"I plan to write more books whenever I can find the appropriate writing attire and color-coordinated pen."
Miss Piggy
I love writing. I love words. I held a dream once that I was going to write a book. A real book, that even got published. Some days I think it might still happen. Most days I believe it won't.
The really sad thing is that I got >< this far to achieving it. I did a course. Not just any course. A good post graduate course at a good university. My writing was ok. So ok I was offered a place on a phd in Creative Writing.
It didn't happen. Life got in the way. That attic writing room overlooking the sea hasn't materialised. My purpose bought laptop is great for social media networking and writing a blog. There were marketing jobs.
My dream has disintegrated before my potential got a hold of it.
Faith can do that too. Believing in something is a strange concept in itself. Having a faith is more than just believing. We can do many things that come close to living out what we believe. Get offered some great chances. Then it just slides.
It takes perseverence, dedication and a willingness to keep going. Faith needs movement. It needs investment and it needs you to believe, in yourself, in your future, in the bigger picture.
Don't wait for the right moment. Now is as close as you are going to get.
Faith needs action.
Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
From James chapter 2 (The Message)
image (c) style.mtv.com
Something very sad happened in my town this week. Someone took their own life. A guy in his forties, always seen going about his business with a white German Shepherd dog in his company. Known to everyone, yet actually really known to a very few.
This person worked in the local supermarket and I would go to his checkout when I could, he was quite sparkly and always had a smile and a friendly word. But only on the outside it would now seem...
We can all get angry with God about the very sad, unquantifiable amount of injustice and pain in the world.
But my first thought was not of anger but more that if only I had known that man was suffering so, so much - I could have... I could have what? Not 'talk' to him. He did not know me. I did not really know him. But I do know a lot of other people. We cannot be responsible for everyone in the world, but we can take responsiblity for some.
Take the light that you have within you, the light that I believe comes from God, and breathe it into the world around you. See people, really see them - and the ones that you care for, do something to make their world a better place. Even it is a tiny gesture that requires a ridiculous amount of effort.
If you see someone heading to, or residing in that dark place, then do not give up, do not let the darkness win.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
From John 10:10
I had a weird experience last week. I time travelled. Not literally. Which is a shame. If I ever see a tardis I'll be off.
Today I was surrounded by people who made me feel like the person I used to be around ten years ago.
Age is a strange thing, as is time. One minute you are in your teens, with life to live and you can't get enough done and there aren't enough opportunities, then in your twenties there are finding out what limitations might feel like, due the real world and expectations crashing into each other, then in your thirties there is a resignation almost, a realisation of your place in the world.
And the last fifteen or twenty years seem to have had some fast forward catastrophe... just like in a DVD where you can jump scenes every few minutes, your life becomes a series of moments that stick. Where did all the inbetween stuff go?
So, do we want to be the person we were ten years ago? Or do we want to be who we are now? What if we were a faith filled, taking on the world type person ten years ago? What if that isn't who we are now? Should we try and reach back in time to recapture the past, or do we look forward with wisdom, integrity, confidence and ambition?
And if you see a blue police box (bigger on the inside) do let me know.
Even to your old age and grey hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:4 Jesus Geeks.
image (c) tardisadventures.tumblr
