On Excellence

"Excellence is too hard to maintain -
Mediocrity maintains itself" -Mick the de motivational speaker

The Big Chill

Had our 20 Year School reunion last night. Can’t believe how fast 20 years goes.

Although I still see three or four guys on a regular basis, had a great time, with people I had not even spared a thought for in a long period of time.

Quite different from the 10 year reunion – where everyone was showcasing their career.

This time around it was all about children, schools and work-life balance. Many now have opted for a ‘sea-change’ / country life style (not surprising as many were boarders).

Looking back at the photo’s of some of the mature teachers at the time only to realise that we have now exceed the age that they were when they taught us.

One thing is clear; we have become our parents and teachers.

Refresh

Its been a busy time. The pressure has been on at work. Much change happening. But its work that I love.

I've just finished a thesis for this semester towrds my Masters on "Strategic Project Procurement Management"...left it all to the last few weeks - as usual. #1 Rule for a Project Manager - "Thou Shalt Not Procrastinate"...

Sunday mornings - I am now helping out with the kids at the Surf Club. Thirty or so under 8's all wearing orange and white caps. Its all good.

Faith stuff has been a bit dry. Very dry infact.

It's time to blow the dust of my Bible (metaphorically speaking of course) and read through the Gospel of John. Been taking some time out of 'formal Church' to get my head around things - though I really feel a pull towards heading down to the local Anglican for Communion this weekend. The one with the annual fete amd the corny signs that I used to laugh at as I drove past. Funny how perspectives change - oftimes for the better.

Unexpectedly recieved and appreciated the gift of music today from a far away friend. Now that's refreshing.

Success

These are thoughts gate-crashing my mind of late, as posted in the comments of Steve Addisons blog - I just wanted to cath them here.

Why is it so? Why can’t a Church handle success as we define it – affluence, influence or (political) power well? Is it because we have ill-defined the definition of a “successful church”?

The Jews were waiting on a powerful, influential strong messiah when Jesus came – but his ministry was just the opposite…meek, weak, his influence rejected by those in power, humble and lead to his own demise and death.

Could it be that the local congregational Pastor (also layperson) who spend his time visiting nursing homes, counseling, doing funerals and spending time with mourning families, doing scripture lessons in the local school etc – could still be closer to Jesus than the well remunerated mega (or giga) church pastor who is mixing with the politicians and has a television ministry?

I don’t want to sound negative – but these are just questions on my mind. Are we supposed to be successful, or authentic...Upwardly mobile and influential, or downwardly mobile (and incarnational in EC speak).

I’m wondering is the Church that gravitates towards success and the successful – being faithful to its calling?

Are we supposed to 'decline' offers of worldly success as Jesus did in the desert or are we supposed to capitalise on them inorder to have maximum impact? Why is all of Church history stacked against Churches that become 'successful'?.

No need to answer - just thinking it through.

Quote For Today

"I keep six honest serving men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who."
-Rudyard Kipling, Just So Sories For Little Children

Thought For Day

"Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary"-Cecil Beaton

This from Marisa.

South Eastern States Tour

Hobart

Normal Blogging will resume shortly (after I have submitted my thesis).

Wrote this some time ago but never posted it!


Just back from visiting family in Tasmania and Melbourne. Both places are beautiful in their own right, but hope to get back and spend a little more time there again in a couple of years.

Highlights
• Salamanca Place / Markets in Historic Hobart (I could live in Hobart):
• Spending some time with Grandparents and family. Ninety-five year old Grandfather-in-law telling us of his plans to tour around Victoria on a Motorcycle.
• Visiting me wife’s Uncle’s renovated beach house in Weymouth Tas ,Walking in Tasmania’s wilderness, eating at some 19th Century Inns, chairlift over Cataract Gorge at Launceston..
• Dinner at Aunts high-rise apartment overlooking Melbourne City of a night time
• Walking along High Street Shops and Café’s of South Yarra, going to Luna Park and Coffee and cake in St Kilda and having Dim Sims at the South Melbourne markets.
• Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens, Shrine of Remembrance and seeing Rembrandt paintings (Dutch Masters) at NGV.

Lessons Learned
• It’s never a good idea to buy a harmonica at the Markets for seven year old son when touring in the car as a family
• Don’t expect too much from cheap serviced apartments in Melbourne. If the brochure lists a swimming pool and a spa—that does not mean that it will actually be in a safe, heated and in useable condition by humans. Frogs perhaps.

The biggest disappointment was cancel plans for Dive of the Kelp forests of Port Arthur due to a persistent chest infection…that one now has to wait for next time.

Fargo Jnr.

Fargo

"Why do Mothers always dress us up in weird stuff?"

Miracles and Random Acts of Kindness

I currently believe that it is potentially a dangerous view to assert that miracles occur because of our radical obedience or actions...this is the sort of thinking that may place Christians back in the 'weird' bucket...and dissapoint many who take radical action - and not be given the miracles they desire.

They will then cry with dissapontment "what is wrong with my faith"...."have I not been faithful enough?".

The working of miracles, I believe is entirely a supernatural act of God...there is nothing "we do" in this!

Yes, when we feel called we can reach out, or go to the elders for prayer and annointing etc., but to link obedience and faithfulness (our works) to God's blessing may well be to return back to the sweet spot of the dodgy Faith Movement / Prosperity doctrine days. I have seen firsthand the dissapointment that this brings - even to radical Christians!

I think the concept of Miracles and healing etc needs to be looked at more broadly....and perhaps we should be looking at the 'miracle' and the wonder of why often times God does not heal!

Christians are to be a reflection of, and witnesss to Christ during both their times of blessing and during times of suffering.

Those "Miraculous Miracles" will occur - but they will be rare by definition....I think we need to look for the "Common Miracles" that occur around us - everyday, in the wonder of life itself!

I do not have the answers...but the thoughts that have are these:

I think we need to start looking at wonder at all of the common miracles around us. The wonder in nature and the Universe, the wonder of man created in God's image...these point to the supernatural and the Wonder of the Creator...

Then I think we have to get much better at rembering to be thankful for this wonder, and everything that God provides for us food, society, family etc...

Then we have to get better at understanding the Father Heart of God, trusting in his infinite wisdom and knowing that ultimately - he wants his very best for us...and that he fully understands and empathasis with humans in our struggles...

in all of this maybe 'We' are to be the agents he works his miracles -helping others through in our words, actions and quiet and discreet prayers!

Then if we are suffering or see suffering to pray for God's help - trusting that through all of this his will is being done, towards progress His Kingdom...regardless of wheteher or not he provides immediate relief...

And then, in all of this just maybe we may actually see the unexpected!

Flesh & Blood

The pentecostal view of communion has been largely been on of the "rememberance meal"...Catholics and others actually believe that when Jesus himself said "take and eat, this IS my body", the participation in communion means we are consuming the flesh (for Catholics it actually means the literal flesh of Christ in that the wafer changes inside the mouth).

From my readings of early Church, these orthodox views would have certainly have been held by the earliest of Christians, as one of the charges laid on them by their persecutors who conveniently took this all out of context was that they were to be percieved as a sect of flesh eating cannibals!

But the emphasis being on 'This IS my body, given for you, for the forgiveness of sins' is something I find somewhat mystical and entirely special....and when I am at a low point, something I spiritually crave - especially when dispensed from a common cup in a more intimate setting.

There is just something wonderful about the whole thing, when considered in this context, that just cannot be put into words.

On the Quiet

“The more I see the less I know”
-U2, ‘City of Blinding Lights’

I have not written much here for a while, as there has been much that has been on my mind.

Presently, I am taking some time out in order to ‘refresh with my spirituality’ and get my head around a few things.

In the meantime, I have being ‘hanging out’ at some of the older traditional Churches in our city. In their quietness I have been impressed.

Last Sunday, I attend an informal Lutheran Church service with a speaker who works with the poor and marginalized in low socio-economic areas.

This Sunday, I plan to attend a formal ‘Taize’ style worship service at an old Church in the City. Soon, for something different, I also plan to spend a weekend with the Monks at New Norcia on a retreat.

Everyday, on the way to work, I pass an old traditional Church in our city that in my arrogance I had written it off as a ‘has been’.

I would often sneer at the corny quote board on the front wall, however, of late the quotes have been uncannily pertinent to my life situation, that the words have just jumped out at me:

1) “If we say we are without fault then the Truth is not in us”.
2) “Likw Light, Truth always Travels in Straight Lines”.
3) “Forget Others Faults By Remembering Your Own!”...

God knows where we are at. I believe that he communicates his wisdom through the quiet things that confound “the wise”—even corny old Church Quote Boards!.

I have a lot to learn!

Silence

“I see that what I am experiencing is moral ache. That this act comes out of the act of reflection and even silence itself. That this act of reflection is of course, important for finding some temporary grace as a writer. But that grace fully realised, comes from living and not reflecting in isolation”.

-Mark Mordue, “A Dog’s Life” pp 22 The Big Issue, No 235 15.08.05 – 30.08.05

Enough said.

On Bono

“I wish I could live the life of someone you could describe as pious. I couldn’t preach because I couldn’t practice. It’s plain to see that I’m not a good advertisement for God. Artists are selfish people”.
-'Bono on Bono: Converstations with Michka Assayas.

I can relate to that.

Ocean

Trigg Beach, Contacio (2005)

Immortal love, forever full,
Forever flowing free,
Forever shared, forever whole,
A never ebbing sea!

No offering of my own I have,
Nor works my faith to prove;
I can but give the gifts He gave,
And plead His love for love.

I see the wrong that round me lies,
I feel the guilt within;
I hear, with groan and travail-cries,
The world confess its sin.

Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!

I dimly guess from blessings known
Of greater out of sight,
And, with the chastened Psalmist, own
His judgments too are right.

I know not what the future hath
Of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life and death
His mercy underlies

And so beside the silent sea
I wait the muffled oar;
No harm from Him can come to me
On ocean or on shore.

I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.
(J.G. Whittier, 1867)

(Submitted By 'Halieus' - Much Appreciated)

Serendipity

This post was dumb...and has been deleted.

Ambiguity

My wife has just started her three day working week, and to make things a little easier we have engaged the services of a cleaning lady.

As a consequence my wife has run around the house, with a desperate sense of urgency cleaning everything– just for the cleaning lady!

I think it was Rowlph the piano tapping dog from the Muppets who sang of women “You can’t live with ‘em, you can’t live without ‘em–there’s something ambiguous about ‘em”.

I tend to agree.

More Light

I like this quote from Kel at X-facta:

"To minister, or be part of a "ministry", is not about becoming a household name and seeking spotlight stage fame. It's about being willing to lose our own status so we can lift others up toward the light".

Light

Of late, my thoughts have travelled to some very dark places. Unfortunately, its the legacy of a Melancholy. Though in all this I have seen the Gospel, in such a way, that I have never personally grasped it before.

Maybe this is what Luther saw too. The Gospel Truth - that can be grasped completely and only by Faith.

The Truth stands alone, untouched by anything. Regardless.

It must be left alone. It is set apart from everything, and is completely without burden of law — circumcision, Sabbath, Tithe or abstinence. Anything less, is well—a lesser Gospel.

It must be kept so, to preach the Gospel with any encumbrance at all is nothing short of idolatry. This is because it inhibits the fullness of faith. Maybe this is what St Paul was talking about in Gal 1:6-12.

Today, I feel like Gollum, with this insight wanting to sit and treasure "My precious", but I feel it must be shared.

Though, my friends, I can only point you to the field, this revelation, in all of its entirety can only come by doing the hard digging yourselves!.

Blog Sabbatical

Like Kel at Xfacta...I've decided to have a little sabbatatical for a week or so. I've been focusing on some work stuff, some fitness activities, gardening (we have just spent the last three weekends putting down reticulation, landsacping and laying lawn) as well as getting ready for a fresh semester at uni...

So bye for just a week or so.

Influence

I got this one from 'signposts', a quiz on your theological bent. Its been a 'work-in-progress' for a couple of days as I could not get the HTML right - but it seems to have corrected itself.

Accordiung to the quiz, I have a bent towards 'Methodism' as did Marisa and Becky...I really think it may be more a product of the research device - as I think those particular questions may well have been more Lutheran than anything. I'm not as legalistic as the Methodists in any case.

But as Marisa has pointed out, we cannot underestimate the influence of these faiths on our own worldview.

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You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82% Neo orthodox 68% Emergent/Postmodern 68% Roman Catholic 64% Reformed Evangelical 46% Fundamentalist 43% Charismatic/Pentecostal 32% Modern Liberal 32% Classical Liberal 29% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com