Sometimes the unpredictable

Are things really predictable? Odd situations can bring the unexpected. The Daily Telegraph records the incidence where a mouse fed to a viper as a meal instead killed the snake. There is a whole run of unusual stories, a heron which ate a rabbit, a leopard attacking a crocodiles, a seal catching and eating a duck, but the mouse is most unexpected. (read them here)

So good friends have been working in a shanty town and are very aware of expectations. They're taking a well earned break. and back into the Western world with its expectations or lack of them. The husband is a doctor and he has seen his share of miraculous healing when only prayer happened in a third world squalid setting but they're home. “As a doctor, I wanted to get right to the front to watch people as they came forward for prayer. ... One of the most common facial expressions is surprise as sceptics realise their pain really has gone away. Others just dance for joy as faith turns into experience.” He is a medical doctor and has examined the results.

I continue to be challenged in having disappointments in some places and encouragement in others and yet discouragement again and then another unexpected result.faith rides the rollercoaster and wonders about expectations.

Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. Matt 17:20

The Christian will be conscious that a primary allegiance to Jesus shapes us in distinctive ways, and will want to ask what difference a worldview informed by Scripture makes to the teaching and learning of maths, geography, and history as well as the so-called ‘social and emotional aspects of learning’. Christians are citizens of the kingdom of heaven before they are citizens of the United Kingdom, and will recognise that virtues of courage, compassion and honesty look different when they take shape under the lordship of Christ rather than Caesar. Antony Billington Shaping Education

So many key words here bear thinking about, such as 'primary allegiance' or 'recognise virtues look different'. (The picture is of the inside of a cello) My friend Peter wrote this recently :-

I said that our little faith only allows us to live this type of 21st century Western Christian middle-class life of balance. But I lie awake at night wondering what the Church could become if it were willing to let go of its 21st century identity, and if we were willing to let go of our lives and all the things we hang on to.

At our staff meeting this week we in passing we thought about what radical discipleship really is about. One church at least is wondering whether this means less about programming and more the leading of God. I remain unconvinced that that the CEO model is appropriate for Christian organizations as mission statements etc serve as safe boundaries and exclude the prophetic. The real period in Israel's history was not the monarchy but the period of Judges where leaders and prophets came and went as required. It was a period where Israel was different, counter-cultural at least structurally so. Theocracy places power in safer hands and, where the prophetic voice exists and is heeded, also accountability in the right hands.

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Psalm 146:2-3

More food troubles

Saturday, I was talking with an international looking for work. He was a trained microbiologist and he was despairing about being able to find a job. I was able to assure him that there would be jobs appearing in the food industry. Just follow the news and I notice what a mess there is with food contamination and in particular convenience foods. This week, in the US it was announced that 32 people in 12 different states were sickened with salmonella poisoning after eating precooked, frozen chicken dinners. The problem was failure to note the food was only browned and not cooked throughly and people simply partially microwaved the meals. Then also in Michigan 26 people were identified with E. coli O157:H7, a serious strain with a mortality rate between two and seven per cent. Sadly they shipped the 5lb bags lettuce into Canada and didn't tell Canadian officials about the problem for days.

As food safety continues to be big news, I continue to reflect how much the current issues are connected to convenience and the quick meal. Our lives, in fact seem to run off at a horribly fast speed and I at times I just feel I want to sit down and draw breath. Why do we run ourselves ragged? Life is busy and there are many demands on us. At least I try and eat a freshly cooked meal in a local restaurant sitting at a table and with staff who know me. I try and make it a mealtime rather than a snatched fast food grab.

Today Euge asked the question today who or what is king in our lives? It's not a new question, not at least to me. I've been asking it here in the blog for sometime. But it needs to be asked and constantly asked. When was the last time I was happy to tell others I had sat down for a few hours and spent time with God? Instead I know I have the very real tendency to say that I am so busy for God - I'm just so busy! Maybe I'm busy because I spend too much time on the computer and email and internet. Perhaps I tend to avoid the claims of tidying and ordering my life, seeking to do things for others than for myself. If I want to make sure God is King and be less Martha and more Mary, then what I need to be is less stuck in the doing image and more being with the one who loves me. Ultimately it is not about sacrifice and service but being with the one who loves you.

"Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Luke 10:40-42