Wearily upward

For those who read this and do not yet know, the Western Cape, South Africa, is going through a terrible drought at the moment.  Cape Town is especially vulnerable as "Day Zero" (the day when water levels are so low that water supply to suburban areas will be cut off) is less than two months away.  It really is a crisis influencing many.  People are scared, panicked. So yesterday I read an interesting headline to an article that a friend posted on Facebook.  It's about the famous farmer and evangelist, Angus Buchan, who apparently said that God is angry with the people of Cape Town and that it will rain when they repent.  Harsh.  My knee-jerk reaction was, of course, anger at these remarks.  How can a merciful God be angry with Cape Town?  How can a well-known and respected Christian evangelist make such claims?  Isn't it irresponsible of him to make statements like that?  Surely this isn't God's character at all!  Jesus said that...

I was stuck in traffic the other day.   A 12-mile round trip to pick up Madeleine (my daughter), that should have taken 60 minutes, took 2 hours.   It was frustrating to say the least, mainly because it was of my own doing. Traffic seemed pretty bad, so I decided to take a different route.   Big mistake.   Traffic was bad everywhere, so I basically sat in a line of cars on a route which can politely be described as the very long way round . This isn’t the first time I took the long way round to get where I wanted to be because of my own impatience.   Life sometimes gives us all, on different occasions, ‘traffic’ that slows us down, for whatever reason.   This isn’t always a bad thing either. Read Jeremiah 29:4-9.   Jeremiah sends this letter to the exiled Israelites taken away by Nebuchadnezzar.   There were some ‘prophets’ proclaiming that God will bring them back to Israel soon.   God says no, that’s not right.   Plant trees. ...

It really feels like the world's going down the drain; or going to hell in a handbasket as our American friends would very aptly describe it.   Violence, war, conflict, protests, sadness, isolation, genocide, injustice, illness, depression, oppression, hate, cruelty, fear, pain...   The list goes on...   And that's only within the church...   The rest of the world looks even worse. It seems to easy to lose hope in the face of current affairs.   Is there any way we can turn this around?   Are our opinions so vastly different that there is no conceivable way of reconciliation at all?   Is there no way we can ever stand together as human beings again? I'm pretty frustrated at the moment.   People annoy me.   I can totally see myself living on a farm somewhere remote, taking care of animals (sheep, most likely), drinking wine made from grapes of my own vineyard and working hard to provide for my immediate family...   Bliss...  ...

So I've made mistakes before.  The kind of mistakes that make me wince when the memories creep up on me in the stillness before sleep late at night.  Sometimes, it seems, the thought of forgiveness and redemption can drown out the self-reproach and allow me to drift off into a slumber.  Other times the wince seems to spread down from my face to my heart as feelings of guilt, iniquity and shame overwhelm me to the point of insomnia. We weren't made to live like this;  sluggishly carrying an eternal feeling of guilt around, like a heavy suitcase without wheels.  We also weren't made to leave that suitcase standing at the side of the road like a lonely commuter who just missed the bus.  It's part of our past, therefor it's part of us. Sometimes we don't realise we have this thing we carry around, like an awkward backpack with the straps broken, lost in the woods.  Often we don't even grasp that we've been carrying around our mistakes and shortcomings ...

History.  I love it.  I take great pleasure in going to museums, castles, ruins and other old places.  I enjoy watching history documentaries, much to my wife's frustration at times.  There is, for me at least, something special in being where something significant happened in the past, or learning about other people's victories and mistakes, their decisions that influenced the world in some way. History.  I love it.  But not my own... I've recently been thinking about a possible career change into more full-time, church-based ministry. I am currently the worship pastor at a wonderful church community in London, so I'm in church-based ministry already.  Now I'm thinking and praying through the possibility of going into ordination training in the future.  This brings up a lot of thoughts, questions and fears in me.  It will obviously have a massive impact on my wife and young daughter, our families in South Africa and Namibia and our plans...

We live in a dangerous world.  I’ve known this for a while now, but it has only recently become more obvious to me:  two months ago my wife and I were blessed with a beautiful baby girl.  Now I notice danger everywhere.  It’s amazing how quickly my perception of the world and all its dangers changed.  In the past I wouldn’t think twice about crossing a busy street.  Now I patiently wait at the traffic lights for the little green man to appear before looking both ways, before crossing the road.  Did the world change?   No.   I did.   Or at least my perception of the world did.   This, in turn, influenced the way I act in and react to the world. Isn’t this what Jesus calls us to do in John 13:34-35?   Read it.   He tells His disciples to love one another as He loved them.   The same applies to us, because He has loved us in the same way He has loved His disciples and the rest of humanity.   What does this mean...

Prayer I read a book recently.   It’s actually more like a pamphlet than a book, but everything seems longer on an iBook (or is it eBook?).   The book is called A Call To Prayer by J.C. Ryle and I would like to encourage you to read this.   Google it and you should be able to get a free pdf-format on the web. The thing that struck me most about this short book is the question he starts with:   Do you pray?   Then he goes on to explain why prayer is such an important part of the Christian life.   He also gives some practical advice on improving your personal prayer life and the consequences that may have on your life in general and specifically.   I really urge you to get a copy of the book and read it.   Very inspiring stuff.   Here’s a quote from the book: “Do you wish to grow in grace and be a devoted Christian?   Be very sure, if you wish it, you could not have a more important than this - Do you pray?” So I want to ask you ...