This one has been focussed quite a bit on why porn is such a nasty and insidious thing and on it’s own would really leave people wondering if there is anything they can do about the addiction. It’s not a situation without hope, sure not easy to get out of but it’s do-able, so the next few posts are going to be focussed around the problems that I feel face guys who are wanting to kick the addiction and how I managed to get to where I am now. Sure, I still fall and stumble, and I have to be on my guard every day and night to prevent slips from happening but it is possible to do!
The best part is that even though we sin and fall God still picks us up and dusts us off and sends us on our way and if we want his help to kick the addiction then he will move heaven and earth to make it possible!
Monday, September 3, 2007
Heavenly Dad
The more I go through life and experience that which it has to offer, and give what I have to offer, the more I realise that My God is my heavenly dad. It’s interesting to know that the jewish word Abba, used sometimes to refer to God, means daddy as we would say it. An affectionate term of love between child and father. He’s my daddy in heaven, loving me, holding onto the bike after taking off the training wheels and yelling out encouragement when I ride down the hill after he’s let go, but always there to pick me up again and kiss my hurts better and set me on my feet ready to face the world again.
Part of this journey of realisation has happened very recently and it changed my view of God from the crusty old distant being who dictates in a booming voice those things that I shall not do, to the daddy and boy in the shed making stuff. The boys hand on the plane and the daddy’s arms wrapped around the boy guiding his hands and offering instruction and gently chiding when the boy makes a mistake. He never angrily punishes the boy for the imperfections of his inexperience but gently pushes him toward a better way.
The part of this journey that I’ve just been through is realising what the 10 commandments are all about, specifically what He’s getting at when He’s telling us not to covet our neighbours anything. (Deut 5:21). I have been guilty of this, of coveting my brother and sister’s families. I am blessed to have an awesome brother and amazing sister, both married and both with their first daughters growing up before me and making me a very proud uncle. They’ve both recently made it known that they’re expecting their second little whatsit in the not too distant future too, which is fantastic news and I’m ecstatic for them. The thing for me is I would love to be married and have a family of my own. A wife and kids to whom I can be a loving husband and daddy. I have to admit that it gets me down sometimes that I haven’t done that yet and that I can’t see it happening in the near future. Really when I get this way it’s pretty much me coveting what my brother and sister have in their families. Sure there’s probably some legit desire there, but it’s made worse by me looking at what they have and wanting it.
The realisation that the advice not to covet my neighbour’s, or in this case my brother and sister’s, stuff is a gentle correction, words of advice softly spoken in my ear to stop me from getting bitter and twisted inside. If you were reading the bible as re-written by me it would go a little something like this.
I am so blessed in being able to do what I want to do when I want to. Being able to respond to phone calls on a Wednesday and be in New Zealand on the Monday after is something I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Sure it’s on my list that I want a wife and kids but I shouldn’t let that desire make what I’m doing now a bitter and twisted thing. God will give me the dreams and desires of my heart and it’ll probably surprise me big time when it happens, and when it does it’ll be a good thing.
There’s an upside to every situation, but in saying that it also means there’s a trade off. So I trust that my Abba Father has my best interests at heart when he gently scolds me for coveting my sibling’s families and get on with living the life of a single man, enjoying the upside of not being told off for burping and farting my way through life!
Part of this journey of realisation has happened very recently and it changed my view of God from the crusty old distant being who dictates in a booming voice those things that I shall not do, to the daddy and boy in the shed making stuff. The boys hand on the plane and the daddy’s arms wrapped around the boy guiding his hands and offering instruction and gently chiding when the boy makes a mistake. He never angrily punishes the boy for the imperfections of his inexperience but gently pushes him toward a better way.
The part of this journey that I’ve just been through is realising what the 10 commandments are all about, specifically what He’s getting at when He’s telling us not to covet our neighbours anything. (Deut 5:21). I have been guilty of this, of coveting my brother and sister’s families. I am blessed to have an awesome brother and amazing sister, both married and both with their first daughters growing up before me and making me a very proud uncle. They’ve both recently made it known that they’re expecting their second little whatsit in the not too distant future too, which is fantastic news and I’m ecstatic for them. The thing for me is I would love to be married and have a family of my own. A wife and kids to whom I can be a loving husband and daddy. I have to admit that it gets me down sometimes that I haven’t done that yet and that I can’t see it happening in the near future. Really when I get this way it’s pretty much me coveting what my brother and sister have in their families. Sure there’s probably some legit desire there, but it’s made worse by me looking at what they have and wanting it.
The realisation that the advice not to covet my neighbour’s, or in this case my brother and sister’s, stuff is a gentle correction, words of advice softly spoken in my ear to stop me from getting bitter and twisted inside. If you were reading the bible as re-written by me it would go a little something like this.
Don’t covet the fact that Tim and Jen are both married and have kids, that they’re settled and building their families, for you would not be able to do the things I have planned for you, like going to New Zealand at the drop of a hat, and (God willing) going back to uni and (again, God willing) joining the Air Force, if you too had a wife and kids. Don’t worry about your future, your dreams and desires are looked after, so get on with doing what I have for you now and don’t let comparing where you’re at with your brother and sister make what you’re doing now have a bitter after taste in your mouth.
I am so blessed in being able to do what I want to do when I want to. Being able to respond to phone calls on a Wednesday and be in New Zealand on the Monday after is something I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Sure it’s on my list that I want a wife and kids but I shouldn’t let that desire make what I’m doing now a bitter and twisted thing. God will give me the dreams and desires of my heart and it’ll probably surprise me big time when it happens, and when it does it’ll be a good thing.
There’s an upside to every situation, but in saying that it also means there’s a trade off. So I trust that my Abba Father has my best interests at heart when he gently scolds me for coveting my sibling’s families and get on with living the life of a single man, enjoying the upside of not being told off for burping and farting my way through life!
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Wonderful
It probably shouldn’t surprise you that I’ve managed to pull a blog from a Doctor Who episode, but it’s probably not the way in which you’d expect. I was watching last weeks episode in which the Doctor becomes a man called John Smith to hide from some creatures who will destroy earth if they find and capture him. In order to hide he becomes human, and puts all of his gallifreian nature into a watch which stays hidden until it’s open at the right time. Essentially though, when John Smith opens the watch he dies and the Doctor comes back, but John has to make the decision.
The scene from which this quote is taken is just before the watch is opened when a young boy called Timothy, who was keeping the watch, is convincing John that he has to open the watch. Tim’s words are below.
I’ve seen him
He’s like fire and ice and rage
He’s like the night and the storm and the heart of the sun
He’s ancient and forever, he burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe...
...and he’s wonderful
It reminded me of the nature of my God. When digging into the bible you find that he’s not just some warm and fluffy benevolent being sitting up in heaven watching the goings on down in the world below. He’s not some judgemental nazi who smites and destroys because He can. Sure He gets angry and can wipe out a people in a single word, but He loves and that love is all powerful. I think sometimes, and I’m guilty of this myself, that we underplay who God is.
He’s wonderful! Look outside at the trees and the flowers and the birds, the animals, the ocean, the land and the sky. He made all of that just for our pleasure and to point us to him! The stars in the sky! We can’t understand why though! Why would God do what he did for me? Why would he send his Son to die for my sins so that I might be cleansed? If I could understand it, have the answer to that question I think I wouldn’t want to know! It’s something that I’m just going to have to learn to live with, but it’ll probably be the first question on my lips for Him when I meet Him in heaven!
It reminds me of another quote from one of my favourite books.
“He’s not a tame lion...”
The scene from which this quote is taken is just before the watch is opened when a young boy called Timothy, who was keeping the watch, is convincing John that he has to open the watch. Tim’s words are below.
I’ve seen him
He’s like fire and ice and rage
He’s like the night and the storm and the heart of the sun
He’s ancient and forever, he burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe...
...and he’s wonderful
It reminded me of the nature of my God. When digging into the bible you find that he’s not just some warm and fluffy benevolent being sitting up in heaven watching the goings on down in the world below. He’s not some judgemental nazi who smites and destroys because He can. Sure He gets angry and can wipe out a people in a single word, but He loves and that love is all powerful. I think sometimes, and I’m guilty of this myself, that we underplay who God is.
He’s wonderful! Look outside at the trees and the flowers and the birds, the animals, the ocean, the land and the sky. He made all of that just for our pleasure and to point us to him! The stars in the sky! We can’t understand why though! Why would God do what he did for me? Why would he send his Son to die for my sins so that I might be cleansed? If I could understand it, have the answer to that question I think I wouldn’t want to know! It’s something that I’m just going to have to learn to live with, but it’ll probably be the first question on my lips for Him when I meet Him in heaven!
It reminds me of another quote from one of my favourite books.
“He’s not a tame lion...”
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