Tiny Degrees of Recognition

I wanted to write about something as part of an occasional series I am doing. (Definition of "occasional" here is something I have never done before and possibly will never do again.) The series is entitled "Things that make me wish I was a rich and famous movie star." Actually, it's not me doing the wishing. It's Head of House. This week he read an article about Martin Freeman - currently filming the Hobbit in New Zealand and how the director Peter Jackson had flown out two Northern Soul DJs to play for him in his lunch break just because Martin likes them.  HOH was v. impressed. (I'm not so impressed. Bit awkward standing there on your own watching two DJ's do their stuff while you are trying to eat your egg sandwich. Maybe its just me.)
HOH, for it is he, has a history with Northern Soul. Indeed he loveth it. I personally am forever grateful that he is unlikely to ever be in a situation where he has to choose between me and owning a copy of the rare as hens' teeth "Do I Love You? (Indeed I Do)" by Frank Wilson because I'm not totally sure I would come out as winner of that particular battle.
I have no Northern background but over the years we have been married I have been to a few of the reunions  and heard a lot of the music and I like a lot of it. (EXCEPT there seems to be a lot of women singing about her man who treats her badly and sleeps around and how this is all really fine cos "no one will love her like he do" when quite plainly her man is in need of a smack in the face with a traffic cone - not so keen on those songs)
Anyway, I was very impressed when listening to some obscure Motown track he remarked that it sounded like it had been recorded in Los Angeles rather than Detroit. So he didn't know where it was recorded. It just sounded slightly different. (He was right, by the way) There you have the result of thirty years of listening to this music, attentively, appreciatively and often to the exclusion of all other types of music.
I was just thinking about how we would be if that was our relationship with God. So in touch and in tune. Sort of entwined in a dance of life and love. Then we would pick up on all the nuances of the way he felt about us. All the blessings and encouragements. All the teaching and the comfort. All the things we are supposed to be receiving daily and maybe half the time don't even notice. It's like any relationship or passion. It takes time, commitment and putting nurturing it before everything else to help it get a strong foothold in us. I suppose its up to us to make the decision about whether or not we think the end result is worth it and then act accordingly.

On a different note. Two prawns Montague and Christian live in the sea. Montague decided he didn't want to be a prawn any longer and asked the Magic Shark to turn him into a starfish. The Magic Shark did as he asked and for a few months Montague lived happily as a starfish. However soon he began to tire of this life and he missed his friend, so he went back to the Magic Shark and asked to be changed back. The Magic Shark told him that this wasn't in his power and instead he would have to visit the All Knowing Cod who could do the business. Montague visited the All Knowing Cod who happily changed him back to a prawn. But Christian did not believe that this could be done and would not meet his old friend. But, Montague persisted and ran after his friend shouting
"No! Come back! I met Cod and I'm a prawn again Christian!"
Sorry. (Thanks Russ)

Perspective

James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

My problem (well one of them - don't get me going) is that I sometimes seem to be thirty years behind everyone else. This week I discovered J I Packer's "Knowing God". I fear that one day when all the books are opened and all the scrolls are unrolled, when God is examining my life in the manner of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood examining a particularly unappealing Banana Loaf, He will look at me and say, "you did quite well - you were always just that little bit behind everyone else." Anyway - enough of my Judgement Day  issues, I need to digress here. Do you know how much I paid for Mr Packer's tome. Nothing! Not one of your English pounds. I downloaded it from a site Christianaudio It's an excellent idea. I bang these books on the MP3 to listen to on the way to work and thus arrive marginally less grumpy than I was when I set out. They have loads of special offers but don't just get the free stuff - I'm sure they have to eat as well.
So as I was saying before the digression overload. I excitedly mentioned this book to Head of House who, in what I thought was a quite dismissive way, pointed me in the direction of his own dog-eared copy while informing me that he thought that all serious Christians had this book. Pah!
Best story so far is about the wisdom of God. I am paraphrasing wildly as usual but  he talks about us assuming that God promising to give us wisdom means that we sort of get invited in to the central signal box at a railway station and we get to see all the trains that are coming in and going out, where they have come from and where they are going and what trains we can expect to see in the future. In short, we sometimes think that the promise of wisdom means we get to know everything. In practise though , we just get given what we need to know. Some of it we should know anyway because it's already there in the Word. It is a bit difficult though, especially in tough times, to give God the benefit of the doubt when we don't know the circumstances. Why should it be OK to leave all the big wisdomy decisions to God about our lives?
If I could just add a an illustration of my own. A few years ago my chap and I visited New York. One day we set off to visit the Empire State building. Head of House had investigated the route and we set off whistling and swinging our arms. However (and yes it was my fault - I never denied that) we I got a bit distracted by Bryant Park, where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton had posed  so we got a bit lost. And we just couldn't find the Empire State because New York is full of Skyscrapers! When you look up - that's all you can see. It took us nearly an hour to get back on track and find it. It was a bit tense by then as well. As I said - I admit it was my fault!
The next night, we had a meal in the Windows on the World. At the top of the World Trade Centre, when you looked out of the window, the first thing you saw was THE EMPIRE STATE. Easy. The difference was perspective. When we were lifted above everything that was going on at ground level, the whole thing looked different. There were no things blocking our eyeline. That is where God is - high and lifted up. Knowing the past, the future, the beginning, the end. I get bogged down with all there is to do, to experience, to suffer, to enjoy. God looks with a different perspective. He sees where it is going and, having planned ahead for us, expects us to trust him with the big picture. We simply cannot un-entangle ourselves enough to see the whole picture, and there will be things that we will never know the reason for and many of these things will be - well - not good. We will never understand everything. The trick is, I think, to back away from knowing everything and to ask for wisdom for the day. Wisdom to make the most of every opportunity that presents itself in our lives. Wisdom for our next plan or next conversation. That is probably what is promised. Mind you I'm not saying this is what I do. I'm much more of a "Do as I say" rather than a "Do as I do" when it comes to this sort of stuff. More's the pity.

January Dip.

I'm sitting in the middle of Plymouth weather. Ok, that's not strictly true - I'm not outside or anything. I'm just trying to add a bit of atmosphere. Suit yourselves.
Anyway - it's all so stereotypically early Januaryish at the moment. Fruit of Womb One has returned to York University taking his complicated politics essays with him. Fruit of Womb Two is back at school and agonising over The Crucible, medical discoveries of the eighteenth century and creating a garment from a paper pattern - not necessarily in that order. I am showing my ignorance I know but I had never read the Crucible before. There's not a lot of laughs in it are there? Head of House and I are back at work and I can only just fasten my pants. How New Yearish is all that?
Went to church this morning for first time since Christmas. The speaker was Jonathan Edwards - General Secretary of the Baptist Union. (Not to some of the youth's disappointment the laser-eyed, triple-jumping, athletics commentator. I suspect this feeling of bringing constant disappointment to people is something the Baptist Union Secretary is used to) Anyway. I thought he was rather good. Seemed very normal and nice. Didn't once threaten to raise a chicken from the dead to prove God's power, which I always feel is a plus point in any speaker's favour. Although he wasn't exactly packed to the drawstrings with good news. The financial situation in the country extends to the church apparently and these will be difficult times for us all. This probably explains the decision to close the Baptist Times which I read about this week. Apparently readership numbers are well down and they can't afford to subsidise it any more. I agree that they have to be sensible but I find this a bit depressing. Why isn't anyone reading any more? I know that the Internet has had an effect on everything but speaking like an old Christian woman that you have found in the woods - it seems like people just don't seem to read Christian books the same as we did. When I was a young luscious thing, we were all reading something. It was sort of expected that you would be lugging some sort of Christian paperback around in your handbag. Some were better than others obviously but there was so much out there and you just read loads. If you had a leader or a mentor they would always ask - "What are you reading at the moment?" It doesn't seem to be like that now. I love a bit of shallowness as much as the next person (witness my Strictly obsession before Christmas) but surely if something is as important as a Christian faith then it's worth going into a little more deeply than a Tweet? Is it me? Plus, to drag the tone down a bit. Reading is hot. As a teenager, I couldn't fancy someone who didn't read. Dangerously self obsessed those people are - trust me.
One problem is undoubtedly our busyness. I came across this idea though the Kindred of the Quiet Way blog. The idea of having a "landing strip" where you park everything as you come in  so it is all ready for you to pick it up and carry on the next day is pure genius I think. I also think it might help me in my Bible reading. Too often, I read something then close the book. I come to it next day with a limited amount of time - can't remember where I was so open it randomly at a particularly depressing bit in Jeremiah which I read out of context and then, in a fit of helplessness, try to trap my head in the door. Maybe, if when I put the Bible and notebook down, I do so in a way that is ready for me to pick it up and continue next time (Notebook, notes and pen ready, open at new page etc.) it will be helpful. You are probably already doing this. I'm going to give it a try. New Year and all that.

Finally, some friends came round for a meal last night. One of them is quite frightened of little dogs so thought she would use the visit to help her. How could anyone be afraid of these two lovely things, ready to greet people on the door? Well yes they are growling a bit - I'll give you that. Not sure the evening helped with dog terrors much but a good time had by all otherwise.

It's a cliche but...

..the New Year is on us again and despite resolutions to never make any more resolutions, I find I am looking at resolutions. I have read all the stuff about mid-winter not being a good time to do this kind of thing because it's dark and cold but, I can't seem to stop myself. Firstly, all the Thornton's chocolates, Pringles and Roast Potatoes have all left their mark on my waistline and something will need to be done about that immediately. It's no good waiting until the nights are shorter. I need to deal with these dig in marks my jeans are making now!
Also, there's not very much on the telly now. Christmas has exhausted the meagre supply of fairly decent stuff (except Sherlock is back...Sherlock is back... *does little happiness jig in kitchen*) and I would rather spend this time being a bit more introspective than sitting through "When Naked Celebrities Buy Cheese" or something similar.
And.. well it just feels right to be re-assessing a bit. It's the turn of the year- it's changed it's name -  we call this one 2012. I feel the least I can do is have a glance over the year that just went and have a think about what I wanted to change.
So - what to do? Apart from the aforementioned waistline issues, which, to be frank, usually resolve themselves when we run out of Thorntons and I am back walking to work and walking dogs and getting Fruit of Womb Two to bus stop on time and dealing with unsatisfactory cleanliness state of bathroom on a more regular basis etc etc.
I think I would sum it up by thinking about moving from thoughts to action. I read v interesting blog that sums it up well here . Lucy talks about moving from dreaming into action. That doesn't mean we give up dreaming but, for me, I should be looking at what I can actually do something about - rather than just hoping or praying that it will change - and then actually doing it. I find I waste a lot of time/energy thinking about things I would like to change on a personal/household/local/national/international/cosmic/hyper-space level and then struggle to summon up the motivation to switch the laptop on and actually write something.
So, what would I like to be doing in twelve months' time or this time next week? How much of is it up to me to actually do it? Looking at it from another level - maybe it's a bit like "Faith without works is dead." I'm not sharing any personal lofty ambitions with you. T'ain't nothing you need to worry your pretty heads about but I wanted to share the principle.
Thanks for coming back and reading this after Christmas absence. Decided to spend as much of Christmas break with whole family as possible while everyone was here. We did miss the boy and now we are about to send him back. Will miss him again. Will not miss stupid digital time clock sound from "24" which we can hear at all times of day and night as he is trying to make his way through the box set before he goes back.
Have a great week. Hope the change of posting day hasn't discombobulated you too much. Like to keep you on your toes...
Happy New Year from all at Hargreaves Towers

Making Memories

So we are in almost full on Christmas mode. Even Head of House has begun to join in a little. Fruit of Womb One is back from York - although we have haven't seen that much of him so far. Places to go, people to see etc. Strictly has finished and with it - It Takes Two so I have no excuse now not to drag my bottom off the settee and actually get on with some work in the evenings.
I continue to harp on and on about Christmas being another time to make memories with family and friends. If you are arty farty and organised you can scrapbook or embroider scenes from your hearth. I am none of these things unfortunately so we had to look at other ways to build memories. For us it happened by accident. When our kids were little, we bought them a copy of the DVD of Father Christmas. We all loved it, we sang together at the end. We all debated the controversy because you got to see Father Christmas' lovely, biteable cartoon bottom. Then, when Christmas was over - we packed it away with the decorations so no one could watch it until next Christmas. Over the years we have added other films. There's Scrooged. It's just nasty enough to be funny, Karen Allen was never more beautiful and there is a brilliant frying pan smack in the face moment. However, the best version of A Christmas Carol is without doubt the Muppet Version. It has lines that rival the best of Dickens - "Light the Lamp: Not the Rat!" and it is undoubtedly Michael Caine's finest cinematic hour. Forget Hannah and her Sisters and Cider House Rules. This was the role that should have delivered the Oscar. We have been known to sing along to this as well which frightens guests who haven't seen it coming but there you are. There's also The Bishop's Wife. Cary Grant as an ice skating angel and David Niven as a downtrodden vicar. Perfect. Very difficult to get hold of. Ours is a Korean version. We have to take the sub-titles off. (They are Korean by the way not English) There's also Miracle on 34th Street. Unusually, we prefer the new version because the little girl is lovely and I personally DO believe that Richard Attenborough is Kris Kringle. Still - you pays your money and you takes your choice. So you get the idea. All the DVDs go back into the decoration box after Christmas so there is no cheating until next year. Then, every Christmas, we sit and watch them together. Not all in one go you understand.
So this way we create memories and I don't have to crochet or anything. Obviously, the offspring are a bit bigger now than when we first started doing this and it can get a bit more difficult to fit everything in but it works for us.

On a completely different note , for lots of complicated reasons, Head of House and myself did an Anglican Carol Service this year. They certainly give good choir - that's a fact but I prefer things a little more raucous myself - just a bit.

So, on that note, that's it for a couple of weeks.Next Sunday will be Christmas Day and I'll be up to my pants in gravy, custard and Nana so you are on your own.

Have a brilliant Christmas. Indeed a super-duper Christmas.