Category: Blessings

Most of the time I like finishing a book, it’s an achievement. Sometimes, though, I’m a little sad that a book has finished this is normally because it has said something to me. Today I finished ‘A Resilient Life’ by Gordon MacDonald, this book has helped me in a number of ways. The last section of the book is about running in the company of a ‘Happy Few’. The quote comes from Shakespeare, The Life of Henry V – “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”.

The ‘happy few’ being characterised by being members of the group of people you would really want to be there at your bed side if you were dying. Now that’s an interesting question. Who would I want at my bed side if I was really dying? Who are my band of brothers?

In the book Gordon MacDonald lists the types of people we need in our group of ‘happy few’, he does this by posing a set of questions, I suppose we would call them ‘roles’ at work:

• Who coaches you?
• Who stretches your mind?
• Who listens to and encourages your dreams?
• Who will protest you?
• Who are those who share your tears?
• Who rebukes you?
• Who among your happy few plays with you?
• Who is it that seeks after God with you?

Reading through the list I was blessed by being able to see different people in my life who fulfill each of the roles. I am a truly blessed.

I think that most of you who fulfill a role know who you are and I want to use this opportunity to say thank-you, you are brilliant and it’s great to have you around.

Last week I was looking forward to a quiet day, so how did it go?

The first thing to comment on is the weather it played a large part in how the day went. Sometimes weather is just there and you don’t really notice it, that wasn’t the case on Friday.

We travelled up to Keswick in the Lake District for our quiet day. As we travelled to Keswick the sky got darker and the side winds got stronger. The weather forecast had predicted gale force winds in the Northern Lake District area so we were prepared. Our plan for the day was to use the school room at Crosthwaite Parish Church as we had last year, it has terrific views across the mountains, the church is open and provides another quiet place as does the church yard; the room itself is warm and cozy. On this stormy day it was ideal. The winds whipped Autumn leaves past the windows. The clouds were moving so fast that the sky changed every few seconds. The rain rapped against the window panes like thousands of tiny pebbles.

At one point I sat in the church and listened to the wind and rain battering against the ancient stones and listened to the old clock as it slowly ticked away its rhythm. All this weather pitted against stones which had resisted them for hundreds of years, and a clock that carried on regardless.

When I first started on quiet days I was, like most people, worried about how I would fill a whole day with quiet. This time I was again stunned that we had already run out of time. When we go on organised quiet days they give us something to ponder; when we go on our own we start with a blank sheet and see where we go. Either way, a day doesn’t seem like a long time at all once you’ve done it. It’s just about enough time to get the body and mind to slow down and to start listening to the spirit. I think that each of us received something in that short time though and each of us will cherish it. What I received is still mulling around inside my head and I don’t think I’m in a position to share it yet.

If you have never been on a quiet day then I highly recommend it. You’ll be in good company. Jesus went on quiet days too.

Like many of us I have a tendency to be looking back at life sometimes reminiscing in a nice warm glowing way but more often than not I’m worrying about something that has already happened. It is, therefore, great to have something to look forward to. I have tried at different times to consciously think of something to look forward to but that has proved to be a false thing and is no substitute for having something that I can really look forward to.

Last week I spent all week looking forward to Friday. Not because Friday is the end of the working week, but because Dave, Nina, Sue and myself had managed to book a days holiday together. But this was no ordinary day of relaxation, we had booked this as a Quiet Day. We have done planned quiet days with other groups before, we have also done our own quiet day on our own once before. These days are a haven, a place of peace. Now that was something real to look forward to. I have been a bit grouchy and grumpy recently so the thought of a time of peace was just what I needed.

But relying on short term forward looking is no substitute for knowing that there is a longer terms event that is the ultimate goal, the ultimate place of peace, the ultimate day. As a Christian I know that my time on this earth is short compared to my ultimate home in Heaven. Having something near to look forward to is nice, but it really does need to be seen in the light of the ultimate future.

Colossians 1:27: God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message.

By the time I got up out of bed on Saturday morning there were only two people left in our house; Emily and myself. Jonathan was off for a full day practising and playing hockey. Sue was away leading a ladies weekend at Littledale Hall.

Forgive me but I must just take a quick diversion here before I get into the main topic of my post. Sue – well done. From the feedback I’ve had it sounds like you were brilliant, which I am in no doubt that you were. I apologise for cheering the absence of the ladies in church on Sunday morning – you know I didn’t mean it .

Anyway back to Aquatic Abundance. As it was only Emily and myself, we decided that we would go out and have some fun. Emily, like me, loves all things aquatic. We would prefer to see it all in its natural habitat, but that’s not always possible. Well actually, it’s not possible most of the time. I’m sure the Irish Sea has an abundant aquatic ecosystem but on a cold wet November day it’s not the most appealing place to visit. Fortunately for us though the Blue Planet aquarium allows us to travel the aquatic world without getting cold or wet; apart, that is, from the short walk from the car park.

Speaking as a human-being who primarily lives in a two-dimensional space (on the land) all of these creatures that live in a truly three-dimensional space fascinate me. When I’m considering where to go I move forwards, backward or side-to-side. If I was a fish I could go upwards or downwards, I could even be really fancy and go slantwise.

If I want to move anywhere I need to do something about it, there are no free ride for us humans. As a Jelly Fish I could be so laid back that I don’t even need a method of propelling myself I just let the ocean currents take me wherever they fancy.

But it’s not just about motion; the colours fascinate me, the sizes amaze me and the shapes baffle me. Why are Amazonian fish so big? Why does the cichlid come in so many colours? Sea-horse – what more can I say?

Did you know that tuna can swim at 50 miles-per-hour? Did you know that an electric eel discharges 350 volts? Did you know that a shark has no bones, only cartilage? Did you know that the Ocean Sun Fish produces 30 million eggs? Did you know that a lobster was once recorded travelling 225 miles? Did you know that the Atlantic Giant Squid has eyes that are 50 cm across? Did you know that a sea horse is so slow it may struggle to reach 0.001 lies-per-hour?

All of this diversity is amazing and brilliant. It’s a blessing.

Many people I know have a very narrow view of God, when I look at the world around I see all of this diversity. I believe that God created all of this diversity, in the same way as we create diverse art. God isn’t narrow, God is more diverse than our world and anyone who thinks they have God sown up should prepare to be amazed and astounded.

(Sorry, no aquatic pictures Sue took the camera with her to Littledale)

I love song lyrics that paint a picture. I think it’s because I love to imagine and lyrics in songs, like poetry, build that picture in a minimalist way that lets me imagine all of the rest.

Sometimes I imagine by picturing a real place or places that I have been to, blending them together into a collage of memories. Sometimes I imagine a blank canvass and literally paint on it, but unlike my physical efforts these pictures are wonderful. Sometimes, every so often, I fill in the picture with my own words.

I am the type of person who can so often fill my imagination with problems that become disasters. I know how things can get worse and hence that’s what I imagine. The great thing about participating in someone else’s picture is that they imagine good things and great times. I know it’s not good to spend an entire life focusing on the negative, so to have a positive to focus on is great and it always makes me feel uplifted way beyond the end of the song. It’s a blessing.

Here are some of my favourites:

Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it’s pointing toward
Sometimes you feel like you live too long
Days drip slowly on the page
You catch yourself
Pacing the cage

Bruce Cockburn – Pacing the Cage

I’m sipping Flor De Caa and lime juice, it’s three a.m.
Blow a fruit fly off the rim of my glass
The radio’s playing Superchunk and the friends of Dean Martinez

Midnight it was bike tires whacking the pot holes
Milling humans’ shivering energy glow
Fusing the space between them with bar-throb bass and laughter

If this were the last night of the world
What would I do?
What would I do that was different
Unless it was champagne with you?

Bruce Cockburn – Last Night of the World

Lenny Bruce is dead but he didn’t commit any crime
He just had the insight to rip off the lid before its time.
I rode with him in a taxi once, only for a mile and a half,
Seemed like it took a couple of months.
Lenny Bruce moved on and like the ones that killed him, gone.

Bob Dylan – Lenny Bruce

GOD, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing.You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from.True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.

Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I’m not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd’s crook makes me feel secure.

You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.

Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in the house of GOD for the rest of my life.

Psalm 23

We are very blessed living, as we do, in a house that is close to woods. This means that we get all sorts of wildlife in the garden.

Today is a particularly active day because Emily filled up the feeders and the bird (squirrel) table yesterday evening.

Although I’d prefer to see British Red Squirrels rather than American Grey ones it’s still a blessing to see them bouncing around, scurrying for food. It’s not such a blessing to have to clear up some of the mess from where they have buried things, but that is a small price to pay.

I love to see how different animals interact with each other. The Jay comes and follows the squirrels around, because he knows that they will soon be burying what they have just collected and that he can steel it from the hole. There is definitely a pecking order between the Jay and the Magpie too. The Jay seems to be king. Talking of the Jay, the way that they bounce around the garden is so comical that it brings a smile to my face every time we see them.

The little birds are very active today to, we don’t seem to have a shortage of Sparrows around here, there are loads of them. The Cole Tits dart in and out spending as little time as possible on the feeder. The Green Finch spends longer, stripping the husk off the sunflower seeds before eating them. The songs are wonderful, filling the air.

I am a bit of a worrier and seeing all of this life in the garden brings me back time and time again to the words of Jesus:

“If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion–do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen colour and design quite like it? The ten best–dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers–most of which are never even seen–don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Matthew 6 The Message

Sitting on the train this evening I finished a book. I love that feeling of achievement. Having lived with a book for a period of time it’s great to get to the end.

This feeling is particularly fulfilling when finishing a novel. Getting to the end of the story is great.

I’m writing today while sat on a train from Preston to London. Opposite me is a young business man who has been talking to and ‘motivating’ his employees most of the way. Next to me is a group of three pensioner men who are on there way to a union reunion (I think); sat with them is an older lady on her way to meet family.

Each of the conversations that is going on is intriguing.

The young business man apparently sacked a lady yesterday who had only been with him for 6 days. It turns out that she thought that his business was in a right mess, as it has grown 70% in the last year he couldn’t quite see how. His self confident thrusting would please many a motivational speaker. The flash suit and the striped shirt just go to finish off the stereotype.

The three pensioner men have obviously known each other for a very long time. They are typical working-class (and proud of it) northern men. They are loving the time of reminiscing. I have heard stories from their youth about gambling on horses and winning a fortune of £41. I have heard how they believe that the government has short changing them on their pension. I have heard how terrible the England football team was at the weekend and how it could never compare to the good old days – Nobby Styles, Bobby Moore. “The pies at the football these days are very expensive – £1.40, terrible”. I have heard the stories of their grandchildren. I particularly liked the one about the granddaughter who’s reply when here Dad said to her “My Dad would have never stood for this” was “Your Dad was a much better Dad than you are”. I have heard their worries about the future especially in light of the recent earthquake in Pakistan. I have even heard how they feel isolated within the society – “they never ask us do they”. That all stimulates the lady to join in, it’s obviously struck a cord. It turns out that she has retired to the Lake District. “I was on holiday in the Lake District and saw this house, when I got home I applied for early retirement and left”.

It may be a terrible thing to be an eaves-dropper, but it’s fascinating. By sitting here on my computer and just listening-in these people are all talking in a completely different way than they would be if they knew I was listening. Their conversations are revealing something about themselves that wouldn’t be revealed if I interviewed them for weeks.

It’s a blessing to me to get a glimpse of other people’s life. It’s very stimulating to realise that other’s lives are completely different to mine. The diversity of God’s creation, just in us humans is infinite. Different views, different attitudes, different bodies,  different, diverse, immense, precious.

Yesterday morning I gave a talk at a breakfast for men that a team of guys from church put together. We have done these breakfasts a couple of times now and this time it was my turn to do the talk.

Afterwards I had some really nice feedback from a number of the guys. This morning one of the members of the team had gone to the effort of writing me a card to say thank-you. There is something about receiving a card that makes the sentiment more meaningful somehow. Why is that? The logical part of me says that it’s because I know subconsciously that it’s easy for people to say thank-you but it takes more effort to write a card. I’m not sure that this simple logical really goes far enough though. If that was all there was to it an email would have the same feeling, but it doesn’t.

I think that receiving a card has so much more to it because there is more to it than just the effort that has gone into it. A card reminds us of all of the pleasurable times of our life, birthdays with jelly and ice-cream and Christmas in the snow (not that we see snow around here very often). A card reminds us of all of the special people in our life. A card reminds us of our own searching for that card that says the right thing in the right words. A card reminds us of all of the cards that we have sent and the faces on those who we have sent them to.

Cards are blessings that work two ways – giving them is a blessing, receiving them is a blessing.

I have a bit of a theory about stress. It’s completely unscientific but seems to work for me. The theory is this: the reason that stress is so harmful for us is because it stops us experiencing the healing power of laughing. I do know that there are scientific studies which show that laughter is good for us, linking it to stress is my unscientific extension.

I haven’t written a bless for a few weeks, because, well, not to put too fine a point on it, I’ve been stressed. Completely maxed out. For once this hasn’t really been a work issue, it’s been an outside-work. Those responsibilities just kept flowing in. One of the major ones has been a talk that I am doing at a men’s breakfast this Saturday, so I’m not completely out of it. The talk is prepared now, so at least the major pressure is off, until Saturday that is. When I am stressed I tend not to laugh. I get grumpy when I am stressed rather than giddy.

There have been a few moments over the last few weeks that have made me laugh though. I haven’t been completely grumpy.

This weekend I had a couple of days when everything I did took longer than expected. I don’t know whether you have days like that, or whether it’s a blessing that is reserved for me. I’m not saying that they took longer because I’m poor at estimating, but they took longer because the simple job turned into something much more complicated than normal. One of these things made me laugh though. I was setting-up the computer at church for the morning service and things weren’t going too well. I was already a bit stressed because PowerPoint had decided to destroy my presentation for the Men’s Breakfast and nothing was going right. Stress levels were building. I was starting to worry that I wouldn’t actually be ready for the start of church, which isn’t a good thing. Eventually, 2 minutes before we are due to start I get finished. Quick, I need the loo, just got enough time to go. Dash off; rush into the loos. Sit on the toilet, do the usual check to my right. Ahhhh, no loo roll. I only have 2 mins, I’m already stressed I can react in two ways, I can laugh or I can cry. The laughter just flows. I feel much better for a bit of a laugh, go off to find the spare loo roll and all is well.

Laughter is so important.

Sue and I have a group of friends with whom we love nothing better than to get together for a laugh. there is something about this group that generates situations where we all laugh. I only need to think of Dave with tears streaming down his face for my mouth to curl into a smile. Two of this number have been away on holiday, today we received a post-card, again I was laughing. I thought about typing some of it in here but I’m not sure that the joke would translate. It’s funny because of the person who sent it and their view on the world.

I don’t have a highly developed view of what heaven will be like, but I’m sure it will include laughter. In the Psalms it talks about God laughing and I’m sure it’s not a privilege that He will keep to himself.

I love the change of the seasons. This morning when I went out for a walk along the paths in the wood at the back of my house it smelt of Autumn. I’ve tried to think of ways of describing what I mean by that but the only way I can do it is to describe the pictures that are created in my head. I’m sure that Sue would be able to give it a description that would be suitable for any perfume, but I’m a man and we can’t even get our heads around the different types of colour (what is mauve anyway) so smells are a little out of my league.

So here are my pictures.

The smell of autumn makes me think of walking around Tarn Howes, taking in the infinite multitude of brown and gold. It makes me think of walking through small mountains of paper crisp leaves, kicking them into the air and watching them float their individual paths to the ground. I can see those same leaves swirling around, like thousands of tiny kites abandoned to the wind. I can hear the first crunch of frost under my feet. I can sense my face tightening in the glare of a cold crisp autumn sun, making me feel alive in a way that the warm sun never does. I can feel the smooth dark chocolate brown of a conker fresh out of its skin. I can see those deep red berries. I can taste those brambles and those apples warm, tangy and sugary hiding beneath a wonderful nutty crumble and covered in custard. I can see that deer revealed now that his cloak of vegetation has been removed. I can see the thousands of starlings swarming in a mass of black ready for departure to a warmer environment.

I don’t think I have a favourite season, I love the transitions between them.

There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.

A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to rebuild.

A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

A time to search and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away.

A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak up.

A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3