Releasing and Trusting

I had a church related nightmare last night. I forgot something very important. I also forgot the thing that could help me remember the thing that I forgot that was very important.

Church related nightmares are different to teaching ones. Teaching ones always involved other people making your life difficult. Church ones involve you letting other people down. I don't get them very often, but when I do I wake up feeling disorientated and confused...... 

This morning I was reading Job 38. Job is reminded by God of his greatness. 

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements - surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone 

when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?"

                                                                                              Job 38:4-7

There are so many times that we try to deal with things in our own strength when actually God is much bigger than that. When we pray we don't always expect real practical answers - God created the world yet we limit him to 'maybe' prayers. 

Over the past few days I've once again been reminded that God does things way beyond our expectations. 

In five days I go to India. I don't really know what to expect when I get there, so I haven't been worried about that. I have been more worried about the practical stuff. I often find it easier to trust God with the stuff I don't know than the stuff I do - stuff I can more easily control causes me greater worry. 

God has blessed me in the stuff I can control though, time and time again. It reminds me that so often I just need to let go of my grip and let God get on with it. Anything is possible.

It's a man's world?

I've just watched a little bit of a conversation between Dawn French and Victoria Wood about what it's like being a woman in comedy. I turned it on just when Dawn asked Victoria what it was that put women off going into comedy. Why weren't there more female comics rising up? 


And the answer was that they didn't know.... could it be because it felt like it was really a world for men? Could it be that women weren't expected to do it? Could it be that prejudices against women haven't actually changed that much? 


Dawn then asked Victoria when she would stop. Victoria said that she always thought she would stop when she got old. There are too many prejudices against older women - as they get older they lose their attractiveness so people don't want to hear what they might have to say. For men that's not an issue. 


I then started to watch the Three Musketeers. We may not wear the same clothes as the era in which it was set now, but are women still seen in the same way? The powerful women are secretive and manipulative, but still need a man as their face. The rest of them are more bothered about the way they look to men to do anything else.....


The conversation between Dawn and Victoria reminded me of conversations I have heard about women in ministry. Why aren't there more women going into ministry? Is God calling them elsewhere, or is God actually calling them to ministry, but in the world we are living in with all its ideals and prejudices is that not seen as a real possibility for anyone but those who are most determined?

Loving the old and embracing the new

Living in a small town can sometimes be great, but can sometimes be really frustrating. I like the history, the tourist stuff, the chocolate. The quirkiness of small town living makes me happy. I have got used to having the name of the place I live laughed at (although it gets irritating at times - but I can't talk - I used to laugh). I like the fact that about five minutes walk away I can climb a hill and at the top I can see into the centre of Manchester.

My problem is that I have been a city (or very large town!) girl all of my life. I am used to having every large supermarket possible within about ten minutes drive. I am used to being able to walk to the train station (I can walk to the train station here, but I can only get a steam train). I love the variety in the industrial landscape - new and old mixed together. My favourite city is Birmingham. You drive in and you see old Birmingham mixed with new. A combination of history and forward thinking. The Selfridges building rises up in its blue and silver curvy space age style amongst crossing railway lines and arches that have been there for years and years. 

Love it!

 

Yet I bet that whenever anything new was built - the town hall, the bull ring tower, the Selfridges building, the railways, people complained about the monstrosity that was to be built. 

I love history, yet I love new innovation, and history would not be so interesting if innovation hadn't happened in the past. There are people who have stood up and looked forward and things have changed. They didn't necessarily reject the past, and probably celebrated it, but were also inspired and more often or not walked against the flow, gathering people with like minds on the journey. 

Birmingham reminds me that life is constantly changing, that diversity is exciting and that innovation can run alongside long established ideas. A living and active church is just like that. The community sees the need to celebrate the past and appreciate its foundations, but also recognises the need for vision and diversity in its outlook. Community living is changeable, sometimes volatile, but so often brilliantly beautiful. 

When the community becomes insular and resistant to difference, then the community becomes more like a stately home, which is interesting for historical purposes but will continue to stay the same - stuck in an era that is separate from where people really are. It becomes a place to dream about what has gone rather than what might be coming. 

I was watching Four Weddings* and one of the brides said about another's church venue that it was like two different places - old and beautiful on the outside and like a community centre on the inside. She was very disappointed. She wanted the tradition without the church community. If we really believe that church is community and live that out, then perhaps that juxtaposition of old and new should become the norm, not the surprise. 

*Programme where four brides rate one another's weddings and somebody wins a dream honeymoon. Mind numbing entertainment!