see-through faith

My friend has been visiting from England for the past ten days. She flew home today from Turku airport (which is the best airport in the world, but still goodbyes are hard). In ten days time we’ll see each other again though as I take DD to London for a museum-shopping extravangza for her 18th birthday and we’ll stay with C which will be great! We’ve had such a good time here … photos to follow (I hope) but here are some highlights:

• walking on the frozen sea in Naantali and seeing the winterwonderland of Moominland and a picnic (hot chocolate and warm sandwiches) at minus 22 C -brrr
• dinner with friends (salmon followed by blueberry pie) to celebrate two birthdays (both on the same day) – C’s and and another friend’s!
• trying out PS3 and a silly little big world game at a friend’s house- I laughed so much it hurt
• terry pratchett’s play NATION – shown on the big screen live from NT in London. Was marvellous! Milton the parrot was a great success!
• walking on the river in Turku with the dogs
• C’s very first sauna – she liked it so we went again another day!
• three day retreat in the cottage at the UMC youth camp in Jumi – the snow came up to my waist! Walked on the frozen lake and took a lot of photos. Cooked sausages on the open fire which was a lot of fun too!
• UMC mini conference (pastors meeting) where the bishop held an open meeting for all in our local church and injected hope and inspiration into many with his vision for how church could be! Great worship too.
• Inspire supper – so grateful to God for this group of friends and co-disciples!
• sledging on the local hill
• ice hockey match here in Turku  (though TPS played appallingly for the first two periods and lost 5:2!)

The weather didn’t once get above zero (though one day it was only minus 1 which seemed like a heatwave) … and it’s snowed almost everyday. Up in Jumi I saw more snow fall in one 24 hour period than ever before. Luckily the neighbours have a snowplough or we’ll still be there. When we got there though we couldn’t drive up to the cottage and had to transport all our stuff by sledge and then go get wood from the storage under the big house. Getting there was a real adventure – the snow was so deep!

It’s hard to say what was the absolute best part of C’s visit – possibly Moominland (though it was bitterly cold) or the time with God and with each other up at Jumi … or then the late nights when we sat and talked and prayed … it’s all been so good.

This week I have a lot to do of course. Mostly proof reading and I also have to put the final touches to my thesis and get that sent off. Pressing send will be a relief. I’ve enjoyed working on this research but it really is time now to put it to bed!

It’s almost midnight here now so it’s also time to put me to bed.

Sometimes you get an answer that isn’t what you’d hoped for. Friday was like that for me … but closure is better than waiting around forever I guess. Now I need to seek God for what I am to do with (the rest of ) my life … sorry this is a bit cryptic but anyway … your prayers are appreciated!

My friend C goes back to England tomorrow evening. We’ve had a good time here … now I have about ten days to a) put the final touches to my thesis and submit it and b) proof read a PhD and some other articles (but it goes without saying that I am so grateful to God for this work – it pays essential bills!) …

I’m really happy with my new pc btw, although I’m having problems in getting it to talk to my printer. Luckily the old pc is still working and we were able to print out C’s boarding pass from that.

Hope to be able to blog a bit more this coming week … let’s see … oh and London in about twelve days time (grin) . I’m taking DD there – pre 18th birthday gift and Christmas combined. She’s made a list of museums, attractions and shops she wants to visit … it’s going to be fun !

My new pc arrived on Thursday afternoon. Hubby kindly got it up and running for me. I’m using Windows 7 and the new office package (so quite a lot to learn!)

My friend from England arrived on Wednesday. I’ve been fighting a migraine since then (don’t think the two are connected) and a bit of a cold. It’s been horribly cold here in Turku – below minus 20 the last couple of days – raising in the afternoon to a whopping minus 16. Today it’s just as cold (more or less) but the sun in shining which is great as my friend wants to take some photographs.

This afternoon we’re off to see National Theatre Live (from London). It’s Terry Practchett’s Nation. It starts in about three hours and there’s a lot to do before then.

We took some great photos on Thursday (my friend’s birthday) but that’s the subject of another post … (Cliff hangers are always good!)

-be blessed!

What’s crazy is that the US, less than six percent of the world’s population consumes nearly half of the world’s resources and that the average American consumes as much as 520 Ethiopians do, while obesity is declared a ‘national health crisis’.*

Someday war and poverty will be crazy, and we will wonder how the world allowed such things to exist.

*Shane Claborne is American and writes from a US perspective.

To be fair IMHO we in Europe also add to the huge imbalance in the use of the world’s resources, and while obesity is less of a problem here (due in part to the fact that i) we eat out less often and ii) portion sizes are generally much smaller than I’ve encountered in north America), we struggle with diet-related health issues such as hypertension which is a prime cause of strokes.

Claiborne’s book Irresistible Revolution: Living Life as an Ordinary Radical sure is giving me food for thought – but what am I going to do with that knowledge/awareness. That’s the question.

• my friend arrives tomorrow from England. I’m happy about that -though there’s a lot to do before then!

• TS came home from surgery this evening. They did a key-hole op on his knee which should restore the movement and help prevent the knee-cap from slipping off so easily. He’s on pretty strong drugs right now (picked those up from the pharmacy on the way home!) … laughing with his little sis and his girlfriend which is lovely to hear. Hubby and I have given up our bed (room) to him so he has easier access to the loo and kitchen. That’s going to last for a couple of weeks at least. I quite like his room (really the spare room) upstairs so I’m not complaining much other than the fact that hubby chose to sleep downstairs on the sofa bed ‘because of the dogs!’

• enjoying substituting in the junior school this week. Nice kids and a really nice school to work in. It’s been 18 months since my job teaching English in the senior school there finished (because two schools amalgamated). Sometimes I reallly miss working with the teens .  I wish I knew what God wanted me to be involved in now.

• busy proof reading a doctoral thesis right now. Finished one smaller work last night. Both pay the bills but it’s not my life’s passion that’s for sure! (and is sometimes very demanding work too because most people want it done ‘yesterday’ – though this postgrad is much more realistic than most which is a relief!

• no news on the new pc arriving yet. They sent me a delivery number but it hasn’t shown up in the postal service records yet so I can’t trace it. I emailed to find out if there’s a problem. Luckily this one is working again and I’m getting on with things – and yes taking backups all the time!

• Oh and dog news. DD showed Misty (the bigger sister) last weekend. She was disappointed to get ‘only’ a red ribbon (= very good) rather than the pink one (=outstanding). Misty’s sister Tuikku did get a pink one though so that was good. The next show is Åbo Open and we’ll show all three (Maggie’s first show) and hubby has had the crazy idea of inviting all those who show Maggie’s siblings in the show to stay the night. We’ll have puppies and owners crawling out of the woodwork … and yeah I dare say we’ll take a lot of photos. The puppies are now five months old.

… then outsiders would know us by our love!

Today I’ve been blown away by the generosity and love of Christian friends.

Last night just as I was putting the finishing touches to my thesis my computer blew up. I’m still hoping to get the data out of the hard disk but my computer is no more … I had done a back up of the thesis on Thursday night so it could have been a lot worse.

Today

• I’ve been hugged and prayed for by friends who love me and feel my pain
• I’ve been temporarily lent a pc by one friend
• another offered to contact someone to check on the harddisk recovery (though hubby’s friend had already offered to try that first thing tomorrow)
• another offered to lend me their computer longer term if I need
• another is sorting out English software to install in the new pc that I will have to buy
• and another has been scouting around finding me a model I can afford
• and there have been generous offers of financial help too.

Friends, you know who you are – thank you for all you’ve done for me/my family!

What a testimony of love each that the body of Christ takes care of its own and extends God’s love in a myriad of ways. Today I’m so proud to be part of (and a grateful recipient of) this move of God.

I love Casting Crowns’ If we are the body … you can listen to it here.

never fails to get me. Re-reading his book Irresistible Revolution challenges me to the core

In our inspire band meeting yesterday I found myself spurting about being a real Christian. There are homeless people more or less on our doorstep, and every Friday morning the poor come to the Salvation Army distribution centre to get some food. I can no longer continue to walk past and think my prayers alone are enough!

Why is there so little anxiety to get time to pray?
Why is there so little forethought in the laying out of time and employments so as to secure a large portion of each day for prayer?

Why is there so much speaking yet so little prayer?
Why is there so much running to and fro, yet so little prayer?
Why so much bustle and business, yet so little prayer?
Why so many meetings with our fellow-men, yet so few meetings with God?

….

It is the want of these solitary hours that not only injures our own growth in grace, but makes us such unprofitable members of the Church of Christ, and that renders our lives useless.

Horatius Bonar
Taken from the Celtic Daily Prayer (Northumbrian Office), p. 91 (emphasis mine)

Ouch and Ouch.

I love to pray but it doesn’t mean it’s always easy to make time for it.

Right now I’m overwhelmed with trying to get my thesis in shape to submit it. And there’s other work that is pressing too. As I juggle with the demands it’s really easy to be tempted to skip a time of prayer – or cut it short – and skimp on reading the Bible etc. and this week the temptation NOT to fast from the internet on Friday is really strong. The argument goes ‘I have so much to do how will I get it done’ … but deep down I know that that’s looking at things the wrong way round. I want to be more like Martin Luther whom I’m told once said “I have so much to do today that I will spend the first three hours in prayer!” or like Br Lawrence who learnt to practice the presence of God and keep the channels of communication open wherever he was and whatever he was doing.

Scripture says we don’t have because we don’t ask (Jas 4:2) so my prayer today is

Father God, help me get my priorities right.
Help me get back to the routine of having prayer as the essential element in my day (more necessary than any meal!) Amen.

We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn’t change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore, He changes them into ‘nice people’.’

But radical Christianity wasn’t nice; it was category-smashing, life-threatening, anti-institutional; it spread like wildfire throught he 1^st century and was considered by those in power to be dangerous.

‘I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating tht I am considred wild and unpredictable and … well …dangerous’. I want to be dangerous to a dull and boring religion. I want a faith that is considered dangerous by our predictable and monotonous culture. Dullness is a cultural issue.’ Robert Farrar Capon

H/T to my friend who sent me over to Ali’s blog Reclaiming the Good News for the Emerging Culture.

One of the things I’ve really been being convicted about this year is whether my life, – my lifestyle, my choices, my patterns of behaviour, the way I treat people, the way I view them – is actually open to being changed by my relationship with Jesus.

I’ve been re-reading Shane Claibourne’s book:

and while it’s a great read – it isn’t an easy read at least this time round. I’m left pondering ‘What am I playing at?’  Am I content to play church? Am I content to settle for being ‘nice’. I am so scared that sometimes my answer might well be a miserable yes

One of the tragedies of the early Methodist movement – I feel – is that one of the results was that as the people were saved, they were able to be pulled out of their dire circumstance and gradually became ‘nice and respectible’  -they moved up in society if you like – and the dire consequence of this was that they lost their roots with the real communities from which they came. In latter day Christendom we’re still there! Church is – all too often – full of middle class values and any contact we have with mission and charity is at best ‘outreach’ into another place or simply opening our wallets to appease our consciences. Isn’t it time to either move in with the poor – or have them move in with us?

I may not have a job right now, and our family finances are dire – but we do have a house (which we keep warm) and IMHO have all the mod cons we need (though the consumer society in which we live will say we don’t!) …  We have a freezer full of food and a well-stocked pantry. All of us have a bicycle (though we finally gave away the extra one to someone in need – hallelujah!) and even have a car with half a tank of fuel!  When I look around we have closets full of clothes that we never (or hardly ever) wear. Can I live like this when scripture says otherwise?

What’s worse is that less than a couple of miles from our home there are those who are really on the margins of society – the drug addicts and alcholics who cannot break their addictions and so end up living in a shack by the river in a sort of commune. If I am unwilling to be Jesus to them can I really call myself a follower of Jesus? I wonder.

Like Robert Capon ‘I want a faith that is considered dangerous by our predictable and monotonous culture. The question is am I ready to lay down my life for Jesus and follow Him? Or will I continue to play safe ..

That’s what an elderly lady said to me before she sped off down the pool herself today.

I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I’m not that slow … I swim 1.2 km in 40-45 mins twice a week … but I did wonder if it’s linked in some way to what I’ve felt all year (that’s 2 weeks now) that God is saying to me ’slow down … spend time with Me!’

To be fair I probably was a bit slower today. I wasn’t very well yesterday – and going today was probably not the smartest move. I felt pretty dizzy after the sauna and had to sit on a stool for a few minutes, which caused a different elderly lady to worry over me. I think my blood pressure had dropped or something, but I felt fine after a few minutes.

My thesis re-write isn’t going anywhere just yet. Tomorrow I will fast from the internet as per usual on Fridays, but as my morning meeting has been cancelled I’m going to take the paper copy and try to make a plan of action. It’s hard work this re-write and I’m such a perfectionist (as is my tutor) which makes life more difficult. But I am determined to send this off in February before DD and I go to London for her winter break. It’s her 18th birthday present and we are both looking forward to it – and I don’t want this thesis (and the March final deadline) hanging over me and spoiling our trip. So I press on.

Tomorrow we start back with our inspire band meetings. I’m looking forward to that – though feel very unprepared. And at Metsku (local Methodist church) we’ll have Friday Fever (vibrant worship -led by my friend. There’ll be  a bit of teaching and time for intercession too) I’m looking forward to that.

No idea what the weekend will bring. I’m hoping to go downhill skiing on Sunday. Let’s see.