Winning and Losing

Were you screaming encouragement at the TV last Saturday, urging the British men’s coxless four to rowing gold in Beijing? There is something mildly addictive about the Olympics. Perhaps it’s the athletes’ aspiration to, and demonstration of, excellence that stirs something noble in our souls. Only the hardest of hearts could be unmoved by the tears of joy, and the sobs of disappointment that have been headline news for the past two weeks.

Reaction to different competitors’ medal-winning and misfortunes has revealed the extent to which, in the developed world, at least, respect is based on merit, and achievement the passport to social acceptance. So it is that record-breaking, champion swimmer, Michael Phelps, gets to shake hands with President Bush, while China’s crestfallen Liu Xiang prompts a mass exodus from the birds nest stadium on withdrawing from the 110m hurdles due to injury.

This should give us pause for thought. For, if excellence in performance becomes more highly valued than excellence in relationships, then the language of competition becomes a threat. Then the noble aspiration to excel can be distorted into a fear of failure, and leave people crushed under the weight of either their own, or others’ expectations of their performance-based lives.

Excellence in Scripture is much more about the character of Christ and the love of God rather than statistical achievement. In fact, in the Bible, counting resources and measuring achievements are often used to illustrate pride, self-reliance, control and oppression – the darker side of merit-based culture.

The medal ranking for Team GB in Beijing has surpassed the Great British haul at every Games since 1920, and congratulations are well deserved by those who have demonstrated such commitment and excellence. Yet we all need to know – and know deeply – that success or failure is not the final proof of who we are. Our self-worth is not based on our ability to perform; it is based on our identity as God’s children:

‘“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let those who boast boast about this: that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord’ (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

Paul Valler (Article from LICC).

Affirmation of Faith

In one of John Piper’s weekly sermons recently, he included a link to a document which their church put together for elders to sign as an affirmation of faith. It sums up the beliefs of Bethlehem Baptist church.

Here it is: http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/affirmation_of_faith.pdf

Purpose Driven Life

Over the summer, as a family, we have read the Purpose Driven Iife, as a daily study. I know that some people have objections to it, but I read it years ago when it first came out, and I found it very helpful. I thought it would be good for us to discuss as a family day-by-day, and especially since it is a book that is clear and simple for my son (a teenager) to grasp, and to start to get to grips with the purpose which God has for his life. I hope it also prepared him for the outreach work he did during the summer, and showed him the need to share the purpose which being a Christian has given him in his life, with those around him who are still living without purpose, or with the wrong purpose.

One Foot In The Grave

I’m still going through my mid-life crisis.

It started when my company went bust, and I turned 40 – both at the same time.

I have no sense of purpose, I have no idea what, if anything, I am supposed to be doing for God.

So I’m not doing anything. I just keep my head down and get on with my work.

I read this a while ago – ” Death isn’t the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. If you’re not careful, you could end up like the man who’s tombstone read ‘died at 30, buried at 60′. Don’t let that happen to you.”

I can be a witness as a Christian husband, and father, and work-mate – but there must be something more. In the past I always knew if God wanted me to do something, because I got asked to do it – a Sunday School teacher, a Youth Fellowship Leader, A Boy’s Brigade leader, an Elder. Now I’m just an elder – and even that I’m not sure about – what’s an elder supposed to do. In our church it’s the minister who makes all the decisions and does everything. I just turn up for meetings and visit old people.

So I’m hoping God will ask me to do something else – but maybe I’m just not much use to Him any more. Maybe it’s just a case of getting on with my job, eat, sleep, and enjoy my family, and put in my time for however many years He’s got left for me. What if this is as good as it gets? What if it’s a case of “died at forty, buried at…”?

Legacy

I saw a program a couple of weeks ago about Patsy Kensit. It was one of the BBC series “Who Do You Think You Are” which takes a celebrity on an exploration of their ancestry. They get to trace their ancestors back 4 or 5 generations and piece together a picture of what sort of people they were. Patsy’s father was a gangster in the East end of London, an associate of the infamous Cray twins. When she traced back a couple of generations her family were poor tradesmen and petty criminals. Then she discovered when she went back one generation, a man whose life visibly moved her, and an ancestor of whom she could be proud. He was a minister, who ministered for most his life in the East end of London, amongst the poorest people, and was honoured by the king for his love and dedication to the community. He lived out his later years in a little market town in the south of England as a faithful minister until his death. After his death, his congregation placed a memorial to him in a place of honour in the church, and it was obvious that he was held in very high esteem by all who new him.

The story made me think. How is it that a family goes bad. This was a Godly man, whose decendents seem to have gone down a completely different path. He son fathered an illegitimate child, and later generations were petty criminals and gangsters.

It is so crucial for Christian parents to pass on the legacy of the faith, and a Godly lifestyle to their children. Our lives, and the way we bring up our children, will have a huge impact on generations to come.

Deuteronomy 4:9 says “Teach… your children and… ther children after them.”

My wife showed me something she read about this verse recently, which makes the connection with the role of grandparents as well. I will quote the article in full (taken from “Word For Today” published by UCB Radio).

This letter was written by a child: “A grandmother is a lady who has no children of her own. She likes other people’s girls and boys. A grandfather is a man grandmother. He goes for walks with boys; they talk about fishing and stuff like that. Gransmothers don’t have anything to do except to be there. They are so old that they shouldn’t play hard or run. It is enough if they drive us to the store where the pretend horse is, and have lots of money ready. Or if they take us for walks, they slow down for things like pretty leaves and caterpillars. They should never say ‘hurry up’. Usually gransmothers are fat, but not too fat to tie your shoes. They wear glasses and funny underwear. They can take their teeth and gums off. Grandmothers don’t have to be smart, only answer questions like, ’why isn’t God married?’ and ‘how come dogs chase cats?’. Grandmothers don’t talk baby-talk like visitors do  because it’s hard to understand. When they read to us, they don’t skip or mind if it’s the same story over again. Everybody should have a grandmother, especially if they don’t have a television, because they are the only grown-ups who have time.”

I guess the bottom line is – make time to make a legacy.

Leading Biblically

A series of articles from Boundless.

1. Walk Humbly http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001650.cfm

2. Good Mourning http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001668.cfm

3. Controlled Discipline http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001688.cfm

4. Seek What is Right http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001717.cfm

5. Be Merciful http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001744.cfm

6. Be Pure Hearted http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001759.cfm

7. Where Peace Can Happen http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001775.cfm

 

 

Sharepoint Introduction

Looking at introducing MS Sharpoint at work:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101732171033.aspx?mode=print

Writing

I bought a book on writing articles and getting them published. I’ve always had a secret urge to be a writier (maybe, God-willing, when I retire and get the time). I think people like me who love reading generally like to think of being able to write, and pass on the same effect to others. It’s like listening to music and wanting to be able to play the guitar or keyboard. Whether I’d be any good at it or not is another story.

Here are some articles I came across in Boundless which relate to the subject:

On Writing ( http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001737.cfm )

Writing By The Book ( http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001738.cfm )

Writing Without Inspiration ( http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001739.cfm )

A Moment To Write ( http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001740.cfm )

My other idea in this direction is to re-write an old classic, to make it more accessible. There is a huge treasury of puritan classic christian literature written by some very Godly men, but people are unwilling to tackle them because of the antiquated lanuage – just as they prefer the NIV to the KJV when reading the bible. There are lots of these classics – Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, I have a whole library of stuff I could condense and re-mix for modern consumption. One I am reading at the moment which would be an ideal candidate is “Personal Declension and Revival of Religion In The Soul” by Octavius Winslow. I was thinking of calling the re-mix version “Personal Revival”. The core messages of these books never goes out of fashion because they are fundamentally about the condition of the human soul, and our understanding of God.

 

Some more articles from LICC

Opening Doors and Opening Hearts: http://www.licc.org.uk/node/444

Thin Morality: http://www.licc.org.uk/node/442 

The Culture of Outrage

Interesting article by Mark Greene from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity – about the fear of offending Muslims.

http://www.licc.org.uk/node/445