It’s been a short run…
…We haven’t been writing a blog here for very long. Less than a year, thinking back. Is that all? Just a year – how is it that it seems like an age has passed since we first started then?
I think we can agree though, it’s been really good.
We’ve had a lot of fun together, right? Those times when the words just flowed, it was really easy and natural. Then the times when it felt like there was nothing to be said…
I’ll get to the point though – there’s something that needs to be said now; honesty is the best policy and all that. This has to be done…I know that this isn’t the way that we hoped it might be but…
We have a new website…with it’s very own blog…
There, it’s said.
The truth is, it’s not you, it’s us. We’ve just needed somewhere that was more suited to our needs. You’re a great blogging tool, but our own website was just too good to turn down.
So – we probably won’t spend any time with each other again. I know that’s sad, but it’s the way it has to be.
Thank you for all you did for us; we will never forget you….
Take care,
Soul Action
At the start…
I love coming into a new year. I love that feeling that everything gets to be reset and we get to start anew. It’s strange because it’s only going from one day to the next, as any other time, but somehow it feels bigger than that…it marks a time of going from the old and into the new. Which is good to do every once in a while I reckon.
I’m never very good at new years resolutions though – there is something in me that doesn’t want to do things that I’m told to do (probably something I should sort out at some point) and whenever I set resolutions I feel like I’m caged in. Instead, I make a little list of things that I want to change. Yes, yes, I know that’s exactly the same, but mental games help, ok.
So, one of the things I want to get loads better at this year is praying. I’ll be honest – I’m not very good at it. My prayer life is very ad-hoc, off the cuff and generally consists of things I want God to do for me;
“God please help me to_______________; God I know that maybe this sounds cheeky, but I’d really like a __________, any chance? God please bless so-and-so as they need ________” Then fill in the blanks.
I wonder if that sounds familiar?
So I’ve decided (some might say resolved, not me though) to build into life a rhythm of prayer. There are four areas that I’m aiming for change…Listening, intimacy, courage and community. I know, I know, it should spell something out, like TSP (thank you, sorry, please) or ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication) – but I’m not that skilled.
Anyway, the four things…
Listening:
I want to close my mouth and open my ears. I want to give God the space to speak to me, to allow my prayer life to be a conversation rather than my verbal splurge.
Theresa of Avila said this:
“Vocal prayer . . . must be accompanied by reflection.
A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don’t call prayer—–however much the lips may move.”
Intimacy
Rather than a duty than needs to be done, or an absent minded list, I want prayer to be a central part of relationship of God. More than that, I NEED it to be a central part of relationship with God. Talking to the one you love is vital to intimacy…telling them everything that is in your heart, both feelings and fear, hope and hates, loves and lies, breeds intimacy.
“Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends;
it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.” Theresa of Avila
I want to find the time to be alone with the one I know loves me.
Courage
I want to ask great things of God. I want to be courageous when I pray and ask that God do great things in front of my eyes. I want to pray for healing and life-change, I want to pray for impossible situations, I want to pray big prayers. It’s only then that there will be big answers.
“You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.” Theresa of Avila
Community
I want to pray with people. Whilst my relationship with God is my responsibility, He calls us to do things together, as a body of people. That includes our prayer lives. This will both build community and strengthen that which already exists.
“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst” Matt 18:19
When we join together and ask for things, Jesus tells us it will be done. But, also, as we gather to seek and pray, Jesus will move among us. Community leads us to intimacy.
So there you have it, one of many hopes for this year.
What are yours?
Emmanuel
I spend most of December trying to ignore that fact that Christmas is coming…not because I don’t like Christmas, but because it can quickly lose it’s wonder if we start celebrating it at the end of November…I start to get pretty excitable about a week beforehand and am in that state of giggling-like-a-schoolgirl excitement until about 3pm on Boxing Day. Then the fatigue of a last-minute dash for presents on Christmas Eve, combined with a 6am wake up call on Christmas day catches up with me and I decide that doing anything but sleeping is a bad idea.
It’s probably about then that I’ve come down from my two week sugar high (PLEASE buy our office something other than sweets/cakes/chocolate/biscuits/more sweets) and my body is finally giving in to exhaustion.
So, I exaggerate, somewhat. But it sounds like a familiar story. Unless you’re under the age of 10 and then the above hyperbole is Christmas pretty much verbatim.
Christmas is one of the best times of the year for so many reasons – pressies, trees, the annual tour-to-see-the-amazing-houses-lit-up-for-fundraising (check out that photo – pretty amazing huh?!)
But Christmas is so much more than the food-and-present fest that it has become. Don’t get me wrong, I love that part as much as anyone, but that is why I need those reminders to remember that heart of Christmas.
Jesus is Emmanuel.
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel”. Matt 1v23
A miracle baby, prophecied by Isaiah (7v14 – one of 300 prophecies), born to a virgin, – and they will call him Emmanuel.
Emmanuel, literally translated, means God is with us. Not was with us, once, a long time ago for about 33 years, but IS with us! We celebrate Christmas as a reminder that God is with us right here, right now.
Jesus is here, in the very midst of our mess and mayhem. With us in both our joys and our sorrows. He has experienced loss and pain; he has been hated and hurt. He has suffered and cried and been ridiculed. He knows the joys of loving and being loved; knows the loneliness of being ignored and left out.
Jesus chose downward mobility, he chose to step down from the majesty and riches of Heaven into our messy world. Chose not to stay in comfort, but so wanted a relationship with us that He gave up everything in order that relationship would be restored.
He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death…Phil 2 v 5-8
And so, whatever you are feeling right now, Jesus Emmanuel knows. Whatever mess you find yourself in, He knows. Whatever comfort needed, Jesus is with us.
Christmas is a time for celebration of knowing that God is not distant, that He so wants to draw us to Himself that He sent His only son into this world to pursue us, to make a way back for us.
So, enjoy all the presents and food, spend time with friends and family and watch the Queen at 3pm. But also enjoy the presence of the living God, calling us back to His ways, His heart and Life in all it’s fullness.
Happy Christmas,
Much love,
Soul Action
Being Human
Being well into December it’s probably safe to say that a fair few of you (myself included) have been getting excited about Christmas for quite some time now. Somehow the celebrations seem to begin earlier and earlier every year, which is no bad thing if it means you can eat as much chocolate as you like without getting told off.
Christmas is a season full of weird and wonderful traditions, with new ones added every year- already people are saying that it’s not really Christmastime until the John Lewis ad hits our TV screens. But the reason for Christmas which has always been a constant is of course the nativity- Jesus born into the world with a special mission for humankind. The nativity is perhaps the most familiar part of the bible to the world, a story we’ve been told year upon year growing up (I’m sure we all have embarrassing stories of being forced on stage as a shepherd with a fake moustache and tea towel on our head…or is that just me?)
Being reminded of this central moment in history every year is great and provides a massive opportunity for the message of good news to reach those who would rather walk on hot coals before picking up a bible. At the same time we can get so familiar with hearing it that we get immune to the reality of what we are being told. I find it very easy to slip into a mindset of indifference when I’m reading any part of the bible- “Oh look, Moses is parting a sea in half again. Good for him.”– so it can become even harder to be ‘wowed’ by the Christmas story when we hear it every single year.
So with this in mind let’s focus on one really important part of the story-
Jesus entered earth as a baby. This might seem obvious but think about who Jesus is for a minute. He was there at the beginning of time, the Word of God. He’s the Messiah, the saviour promised to God’s people throughout history. This dude is a big deal. And he came to Earth…as a baby?! If I had the option I would choose to arrive with way more style, perhaps a parachute jump from a blimp with my face on it or something. But Jesus knew better, making the most humble entrance he could, and the most human entrance too. Jesus is God, but in his birth he became fully human at the same time. Right from his birth we see him sharing in our humanity, demonstrating his humility and showing us what it means to be human.
God being made man shows us that he isn’t distant and can relate to our many and varied experiences. He has been there, done it and more. So often I get frustrated and tell God he doesn’t know what it’s like to be human, but I actually think God is desperately saying to us “Guys, you’re forgetting how to BE human.” Just like the nativity we’re so bombarded by stories of suffering, pain and injustice that we simply become numb to the hurt it should bring, even when this is going on right by our doorstep. We fail to be moved by unfairness in our world because we’re just used to it. Christmas gives us time to chill with friends and family, showing love to them by buying presents and pretending to like the rubbish ones you get, but to be human means that we need to reach out to those in need, to act justly and love mercy as God commands us.
Jesus shows us that we have a higher calling as his followers. His desire is that we would be heartbroken for the last, the least and the lost, that we would learn to love people as he does. He sets an example of how to be fully human, to get angry about injustice and desperate to see those in need set free from poverty.
This Christmas let’s reflect on the wonder of Jesus arriving as a genuine, fully feeling human being and ask that he would soften our hearts that we would see brokenness and respond to the call for mercy.
Sometimes…
Sometimes life is pretty hard isn’t it. Things happen to us, or we screw up badly, or situations outside of our control do us in.
Sometimes life gets messy and we feel lost rather than found. We got stuck or wandered off, meandered; ended up somewhere we didn’t think we’d be.
The silly thing is that I’m quite skilled at making out like I’m still on track; good at pretending that I’m still plodding along happily. I can hide my brokenness under busyness, easy lies or good deeds; I cover over the cracks with the right prayers, hands in the air and saying the right things. I stuff all my questions down, swallow my sorrow, or pretend it didn’t happen in the first place.
Hide it all away in the darkest corners and never talk of it again. Let’s face it, we all do it – much easier that way, right?
And then again, sometimes, I can’t hide.
Sometimes God interrupts. Gently points out that it’s time to deal with the pain or insecurity or anger; kindly nudges me.
Sometimes I can’t maintain the pretence and I need to let God in, let Him heal me, let Him restore, let Him make beauty instead of ashes.
Isn’t that a wonderful phrase, beauty instead of ashes. Isaiah had a brilliant way with words.
“…to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes…” [61:3]
Instead of piling ashes on our head, God will bestow a crown of beauty. Instead of us knowing a place of mourning and pain, we are revealed as beautiful, as royalty. For those around Isaiah, when he wrote this, the Jewish community understood ash on your head to be a symbol or sign of mourning or repentance or lament.
Isaiah 61 is also one of the many passages that points forward towards the rule and reign of God in Jesus. It’s a passage that Jesus quotes, claims as speaking about him.
This is part of what He came to do.
This is part of God’s Kingdom.
Jesus came, in part, to bestow a crown instead of ash. Restoring us from mourning to royalty. Taking our brokenness and turning it into something wonderful.
Recently, I’ve started asking God to heal those bits of me that need healing, to restore me that I might be part of restoring the rest of the world. I’ve been pondering on that line in Isaiah 58:8 that tells us:
“Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear…”
As we go, as we serve and love and let our lives reflect God’s heart for justice, somehow we are healed. God sneaks up and quickly heals those parts of us that hurt.
Justice is also part of God’s Kingdom. As we look outside of ourselves, serving those people who are down trodden, oppressed, forgotten, lonely; as we act justly and love mercy God will heal us. As we go, His light shines in our dark places and we become more of who we are meant to be.
So, today might we all open up our heart, and ask God to shine His light into those places of pain and mess and know His healing. May we serve those with less and know His healing.
May our light break forth.
We’re all in this together…
Before I go any further, you should know that this post is in no way related to High School Musical. Which has to be a good thing. Whilst I’m sure that HSM is wonderful, doesn’t it strike anyone else as slightly weird that they break out in song in the middle of conversation? Try it next time you’re having a chat with someone – awkward. So, all to say, there will be no more talk of HSM (in this post at least – who knows what the future holds).
Anyway…
There’s something I’ve been wondering and pondering about for a while now, exploring with a few friends of mine and, I hope, learning to live out. This thing is central to how Jesus lived. This thing is really really important. This thing is part of the call on the Church and, I growing to be convinced, it’s a central call on everyone who follows Jesus.
This thing is, simply, community.
[Is that what you were expecting?!]
Community: A social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage. (The dictionary version).
Wow. Is that it? To be honest, that makes it sound pretty, well, tedious… we live in the same area, have the same people who govern and share a bit of history. Sounds like a rubbish community. Where’s all the stuff about doing life together?!
Community is SO MUCH more than described above. Yet it feels like that’s all we anticipate of community. But the bible paints a far greater, more exciting, more challenging and deeper picture of community. Community seems to be right at the heart of the bible and the gospel.
Firstly, God is in community (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Perfect relationship, perfect community, modelled by the creator. There must be something in it.
Then, Jesus lived in community – he had the 12 disciples, and 3 close mates within that. He also had a group of at least 72 others. He travelled with them, had a communal pot of money, ate with them, challenged them, loved them – they all did life together. It wasn’t just a bunch of friends, it was deeper than that. Jesus didn’t do his ministry alone, He did it in community.
Thus, because of the example Jesus gave, community was right at the heart of the early church. Rich and poor became one. Slave and free. All equal, all contributing whatever they could, all part of something far bigger than themselves. All part of a loving, challenging community where people could be discipled and loved. People were introduced to Jesus through community – not everyone “converting” individuals on their own but all together introducing others to Jesus. (Sounds MUCH easier doesn’t it…!)
Now the funny thing about my love of community is that I particularly love time on my own. I love the space of being quiet and still. I love having room to think and work life out a little bit without other people around. But, also, I love people and family and dinners together. I love noise and mess and laughter. The truth of community is that I wouldn’t be the person I am, without those people around me.
I love the challenge of people knowing me inside out.
My faults and frailties. My strengths and gifts. My hopes and dreams.
The reality is that only people who truly know me will truly love me.
It is the people who know me best and see me at my very worst who are the people who really accept and love me. The veneer of “I’m great thanks” that is painted to most people is removed and they see me for who I really am. Broken, longing, hurting, hoping, faulted…yet STILL love me. THAT is picture of God’s love. THAT makes me want to know and be known. To love and be loved.
Community is far more than just a group of people who live in the same area. It’s people who do life together, who know each other and who are for each other. It’s an adventure that we’re all welcomed in to and it’s really flipping hard sometimes. But more than worth the cost.
Community is how we’re meant to do life. It’s how we’re meant to introduce people to Jesus. It’s how we’re meant to serve those around us. Not on our own, but all of us, together. Because, ultimately, we’re family whether we like it or not.
As a side note, we will probably look at this loads more. These are just a few bumbled thoughts and musings. I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of this.
Thanks for reading,
Simon
Soul Action Project Manager
What is freedom?
The issue of human trafficking is right at the forefront or many people’s minds at the moment. It’s in the press, in our churches and all over twitter. It’s right that we are constantly reminded of those 27 million people currently in slavery. Let’s be part of the solution in setting them free.
But, this has made me wonder about freedom. I wonder what freedom is really meant to look like? What does it mean to really be free?
I reckon if you asked a few different people, they’d all have a different answer:
For some people, freedom is having the means to do whatever they want – freedom of finances.
For some people freedom means not having to work, leaving them the space to be leisurely – freedom of time.
For some people freedom means having finished their exams (!) and having a long summer break – freedom from pressure and burden.
For some people it means release from past wounds and hurts – freedom from the burden of pain.
For some it is a visit from a friend that releases freedom from loneliness.
Then there are those many millions around the world, for whom freedom simply means being allowed to go home – to be free from the farm, sweatshop or brothel. To be free from the illegal financial burden that traps them in their prison. To be free from the people who oppress, sell and abuse them.
In this world freedom means many and varied things…but we who follow Jesus have, ultimately, once-and-for-all been set free. That day that Jesus took our punishment and shame; that day that Jesus bore the weight of our wrongdoing; that day Jesus was separated from the Father for the first time in eternity to take our punishment. That day bought us our ultimate freedom. Jesus gave up everything to defeat sin and death. In Jesus, we find freedom.
So what should our response be to this? In the face of this gift of new life, this gift of freedom, what do we do with it?
There are surely many responses to this gift and top of the list should be worship. But I also think that part of our response has to be to give away our freedom, to use our freedom to seek the freedom of others. It was “for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1)
Should our response not be to fight, without flinching or backwards step, for the freedom of everyone else? Should we not tell our neighbours about Jesus? Should we not serve those who don’t yet know Him? Should we not love until it hurts?
Ultimately, the fight for freedom is won – Jesus has already done it. But the battles still rage, every day, in our lives and in the lives of those who don’t yet know Him; in the lives of both the 27 million slaves and those who have enslaved them.
Everyone needs freedom of some sort, I certainly know I do. But what we really need is more of Jesus, more of His life and love and hope.
We need Jesus, because Jesus IS freedom. Let’s set the captives free, let’s introduce them to Jesus. Freely we’ve received, now freely give.
Simon
PS I’m sure that there are loads more ways to look at freedom, and would love to hear any thoughts you might have on it…
PPS Simon recently joined as the Soul Action Project Manager. He’d love to hear your thoughts on Soul Action too, if you have any!!
Conscious moments of grace: Pause
Sometimes life just gets busy, doesn’t it.
Life can get filled with stuff (not necessarily bad stuff…just stuff). The days seem to fly by crazy quickly. Get up, have a shower, eat breakfast, do the commute to work or school, concentrate all day, get home, eat dinner, do some work, go to cell group (or some other thing the church is doing), get back late, go to bed, hit the weekend…and repeat. Then repeat again. Etcetera Etcetera.
Suddenly it’s been a couple of weeks since you last prayed. Or a couple of months maybe. Whatever. It’s suddenly a long time since you really last spent any time with God. Read your Bible. Thanked Him. Listened to Him speak. Worshipped.
The reason I know this is because I’m the same.
My life gets busy and it’s in the busyness that I forget about God. Quiet times become quick times and eventually they go out the window. My prayer life becomes less of a conversation and more a list of demands. Suddenly the fullness of life that Jesus has promised has become full, but with the wrong things. The busyness excludes God, rather than, in the middle of life, being filled by God.
I don’t mean it to, it just kinda happens. I wake up with every good intention of “seeking first the Kingdom and His righetousness” and suddenly I’ve done my whole day on my own, in my own strength.
I wonder if this is the reason that God shows us, right at the start of the Bible, that we need to have rest days. Days where we don’t run around, doing. But stop, and…be…where we put life on pause.
So, I’ve decided that I’m going to start seeking out conscious moments of grace. Times during the day when I actively stop, put the pen down or step away from the screen and choose to know and experience the presence, peace and power of God. To let Him speak in the midst of the busyness. Setting an alarm that reminds me to pray. Stopping at midday to say the Lord’s prayer. Or each time I make a cup of tea, pausing to thank Him. Consciously choosing, regularly, to still my heart and to turn back to Him.
So far, I’ll be honest, I keep forgetting. But the alarm in my phone is helping. And just remembering to remember is a good start. All in all, the more I welcome God into the midst of all I am, keep on being honest with Him and actively choosing to speak to Him, the more likely it is that the conscious moments become a life lived before God. Naturally and wholeheartedly.
Conscious moments of grace turn into ongoing rhythms of righteousness.
More than words
For all the hundreds of languages, thousands of words and millions of speakers that make communicating in our world such a rich (albeit challenging) experience, sometimes words just don’t cut it. There are certain experiences and emotions that seem impossible to sum up, even if one thumbed through the most expansive of thesauruses. On the other hand, there are times when words seem altogether too clunky and unwieldy; when silence is infinitely more appropriate. I find this never more apparent when I try to pray: some issues are so vast and seemingly unchangeable that my prayers appear puny and woefully unrepresentative of the subject; others require more than my scope of vocabulary to demonstrate how overwhelmed/overjoyed/awed/grateful I am. Considering that there are over a quarter of a million words in the English language, this is not so much a problem with words as with knowing how to communicate in prayer.
I had a discussion about this in a recent church life group, and our conclusion was that we should not feel limited to word-based prayer, because God most certainly isn’t. We needn’t get stuck on what to say because there are numerous other options through which we can express our heart’s message. Our Creator God is creative – he doesn’t ask for eloquent, sharply executed, theologically sound and well structured ideas when we kneel before him. If this were the case, most of the world would be excluded, and that is in direct opposition to God’s desire. Instead we can approach with songs and instruments, dance, drama, painting, drawing, photography, film… God knows us wholly, and has already given us the means through which to draw close to Him. It may take a bit of imagination and confidence to try something different, but it can be so refreshing to sidestep the pressure of concocting the ‘perfectly formed prayer’.
There is always, of course, the Lord’s Prayer – it was spoken by Jesus after all. It is so frequently recited that there is the danger of reeling it off without much considering what is being said, but the Message version of the Bible gives a new interpretation:
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
Amen.
David Westlake
You can keep up with David at www.davidwestlake.com or follow him on twitter @davidwestlake
Soul Action 