Walking

I know I wrote previously about the book ‘Your God is too Safe’ - but there´s another part of it that´s been rattling around my head ever since I finished the book a month ago. It´s to do with a passage from Isaiah 40. It culminates with the oft- quoted part

‘but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.’

This has been the inspiration for various worship songs, particularly ‘soaring on wings like eagles´. It seems that that part is supposed to be our aim. Our relationship with God is supposed to get to the point where we can soar through life, without effort or struggle; simply soaring in his presence and power.

But then this is only the beginning; ‘running and not growing weary’ comes next and then ‘walking and not fainting´. In the norms of poetry used in Isaiah, the culmination of an idea comes last, rather than being first and then explained, as we often assume of this passage.

So that would actually mean that what God desires for us is to walk and not faint. That´s the aim of our developing relationship with God. The soaring is simply a step towards that. It made me think of a parachute jump – which I guess is the nearest any of us can get to soaring like eagles. I´ve not actually done a parachute jump, but we often imagine that it takes huge amounts of courage…. But on second thoughts, perhaps not. It actually just requires a split second of bravery (or even the gentle push from a friend) as you jump from the plane. Then you just soar, but even that only lasts a few minutes before you´re on the ground again. So much of our Christian experience agrees with this idea – a great event or a great worship time gives us that experience of soaring in God´s presence, but soon we´re back down to earth, searching for the next plane ride and parachute pack.

And yet, this passage tells us that soaring isn´t the aim. Walking is. It seems he wants us to get past our desire for soaring, and get on with walking. Walking takes much more effort. It´s not hard, but it is constant. Continually putting one foot in front of the other, keeping on, whatever the circumstances, whatever the weather, whatever the terrain. It´s about keeping on. It is still God, not us that does the sustaining, but it´s in the mundane and the ordinary, even in the continual plodding, not in the extravagance of soaring.

It is God that renews our strength. It´s the experience of ´those who hope in the Lord’. It´s interesting that in Spanish the verb for ‘to hope’ and ‘to wait’ are the same word; esperar. Somehow, hoping in the Lord always seems to involve waiting. And waiting on God always includes hope. And it´s in the ordinary every day that we wait and hope.

Toybox Step Team 2011

campaign numbers

So the final list of candidates is now ready!.
There are 31,795 candidates for the 3,500 positions of public office which will be elected on Sept 11th - which includes President, Vice-President, MP´s for National congress, District representatives, local representatives (I think this is mayors), and members of the Central American Parliament. 60% of the candidates are between 18 and 30 years old -- I thought that wasn´t all that surprising in a country where the average age is 20, but they have made a big thing of this in the news as there´s been a big campaign for young people (and women) to participate more fully in politics, since the last election - and it seems to have worked.
What´s been more newsworthy is the avalanche of campaign advertising. Virtually everywhere you turn, there´s a candidates face staring back at you. Much of the advertising breaks the electoral rules, but nobody seems to do anything about it. In a street near my house, there´s 15 posters -- for the same candidate!!! -- in the space that it takes me to walk 40 paces (yes I´ve counted!!). The papers have called this 'polution'!! I´m no advertising expert but I doubt that this kind of saturation makes someone more likely to vote for the candidate. There´s still precious little of any real policy or plans.
So what can you tell from someone´s photo??
One of them looks like superman -- but more arrogant.
According to a friend of mine, another just looks like a drug traficker, and of another they say 'it´s his turn' (because he came second in the last general election!)
What any of this means in terms of the actual result, is anyones guess.

Step team arrived

Thank You Step Team!!!!

How safe is God??

I´m been reading a book lately -- How Safe if your God by Mark Buchanan, which has been great - and really made me think.
The whole book is about what he calls the Borderland and the Holy Wild. He explains the analogy of crossing a border from one country to another - but in some places - there is space between leaving one country and entering another - like a no-mans-land where no country claims jurisdiction or responsibility. He suggests that much of Christianity lives in the borderland, where people have left one realm -- but not really entered into another. It´s a place where we can make up our own rules, and live in a ´safe´and well structured way that´s completely of our own making - but not at all what God is calling us to. God is in the Holy Wild. (I love that phrase!) In the Holy Wild, God is not boxed in by the tidy arrangements of church or the limitations of our pre-prepared answers to the pre-prepared questions.

There´s a really interesting chapter on (Doubting) Thomas. To start with - what a demonstration of our own prejudice when we name him ´Doubting´ because of one incident in his life, and ignor the rest. It´s also really interesting to see Jesus reaction to him. The story is in John 20, and is shows us Thomas saying ´unless I see´.... 'I will not believe'. It´s funny that within the church we usually see doubt as the opposite of faith, and as a wholy negative experience, and yet it is doubt (ie the desire to see more, to examine more closely) that brings us to faith. Jesus´reaction to Thomas wasn't in condemnation of his doubt, but an encouragement - to do 2 things.
Firstly he says ´Put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hands and put it into my side....´ .... it´s an invitation to come closer, to scrutinise (in the best sense of the world) more rigorously and to experience God himself. Thomas actually didn´t touch Jesus´ hands - but he exclaimed ´My Lord and my God´. It wasn´t the science, the proving, or the carefully crafted theological argument that drew this response, but simply the act of drawing near to Jesus, of him experiencing his resurrected life.
Secondly Jesus says ´because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed´. Another invitation - to go beyond what he has experienced so far, to go beyond doubt and scrutiny.

I love this ..... I think God is always in this attitude of inviting us in, inviting us closer, of giving us chances to see more of Jesus´ life.
"Sometimes doubting is not a lack of faith but rather an expression of it. Sometimes to doubt is merely to insist that God be taken seriously not frivolously."
I think so often our doubt is not a doubting of God but rather a doubting of the borderland, of the tameness of organised religion, of the safeness of the God that we have made in our own image. But God is calling us beyond that ... into the Holy Wild.

Arty recycled stuff 3

All that I find in God (so far)
Todo lo que encuentro en Dios (hasta ahora)

Arty recycled stuff 2

All that I find in God (so far)
Todo lo que encuentro en Dios (hasta ahora)

Arty recycled stuff

Since I´ve come back to Guatemala, I´ve been thinking and praying about various things, and wanting to create stuff that not only explains something of what God is doing in my life - but also acts as a reminder for me to keep on praying into some of the things that he has spoken into my life. So here´s a few blogs entries with the results..........

Breakthrough


Joy in the centre of my life.

The list still isn't ready

So yesterday was supposed to be the last day in which any appeal could be made for presidential candidates. Sandra has been working hard and has gone through every conceivable appeal process, all of them agreeing with the first -- that she has committed electural fraud by divorcing her husband in order to stand. Alongside the legal appeals, she´s also pulled all the stops out by bussing her supporters (generally from the poorer rural areas) into the city to protest and march, at every opportunity, causing havock with traffic systems, already at capacity. These protests continue.

There´s been a lot less news of Harold Cabelleros. Perhaps he´s decided to bow out gracefully........ or maybe just hasn´t got as many supporters to protest for him!

In other political news, other presidential candidates played a televised game of football against journalists!. Can you imagine that in England???? (David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown vs Jeremy Paxman, Fiona Bruce and David Dimbleby all in their football shorts....... it doesn´t bare thinking about!)

Discipleship consultation.

Last week, I was helping out with a regional consultation run by the Ezra Centre. They are a Guatemalan organisation that trains local pastors (and others) in holistic mission. Every year they hold a consultation around a significant topic. This year is was "Discipleship: Responsible citizenship in the world". It was great to have 300 pastors from Central America, not only listening to great teaching, but being part of a process of learning with others.

One story which shows the significance of the theme, was that the week before the event, Israel, the Director of the Ezra Centre was invited to talk on one of the Christian radio stations. He was introduced by the DJ explaining that the consultation was a training event for a new discipleship programme or course. That is the usual understanding of discipleship here in Guatemala -- that you can follow a course, run by a church, and then you arrive at being fully discipled.

The focus of the consultation was actually much more about encouraging a lifestyle of discipleship - which allows our faith to touch and affect every area of our lifes. Yes it´s about churches - but not about programmes - more an ongoing atmosphere and attitude of Christians learning from older Christians, or an intentional effort to share the reality of our lifes with each other so that we can grow more into the likeness of Jesus.

I was part of the team helping out with the running of the event, and it was great fun to get to know other people and be part of the action!.