Remembers…Forget…Car Crash!

 When I do right…when I do wrong

God is sheer mercy and grace;

    not easily angered, he’s rich in love.

He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold,

    nor hold grudges forever.

He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve,

    nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.

As high as heaven is over the earth,

    so strong is his love to those who fear him.

And as far as sunrise is from sunset,

    he has separated us from our sins.  Psalm 103:8-12 (MSG)

Sorry I am running a bit late with this week’s instalment.  To be honest this week really needs a do-over.  Surprisingly Monday morning I felt light and chirpy and actually kinda excited. And then my car was rearranged on a local, notorious, badly painted lane arrowed roundabout.                     

In my defence I was totally innocent and for the record no-one was hurt, just inconvenienced and angry, scared and shocked. The other driver was in the wrong lane and mistakenly assumed that I would be getting out his way.  So hopefully all being well insurance and vehicles will be sorted out.

However, reflecting on this with a couple of nights sleep now, and the adrenaline rush and side effects passed I was struck by the responses of my family.  Of course immediately supportive and shocked and all the usual.  Yet when I said this was my first accident the chatter immediately turned to - well what about when you spun the car in the wet?  And I’m like; ‘no-one else was there. It doesn’t count.’. Or when you hit the gate Mum - that was just a turning issue through a particularly tight gap stone gate driveway says me.  In fact getting defensive I said ‘well this is the first vehicle to vehicle crash in 20+ years of driving and it wasn’t even my fault.’

It’s funny how when we try and sound righteous, we actually find others dragging us down.  It is like those around us have to dissuade us of our righteousness and take us down a peg or two.  My family meant no harm but I’m sure we can all remember the feeling of going from the righteous to the defensive.  And it made me wonder.  An ex-boyfriend of mine in High School (trust me we are talking decades now) gave me a wee sign:

‘When I do right, no-one remembers, 

but when I do wrong, no-one forgets.’

How grateful am I that God doesn’t do to us, to me what my family automatically did to me.  I don’t even want to imagine what God might say to me in my more righteous moments.  Heavens, I’d be terrified to let my best friend talk freely about my faults, never mind God.  Yet God doesn’t do that.  He doesn’t keep a list of my wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5).  

Our challenge as Christians, indeed as human beings, is to resist the temptation to cast up the sins of others or sap the morale of one another by repeatedly pointing out flaws and failures or indeed constantly criticising ourselves.  Life is hard enough and mistakes are learning opportunities if we allow them to be.  Sometimes we are right but in the wrong place, like the roundabout on Monday morning.  Sometimes we are wrong in the right place like taking a risk and failing.  

God doesn’t look at you and see failure.  God looks at you and sees his child.  We know that our children will make mistakes but we love them anyway. God knows we are human and loves us anyway.  

So, whether you are feeling righteous or a failure - God loves you and he doesn’t measure your worth by your sins or failings or flaws.  He looks at your heart and sees the love, the compassion, the willingness to try again, the faith no matter how small, and he just loves you. 

Now I’m off for my PCR test and asking the Lord if the rest of the week could have a little less drama in it! 

Be forgiven and move on in faith.  God is ahead of you (future) and with you (present), not living in your past like unwanted houseguest lobbing missiles.  And if he doesn’t do that, let’s stop doing it to ourselves and others. 

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (1 Cor 13:6)

All being well - see you next week!

God bless, 

Love Sarah 

Sometimes you just got to speak…

 ‘But an honourable person acts honestly and stands firmly for what is right’. Isaiah 32:8

Hello and Welcome back! 

It is a curious time. Everyone has an opinion about something and of course we are right. The challenge remains that we can’t all be right and therefore at times even we must be wrong. What is even more challenging is that when we are right and seemly ignored or overlooked we either get louder and therefore annoying or we walk away and think - well maybe I will leave you to answer that. At the moment we are facing the ultra marathon of the pandemic where we flit from option to option as politicians walk the right rope between society and science. We need to live is the only thing everyone agrees on. Unfortunately for all to live something or some of us have to give. Our desire to live as we did overrides the fact we may have to adapt just a little. Then throw in the growing difficulties with deliveries, complicated by Covid and Brexit, never mind independence discussions and to be honest even I’m ready to hide under a duvet and exit it in 2023. (Not sure I’m holding out much hope for 2022 either!). 

I feel it myself. And there are times when I feel there are things that can’t be left unsaid. Sometimes we have to stand up and say our piece. Not to cause trouble or pain on purpose but because to say nothing would be even more unjust. We cannot fight all the battles because no one is able to do that. As I have often been told whether it comes to raising children or ministry or life in general - you have to pick your battles! 

My battlefield may not be the same as yours. And you know what that is okay too. I often think I’m not truly passionate about any cause but I am. My calling is to stand up against injustice, particularly but definitely not only in the church. Sadly Christians can be the absolute worst to their own brothers and sisters. But ask my poor husband and he will tell you that I make excuses for anyone and everyone (except him 😉 ). I defend others constantly. 

Yet in my heart I would do anything for a quiet life. I hate conflict. I’m absolutely terrified of standing up to others. Yet I am more terrified of doing nothing. All it takes for evil to thrive is for good people to do nothing or so the saying goes. 

Yes there are some opinionated souls out there who likes hear the sound of their own voice. Far be it from me to tell you who… However we need to listen to some voices, such as those of the climate change activists. Look how the earth responded when we were locked down. We are a real source of damage and these past 18months should be a wake up call.  We need to listen to the call for gender equality because it impacts on us all whether we realise it or not. The steps forward in places like Afghanistan that seem so vulnerable now reminding us that progress is a fickle beast. We need the ones who stand up to injustice dressed up in political embellishments, where policies are made to look good but are ‘all fur coat and no knickers’! 

The author of Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is a time to be silent and a time to speak. I have often pondered that as I read it again and again.  A time to be silent comes first. I think we need to pick our battles, pray and plan, then speak up. God places on all our hearts a cause to support because his heart is with the poor, the marginalised, the voiceless, the refugee, the outcast and the overlooked, whether through economics or politics, climate or creed, gender or sexuality, power or abuse.  

I get wanting to hide but just maybe this is your time to speak. Don’t be afraid to speak. You might be very surprised who you enable to speak up as well. Sometimes all it takes is for one person to sit outside parliament, to raise a hand at the meeting, to walk away from a toxic situation, to challenge the soapbox speaker for others to find their voice and start a movement.  

After all even Jesus stood up against injustice with words of wisdom or with righteous anger or with loving action.

We have a voice. And currently the freedom to use it. 

Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.  Proverbs 31:9

God bless your silence and your speaking

Love Sarah 

Chatterbox Syndrome

 Hello!

It is good to talk…

I’m an introvert with extrovert tendencies, which is code for I am not an entertainer but I love to talk.  I really do.  I love sitting down and chatting through ideas and falling headlong into all the cliches. Expressions like ‘think outside the box’, ‘comfort zones’ and ‘blue sky thinking’ just float my boat so to speak.  Hence my angst last week at the silence, missing 121 (rarely an expression heard in the CofS), and feeling flat.  (Read last week’s if you want, it is from the heart but might leave you wondering!)

I love finding treasure in scripture and I just want to share them.  I love reading books on ministry and life as I read a lot of organisational culture and psychology type material and I just want to talk it through with others.  I feel like I have been given something exciting and like a child with new shoes or toys I just want to show off. And so for now this is one of my ways to talk. 

I am currently in the exciting land of Isaiah. Okay, let’s be honest it is a tough read. Yet, my word, there are some treasures.  I love the fact there are flashes of texts from the New Testament and I don’t mean direct quotes.  Sometimes though in the doom and gloom, stories of anger, exile, and death we need to find the light.  And there is always light. 

I was really struck by Isaiah 28:16-17, 23-29 (GNB). We read of the solid cornerstone and written on the cornerstone ‘Faith that is firm is also patient.’. True statement but wow, that is hard. It makes perfect sense but patience…Justice is to be the measuring line and honesty the plumb line.  The text moves from a building metaphor to a farming metaphor, and throws in the challenge.  To paraphrase - no farmer keeps ploughing the ground for sowing, rather he gets on with planting.  Through the verses that follow Isaiah is at pains to show how God gives knowledge and wisdom to the farmer so he knows what to do.  And concludes with the verse -‘The plans God makes are wise and they always succeed.’ Isaiah 28:29

As someone who likes to do, who likes to share, who wants to shout the good news from the roof tops, I feel we are constantly getting the ground ready to sow but not moving to the next stage.  The running joke is that God so loved the world he didn’t send a committee.  And the text from Isaiah had me wondering how much I have got stuck preparing the ground?  Is there no harvest because we are not planting?  Are we crushing the new crop with rotas, rules and head stuff, rather than nurturing strength, patiently bringing the crop on? 

Whatever we plant, do, build, as individuals in our homes and communities, and in our churches, it must have justice as our measuring stick, honesty to keep us straight and true, faith that is firm, therefore patient and Christ as our Cornerstone. 

It is good to talk but let the talk actually lead us somewhere.  All talk and no action is like a farmer constantly preparing the ground and never planting.  So what are we planting folks?  God has a plan and the seeds! 

God bless you!

Love Sarah