A ring, a bowl and a spoon

Posted on November 11, 2012 by

Howdy

It’s been awhile. I didn’t realise the responsibility of a blog really, but I come with some thoughts.

I had a really interesting conversation with my Gran the other night. I was admiring her wedding ring, and she was telling me about Grandpa and just about silly little things you talk about when you think back on life. She mentioned that a little while ago she had to get her ring repaired, because the band under the cluster of diamonds had worn down. Man. The band of her wedding ring had worn down. That’s 59 years of this ring rubbing against her finger and slowly but surely wearing thin. 59 years!!! Imagine how many times that ring has gone through soapy dish water, been covered in dough from cooking. How many times it has been looked at as a sign of commitment to Grandpa, to her kids, to God. I wonder how they both felt when Grandpa first slipped it on her finger, how many people have admired it. It is such a little thing, but such a big thing at the same time – a ring is just a little piece of rock and silver to tell people that you belong to someone.

That just blows my mind. And I can hardly get my head around it at the same time.

It made me think about something else I have that has worn down over many many years. My Nanna gave me a bowl and a spoon that she always used to mix batters for cakes and biscuits. The spoon is half worn down, and its shape fits the inside of the bowl. It’s kinda stupid, but they are my most loved possessions. Nanna used to make at least two cakes a day. One for Poppy and the hired men who worked on their farm, and one for the kids to take a slice to school. Dad might have to verify this, but I believe there was a cake for dessert for a treat once a week or so.

So, every day, this spoon was worn down just a little bit more as it ran through the bowl. There is something about that I really like, that makes me feel happy. I like to bake, and using this spoon and bowl just makes me feel like I have a little connection to a life that started long before mine.  And that’s what we are all looking for isn’t it. A lifeline, a bigger picture, a story that means something.

 

Steph

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Fundamentalist Christian and Proud

Posted on October 28, 2012 by

All right, just hear me out, because if you know me or have read any of my stuff, I hope you realise I’m being cheeky.

The phrase “Fundamentalist”, when applied to religion, is just chock-full of negative connotations, and most of them justly deserved. The idea of being a “Fundamentalist” harks to following a strict set of immutable and ancient moral principles with no room for change or reinterpretation. People who hold up “God Hates Fags” signs are usually identified as “Fundamentalists”.

So am I one of those? No.

It’s something that annoys me, this phrase, “Fundamentalist”. Because I am a fundamentalist Christian in the truest sense of the word.

When something is fundamental, it is the smallest or most basic part of whatever is based on or around it. Everything comes out of this one fundamental object or idea or belief.

In Matthew 22:35, Jesus is approached to explain just this: what is the fundamental teaching of the Law?

He responds with the well known passage (here paraphrased), “Love God, love neighbour. Everything else hinges on that.”

Funnily enough, I think Jesus was right. Everything that Christianity (and life, for that matter) should be is summed up in that phrase. Everything else in the Bible and all the extra-biblical teaching that we have access to is just details.

So yeah, I’m a fundamentalist Christian, trying to take the word back and make it mean what it should.

Love God, love neighbour.

- Mitch.

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The Responsibility of Image

Posted on October 21, 2012 by

“This child lost his dad in the crowd and was freaking out till he saw the Flash. He went up to him and asked him for help because “he knew him”. Superhero win.” -NGA
- Sourced from http://www.facebook.com/nerdsdoitbetter

Something I’ve always found to be vitally important in understanding humanity’s relationships with one another (and with God) are the words found at the end of Genesis 1 in verses 26 and 27, the idea that we, humans, are made “in God’s image.”1

To clarify, being made in the image of God is not meant in a physical sense. God doesn’t have five fingers, two arms and a head attached to a neck, God is an incorporeal spiritual being (except when he’s not, that’s the beauty of incarnation). Being made in God’s image refers to a call and an expectation that our lives will reflect the heart of God.

The “image of God” is a rich vein of theology, ripe for exploration, and the aspect of this calling that I want to examine today is the idea that we have a responsibility to act in the image of God.

I (as part of a group) was once told, “You are the only Jesus that someone might ever see.” To extrapolate, I (or any Christian) am, potentially, the only representation of Jesus’ love and character that a secular person will experience in their life. What, then, do my actions say about the nature of Christ? If I want to make a good impression, to be a good advocate for Jesus, how should I act? I should model my entire life around the character of God so that I can be a living billboard, a breathing, loving advertisement for our Lord.

This is what it means to live as an image bearer of God: To act as God would. To be His representative here on Earth.

The picture at the top of this post did the rounds on my Facebook feed a while ago now. And I just thought that not only was it freaking adorable, but that it’s a perfect illustration of the responsibility that comes with adopting someone else’s image. In this situation, the young boy “knew” the Flash from comics or TV or anywhere else. He knew that the Scarlet Speedster was a hero, a kind person and all round good guy2. So, after the boy was separated from his dad at a convention, he saw the man dressed as the Flash and automatically transposed all his feelings towards and understanding of the Flash onto the man who bore his image.

When people look at Christians, they see God. Our aim, then, as followers is to portray God in an honouring way, so that the image others see of Him is a good one, one that does justice to the source material. Our lives should scream “This is the nature of God. He is love. He is kindness.”

So take on the image of the Creator. He’s given it to you, so wear it well. Do justice to the one who sends you and act out of the heart of God in every aspect of your life.

- Mitch.

1 Regardless of whether you view this statement as being applicable to the individual (“I am made in the image of God.”) or collective (“WE are ALL TOGETHER made in the image of God.”), the acting out of this seems to me to be largely unchanged. But I want to acknowledge that the different readings exist.

2  The Flash is probably my favourite hero in terms of pure personality. He’s just so nice.

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Re-Framing the Bible: A Better Love Story

Posted on October 14, 2012 by

Someone once asked, “What is the overall theme of the Bible?” The answer is simple: “Love.”

The entire Bible is based on God’s relationship with his creation, and the overarching pattern of history is one of humanity falling away from God before being drawn back into relationship with him through his actions, only to fall away from him again. The whole thing reads like a romance novel between one abnormally dedicated partner, and an unfaithful cheat…

A pattern that God himself used to illustrate his relationship with us in Hosea.

This book’s an absolute cracker. God uses Hosea’s life as a living metaphor for the relationship between God and Israel, in that Hosea marries a prostitute, a woman he knows will be unfaithful to him.

When the wife, Gomer, betrays Hosea and commits adultery, God tells Hosea, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods…” (Hosea 3:1)

In Hosea 2:14-20, God says:

“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

“In that day,” declares the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.
In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness
and you will acknowledge the Lord.”

This story of the love God feels for Israel is a microcosm of the pattern of loving redemption extended to the entirity of creation, both on a macro, creation-wide scale; and also on a micro, individual scale.

All these beautiful promises, God extends to every one of us. The passage above paints a beautiful picture of the coming of the Kingdom, when we turn away from idols and false, dead gods in favour of the living one.

- Mitch.

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A Rough Draft – Story of a Fence

Posted on October 12, 2012 by

If you walk out of our drive way and turn left, the house next to us has a front fence made of simple and kinda ugly crisscrossed wire with a steel pole running along the top. This fence has been bravely balanced by many a girl or boy as we begin the lazy walk to drop kids off at their houses after morning of girls club or kids church. This fence has caused the walk to take about five times as long as it usually would, as each troop needs an adult hand to hold onto as they edge carefully along, putting one foot slowly in front of the other. At first it was one of the more adventurous girls that did it, but every week a new a soul took up the challenge, until now most of the kids give it a shot. It is a fun time to encourage them along, and there are high fives all round when someone reaches the end of the fence, and jumps off with a grin and a relieved look on their face.

One day, two girls were over after coming accidentally on a morning that we had cancelled kids church. We had some people over that morning doing a devotion, and I was tempted to just turn them around at the door and tell them to go home, but they are too much fun so we talked in the kitchen for a while. I had a feeling that I needed to slow down, stop, and pay attention to what they were going to teach me. It’s a space I need to be in more often, they have good lessons to teach!

So, after mucking around for a while we started walking to their house. As usual, up on the fence they climbed. When I had helped them both across, the older girl, who is 11, asked why I don’t give it a shot. I had never thought about doing it myself, so I climbed up and took her hand. These kids made it look easy! My palms were sweating. I’m not joking! It’s not a high fence, but it feels it when you are up there. There were points I swayed to the point of almost falling off, but this girl held my hand really tight and walked next to me and kept encouraging me. She didn’t once hurry me, just went at the pace I was setting. After finally making it to the end and jumping off with a whoop of glee, she gave me a big hug, high five and laid on the praise. ‘I totally thought you were gonna fall Steph! Good one! Watda bout that time when you stopped and waved your arms around trying to get your balance!’

I was really proud of myself; they gave me reason to be proud.

Maybe we need to give people reasons to be proud. It’s hard to grow something in yourself If you don’t have people cheering for you and building you up. Sometimes it’s hard to see in yourself when you have a gift in something, or even when you have just tried something new and gave it your best shot, regardless if you failed or made it.

And, seriously, i balanced along a fence, and they made me feel fantastic, and like i was walking on sunshine. That just shows you can make anyone feel good about almost anything! :P

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Foundation and Kingdom: A Dead Hand vs a Living One

Posted on October 7, 2012 by

I’ve been reading Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels recently and, despite being assured by my father who possesses impeccable taste in science fiction that they are not as good as the Robot novels, I’ve found the Foundation books to be highly enjoyable.

The novels chart the thousand-year history of a small planet known called Terminus, on which is established one of two Foundations at the orders of psychohistorian Hari Seldon. In the world of the Foundation, psychology has evolved to a point of being mathematical science capable of charting the course of history for thousands of years to come, all based on the prediction of social and economic trends. Seldon can’t control the future, but he can influence it because of his unprecedented understanding of what makes galactic society tick.

In the era of the galactic Empire, Seldon sees the writing on the wall though his science. The Empire will fall – it’s inevitable – and the galaxy will deteriorate into thousands of years of barbarism and violence in the wake of the Empire’s collapse. The secrets of technology will be lost, the galaxy will be set back thousands of years in a universal dark-age.

Seldon sees that all this is inescapable. But he also sees an opportunity to influence the course of events to a more favourable outcome. He establishes two Foundations at opposite ends of the galaxy, at times and places that guarantee their survival and makes inevitable their eventual rise to form a new galactic Empire that will reduce the many thousands of years dark-age to a single millennium.

Thanks to the science of psychohistory, the success of the Foundation is as good as set in stone, and the population learns this quickly: they cannot be defeated, never truly destroyed.

As I was reading these books, it occurred to me that there is a lovely parallel between the fictional Foundation and the very real Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom on Earth exists in a strange limbo of the already-but-not-yet. Jesus’ death and resurrection marks the moment the Kingdom was established on Earth once more, but I’m sure we can all agree that this establishment is not wholly complete yet. We are still waiting in the age-of-the-in-between for the Kingdom to come in all its fullness.

But the beauty of the coming of the Kingdom is that our victory is assured. Not only does God know the social trends of our world well enough to chart history (as did Hari Seldon), but he has control over them too (as Hari Seldon did not).

Just as the Foundation began as a small group, so did the Church/Kingdom. Just as the Foundation spread outwards, overcame adversity and tried to educate and improve the worlds surrounding it, so did the Church/Kingdom. And just as the Foundation is inevitably fated to become the Second Empire and restore peace to the Galaxy, so is the Church/Kingdom inescapably set upon the path to victory.

The differences between the Foundation and the Kingdom are as worthy of note as the similarities. The Foundation’s leader is long, long gone and only his “dead hand” of psychohistorical analysis guides the Foundation. The Kingdom’s leader is very much alive and active in bringing about his plan. And while the Foundation’s success does not require the influence of individuals to succeed (it simply moves with the patterns and under the weight of history), God invites us to partner with him in putting the plan into motion. Seldon’s vision cannot be altered by free will in any positive or negative way, while God’s plan can be influenced by us for good or for ill. But the core truth of the Kingdom’s coming remains: the victory is inevitable. The plan can be influenced, sped or slowed, but never truly derailed, never truly destroyed.

I hope you find the same level of comfort in that long-term vision of the future that I do, and that Hari Seldon did for his Foundation.

- Mitch

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A Homeless woman, a train, and some teenagers on scooters.

Posted on September 30, 2012 by

About a month ago I was heading to Noble Park station to head to the city to go to church. But as I approached the platform I felt God telling me not to get on the train. So, I asked where he would rather I go, and without really wanting to, started heading underneath the tracks to the other side of the station. Typically, God showed up in a homeless woman, and although I had never met her before, greeted me like we were old friends, exclaiming ‘I haven’t seeing you in ages!’ So we had a chat and walked back over the other platform, as she was headed into the city too. She started calling me Stephie – the last time anyone called me that was when I was in Primary school, and hearing her call me that just hit me like a ton of bricks and then some. It was bizarre, I felt like I was sitting next to God waiting for this train. The train came, and there were about six rowdy teenage boys in the carriage with their scooters. Ann went right up and sat next to them, and I was just thinking Oh No. What have you got planned God? I’m not going to lie; I avoid loud teenagers on trains. And I’m studying youth work. What a hypocrite!!

Ann got out her busking sign and went to work singing a beautiful collection of songs, in a voice that rang with simplicity and, well, out of tune-ness. The boys made no mistake showing their annoyance at Ann’s presence, mocking her and being rude. They looked at me with raised eyebrows and asked if I knew her, and I said yes. We started chatting. It took no time at all to see that they were a bunch of boys trying to grow up and understand this world without adults to show them how it’s done. I lamented over the lack of older guys to mentor such fragile lives, they seemed so lost. Every now and again they would turn on Ann again, and I would join in on her singing to back her up. A few people down the other end of the carriage joined in which was a laugh!

We talked all the way into Richmond station. I asked about their scooters – where do they skate, and if they can do any tricks. One boy looked at me and asked if I would like to see something he can do. I nodded, trying not to show my excitement. He played me a video on his phone of himself doing a backflip off a ramp and I was like Woah! After seeing my enthusiastic response I had several phones in my face as they fought to show me their video first. I wondered, are they just showing off, or did something just happen in the past 30 minutes of me meeting them? Did I just make an impression that made them want to connect with me? In my youth work course they talk about ‘bids’ – when a young person makes a move to connect with you, and how you respond is very important.

Early on they asked where I was going, and I told them church. They asked if I was going to meet God, and I said, ‘yeah, but you can meet God everywhere’. One of the boys scoffed and how I wished I had looked him in the eye and said ‘I bet I can see him in you.’ I wish I had of told him that the loyalty he has for his friends is so part of Jesus’ character, that his determination is like Jesus’. I wish I could have told him that he has strengths and courage and resilience. I wish I could have told him that his youthfulness and fire is not something to be controlled and boxed, but that God loves his energy.

I wish I had seen the look on his face, and know that he wouldn’t be able to get it out of his mind – that he reflects the Almighty God.

Afterwards i was struck that if it hadn’t been for Ann there would have been no way that i would have spoken to them at all – sit with that tension. A old homeless woman got me talking with a bunch of 14 year old boys. Gotta love God’s way of doing this stuff.

Anyone else out there know what I’m talking about? Feel free to share :)

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