So teach us to number our days, That we may get a heart of wisdom. Do return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90.12-14 (ESV) Does God care how we spend our time? I guess we're confronted with that question a little more now (at least those of us stuck at home without our usual work to do). But even those still needed for work at the moment might be confronted with the issue of whether it is worth it, when life can be so fleeting - especially for those who've been in hospital and have been scared of losing their lives. What are the things that make life worth living and time worth having? And how much of our lives do we actually spend on those things?
Ellen White, the 19th Century church-founder, who lived from 1827-1915, wrote that: 'The value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it.' ~ Ellen G. White, Be Like Jesus, p.78 Time is something we all have, but that we all prioritise differently. It's often hard to say what is the right way and wrong way to gather and use our time. There are enough good things to do that you could fill a thousand lifetimes with them! But we have to be selective. Consider mapping out all the things you spend time on, and reflecting on the things you want to spend more time doing. If there's some aspect of your work or busyness that can be streamlined, try it. And give the remaining time to something important - to building lasting relationships with your family and friends, or reconnecting with God who gives peace and reveals truth. If you have any successes, let me know, because this is something I massively struggle with! I always have so much that I want to do, and often have to stop myself and reconfigure my daily time to make carve out space for the seemingly non-productive things that make me human and connect me with my God. Stay safe everyone, and take care!
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I've been quiet on here for a little while, but still want to get a post out this month, even if only just!
The past month and a half has been really tough. And sharing why just feels a little too difficult right now, but hopefully will be something I can do at some point. So for now, I've done this instead - the photos above all point to little pockets and experiences of happiness amidst and despite the difficulty and darkness. Things that were just fun; just bright; just reminders of a world created and sustained by a God who is still good, even when I don't even care enough to want him to be. These things are:
These are by no means exhaustive as the things that have been good during this time, but they have been pockets of happiness that have brightened my world just a little at points where I felt darkness only could prevail. If you're struggling, know that God is still good, even when you can't feel it. Talk about it, and let others remind you of the truths you feel not strong enough to hold on to. God loves you, still. This is Cecilia - or Ceci (pronounced Se-see) for short. This is a photo I took last year, but it is so apt! I spent yesterday morning, with the Mission Direct team at Nazareth House, a home for children with a wide array of varied disabilities. Ceci has down syndrome and yesterday, I spent a good while sitting on the sofa next to Ceci as we all sang some songs together. Ceci was dancing and laughing her head off as we sang, and inbetween every song, she'd nudge me and make a short 'hmm' sort of sound and wait... and I'd repeat it, to complete hilarity of course! And when she could finally stop herself from laughing, she'd go again, and we'd repeat - the laughter never fading - until we sang another song! It was beautiful. I absolutely loved being at Nazareth House again. Seeing all the kids - talking to them - playing with them. Seeing Sister Mercedes - hearing her story - loving her. But it was also difficult. Seeing them still in that house, and no building work started on a new place yet. One of the things that brought this need home to me more than anything else was one of the boys, José. José is one of the older boys there, and he has to be separated from the other children all the time because he tends to be quite violent. So whenever we are there, using the back room, he has to be outside. He always comes and talks to us through the windows, and it's not that he's unhappy being out there at all - but Sister Mercedes would just love to have a padded room with things he can do in it, where he can do what he likes, and live and learn and so on. A new, purpose-built house would just make such a difference. This is life for them still. Still without enough bedrooms; still without big enough doorways; still without the right bathroom facilities. Just making do. The reason we're not already building a new place, as we had hoped to be this summer, is because we couldn't find the right land in time. We now have until December to find and purchase the land, so that we can definitely start building next summer. Amazingly, over the last year, enough money has been raised to buy the land - though we'll still be raising money to build the house this year - and so we literally just need to find some! It needs to be near enough to the school that some of the kids are able to go to, and to the people who currently bring food, to the children's hospital and the homes of the staff, and so on and so on. So PLEASE PRAY. Pray with us that land would be found. Land that meets all the necessary requirements and is affordable. We trust in God's timing and God's plan - it is in him that money has been raised this year, and it is in him that it will be spent! This is a video I made last year telling the story of Nazareth House, and what we hope to be able to do with it: You can see more about our project to build Sister Mercedes
and her children a new home over on the PROJECTS page! I was preaching last Sunday, and the following is an adapted (and shortened!) version of the sermon I preached:
Christmas. As you will know, my advent series on my blog has meant that I had been very consciously waiting for it, and then it finally came - it happened, with all its promised excitement and joy, and then it finished. But can that really be it? All done and dusted? Christmas "over-and-out" for another year? Christmas day to me means waking up and getting excited - realising that there is something special about this day; it means exchanging gifts that bring joy and show that someone cares for you and you for them - using giving as a means of loving; and them it means going to church, being in God's family, where the gift is his love, shown through his people and poured out through their hearts. Christmas is all about that love. There is no way that God could show his love for us more than by making himself a powerless and vulnerable baby boy who would have a true experience of human lie and would die a terrible experience of human death. Death that would give us life, even though we definitely didn't deserve it. And that story lasts so much longer than one day, just for Christmas! That story has lasted over 2000 years and it's still going strong! And it's still very much needed too. In Colossians 3.14-15 Paul says, "Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you were indeed called in the one body." Paul lists many virtues in the preceding verses; compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness... but then says that they are all bound together in love. And he follows that with this statement on PEACE. Peace is so desperately needed in our world. The terrors we have seen in recent months; countries against countries, groups of people against other groups of people, religions against religions; and so many people - so many lives - caught up in the middle of it. But we are called to let the peace of Christ lead us; guide us; decide what we choose to do in relation to other people. Of course, living in peace doesn't mean that the differences which often end up causing conflicts immediately disappear. But what it does mean is that, as Christians, we should love others and work together with them , despite their differences to us. Such love is not a feeling, but a decision to meet others' needs. If God loves us so much that he would come down to earth for us, even though compared to him, we were vile, that should give us the power and the confidence to love others too, though they may be different to us as well. Clothing ourselves in the love of God leads to peace between people, because it shows us that love is more important than the differences. Love is bigger. When we look around us at all the things going on in this world; the many conflicts I alluded to above; the flooding, here in our own country, as well as other natural disasters around the world, climate change becoming evermore prevalent; people dying from curable diseases that their countries can't afford to make available to them; and poverty preventing so many families from the security and safety of a home, food to eat, heat to keep warm by. I don't know about you, but when I think about it all, I cannot come up with a way to solve the problems. It's like this; as you know, I went paint-balling for the first time with some friends of mine recently, and I loved it! But I remember this one moment, just before I got shot in the leg 3 times. And I was standing behind a tree, looking forward, where what I was aiming for was behind a little house-style wall. But there was someone crouching in the window, firing at me too. And then someone else started firing at me from the right. And I couldn't be behind the tree in both directions, but there was nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. And I wasn't scared of being hit; that had happened many times already - there was a little sting but it didn't hurt that much! And yet my heart was beating with adrenaline because I couldn't work out a way to get out of this situation. I couldn't think of any way to change what was going to happen. I had no control. And when I look at the world sometimes, I get that feeling but so much stronger. I want to change it. I want to stop the conflicts, and the poverty, and the injustice, and the hatred, and the pain and the suffering. And I look up to God and I say, "HOW?! How do I change the world?" Because I can't think of anything. And I sink down as if I'm behind that tree, my heart pounding, scared that I'll never work it out; that I can't change anything. But I do not need to be afraid. Because God is a loving God, and God is a surprising God. The God who gave himself to die for me, is the God who will save the world again. The God who chose to interact with the world through all the people we remembered through Advent, will go on interacting through the people who follow him in this world. And the God of all hope and joy and peace and love will not abandon the world he came and died to save. People have often talked about the real meaning of Christmas, but this is the real application of Christmas. If we believe that God came down to earth because of his great love for us, then we must become carriers of that love to this hurting world. Christmas means that there is hope. That even if we feel pinned behind a tree, with nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait for the inevitable, God is beside us, as if from nowhere and, surprising us as always, he finds a way to bring love and peace and joy to that situation too. It often seems hopeless, but so did that stable-cave with nowhere clean to lay the baby. So did the search for a child, in a city (Luke 2.41-52). So did Jesus, dying on a cross, blood dripping from the thorns in his head and a spear thrust in his side. But God was born, and God was found, and God rose again. All because of his love. So we are to bring that love into the hurt and horrors of the world - because his love changes hopeless situations and his love will change the world. So Christmas day may have been and gone for another year. But it does not end there; the Christmas story goes on and on; as long as there are people with God's love in their hearts, there will come peace, there will come joy, no matter how hopeless is may seem now. For love is more important. Love is bigger. Love binds all things together. |
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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