You Turned My Wailing Into Dancing

So I haven't blogged for a while. But something happened this week that I couldn't not post about.

This is my friend Veronica. I went on holiday with her last week to a Christian camping event. I have never known her able to stand upright. She got permission to drive her car around the campsite because she wasn't able to walk far, even with her walking frame. At the beginning of the week, everything revolved around that walker. We couldn't even go to the bathroom without packing it into the car with us. Veronica was able to walk a few paces without it, but only bent over and in extreme pain. She could not stand for more than a minute.

By the end of the week, she was able to walk around, standing tall like I've never seen her before. Veronica stood for twenty minutes waiting to give that testimony. She has even started dancing. 
Our God is an AWESOME God and He heals today.

When There's Nothing Left To Say

How can so much pain exist in a world that God loves?
I don't know.

But what I do know is that although the things that are happening around me make no sense, I will continue to praise Him. He is the Father who dries our tears. He is our shelter when our world is shaking. He is the LORD, who commanded the universe to be and who works in all things for the good of those who love Him.

Though it seems dark all around me, He is the Light that continues to shine.
He alone is where my hope lies.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

So I'm stealing from last night's sermon again...

If you woke up this morning

with only the things you'd said 'thank you' for yesterday,

what would your life be like?

I would probably have my housemates, but no house to put them in.
I might have my Sunday meal, but no water to drink.
I would have my friends, but no clothes.
Awkward.
Oh, I just realised it wouldn't matter anyway because I wouldn't be breathing.

Short, Sweet, and Stolen

I haven't got anything of my own to say today, so I'm going to steal a song and a quote from other people:

Had I riches, I would bring them

Had I kingdoms, I would lose them

Had I the world, too small a gift would it be

What can I bring to You?

Simply a song of love 

and 

boundless gratitude

My whole life for You

Is Waiting Driving You Mad?

It's really annoying, having to wait for God to do his thing. I've been sitting here for half an hour, waiting for inspiration to descend, and that is my conclusion.

He takes his time sometimes, our God. I guess he does have an unlimited amount of it. But that doesn't seem fair. Doesn't he know I have things to do, ambitions to fulfil? It's okay for him to sit there and make me wait, but I want to get on with it!

When was your first driving lesson? I haven't had one yet, but I'll probably get round to it soon. I'm waiting for the right time. Now for most people, the right time may have been sooner than it was for me. That doesn't mean I should have done it by now. The right time for me isn't necessarily the same as everyone else.

Supposing I had decided I wanted to learn to drive before now. What if I had gone up to my dad at the age of five and demanded he give me a driving lesson. What would he have said? He would tell me I was too young, I wasn't ready.

What if my sudden desire to drive came when I was old enough, but we were on the motorway on a rainy night. What would my dad have said then? Well, clearly, that would not have been the right time for my first driving lesson either. And I think it would have been pretty easy to explain to me why I should wait.

But what if, from my perspective, I chose a day that seemed perfectly fine and conditions that seemed good for a first drive. But on that day, there was something not quite right with the car. Maybe the assisted steering thing wasn't working properly, or the brakes were wearing thin. I don't really understand how cars work, so I would have no idea that this was a bad time to learn to drive. And I probably wouldn't understand Dad's explanation of it either.

I think that's the most annoying time to wait. When you can see a good, clear reason for waiting, it doesn't seem too bad. But when everything looks fine from your point of view, yet still your Father is telling you to wait, then the waiting is hard to do.

But God does know a lot more about cars than I do. He knows a lot more about everything than I do. So when he tells me to wait, even if it's driving me mad, I know he does it for a good reason. Because He loves me.

Be Still And Know That I Am God

Here's something I wrote last week, because I'm running out of time this morning.

Inspired by this verse: 

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.”

(Psalm 46v10)

And this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVk9J2BvJG8

Me Small, God Big

"Space..." says the introduction to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, "...is big. Really big.You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the street to the chemist, but that's just peanuts compared to space..."



I've been wandering around on the internet this weekend and I learnt some facts about the bigness of space. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is 100 billion light-years across. It contains 400 billion stars. It is one of an estimated 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe. And that isn't the end of it. There is thought to be a lot more universe beyond all that, but we can't see it because the light from those stars hasn't reached us yet.

God is bigger even than that enormous universe. He created the universe and everything in it. He knows everything about the universe, even calls the stars by name. God is the maker of all things, seen and unseen. All-powerful, all-knowing. 
He is just amazingly, unimaginably, incomprehensibly BIG.

In comparison, I am very small. I am one person on one planet in one galaxy out of billions. I don't even know if a number exists for how small I am compared to space. When you think about the size of the universe, it's hard not to feel insignificant. 
Surely God has better things to worry about than me.

But that is not what Jesus said. He didn't come to the earth to tell people that they did not matter. If that was the case, He wouldn't have come at all.

What He did say was this:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid;

you are worth more than many sparrows."

(Matthew 10:29-31)

Me small, God big. But he cares about my every detail.

Who Wants A Free Cookie?

WARNING:
The cookie is a metaphor. I am not giving out real cookies. Sorry about that.

Everybody likes free stuff, right? Buy one get one free, free meerkat when you do some car thing, free charity meal (donations encouraged) etc.

And most people like cookies. (For the sake of this post, the cookie can be zero sugar/wheat/dairy/nuts/calorie/whatever, if that's what floats your boat)

So, generally speaking, if a good friend offered you a free cookie, you'd be pretty happy with that. Cookies are nice, and they come more or less with no strings attached.

But what if this cookie was some sort of super-rich-cookie, with gold chips and platinum foil that was worth millions? What if it was a mega once-in-a-lifetime best-cookie-ever-to-exist and you couldn't buy it for yourself?

Now how does that free cookie sound?

It sounds good, yes. You want it. But could you accept that it was free?

When someone does something big for me, I feel I should try to deserve it. I'll do my best to repay my friend, or find some other way to show I am worthy of such a gift. Often, I try to do the same thing with God. I try to earn what is given to me, prove myself.

Yesterday I came home very proud of myself, having done a bunch of good stuff for good reasons. It changed how I felt about myself. But not one bit of it made a jot of difference to how God feels about me. Although he likes it when I'm good, he's not going to love me more for each good deed I do. And he's not going to love me less every time I mess up.

I can't earn that free cookie. Nothing I do could make me deserve it. And he's not asking me to. He loves me because he loves me because he loves me. End of story.

Risen

Well, I've been gone for quite a while. The last six weeks was a planned absence for Lent. Before that, I either couldn't be bothered, had nothing to say or just didn't want to tell you what was on my mind.

But I'm back now. In the afternoon, because this morning I forgot. And I don't really know what to write...

It's funny how, when you get out of the habit of something, it becomes so much harder when you want to start it up again. Like writing inspiring blog posts. I can't seem to remember how to do it. Perhaps a little chocolate bunny would help...

Not Blogging Today

That's right. I'm not blogging today. It might look like I'm blogging, but I'm not.

Why?

Basically, because I only have a limited time on Monday mornings, in which I can accomplish only a finite number of tasks. This morning, I chose to spend that time having a nice long chat with God about things that are happening at the moment.
Instead of talking to you about Him, I decided to talk to Him. And it was good.

So that's my challenge to you today, if you still insist I must be inspiring. Don't just talk about God. Seek Him out and talk to Him. Tell Him about what's going on in your life. Tell Him how you feel, tell Him what you think. Then listen. Even if you're not sure He's there. I encourage you to go and find a quiet space (or a noisy space), where you can get to know Him a little better. 
Whether you think you're "in a good place" or not, He'd love to hear from you.

You Turned My Wailing Into Dancing

So I'm cheating again. But the Bible has some pretty cool stuff in it. I should actually get round to reading it sometime.

Psalm 30

1 I will exalt you, Lord,
    for you lifted me out of the depths
    and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 Lord my God, I called to you for help,
    and you healed me.
3 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead;
    you spared me from going down to the pit.

4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people;
    praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
    but his favour lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
    but rejoicing comes in the morning.

6 When I felt secure, I said,
    ‘I shall never be shaken.’
7 Lord, when you favoured me,
    you made my royal mountain stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
    I was dismayed.

8 To you, Lord, I called;
    to the Lord I cried for mercy:
9 ‘What is gained if I am silenced,
    if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
    Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me;
    Lord, be my help.’

11 You turned my wailing into dancing;
    you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
    Lord my God, I will praise you for ever.

That's it for today. He loves me and He rescued me. 'Nuff said.

Shadows

So, I'm back. You may or may not have noticed that I didn't blog last week. I was tired and busy and didn't really feel like it. Today, those things still apply, but I have something I wanted to tell you about.

Mr Pastor's sermon last night was about Joseph's brothers returning to Egypt during the famine. To be honest, I wasn't really listening to much of it because my brain was sleepy and I wanted KFC (other fast food chicken shops may be available). But the bit that did stick out to me was this:

"Events from your past can cast long shadows."

This I know to be true. Things that have happened to you or things you have done, can be hard to shake off. I am currently peering around in some twenty-year-long shadows, trying to find my way back into the light. BUT:

"God is a light that shines into the darkness. The darkness is as light to Him."

He has come to set us free from the shadows. Be they guilt or pain or fear, He can bring His light to them and heal them. And in His Spirit, He has set His light in us. A burning candle cannot be in shadow.

By His grace:

We need not cower in the shadows any more,

but can step out into the light of the Everlasting Son.

New Beginnings

Christmas is over. I have to go back to work today. All the decorations have been put away and the presents long since unwrapped. It is, or it could be, a very sad day.

But I don't think it is. Today is the start of something new. In many areas of my life, new things are beginning or are about to begin. A lot of exciting stuff is coming my way. And that's just the stuff that I know about. If last year is anything to go by, 2014 holds all manner of things in wait for me. Admittedly not all of them will be good. But I wager that most of them will. And why am I so confident?

For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord,

‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.

(Jeremiah 29:11)

So in this new beginning, whether I know where it will lead or not, I know I am on a path. I put my faith in God and I know He will see me through. His plans are the best plans, and He is planning good things for me. He has given me a hope and a future. I can't wait to see where the path leads.

Christmas was only the beginning. Are you ready to start this new day with me?
With Him?