Tag: General

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Patience, trust and faith

Patience isn’t a natural state of being – I’m pretty sure of that. In fact I would be really surprised if anybody could convince me otherwise.

I’m willing to accept that we’ve become less patient, especially within the “fast food society” of which we are a part, but patience in itself does not seem to be a part of our inherent nature.

  • Take the Israelites marching through the desert, along with many other times – impatient.
  • The disciples showed regular signs of impatience when with Christ.
  • The Jewish people in new testament times – impatient… expecting Jesus, the Messiah, to be the all conquering and swift-bringer of freedom and fulfilment of prophecy.

You can see it all throughout history, not just in scripture and our current materialistic society must surely have come from some foundational human nature because it cannot have come from nowhere.

Patience is therefore, as far as I can tell, a discipline and something we need to learn and develop. It’s also something that can be tested, pushed, stretched and broken. Moses, for example, knew the trek through the desert would be a long haul but he still fell into impatience at times.

Much as I truly believe I have personally grown in this area, it’s still something that I struggle with and I can easily fall into impatience when the stakes are high. It’s something that I’m daily having to battle with right now.

As I think of it – impatience strikes me as being that tipping point between faith and human realisations and pressures. Where we are right now is a time of stepping out in faith, but the risk from a human perspective (in terms of the effect it could have on our family, our finances – in fact, our lifestyle) feels so great that there are times when that 100% faith in what God has in store for us is overshadowed by our human fears and concerns.

And that leads to impatience.

We want answers now. We want an end to the uncertainty. We want to *know*, not to wait.

Of course, that’s not faith. That is human emotion. The see-saw doesn’t always balance. Faith doesn’t always tie up with our human feelings, no matter how much we have grown or developed.

So what’s the answer when we struggle with impatience and cry out to God for immediacy? I wish I knew fully or at least, I wish I knew how to apply it. I think we need to be honest about our struggles, telling God that we are struggling. We need to ask for more faith, and more patience. And we need to push through.

I may be completely off the wall here, but reading some of the New Testament I could even believe that the human side of Jesus came through in exasperation and frustration sometimes – and that isn’t that far removed from impatience is it? (To clarify, think about when Jesus went to pray and the disciples slept – he got frustrated that they couldn’t stay awake. When calming the storms, his response to the disciples was almost as if to say “why can’t you see it yet” – sounds like a small bit of impatience in my view)

I hope that last paragraph doesn’t cause anybody any offence. Feel free to pull me up over it – but then again, maybe you can understand where I’m coming from.

I need patience, lots of it. I need it now – which is always the irony in these situations. All I can do is try and put it into practice and pray that I see a breakthrough, either in my situation or in new depths of patience.

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Opening doors, new chapters, excitement and a few wistful thoughts (but no regrets)

Summer. A time for kids to have fun with no school work. A time for holidays and family memories. A time where companies are always short-staffed whilst staff jet off all over the place paying the extortionate rates that the travel companies charge. A season of, in Britain at least, changeable weather and unpredictability.

Summer.

For the last three years it has also marked a big season of change for us. Not something people associate with Summer – Spring and Autumn are the changing seasons after all.

3 summers ago, in 2009, a potato company I worked for went bust. Don’t ask me HOW a spud firm can go bust but this one managed it. Last summer venture capitalist funding got pulled on a startup company that I was very fond of. This summer, a change again as a door closed.

Some folks might feel paranoid, superstitious or wonder what is wrong with them. Us… we knew it was coming. It helps when the big guy upstairs paves the way for you. Doesn’t mean that it’s easy, or even pain-free, but there is a reassurance and comfort in knowing that it’s part of a plan.

It’s crazy – plenty of folks have commented now about this becoming a feature of our holidays, our summers… but this will hopefully be the last one for a while. We’ve been put through the forge, honed, prepared and led to this point – we don’t know fully why or for what purpose but there is a reason and a plan, a future and a hope. This one has the feel of being the culmination of what has gone before and heralding a new beginning for us as a family.

The thing about new doors opening, is that other doors close as a result. When you walk through one new opportunity, it means that you’ve moved on from where you were.

And no matter how exciting it is to know that God is in control, it’s always sad to move on from where you are at. No regrets, but a few tears and some wistful thoughts to take along.

I start at my new job on the 5th September (hopefully – got all the criminal checks etc first :-D) and we’re already looking at where that leaves us, where we should go and when. Today was one of those small steps out of one thing and towards the next as I stepped down from the Production Department at KingsGate. I’ve had a blast in the last three years doing all sorts of crazy stuff and being able to play a part in impacting peoples lives, but this was the time to move on and to reflect on what I’ve learnt – technically, spiritually, personally and more.

The future is exciting. I’ve always said that if I picked on verse as a “life” verse it would be Jeremiah 29:11-13:

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

There are nerves – this is likely to be a time of huge change for us as a family. There is a thrill – we’re stepping into something that is coming from someone infinitely more than we are. There is sadness at moving on, but joy as well.

In the words of Matt Smiths Doctor – GERONIMO!

😉

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Sore throats, Soaring Spirits and SeeSaw Weather – BCDO Part 2

As the God channel are broadcasting the event this weekend, it seems a fairly good time to finish off my two part Big Church Day Out Diary! The first part was on last night and the 2nd part is on tonight at 9pm. Sky+ it, record it, wheel out the old VHS if you have to – and if you don’t get the God channel quickly get to know someone who does and get them to record it for you – you will not regret it. Anyway, on with the blog…

Heavily laden with chairs, food, drink and more, we set out from our tent on each of the two days to go and pick a decent spot and enjoy what was on offer at the Big Church Day Out 2011. The walk from the campsite to the main stage was not particularly far, but it was across some pretty funky terrain (the campsite had 2″ wide troughs in parallel lines every 6 feet which someone always managed to trip in) and the hill was deceptively steep. The weather didn’t know what it wanted to do, and the winds were especially unkind – with many people ending up with damaged tents, and even one of the main stage banners having come down.

With our territory claimed and marked, we settled in – with each of us wandering off every now and then with the kids, or on our own, just to explore the marketplace and the other activities on offer. Whilst people were still turning up the organisers showcased some of the acts who would be on the UCB Stage or the Tea Tent, with each act getting to perform a song and introduce themselves a bit. This was a great way to drum up interest in the smaller venues and I’ve no doubt that it will have been an effective tool in introducing people to some of the less mainstream artists.

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We’re going on a Big Day Out… Part 1

For those who were there, either this year or last, the above title will probably have you humming an annoyingly catchy little ditty written by the one-and-only Graham Kendrick as the “un”official theme song for the Big Church Day Out.

Yes I know it’s been a few weeks but life has been really crazy since we got back from our exodus down sarf and I’ve only really started to catch up on all my thoughts – but sit back and let me tell you of miracles, divine intervention, mini-reunions and some of the best Christian music that is out there right now.

For those that don’t know, the Big Church Day Out has just had it’s 2nd annual event in the grounds of Wiston Hall. It’s a family orientated affair featuring a main stage full of the biggest names on the music scene, a second stage featuring lesser known (but not lesser talented!) artists and then a load of activities, stalls, charities and more to ensure that there is no way you can possibly get bored (unless you’re a tired 9 year old boy but that’s a different matter really)

We’d decided, after going to the midlands event last year, that we would take advantage of the free camping offer (due to there NOT being a midlands event this year) and head down for the two day event – figuring that it would be fun camping for the first time as a family and that doing both days would allow us all to enjoy the main artists at least once, making it less of a stress if the kids didn’t want to sit through your favourite artist. My brother was immediately up for it, and we made a last-minute decision to invite one of our daughters best friends (2 teenage girls – was that *really* wise??? read on…)

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Cleansed, Challenged and Changed

Encounters with God are meant to be life-changing, releasing and sometimes very humbling events. This should be something that happens on a regular basis within our Churches, and I’m very pleased to be part of a Church where that is often the case. However, for one weekend in June, KingsGate Community Church becomes a highly passionate focus for life-changing freedom as it hosts an annual retreat for people who have done/are doing the Cleansing Stream course – including many from different Churches across England.

Cleansing Stream is a series of teachings designed to help unearth and, more importantly, tackle issues that have a profound and often crippling effect upon peoples lives. The course itself isn’t without it’s detractors and has courted some fairly controversial reviews, especially across the pond. All I can say is that, doing the course myself this year, I have no doubts as to it’s legitimacy, it’s effectiveness nor it’s biblical foundation. I also have a huge amount of trust and respect for the discernment and knowledge of the KingsGate leadership, and know that they wouldn’t be a part of it if this was in any way unbiblical.

The teaching evenings include a time of worship, with a group of intercessors being present to pray for all the participants by name and who then go into a seperate room to continue to pray whilst the teaching is delivered. Because the subjects are so very personal, there is further study work that helps to get us thinking about the issues discussed and examine how they might be a part of our own lives.

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