Rain Rain go away!!!!!

It's July.........

It' RAINING!!!!!!!!!!

And I'm not talking drizzle.

Have you ever noticed how much worse the rain is when it's supposed to be summer? I don't mean physically. Summer rain is actually positively pleasant compared to winter rain. It's wet yes, but at least your warm, and so being wet could almost be described as refreshing. Winter rain on the other hand.....not so much. It's freezing, your already struggling to walk from all the heavy layers you've been forced to wrap yourself in, and the wind is, inevitably, blowing directly in your face driving the freezing raindrops into your forehead like pins......euuuwwaaahh...it's just horrrid.

My problem with summer rain is not physical it's psychological. It's the fact that it's supposed to be sunny. I feel robbed on two levels. Not only am i wet......i'm NOT basking in the warmth of the sun when quite frankly i should be....it's JULY!!! The English weather system apparently missed that crucial day at primary school when the rest of the class was taught about seasons.

Our expectations often affect our response to a situation. If your expecting a 'C' in your exams then 'B' is the best news ever, it's so exciting, you can't wait to tell everyone, your really proud. But if your expecting an 'A'...........

We're so lucky in this life our expectations have become ridiculously high. I was expecting a homemade pudding with custard for my dessert tonight and so a bowl of luxury ice cream is somehow, a disappointment. I'm sure if you weren't expecting to eat at all til tomorrow a two course meal including luxury ice cream would be cause for quite a celebration.

I know it's obvious that we have so much to be grateful for, yet no matter how many times i get told i still drift back into my own little world with my ridiculous expectations, and find myself disappointed or feeling hard done by. We are continuously presented with images of people who are better off than us and so we feel let down cos our world doesn't match up.

This isn't to say that we should necessarily lower our expectations in life, ambition and high expectation can be the very things that drive us to get the best out of this life. It' just that sometimes......

when we're feeling badly done to...........

when pudding is not lathered in custard,............

when it buckets it down in July.....................

maybe we should examine our expectations and be prepared to recognise they are the only thing that's stopping us from appreciating what we have!

ON the way or IN the way

I've been reading "The Message" Bible a little recently, just for a change. For those of you who are unfamiliar with "The Message" it is a modern translation of the Bible with all the chapters and verses taken back out (they were not there to start with but added in much later to make it easier to find your way around) so that it reads like a book made up of historical accounts, poems and letters. The author is a bit of an embellisher and so it always ends up quite dramatic sounding but it puts the bible and it's message into our time......not merely by using modern words, like me and you instead of thee and thou, but by switching to modern examples and using modern language and sentence structure. It is really great for helping you see new exciting teaching in the Bible because it sounds so different that it feels like you've never heard it before, and because of it's modern context it's easy to see immediately how what the Bible is teaching is relevant to life in the 21st century.

So anyway, I read a verse in The Message Bible that i really liked this morning. It's in the book of Romans (which is in fact a letter written by Paul the apostle to the Christian Believers in Rome) but it is a quote from the Old Testament book of Isaiah (which is an account of the life and prophecies of a man called Isaiah, an Israelite who lived a long time before Jesus was born). The verse simply says:

"Careful! I've put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion, a stone you can't get around. But the stone is me! If your looking for me, you'll find me on the way, not in the way."

The verse is there to explain an earlier point that Paul is making but i love that phrase "ON the way, not IN the way".

It reminded me of an incident that occurred recently when Lindon and i were driving home. We were cruising down a country lane near our house when a calf from a nearby field wandered out in front of us. Instead of seeing the danger and turning back to the field of safety, (where all the other cows were) it did that ridiculously annoying thing that rabbits always do and set off in the same direction as we were trying to go. We could not get past it since any further movement forward on our part simply herded the poor thing further down the road and further away from the field of safety (where all the other cows were). Now, as i said earlier we were simply cruising home, it was a lovely summer evening and we were in no real rush to get to our destination so this whole incident was quite an exciting adventure for us. We stopped the car and i got out and attempted to establish friendly relations with the calf (here calf-y calf-y).

Unfortunately a man and his wife in a fancy Mercedes arrived at this point.......and they were not just cruising! These guys were trying to get somewhere and they had no time for a lost calf in the middle of the road. They weren't mean or unkind they just needed to get past and started shuffling impatiently to drive around us. Thankfully the calf decided to make a break for it whilst we were negotiating with the Mercedes man and squeezed past the cars and set off back up the hill toward the field of safety (where all the other cows were). Lindon did the honourable thing and ran up the hill and fastened the calf safely away and we drove home with a smile on our faces thinking of the cute little calf tucked up in the field of safety (with all the other cows)!!!

It's funny how the nature of our journey affects the way we approach the things we discover on our way. When your out for a scenic drive a tractor going 25 miles an hour is not really that big a deal but when your trying to get to work........

I like the idea that God has set himself in our path...... we will encounter Him. But it's up to us how we view that encounter. If we're focused on our own plans, set upon our own destination then talk of God merely gets in the way. But if we are looking for God, seeking to discover Him on our journey.......then eventually we will find Him.... somewhere along the way.

So far Not so good

So far Not so good

Hmmmmm!!!! So those of you that read Tuesdays entry will know that i am currently embarking on a mission to positively affect people with my words. Wednesday started out well.....i decided to practice as soon as i got up and immediately enveloped the dog in a cloud of positive and genuine words regarding his general loveliness, my affection for him, his secure place in the family etc etc. It was a good start. My next encounter was with the car (lindon was still asleep, he would have to wait for his moment to be inspired to greatness with the subtle yet impressive power of words). Now unfortunately it all went down hill from here.....the car was not inspiring me in my endeavour with it's clunks and rattles and unfortunately i resorted to calling it heap of junk....at this point it's only 8 in the morning!! Not such a good start.

I consoled myself that the car didn't really count since it had no feelings and resolved not to be put off. Unfortunately the day continued as normal and while i was encouraging to the participants in my fitness class and friendly to the customers at the cafe (apart from one old lady who was particularly annoying and stirred up a little rudeness in me) i didn't really get the opportunity i was looking for to spectacularly make someone's day.

But who knows....maybe i did. Sometimes people have said things to me that probably didn't seem like a big deal to them and yet they affected me, for better or worse, and i remember them. It's often the little things you say over and over and the way you treat people day to day that conveys a message about your perceptions and expectations of a person.

The following extract is from The Message version of the Bible, the book of James chapter 3:

A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!

It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

My friends, this can't go on. A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

The writer makes a really interesting point at the end there.......we have to be consistent with the words that come out of our mouths. We cannot go around being selfish and unkind and angry with people generally and then say something nice on a special occasion or write an impressive message in a card and expect that to produce good results in a person's life. We have to be consistent with our encouragement if we want to help people succeed. Consistent with our words of affection if we want people to feel loved. Consistent with our praise if we want people to feel worthy and valued.

And out of the heart........the mouth speaks!!!!