what Josh is teaching me about God #5

Last night, Josh was getting ready for bed, putting his pyjamas on, when I was struck by one of those "moments". We're trying to teach Josh how to do up buttons at the moment, but before we got to that, Josh asked me to help him put his top on (knowing that the button thing was next). I said to him "no, you can do it", to which he replied "help me, Dad".

My first instinct was to do it for him - put his shirt on, do up his buttons, but a remarkable thing came out of my mouth instead. I said "No, you do it - I am helping you, Josh". I knew that I wouldn't actually be helping him if I did it for him, but would be helping him far more if I helped him learn how to do it.

I immediately wondered how many times I call out to God, "help me, Dad". I also pondered how often God's first instinct is to take away our pain, remove our suffering, fix our problems, but in God's infinite wisdom, he chooses not to - knowing we learn far more by working through it ourselves, and that we can't become whole if someone always does up our buttons for us...

learning from sore muscles

Yesterday, I had a personal training session at my gym, and I'm pretty sore today. I told my trainer to hammer me, and he certainly did that! But I feel good, because part of the reason I wanted to see him was because lately, when I've been at the gym, I haven't felt terribly sore after, so I've wondered how much I'm achieving. I know I achieved something yesterday!

There were a bunch of things I learned from him, but one which stood out was that part of the reason I've possibly not been hurting after my sessions is because I'm trying to do too much each time, rather than focussing on one muscle group, working that hard, then working another the next time I go.

Muscle is built most effectively by ripping the muscle, then allowing it to rebuild, then ripping it again (I can vouch for that today - ow!) When I go to the gym and work too many groups at once (arms, back, legs), I don't spend time on any particular area, drilling it, ripping it, so that it rebuilds. I just give them a little workout and don't achieve much. On the other hand, if I was to go and maybe work my triceps and calves one day, then back and biceps, then shoulders, core and upper legs, I would achieve much better results. By doing less each time, but being more focussed, I would in fact do more.

That made me reflect on my personal spiritual training. I probably operate the same way as I have been at the gym - generally covering some areas, but not in a focussed way. Perhaps I would be better served to "hammer" certain areas in prayer, Bible reading, other reading - working one area part of the week, and another at other times. Could be interesting to consider...

I also think there is possibly something there about working and resting - that again, muscle is build by drilling it, then giving it time to rebuild. That seems to give me even more reason to believe that rather than thinking of life (or ministry) as a marathon (as so many have said), my notion that it is rather a series of sprints (with adequate rest in between) is more valid, because if we just keep plodding (marathon-like), we'll get somewhere, but probably lose body weight, etc. By living by working real hard, then resting well, then working again - in theory, this should make us stronger. What do you think?

soul cravings

I know - 2 posts in 2 days... incredible!!

I've just finished reading Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus. Here are some key thoughts that stood out to me from the book (I can't give you page numbers, because McManus breaks the book up by theme (cravings, destiny and meaning), then writes as journal entries - not sure how one would reference that in an essay!):

"God calls us out of the life we have known and calls us into a life we have never imagined"

"It's important to fully live each moment, but equally important to make sure that we do not live only for this moment."

"When you give up on hope, you become paralyzed in the present and begin to live in the past"

"Spirituality is more identified with tradition and ritual than it is with a future and a hope. Too often discipleship equals standardization"

"While religions have historically tried to make us the same, Jesus calls us to be different"

"Clearly we can't know everything ... Genius might be less how much you know and more the ability to know the right things."

And finally a quote from Cheng Yi which I think sums up my blog... "To exert thought is like digging a well. At first there is only muddy water. Later on, after one has done some drawing, clear water will come out. One's thoughts are always muddy at first. After a long while they will naturally be nicely clear"

another year older... amongst other happenings

Well, once again, a number of weeks have passed, with no blogging. Ah, discipline... how you mock me...

Here's a brief overview of a couple of highlights of what's happened during this time. If you want any more info, you should leave a comment!

I bought a new camera - Panasonic FZ7 - very cool
We've run multiple "crazy" nights in our evening gatherings at RBC - been a lot of fun
In one of these (last Sunday night), I had part of my head shaved during the service
It's been really cold - and I've had 2 colds...
Watched the end of Heroes - brilliant
Prepared for the last episode of Lost (tonight, our time)
Josh and I just celebrated our 4th and 33rd birthdays last weekend.
We gave Josh a slot car set - sooo much fun (but it is his present... right?!)
I bought the new Smashing Pumpkins CD (I didn't even know they had a new one coming out) - Zeitgeist - as well as On a Clear Night (Missy Higgins) and Neon Ballroom (Silverchair). I've been wanting to get Neon Ballroom for ages, and finally found it for $10! Yeah!
I started a Facebook page - not sure why, yet... seems like the thing to do at the moment.

Obviously more than that has happened, but they're some highlights. Once Ignite (our evening service series) is over, I intend to make it a priority to blog at least once a week - you can hold me to it!

been a while...

I confess I've been pretty slack on the blogging front of late. I'm not quite sure why - I think that it's probably because blogging is a discipline, and like lots of disciplines, I'm not great at keeping them. No, it doesn't take a lot of time to log on, write a few words, and post, but actually having something useful to say (I think there's more than enough trash on the internet without me adding any) is a different matter.

It's not because I'm too busy, either. I made a vow a number of years ago to never use that as an excuse for anything. I feel there are far too many people who wear busyness as a badge of honour - trying to say "I'm the busiest person ever". To me, if you say you're too busy to do something, it's because of one of two reasons - either your time management needs work, or you can't make whatever is being discussed a priority. (I don't have an issue with people prioritising, either - it's healthy - but don't use busyness as an excuse to get out of something you don't want to do!)

The fact of the matter is, I just need to bite the bullet and take some time out more regularly to reflect more. I'm meeting with my good friend Andrew Turner this afternoon, and I'm sure this will be one of our topics of discussion...

learning from a learner driver

On the way to church this arvo, we went past a learner driver, and on the back of the car was a big sign saying "Be Patient".

It's so easy to get frustrated with people who are learning, and easy to forget that we all had to learn at some point, too. What a great reminder that if we are sitting behind a learner driver, we should be patient with them (something I excel at... ahem...), because the last thing they need is pressure, and they're not going to learn and develop if they can't be "on the road".

For all parts of life, I think the same applies - it's easy to get frustrated with those who are learning skills, and easy to forget our own path. What's more impacting for me, though, is that I need (humbling as it is) a big "Be Patient" sign stuck on my head, to remind myself to be patient as I'm learning, to remember that others had to develop over time, and weren't instantly great at the things they do.

Be Patient...

delayed gratification

I've been thinking a bit lately about how much we are shaped by the instant gratification that our culture has sold us on. A lot of the decisions we make seem to be dictated by how I feel right now - whether I can be bothered making that phone call/sending that encouragement/going to the gym/reading that book/doing that cleaning.

Once again, the gym made me thing about it, because I was sitting at home on Tuesday, deciding whether I'd go or not. To be honest, I really didn't want to - I was happy at home, warm, had other things I thought about doing. But, I did go, and 1/2 way through my workout, I thought "why would I have wanted to miss how I feel now?"

I wish there was a way of experiencing how we are going to feel ahead of time. In other words, I wish my body/mind would allow me to know how I was going to feel after I'd been to the gym/finished the assignment I needed to do/ticked some things off my to do list/etc... but allow me to feel that as part of the motivation of actually doing it.

I wonder if that's where habits and rituals help. If we do something often enough, our body/mind is much better able to know how we are going to feel, and so give us extra motivation to get on and do it.

everybody needs good neighbours?

Driving around yesterday, I was surprised to see 2 churches (a Baptist and a Uniting church) right next to each other - and I mean literally next door to each other. We were on our way to a family lunch, driving past as their services were finishing, and I found myself wondering why on earth 2 faith communities would want to set themselves up that close to each other.

The more I thought about it, the more amazed I became - think about it... at the same time yesterday, these 2 God-families were probably singing similar songs, listening to a preacher each, having tea and coffee, talking about the events coming up this week. It seems very odd to me. I guess it's no different to what happens all the time on a Sunday morning, it's just that this time, they were right next to each other.

We have issues at our church at times, with our neighbours complaining about the noise we make - I wonder if either of these churches ever find themselves frustrated at the "noise" of the other - one church singing songs while the other is trying to pray, for example...

Like I said, seems a bit odd to me...

change of address

I decided to change my blog to a more logical (though some would doubt that I have achieved this) name, so my apologies if you've been wondering what happened to my old blog and have just stumbled over here. From now on, please update your favourites and links to http://randomcogitationist.blogspot.com

prayer

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about prayer. Subconsciously, we seem to have this idea that prayer is about changing God's mind, or maybe about convincing God to do things the way we'd like to. We know that part of prayer is about what God wants, but there seems to be a bit of a mentality that I've seen (especially around church prayer meetings - not as much at our church, thankfully!) that if we do things right (get enough people coming, pray for long enough, hard enough, etc), then God will act.

I'm sure you've never heard (or prayed) things like "God, we just (why do we use "just" so much when we pray?) pray that you'll turn up tonight", "God, we pray you'll do this or that".

I'm actually starting to think that prayer is a lot more about me, than God. Sound ego-centric? Maybe. But what if I approach prayer from the perspective that I'm not trying to convince God, but trying to get his heart. In praying for someone I know who's sick, I'm trying to understand that God cares even more about that person than I do, I'm asking God to help me bring healing and restoration to them when I see them next. In praying for a situation, I'm trying to find out what God is thinking about/doing in that situation. In confession, I'm not telling God anything he doesn't know, but being honest with myself about my sin, and understanding how amazing it is that God forgives me.

It might seem obvious, but I don't hear many people talking about it, and I hear even less people praying like it. I guess it comes back to the core reason why I pray - do I pray to change God's mind, or to get God's heart?