Sings.."Oh the farmyard is itching..." or something

Anyway - is it Spring? Is it? Really? Is England in the lovely words of Pen Wilcock finally turning its face towards the sun? I mean, I know it's not been cold but I feel like we have had a winter and a half and we haven't been flooded or anything so goodness knows how those poor people in Somerset feel. I am tempted to go into garden and yell at flowers "Don't come out - not yet, it's too soon" but don't suppose they will listen.
Got up early today to try and do some work on Alpha talk I have been coerced happy to do. "Does God Heal Today?" is a bit of a hot potato. Doesn't help that have been out of action for three days with possibly one of my top 5 migraines ever. Yes I do get the irony and yes I did pray and I think I did get an answer because my head did not explode like a scene from Scanners which seemed a distinct possibility on Thursday at 2am.
So I have read a bit of Phillip Yancey and he isn't too convinced about healing because he doesn't think he has actually seen one and then I read some Richard Foster and he seems to see about two every twenty minutes. The Alpha talk online seems to consist mostly of Nicky Gumbel describing the miracles that happened when John Wimber visited his church which is all very nice and everything but not much help to me really.
So I am thinking that I am just going to have to go for the truth as I see it (no need to panic pastor)These are very random thoughts but no change there eh?

I have never seen a limb or a tooth grow or anything else that would make the recipient of the healing into some sort of freak show that flew in the face of nature. I would not be stupid enough to say it hasn't happened. I have never seen it.

The healing "industry" has attracted some unscrupulous characters who prey on the vulnerable. It's unfortunate but true.

It's easy to be detached and cynical about healing and prayer right up until the precise second when you or someone you adore is diagnosed with something. In my experience, people are then far more open to the possibility of a miracle.

For me, healing is not just about the physical and all that stuff about one leg longer than the other. It is about the whole person. Jesus, being the Son of God, knew that, I think. He told people that their sins were forgiven - releasing them from crippling guilt. He showed that positive faith in him would lead to a release from anger and shame and these things had physical impacts.

He also touched people and they were healed. Can't get away from it.

I am convinced through my own experience and those of people I know that God does heal today. Although I had extensive medical treatment for which I am eternally grateful, my prognosis was still poor and I am, in the words of the great Shirley Maclaine, "Still here" many many years on. 

If I have a conclusion - half baked I know - but this is Alpha, not 10 years at Bible College - It's that we don't pray enough , don't ask enough so we don't know what God can and does want to do. We walk into prayer often just when we are desperate with no experience of the faith levels and the relationship with God that will be needed. We expect such huge things from God after just farting about on the edges of a faith filled relationship and then things don't happen. 

So that's what I think. I just have to put it into coherent thoughts, trying not to use the word "fart" in church. You could pray for me if you wanted.

Before I go....Proud parent alert

This is FOW1's band. (He's on the right) They won Battle of the Bands at York Uni last night. This is apparently a big deal so well done. I did watch some of it on Student TV. To be honest I thought it was all a bit of a racket but as FOW2 pointed out - "Mum - it's not really for you is it?"

I know nothing...

but this is amazing. Watch and learn and marvel at the extraordinary balance of the world we live in.

This Will Do Me Good...Or Not.

I'm reading this. Well sort of. I'm finding it a bit hard going and am on the point of packing it in. Yet I feel I shouldn't. This book and my good self are supposed to be a perfect match apparently. According to Amazon, people who like Barbara Pym and Georgette Heyer (me) are supposed to love this. It's very well written. There's a lot going on. People I like, like this. People who are well thought of think a lot of this. I really should like it. There is no reason not to like it. I don't like it.
I am the one that is wrong, I'm certain of it. I apologise if you love it. I have tried to love it. I have failed.

I think it's in the Screwtape Letters that CS Lewis talks about the demons being unable to get a decent hold on people because they love county cricket or something equally unfashionable. This is because people are not pretending, not trying to impress and are not tied up in themselves and the impression they are making. The important point being that people should be who they are rather than what they think people want them to be. The young people sometimes all agree to like something because everyone else likes it or because it should be liked because it is a "good thing". As I get older and therefore more shrivelled and cantankerous, I am more and more seeing this as a mistake. It really is fine to be out of step with popular thinking (unless your definition of "out of step" means it's ok for you to be a serial killer) 

So, I'm leaving it if that's alright with you. I'm off to a nice Kate Atkinson (99p on my Kindle) Don't let me put you off if you fancy it. It's just not me that's all. 

Unexpected

Just an ordinary morning and I am setting off for work. I turn onto the main road to Plymouth City Centre and wonder what on earth happened. I count seven police cars all with blue lights flashing, one ambulance and a bread van in the middle of it all. Picking my way through as best as I can I can pass a lady sobbing into her mobile saying "Go to Derriford, go straight there as quickly as you can." Derriford is our local hospital.

Later on I discover that a fourteen year old girl has been hit by the bread van and is fighting for her life. Walking to work is a bit weird, I am shaken and full of thoughts of how a day can turn on a sixpence. One second all is as normal, it's another day at work or school. You are bored or tired or whatever. Maybe you have words with the people you love. Maybe you are just a bit fed up. Maybe you are happy as Larry. Whatever. Within a minute, all that can change. 

A day can start as normal as anything. A moment of inattention. A pain in an unexpected place. A telephone call that you were not expecting. Any of these can signal a seismic change to the life you were expecting to live. It's scary but it is the nature of life. 

If anything these things point to the futility of worry. We can spend years - lifetimes even, putting our energies into what might go wrong, what might happen. Worry about health, your children, your children's health, your job, your lack of a job, the list is endless. Yet in practice, few of these worries amount to much. The thing that might change your life is more likely to be a phone call on a wet Wednesday afternoon when you least expect it. This is not to cast a pall of darkness over anyone. It's just to say it may be how it is and not a second of worry can change it. 

Imagine a life without worry. Fully depending on God. Sure of his tenderness towards you, yet not thinking that means that you live a life without hurdles and disappointments. It must be great to be like that. I'm sure you must get a lot more done.

Matthew 6:34

³⁴ “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Think, Stop, Talk - especially Stop.

I used to speak a lot at various Christian do-dahs but for lots of reasons I haven't done it for ages. In a weak moment,  I agreed to help out the last minute for Alpha and spoke on the Bible. 
The good thing about writing is that you have a stop and read mode and you can weed out anything outrageous or silly. Punctuation is not a strong point as regular readers will know but I do try. When I am speaking though, I don't have that advantage and when I am trying to make a point and I am not sure that people are getting it, I can get carried away sometimes - a bit.
So I would like to apologise to the Alpha group at Mutley for telling then that the Old Testament moved towards the coming of Jesus in a rolling Dr Who-ish Timey-Wimey way. Also for refererring to the Gospel of John as the most theological and thoughtful of the gospels, like er.....Jazz?

Sorry. Again. Don't let it put you off. God is far less puzzling than I am.