What does hope look like to you? (Debs)

What does hope look like to you?  During uncertain times it can be difficult to define what is hope?  Hope is something that we put our feelings, thoughts, and our mind into.  Is it the flower growing through the cracked pavement, is it a sunrise, or is it just knowing that tomorrow will be better? 

Hope can have different levels, you hope for good weather, you hope for good travels, but what inspires hope in your soul? Desmond Tutu once described hope is to believe there is light instead of the darkness.                       

If we consider our current world, one filled with dread and fear, one of suspicion and illness, how can we hope?  During the COVID 19 pandemic in the year 2020 we hear many stories of people dying, people being infected, isolated, losing their jobs, and their livelihood, but we also hear stories of hope.  Complete strangers sharing their lives, sharing stories, videos, thinking differently, online choirs?

Whoever thought getting dressed up to put the bin out would make headlines? 

But that is hope, seeing light, creativity, and joy even during darkness.  No matter how you feel, believe there is still hope, there is still light and there will be a point where we come out of the other side.  Be the person that emerges from this wave as one holding hope as their torch and love and compassion as their battle cry.  If we keep trying and living there is always hope.

A Couple of Pieces Left Over

I often think about daily tasks and how am I going to arrange my day....how life can get so messy and how are we ever going to get through it.  Last weekend I went to my mums to put together a kitchen cupboard for her.  Unlike Jesus I am definitely no carpenter, I hate measuring and have the approach of just do it...why bother with instructions.

I collected the boxes of flat pack furniture full of enthusiasm and thought, I can do this how hard can it be......after all I can monitor the most complex patient, deliver life saving treatment and decipher the worst doctor handwriting.....so off I went to the local furniture store.

I happily picked up the boxes and unpacked them in my mum's kitchen.  I just stood there looking at all the pieces of pre-cut timber, and what appeared to be bags and bags of nuts and bolts, screws and objects I had no idea what they were.

With one more shake of the box, the instructions appeared from the bottom of the box.  The instructions were on one piece of paper which had clearly seen better days.  As I stood there contemplating the task, I felt the Holy Spirit gently whisper, like everything in life there are instructions, and even though when it seems the task is impossible and confusing if we follow the instructions we will eventually complete the task.  

After I stood back and looked at the finished cupboard, it looked good, not perfect, and there were a couple of pieces left over. I still don't know where they go or should have gone. It didn't matter, because the cupboard was functional and fit for purpose.

Our lives are often like that, we have bits in life where we don't understand where they should go, or why we went through that particular phase, but if we trust God and trust his purpose in the end we will come out ok as well, even with battle scars or pieces missing, because the master carpenter he knows everything. 

I write this blog with my husband in Ipswich Suffolk and me in Ipswich Queensland but through it all we know God has called us to be two voices to watch over the cities he has planted us in, not my first choice but it seems to be Gods.  If you are struggling today, take heart, take courage and know as long as you trust in God it will be ok, just like the cupboard it is not perfect but serving a purpose.

Jer 17: 7-8

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit."  

Create your Hotspot!

Three of us went bird watching last Thursday.  It was one of those days when we didn't quite know where to go, so I looked on ebird.org to see what birding hotspots there were in the Ipswich area. As the walk organiser, I suggested that we go to Sparrowe's Nest Farm, and we had a beautiful afternoon in the sun watching around thirty Skylarks who seemed to be singing with joy. I don't know what you know about Skylarks but as they sing; they travel vertically upwards 50 to 100 meters. For a little bird that seems to involve spending a lot of energy. We saw quite a few other birds on our trip. After a while, we were joking and saying that it was really weird that we had never visited this place before.

It turned out that one of our friends John, who wasn't with us on Thursday, had been to this location so frequently and recorded his sightings, that ebird.org then had created it as a Hotspot purely because he had visited so many times. We felt that John had never really mentioned that he had ever been there. Of course, it might be that we haven't been paying attention to what he's been saying to us. Either way, his consistency in visiting the spot and recording bird-life has brought results. People who don't know the area can find a beautiful spot to watch Birds. While at the same time ebird.org can compile scientific data.

Today I was thinking about this experience. I think ther is a parallel with the spiritual life. We can turn our prayer places into spiritual hotspots by turning up regularly, observing or listening, paying attention - recording what we find in our journal.

To be honest, if we do nothing, nothing will happen. Yet when we start to pray and listen to God regularly, good stuff just starts to happen. I believe it is true to say that if we make ourselves present to God he will be present to us. St. James talks about this when he says "draw near to God and he will draw near to you."

We can choose to approach God at any time. He is a God that allows himself to be discovered. If we set our hearts to expectant, pray and listen we will start to change.

On Thursday we could have decided to stay at home, the weather was changeable; I was tired. But the walk and the effort was worthwhile and we had an experience that we would have never had had if we hadn't taken action.

I will leave that thought there for the moment. I want to tell you a bit about why Debs and I have started writing again after a pause. We are married but through circumstances and Covid-19 we are living on the opposite side of the world to each other. We have decided to reinvent the Ipswich Watchman blog as "A Song for Two Voices." And write about things that are happening to us.

Fall fearless into love

I am marvelling at this phrase "Fall fearless into Love" that I found at the end of a blog. It is meant as a trigger point for meditation. A phrase to turn over in the mind as you go into silence.

God of mystery. Your perfect love "drives out fear" may we (or I) trust in you more today.. Let me fall into love. Let me fall into your ways of loving. Ways that liberate. Give me compassion for others - make me tender hearted. Let me fall fearless into your way, into your love. I know then I will find peace.

May I find contentment with you. Like a weaned child as it says in psalm 131 - or like the bird in the picture my wife took, may I find my nourishment by foraging on the things of God.

Blessings to you and your day!

Stirred up

10 OCTOBER 2017, 06:45 ... 'As an eagle stirs up its nest...so the Lord alone led him' (Deuteronomy 32:11-12 NKJV) In the quote God is likened to a mother eagle. When it's time to fledge the chicks the mother eagle stirs up the nest. One preacher, Bobby Gas - points out that the mother eagle even withholds food in order to get her young to dare to leave the nest! Is it true that God sometimes appears to be holding back so that we wake up and have the courage to fly from the nest? Give us a hunger in our hearts Lord. A hunger that drives us into the "more" - let us hunger for your word! For your love! Let us hunger to lead people to you! You are never truly distant. We distance ourselves from you sometimes. Wrestling with your demands. All you want is our attention! Our love!

Prayer for Healthcare in Ipswich

Below is the opening prayer that was used for Saturday's meeting to pray

Welcome prayer
Thank you to all that have taken time out to attend this morning, I pray Gods richest blessings on you all as we seek him, are thankful to him but mostly appreciate he is the king of kings and Lord of Lords, full of grace and mercy as we are reminded in Psalm 145:8

Remembering as the beautiful worship song we have sang of late “it is his breath in our lungs so we out our praise to him”
All that we have, all our knowledge, skills and abilities is not ours but God’s and in his great wisdom he gives them to us to use.

A bit like the parable of the talents, we can bury our skills afraid to use them just in case, but be the brave servant who took the talents and made it more, did not consider the risk but whose goal and objective was to please and honour his master. Matthew 25:14-30

You may be a health care professional, patient, family member, technician, no matter what your calling in life Gods wants to give you more but only if take the risk, step and do what God has called you to do. You may be a wife, mum, husband, son, God has positioned you for a purpose and for such a time as this. We see every day how much the NHS is in trouble, our schools, our government and there is no quick fix but this I do know and this I have every faith and confidence that our God is still on the throne and he got this !!

I love the story of Esther, she went from obscurity to a woman that saved her nation, one of my favourite versus
is Esther 4:4 “for such a time as this. Esther knew Gods’ calling was not without risk but she also knew she needed support to do what she was going to do. She called a time of prayer and fasting. So today, God has put us together to pray.

Remember God doesn't recruit you without a calling. God calls everybody to use the gifts and the passion that they
have, it is hard to follow God’s calling so do it with much  prayer and support.

Frederick Buechner said, “The place God calls us to is the place where our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Let us reflect upon and celebrate the vocation of the healer.  The role of the healer in the life of a community is
an ancient one indeed.   For as long as there has been illness and disease among humans, there have been those
moved to compassion at the suffering of their neighbors—those who have desired to ease the pain and cure the sick.  Today we give thanks for those women and
men who have found their greatest joy in service to one of the world’s deepest hungers: the hunger for healing and
wellness.

As we open our time of prayer, let us listen to the words of scripture, celebrating the deep connection that our
ancestors in the faith perceived between God and those who choose to minister to the unwell.

Update

I was walking to the station this morning. It's a 30 minute walk so I often listen to the Daily Audio Bible as I wander. I hasten to emphasise that is because I am a sinner and not a Saint. I need to orientate myself first thing or the day goes badly. Anyway I was happily listening to the 1 Samuel being read and getting into it... When without touching my phone the player swapped over to a sermon from the Elevation Church in Australia. Not a live broadcast but from a Sunday. The guy starts to preach.

To begin with I was irritated and thought grumpily I had better swap back to Samuel. But the guy said he was preaching on "why there is suffering" and at that point I thought I had better listen to it.

I made some notes. They are not very perfect and I am sure he said other stuff also - I might add a link and listen again. Especially if God wanted me to hear it I need to get every drop from it.

It spoke to my heart about the daily struggle between being the good version of ourselves or the bad version. I haven't been plotting evil as such - but sometimes it gets harder to see clearly what we are doing and we start going down an unfruitful route.

1. John 16.33  ‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ and from elsewhere where it says "nothing can separate us from the love of God"

2. No bad decision is beyond redemption. Sometimes we say "what's wrong with me" * do note Paul was right with God yet he suffered.

3. Isaiah 48.10 "the refiners fire" is like wearing active wear -when we are suffering everything in our lives is revealed. Every blemish in our life! - he used quote from J L Packer "God hates the sins of his people, and uses all kinds of inward and outward pains and griefs to wean their hearts from compromise and disobedience. Still he seeks the fellowship of his people, and sends them both sorrows and joys in order to detach their love from other things and attach it to himself."

4. Romans 8:28

I will tidy this up later and add a link to the sermon. Judge for yourselves...

By the way the J L Packer quote feels like a driving lesson for my life....

Have a beautiful day!