Baptism

On Sunday i went to FERN Christian Fellowship's annual baptism service. The baptisms take place in the river at the bottom of the valley........the freezing, stony bottomed, muddy watered river at the bottom of the valley. The sun was shining (which seems unlikely looking out the window at the rain today) and the river looked lovely. Green leafed branches dipping in the dappled water, a squirrel dashing along the bank (honestly there actually was.... i'm not just saying it for effect!). It actually looked quite inviting.

Then people started going in!! Apparently; judging by the screams, contorted faces and chattering teeth, it was FREEZING!!! Four people got baptized i.e. dunked completely under the water, and the photographs i took confirmed my original suspicions........ the water was definitely FREEZING!!

It's a funny thing getting baptized.......especially if your perspective is that of an unsuspecting dog walker who encountered an unusual bunch of people gathered by the river! I like to think of it as being a bit like a wedding........ apart from the obvious difference in outfit choice. When you decide you believe in God and your going to try and follow after his ways with your life, you usually say a prayer to this effect and remember that day as the day you became a Christian. This is kinda like getting engaged......you have decided you and God are going to spend the rest of your lives together...... you plan on involving God in your life till the day you die. This commitment is between you and God...... you tell people, but only you really know how serious you are.

Now you see where i'm going with the whole baptism/ wedding thing. Getting baptised is like the big day...... you invite all you friends and celebrate the commitment you've made to God. It's the big display, the sign to everyone else of the commitment you made in your heart!

Getting baptised is not magic. It's not a ticket to heaven or an initiation ceremony into a mystical society to which you are forever bound. It's a person, making a commitment, to follow God.

Is it worth the effort?

I think my dog has 'ADHD'. He's a twitcher. He cannot stand to be still. Right now he is lying down in front of me in an awkward 'i'm lying down because you made me, not because i'm comfy' kind of position, whining relentlessly. I wouldn't mind if he was badly done to, but we're talking about a dog who has just got back from an hours walk in the wind and the rain, been fed a big bowl of gross smelling dog food and is now in trapped (poor soul) in a room full of toys with a warm fire blazing. What kind of dog doesn't settle in front of the fire and go to sleep in that scenario. Or even if he wasn't sleepy you would think he would be happy to curl up with a chew toy. But not Blue, bless him.......he just cannot understand why i would want to do anything other than throw his ball or tug his rope.

Ok so the dog seems to have settled now that he's been in and out of the room several times creating draughts and being a general nuisance. Now it's the cats turn. Independent and stand- off-ish as she normally is Bell has decided that today she wants to sit on my lap.....on the laptop on my lap (I just very nearly lost everything i have written so far). She would also like to use the corner of the laptop screen to scratch her head, which would be fine if the hinge on our laptop wasn't broken and the screen didn't keep falling flat. Bell would also like to go out now please. And back in again now please. That's lovely......out again please...... i'll leave the rest to your imagination.

Pets eh! They get in the way, they make lots of mess, they cost lots of money and they take lots of work. And yet........i'd hate to be without them. They're my little buddies, they keep me company, they bring me so much joy, i love to watch them and marvel at their crazy little characters. Taking a dog on a walk is so much more rewarding than just going for a walk by yourself. They just love it so much. Every day i take Bluey for a walk. And every day when i pick up his lead he looks like he just won the lottery. All his dreams have come true. It doesn't matter that we're walking the exact same route we did yesterday. It doesn't matter that it's rainy and cold and blowing a gale (secretly i think this is in fact Bluey particular favourite kind of weather). And then when your out walking his tails up and he's bounding around like he's just been released from a ten year stint down a mine. I feel like i just gave him the gift of a lifetime, and honestly, it really wasn't that much effort on my part.

I love my pets. Sometimes they drive me crazy..... but they're always worth it.

The best things in life always take bit of work don't they. Family, for instance. Families always require effort and patience, money and time but who would be without them. Relationships of any kind are complicated and require sacrifice but very few people would be happy living all alone. Sometime when i'm tired and stressed out and everything seems hard work i just want to curl up in a ball and not have to deal with or think about anyone or anything. But if i'm honest, i think i'd soon get bored. Not to mention the pins and needles and the compulsion to eat!!!

Some things are worth the effort. We each get to decide what's worth the effort for us. Some relationships are worth the effort, some aren't. I think pets are worth the effort, many people don't. Families are usually worth the effort. Careers are worth a certain amount of effort, though we have to be careful not to put all our efforts in this particular basket. Health is probably worth the effort, even if it's sometimes hard to see that when faced with the option of walk or a run vs the sofa and a bag of malteasers!

I think faith is worth the effort. Some days it seems like it would be a lot easier not to believe in God. I could just live my life however i wanted, i could be entirely selfish. I could stay in an watch TV on sundays and mondays. But then i wouldn't know the comfort and security of having God by my side through every situation. I wouldn't have an overriding purpose for my life that makes everything seem worth while. I wouldn't know God's unconditional love and forgiveness in my heart giving me value and self worth. Jesus said that if we chose to follow his way with our lives it would be like choosing a narrow path instead of a big broad easy route. But he also said that if we did choose to follow him...........it would definitely be worth the effort!

Pub Quiz Glory

Last night our grapevine group got together and attempted Dave's Quiz at The Old Hall in Haworth. It was, of course, organised with the knowledge that we probably wouldn't be any good but with the hope that we would have good fun trying. However as i looked around the pub at all the little groups of two and three people, from my vantage point in the middle of a group of ten my competitive side reared up and i began to feel quietly confident. "I'm reasonably intelligent", i thought to myself, "i have 11 GCSE's, 4 A-levels, and a degree. I listen to the radio, watch movies and scan the bbc news page whenever i go on the internet. I have had good success at exams.... i suspect i may in fact be a pub quiz genius!" Then the questions started.....

How anyone is expected to know what the oldest animal rescue centre in the country is called is beyond me. I don't have the foggiest who Alex Higgins is, nevermind where he comes from. And while i'm sure i could have a crack at guessing WHY a famous reggae singer christened Orville Richard somebody-or-other would change his name, i definitely can't tell you WHAT he changed it to.

As i sat there wallowing in my own foolish pride and bemoaning my apparent stupidity, i suddenly realised we actually had some answers written down. Other people on my team apparently knew this ridiculously random information. SWEET!!! If i had attempted to undertake this test on my own i would seriously be lucky to get a grand total of 3 questions right out of 50, but blow me, between us we got 28. Now i'm not saying we should consider a career in pub quiz's, there were plenty of teams ahead of us but get this..... we were not last!

Thank goodness for friends. I would definitely have snuck out under the pretence of using the toilet and scurried home with my tail between my legs after the first ten questions if i had been by myself. It was shameful how completely blank my sheet would have been. As it was, not only did i stay, we even handed our sheet in....and did i mention that we weren't last!!!

I know it's an obvious link but it's such a good example i can't help myself....... this is why God wants us to work together. It's not about building an empire it's about working together to do a better job. We can all make a difference in this world by the way we live our lives individually, but how much more can we achieve together. Our problem with together is often that we are jealous or insecure. We want to be more important or else we feel we have nothing to offer and we are worthless. In Paul's first letter to the early church in Corinth he deals with these issue's among the people and it's such insightful teaching;

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.....If the foot says "I am not a part of the body because i am not a hand," that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says "I am not a part of the body because i am not an eye," would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

There are two main points i believe God is teaching us through Paul in this extract from the Bible. Firstly; we are all important. We may all be very different but we all have our specialities, our gifts, our skills, our natures. Just because some people may appear more skilled or more prominent doesn't mean they are..... they just have a different purpose. Secondly; we were designed to work together. We were made 'parts' and it's only when we come together as a group that we achieve our full potential as a whole. Jesus taught his followers to encourage one another and help one another, to work together to be salt and light in the earth. To come together and create a whole, capable of changing the world and making it more like God intended it to be.

Working together with the members of Grapevine, i know we will be able to make a little difference in our world- it might not be big but it'll definitely be bigger than i could manage on my own. I know for a fact that i will never attempt Dave's quiz by myself but maybe if we go together......

One Man's Junk.....

I just got back from a week camping in Wales. We went with a small group from church and a good time was had by all. We've actually been to this particular spot before, many times, and seen all the sights, many times but it's quite comforting to go there again and look at the bays and the cliffs and the lighthouse and remember all the good times you've had there over the years.

The weather this year was so-so. Which means i feel bad about complaining because we did have some sunshine while the rest of the country was having rain however there wasn't nearly enough of it for me. What i was really hoping for was the kind of sunshine that sends you scrabbling desperately around your tent at 7-o-clock in the morning looking for a zip so you can stick your gasping head out and breathe. The kind of sunshine that makes you think "you know- i don't care if my bum looks big in these shorts i'm wearing them anyway". The kind of sunshine that makes a day on the beach sound like heaven on earth. The kind of sunshine that makes you believe you might actually go for a swim in the sea - nevermind whether you chicken out as soon as your feet make contact with the water....we all know it's the thought that counts! Indeed i was secretly hoping for the kind of sunshine that would make English people complain.

Unfortunately we got the kind of sunshine that makes the clouds bright enough to stop you sleeping in; but leaves you wriggling round in your sleeping bag trying to keep out the draughts. The kind of sunshine that is completely non-existent in the morning when you decide to wear jeans and only appears at 3 in the afternoon when your well and truly dressed for the day. The kind of sunshine that is accompanied by a windchill of -15 such that the suggestion of a day on the beach produces either a stoic smile of defiance, or an unconvinced grimace (neither of which are particularly flattering expressions for the holiday snaps). We got the kind of sunshine that produces incredulous admiration for those brave souls who actually went anywhere near the sea. It was indeed that rare kind of weather which English people don't complain about. It wasn't too cold or too wet, and it definitely wasn't too hot. Remarkably, considering how far from my hopes it was, the weather seemed to illicit positively cheerful comments from my fellow campers.

Apparently the sun was "trying to come out". It wasn't trying hard enough in my opinion but i think this apparent effort on the sun's part gave it grace in the eyes of holidaymakers everywhere. Patches of blue sky were celebrated and cheered, and pockets of sunshine were rewarded with "it turned out nice again"s and rapid purchases of ice cream. The official school report for the weather in wales during the last week of July 2010 was 'good effort', however my personal feelings were more of the 'could do better', 'must try harder' variety.

Still, we had a good time anyway, and it's amazing what you find to do when the sun's not shining. One day we stumbled upon the treasure that was the Travelling Fair, which we wandered around with morbid curiosity. We dare not ride anything but the dodgems. Partly because everything looks like it was built in the eighties (ie 30 years ago!!!!) and partly because the fact that these rides travel makes me very suspicious. How safe can it be if it also has to be portable? Portable versions of thing are always second rate. FACT. Portable loo's, portable chairs, portable homes (i.e tents), portable loo's......need i say more.

On the bright side this fair was accompanied by a Majorettes competition.......it's true. Unlikely as it may seem there are hundreds of enthusiastic baton twirling, high knee lifting girls in the UK and they all convene in Holyhead in late July for a big stand off. It's definitely not something you see everyday and you can be certain you would have missed it if the sun had been shining!!! Whether you would later bemoan your loss is another matter.

We also spent a happy hour wandering the most impossibly ridiculous car boot sale i have ever seen. I know they say 'one man's junk, is another man's treasure' but i'm pretty sure this was any man's junk. You would not believe how much rubbish was being put up for sale.....i heard one lady enquire after a lava lamp that she fancied to which the man replied "oh well er actually er that's not for sale, it er doesn't actually work". This, the same man who had presumably set said lamp in a prime position on his table earlier that morning. Incredibly the woman persevered with the sale....it seems a broken lava lamp is in fact hidden treasure.

I did buy one thing from the car boot sale....... a soft toy to give my dog to destroy. I gave it to him as i sat down to write this post and it is already lifeless and limp, and the lounge is now a sea of fluff. It has provided much hilarity in it's short life though, since, unbeknown to me, it contained a sound device which made freaky mioux cross laser gun noises when it got bashed.....much to Blue's surprise and excitement. It's the best 10p i've ever spent....... (seriously though, how many items would you need to sell at 10 pence to make it worth standing in the cold at a car boot sale all day- 10 items, 10 conversations, 10 transactions, 10 times rooting for change, 10 carrier bags later......congratulations you've made a pound, thanks for all your hard work.....now, can i get you a drink from the burger van? Cup of Tea? Certainly.....that's a pound please).

So i guess i did find treasure amidst the junk after all, Blue certainly looked pleased with his present (don't be fooled by the fact that he destroyed it- he only likes things he can destroy- his tiny tail was wagging the whole time).

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!!!!