I don't feel like writing today. I only started back last week, but already I feel like I can't be bothered and it seems my inspiration has run dry. The easy and convenient solution is to assume God doesn't want me to bother today. But unfortunately I think he does.

It's annoying, really, that God doesn't always want what we want. Quite often we have a conversation that goes like this...

Me: Can I have that?

God: No.

Me: Please? I really, really want it.

God: No.

Me: What about that then?

God: Still no.

(Indefinite amount of time, stubbornness and repetition later...)

Me: Okay.

It can be hard to accept at times. I tend to argue quite a lot. I know I'm going to give in eventually, but I argue anyway. Sometimes I have to keep coming back to it and give it up again and again. But when I do, I often find the conversation ends like this...

(Sometimes straight away, but usually not for a while...)

God: How about this instead? Would you like this?

Me: YES. This is so much better than my idea. Why didn't I think of this?

God: Because you are not God.

Me: Oh. Yeah.

Because basically that's what it's really about in the end. He doesn't say no out of spite, or because he doesn't want us to be happy. He does it because he knows best. And because he loves us.

9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

(Matthew 7:9-11)

11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosperyou and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

(Jeremiah 29:11)

A Sticking Plaster On Broken Glass

Hi. Happy New Year. It's been a while! 

I feel like I ought to do one of those update-on-my-life things, but I'm not going to. Suffice it to say that a lot has happened in the past few months. Mostly good. Some not so good. Two very good things.

One of the not-so-good things, however, is that my phone is broken. I know this is not exactly a big deal, but it fits with my metaphor so that's the thing we are talking about.

I have never had a phone with a cracked screen before, apart from that one that I stood on the day I bought it. So I hadn't really appreciated how annoying it is. I mean, at first it was no big deal. One little line that hardly made any difference. But it gradually got worse and worse, until now there are little spider's webs all over the place. I would show you a picture, but it's too early in the morning to figure out how to make it take a photo of itself.

One of my friends, when the second crack appeared, suggested a screen protector would stop any more damage occurring. Admitting I should have bought one before, I believed this sounded a sensible idea. Unfortunately, it is false. The screen protector has stopped the pieces of broken glass falling out and sticking in my fingers, for which I am grateful. But the glass itself is weakened now, and it seems little more than a nudge will cause it to break again. I am forced to accept that the only thing that will fix my phone is to send it off for a screen replacement.

So now we come to The Moral Of The Story. I should have just sent it off to get fixed in the first place. But I thought it would be expensive and inconvenient, and frankly I just wanted to fix it myself. Granted, getting a screen protector was cheaper and easier (especially as someone else bought it for me), but it didn't actually solve the problem. I was merely putting a sticking plaster on something that needed a lot more.

And now I'm running out of time so the metaphor comes in...

Often, when we break, we do the same thing. We could just send it off to the man to get fixed, but instead we try to fix it ourselves. We believe that papering over the cracks will stop them showing. We put a barrier between ourselves and the pain, in the hope that it will stop us hurting. But it doesn't. Broken glass is weaker. It only breaks more.

Instead what we could do is turn our broken faces to Jesus and let him heal us. It might not be as easy at first, or as quick as our preferred type of screen protector, but it will actually work. He has the power to not just cover over our cracks, but actually fix them. Erase them completely. And not just the cracks in our faces, but even the deep ones that no one else knows are there. Believe me, it's worth a try.