If you do one thing today….

Watch this:

“Where you live should not decide whether you live, or whether you die” – Bono

Victory!

We don’t fight for victory, we fight from victory. We fight for occupation. -Christy Wimber

Speak out

Had a really awesome session with some of the youth last night about self harm.  Had some really honest conversation, some really good questions. One of the main reasons people self-harm is they don’t know what to do with what they are feeling, they have no outlet, they have no-one to talk to, or if they do, they don’t have the courage.

Then this morning I see this video making the rounds.  It is showing someone who has courage, someone who has taken the step to speak out, to say “I’m hurting and I need help”.  Seems relevant.  It’s a powerful video and my hope & prayer is that any young person in that situation who is hurting themselves because they are hurting can speak out, can find someone who they trust & love who can support them.  Just another reason I do what I do, so I can be that person if necessary.

I’ll stand with arms high & heart abandoned

In awe.

In the last 24 hours I’ve experienced two extremes of God’s power in creation.

I write this sat in the garden with a glass of whisky toasting the birth of my 2nd son. Surrounded by a ‘bowl of stars’ (to quote Counting Crows) I’m once again blown away by the sheer size and magnificence of it all.

Last night I first held my son, and blown away by the intricate detail of it all. My son, who is smaller than a pillow, who’s stomach is the size of an acorn, who’s feet are smaller than my fingers. Truly small & perfectly formed.

God put the same amount of care, love & dedication in to both. The same level of detail into both.

He does the same with our lives. The big & the little. The incomprehensible and the minute detail. All looked after with the same level of care and attention.

So I’ll stand, with arms high & heart abandoned. In awe of the one who made it all.

True worship

Borrowed this quote from something I saw on Facebook…think it’s pretty awesome:

“If leading worship is just about bringing a group of people into a room so we can get goosebumps and sing songs together, there’s not much value in that. But if leading worship is a means to an end, that we leave this place as a different kind of people, as part of a new humanity that God wants to create – the people that are caring for the widows and orphans, that aren’t bound by the systems of this world but becoming free, becoming fully engaged in our world – then that matters. – Michael Gungor

Unknown quote…

Wish I could remember where I got this quote from….

I refuse to believe that exclusion, smoking pot, casual sex, criminal records, disengagement, hot temper, and disrespect is what any of the young people in God’s world were made for.  This stuff isn’t natural to them.  Yes, it might have become second nature to them.  But first nature – those are the things of God.  Each person is made for God, flourishes in light and only finds fulfilment in God’s ways for them.  So when we offer people these chances to explore being part of God’s actions in doing things for others, or in framing their lives around God’s ways, we find that this good news is the best news for them, and that God’s image in them shines when they reflect his ways.

All in the right context??!

I haven’t fully formed all my thoughts on this yet but it keeps rattling about so here goes…

I was reading a blog the other day about Mumford & Sons and someone mentioned them dropping the “f-bomb” (their words not mine) in “Little Lion Man”….there was various mumblings and comments about shock and disapproval especially from one who’s parents are in charge of Vineyard church UK…but one of the comments below the blog really caught my eye and stopped me.  It basically said something along these lines

“swearing is like sex and alcohol – all are appropriate in the Christian faith as long as they’re done in the right context”

Eh?

Alcohol – in the right context – yes, absolutely – not in excess etc. etc.  Roll in standard youth work alchol talk here.

Sex – in the right context – yes, again, absolutely, again, roll in standard youth work talk here…

But swearing?

That made me stop and think.

I swear sometimes, yes.  I know my young people swear.  Do I think it’s right though?  No.  Why?  I don’t know, maybe because I’ve been brought up to believe those words are offensive, that those words are demeaning and degrading, and as a Christian my challenge is to live the best I can, giving the most honour to God that I can.

This also raises a whole other question about what is swearing.  Back in the day (1939), the producers of Gone with the Wind were nearly find $5,000 for their use of the word “damn”.  Now we have Ron Weasley saying “Bugger” practically every other word and nearly everything after 9pm on t.v. comes with the caveat “may contain offensive language”.  Swearing is part of our culture.  Who defines what is a swear word?  When do swear words enter normal culture and just become language?  I don’t have any issue with saying “damn”, but there was a big issue with it seventy years ago….

How we speak and what we say is so, so important as a Christian.  Say the right thing and you can win hearts.  Say the wrong thing and you might lose someone forever.

The book of James says this:

“Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

James 3:5-8

The tongue is powerful.  Language is powerful.  Swearing, therefore is powerful.

I don’t think we can decide what is or isn’t a swearword – culture decides that.  But, I think as Christians we should recognise that, and do our best to be counter-cultural – to make sure that everything we do, including our language, honours God.

So, swearing in the right context?  Me thinketh not….

Discuss!

The end of a decade

Super quick post ‘cos I need to head to bed…

Tomorrow is a big day for me – the end of a decade…I finally hit the big 30.  People have been winding me up about it for a while now and I’ve been dreading it.  Can’t quite put my finger on why, maybe it’s because I’m used to saying I’m “twenty-something” which sounds young.  Now I have to say “thirty-something”…that’s only one number away from “forty”.

But then I got thinking.  I think the real reason is that I really loved my twenties.  A lot has happened in my twenties (in no particular order):

• Got married
• Became a Father
• Realised my calling to youth work
• Went to uni (who would have thought that would happen!)
• Got a 2:1 (who really thought that would happen?!!)
• Moved to Buckingham
• Met so many amazing people and formed so many special and priviliged friendships

And so much more that I either can’t remember or don’t have the time to write down.  I’ve loved being twenty.  Maybe I need to stop dreading leaving it and instead look to what my thirties will/may bring and embrace that excitment….

Roll on tomorrow!

Why I do what I do…

I’ve been doing some thinking lately about why I do what I do.  What is it that drives me?  That gives me the passion & love I have for young people?

I was struggling to put it into words.  I knew it, but couldn’t communicate it.  Until recently I came across a familiar passage in Matthew that I had temporarily forgotten:

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13-14

This is it. This is why I do what I do.  To help every young person who crosses my path find the narrow gate.

I write as one who has walked the road that leads to destruction.  I spent many years on that road, lost, and yet I managed to rediscover the narrow gate – because of my youth worker.  He was the one who walked with me, who put up with me, who loved me, who was passionate about me, who believed in me.  Without him I would undoubtedly be lost.

With this now fresh in my mind I have a renewed passion and a renewed energy and urgency to help those young people I work with.

Rediscovering (or maybe discovering) why you do what you do is exciting, re-energising and can really help focus you.

Why do you do what you do?

New camera? I hope so!

I’m a bit of a photography geek.  I love taking photos, looking at photos, looking for photo opportunities everywhere I go…check out my Flickr stream here.  So I get quite excited when I hear of new developments in camera technology and I’ve just come across one that looks amazing!

Check out the guys over at Lytro - they have come up with an amazing new concept – the Lightfield camera.  You can see it in action on some of the photos on their website.  I can’t put the photos here because WordPress doesn’t allow iframes or flash

Check them out here.

It’s phenomenal, unbelievable!  I’ve put my interest in for a new camera but I have a feeling that it will come in slightly above my budget!

Stuff like this amazes me, and continually points me towards an amazing creative God…where else would people get the skills, ideas and talents to pull this kind of stuff off?