New Year's Thought for the day - Journeys

I was invited back again to do Thought for the Day on BBC Radio and Coventry, you can listen to it here - or read the transcript below.

Today is Epiphany – the day when the church traditionally celebrates the visit of the wise men to Jesus. It’s also the 12^thday of Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, and when most people take down their decorations. 

In our house, it’s the only day in the year when the beautiful wooden nativity set that I have, looks complete. My mum was a Sunday school teacher, and alongside insisting I played Gabriel every year, because Gabriel was a boy and I was the only boy she could bribe to do it - she was also ways very strict about the nativity set. She insisted that each of the characters, including the shepherds, Mary and Joseph and even Jesus needed to journey from various parts of the house and only reach the stable on their appropriate day. Because my mum is a little forgetful at times, this often led to hours of searching on Christmas day because she had hidden the baby Jesus and then forgotten where she’d put Him!

As I looked at my set, complete this morning, I thought about the fact that all of them there, not just the wise men who we think about today - went on journeys to that stable. Before they met Jesus, they had long, perhaps at times, difficult journeys ahead of them.

Our lives too can feel like a bit of a journey. It’s a well worn analogy but we often say when times are hard, that it feels like a bit of an uphill struggle. As we begin this new year, I wonder how your life feels at the moment? For me, if I’m honest, life feels fairly easy right now– I’m grateful for that, and very aware that there have been times, not that long ago, when that’s not been the case.

When I used to go cycling, a good number of years ago now, I remember when someone came with me, the whole journey felt so much better. It wasn’t necessarily that the hills were any easier to climb, or that I went faster as I went down the other side – but it was certainly better. 

My own life journey has been greatly improved because of Jesus journeying with me.  

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’ve come from or what you’ve done; what you think of God, yourself or even what others think of you –Just as all those in that stable journeyed to Jesus, he longs for us to journey to Him, and to know Him walking with us as we journey on.  

Many of us, by now, will be back at our places of work, or back into the normal rhythms of life – with Christmas and New year quickly becoming a distant memory. Perhaps a few of us have already given up on the New Year’s resolutions, re-hit the chocolate and lost our gym membership cards! 

Before the season ends completely on this 12^thday of Christmas and before you spend a few hours looking for somewhere to put those 12 drummers drumming that have almost certainly been delivered this morning – I’d love to invite you stop, and find a little more than the moment of peace we’ve had together and to journey to that stable once more – because to paraphrase a famous advert, Jesus is not just for Christmas, He loves you and He longs to be involved in the whole of your journey.

Where and when do you find your peace?

This morning, on BBC Radio Cov and Warwickshire I did thought for the day, based on the below blog post from a little earlier this year.

You can listen to it here - 


Read the transcript here, or the original post below.

Transcript

Well, I don’t know about you – but over the years I’ve become more and more attached to the various social media outlets that are around the place. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with them, sometimes using them all day long and sometimes deleting my profile for a few months however something about them always draws me back in the end.

I was really interested to see a few weeks ago, a little advert pop up on facebook, which said – and I quote – Peace begins with us, according to them - Facebook is the place where Peace can be found.

I’m not entirely sure this is true. You may be aware that September is now designated as Scroll Free – this is a new initiative by Public Health England to try and encourage us to put away our phones for the month, and particularly to stop using social media.

This comes as a result of their survey last year in which nearly half of social media users said they thought meeting this challenge would improve quality of sleep, face-to-face relationships, work productivity and general wellbeing - and there's plenty of evidence to show they're right.

I think most of us are getting to the point where we realise this, we know that extended time on our phones or on social media is less productive for us. But if Facebook, or twitter or any of the others is not the place the place we can find peace – I wonder if we know where is.

Life as a curate in a busy town is a lot of fun, but it can be really busy. It’s very easy for me, as I’m sure it can be for most of us – to lose that sense of Peace which we need. 

God knows this, and I’m sure this is why the scriptures tell us God says we need to ‘Be Still, and know that He is God’. 

This is a very famous verse and I’ve often I’ve seen it written with very swirly handwriting on posters. It usually has an image in the background of some calm and reflective landscape. We can almost imagine it being said very calmly – be still. And it may be, that for some, that is a really helpful way to understand these words, and you may have images like this on your wall at home, if you do, then bless you and I’m glad. 

I do wonder, if their might just be another way of understanding it.

I have a little dog, called Sammy who my friend describes as a perpetual motion machine. He hardly ever stops and I’m forever telling him to get in his bed so he’s out of my hair. 

Now if I were the psalmist who wrote those words, I might say to Sammy “Be still” in order to calm him down. But if I did, I would probably be unlikely to use that quiet and whispy voice, I would be more likely to say “Will you just be still”

I do just wonder if there is a lesson here for some of us. If some of us need to hear this as a command or an instruction, rather than a gentle suggestion.

How many of us are so busy – moving around so quickly – that we feel we have no time to be still, and no time to stop.

Facebook is not the place where Peace begins, nor is Twitter, Instagram or any of the rest – they don’t even come close. 

True peace comes from one place alone, the one who promises that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. If you're feeling out of peace - take some time out – more than just the minute or two we’ve had together this morning - however hard it is to find the time, and draw close to the one who promises, that if we are still and know that He is God, we will find our rest. 

Original Blog Post

If we are friends on Facebook then you may have spotted that I posted the below, which I saw earlier today....

This is perfect timing, as I had already begun to write this post...

Life as a curate is a lot of fun, I'm enjoying getting to know people and sharing their lives with them. It does however, also have it's sadnesses - and just at the moment I've found myself walking with a couple of different people, or groups of people, who are having a very difficult time of it. I spent around an hour talking to one of these on the phone earlier this week. This was an absolute privilege and pleasure but as I came to the end of the conversation I realised just how heavily their situation, and the others, were weighing on me. 

I had a problem however, it was 11am, I had 2 hours before my day "properly" started with meetings which ran into the evening - and I still had no talk for the next mornings service.

I'm someone who always tries to focus on the 'most immediate need' and so for about 30 minutes I tried to ignore these feelings and battled through trying to work out what I would say the next day, but I couldn't. The weight was too heavy. 

So I put down my pen (figuratively speaking) and lay on my sofa to rest, pray and 'soak' in some favourite worship music. 

An hour and a half later I still had a lot to do (and still no talk for the next day) but was in such a different place. I had found peace - A peace which is well summed up in John's Gospel "My Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

The rest of the day went easily, and when I got home from my evening meeting a talk appeared in my head which was easy to write down. 

It was, without question the right thing to do - to stop - but I had really resisted it. As I reflect, I'd probably, truthfully, been resisting it for a few days, and 'powering on through' rather than stopping and allowing myself to be refreshed properly. 

When asked about my view of pastoral ministry as I was working out this calling stuff, the definition I found most helpful was that of L shaped ministry. It's called this because you visualise it by holding one arm out in front of you, the other to the sky. The idea is that you receive things from 'people' and give them to God, and you receive things from God and give them to 'the people'. As priests (and by this, I probably mean people of priests, rather than those of us who are ordained) we are a conduit, an interceder and a message giver. We are not the one either to carry the burdens, nor (fortunately) the ones with all the answers. We stand as a bridge, but we need to ensure it doesn't get backed up with traffic.  

So, my point?

Facebook is not the place where Peace begins, it's not even close. True peace comes from one place alone, the one who promises that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. If you're feeling out of peace (like I was) take some time out, however hard it is to do, and draw close to the one who gives rest. 

One of the songs I listened to is this "old classic" (as in it is pre-2000) Hungry by Joy Williams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLz36m8Mw2g

Being Brave

I'm preaching on Esther this week at our all age service, and there are a number of things I think it teaches us - one of them, I've been thinking about quite a bit recently, being brave.

The story of Esther is a great one, as you will know she risks her own life to go before the king – knowing ultimately that it was the right thing to do. 

Now I’ve never had to risk my own life in order to do what’s right – and truthfully I hope I never need to, but if I’m ever called to do so, I hope I’ll make the right decision. 

There are people all around the world who do risk their lives every day for Jesus - and if you don't pray for them regularly, please do so. I can really encourage you to subscribe to Open Doors who will help you to know who to pray for particularly. 

As I’ve said, I think the story of Esther also teaches us we need to move our of our comfort zones. To step out. 

A couple of days ago I was on a tube in London and I really sensed God ask me to pray for an older man who was sat next to me. 

Before you get the idea that this is a regular every day occurrence for me, I don’t do this very often. Also, because I'm human and not very obedient I spent a long time on the tube praying the man would either get off before I had chance, or that something else would happen – but the man stayed on the train with me right to my stop - all that happened as I prayed was that more and more people around us got off so in the end it was just me and him in the carriage.

In the end, I plucked up the courage and talked to him. He was a bit surprised, he wasn’t a Christian, but he did let me pray for him about something which was going on in his life.

I’ve no idea what will happen in that guys life next, but I also know I don’t need to worry -  I have a close friend who became a Christian because three times in the same week random strangers came up to him and talked to him about God and prayed with him. Perhaps I was person number one or two for that old man.

Now I don’t share that story so you can bask in my braveness (is that even a word?) – it wasn’t especially brave, although it felt like it at the time. Equally, I could tell you a thousand stories where I haven't done what I should have done, and will probably be able to tell you another 1000 in a few years time – but this experience led me to realise that it’s OK to be brave, no one died. In telling you, I hoped it might encourage you as well. 

The last thing I want to leave us with is why we do all this stuff in the first place. We’ve read that Esther was a queen who was willing to risk her life in order to save her people. 

There was however a man who lived after Esther, Jesus – he was a king, but he wore a different sort of crown. 

He is the King of all Kings, and He did die in order to save his people – we are the people He died for, the ones who have been saved.  

Esther’s story hints at the story of Jesus, she like him, was willing to do what was right - regardless of the consequences. I know that I for one, need to be just a little bit more like them...

A small request (or rant) to the church... please stop calling God incredible...

I've just arrived home from New Wine having visited a few in our church family who decided the week one dates were better and visited a couple of the talks. It has been a great day, but today I finally broke.... Please forgive this minor diversion from a thoughtful reflection for me to have a tiny rant.

I love language and I love how it develops. I also love how when in prayer we often try to describe an attribute of God, perhaps his love for us - but there is a word which has come into greater parlance over the last few years. That word is incredible. 

The word takes it's origin from two latin words, in - meaning not and credibilis - meaning credible - literally not credible. 

God is many things, He is Almighty, He is Powerful, He is Patient, He is Generous. 

But He is not incredible. 

God is credible - his word is credible. To describe him as incredible devalues who He is, what He did for us.

Whilst it might seem a small thing, unworthy of rant, I truly believe our words have power. We need to use them wisely. 

That's it, I said it was short!

All the world needs now...

I've been away for a little while, I'm not sure anyone has missed me - but now I've returned from holiday I'll try and be a bit better.

I've been reflecting a lot on this passage just recently from 1 Corinthians 13 - you'll probably know it well, but please - read it through.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poorand give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This is one of my most favourite pieces of scripture. It's regularly used in weddings, although as far as I know none of my couples who are getting married this year have chosen it, so perhaps it's become a bit "over used" and fallen out of favour a bit.

Now of course, we can see why it's popular for weddings, but I think the lesson's it can teach us go well beyond the love that those who get married feel for one another. 

Jesus commands us all to Love God and Love our Neighbour, saying these are the greatest commandments. Now this was never intended to be the place for me to write a full on sermon, maybe those at St Paul's will be fortunate (or not) enough to hear me reflect on this passage further at a future date - but for now, I offer it to you to think over. Have a read again. 

I was really pleased to go in and offer this week's 'Thought of the Day' as part of Justine Greene's BBC Radio Coventry show this morning. This passage was very much in my heart as I prepared. You can listen to it here, or read it below.

I promise, I'll be back...

https://soundcloud.com/adam-tams/thought-of-the-day

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about weddings and about love this week, and a passage which is often chosen in weddings is that famous one from 1 Corinthians 13. I’m sure you’ll have heard it, it’s the one where St. Paul describes the many attributes of Love: He says it’s patient, it’s kind – it doesn’t boast, it isn’t proud or rude or selfish. It isn’t easily angered and it keeps no records of wrong.

As we’ve looked at the news over the last few weeks, we’ve seen stories which can really warm the heart – Just an example, I’m not a big football fan – but even I was inspired by the team work shown by the England team. At various times, we saw how generous the players were to one another, holding their love of the game, their country – and more importantly, each other, far above any selfish ambitions.

But often when we look at the news - love is a bit harder for us to see. I wonder how our world stage would look if those in positions of leadership on all sides showed a bit more kindness and a bit more patience towards one another.  

This lack of love isn’t just out there in the big wide world. I suspect we can all think of people who at some point in our lives have treated us in a less than loving way. Perhaps we can also think of people who we’ve failed to love as we should have done. 

Now, of course - loving one another isn’t always easy. In the wedding service in this country, we use the words “I will” rather than the American “I do” that we see in all the films. This is because Love is far more than a feeling which can be measured day by day. Love is a commitment, here the couple sayI will love you, I will be the best spouse I can be.

And of course, love goes well beyond the love which some of experience when we get married. Jesus tells us that Loving God, and Loving our Neighbour are the greatest commandments. Regardless of who we need to show more love towards, sometimes it will take work.

There was an 8th Century christian monk who decided that he wanted to change the world. After a while he concluded that was a bit hard, so he decided to just try and change the nation. This was a bit hard as well, so he decided to just try and change his town. Unsurprisingly, this was nearly impossible so he decided to just try to change his family. 

By this point he was quite old, and he realised the only thing he could change was himself. As they began to do this, he realised that had he done this to start with, he might well have changed his family. If that had happened, he may well have seen change in the town, which in turn may have changed the nation and possibly the world. 

I love that story, because it reminds us of the truth that often that largest changes can come from the smallest of acts.

Love comes from God, 1 John 4 says that God IS Love, and those who live in Love live in God, and God lives in them. We are all, each and everyone one of us, extraordinarily loved by God.

I want to reflect the love that God has for me into the world by the way I treat others. By doing these small acts of love, I might just change the culture of those around me – and in that, we might have more impact than we realise. I wonder, will you join me?

Too busy not to blog…

Well I’ve been quiet for a little bit on here – sorry about that! On the 14^th of November I spoke at St Paul’s on Psalm 46, those famous words “Be Still and Know that I am God”.

I’m never one to blow my own trumpet, usually falling more on the side of self-deprecation for comic effect (perhaps a topic for another time) but this was one of my better talks. It warmed my heart to overhear someone say to their friend a week later “did you hear Adam’s talk last week, it was really good”.

Ironic then, that one of the reasons I haven’t blogged is because I simply haven’t “had” the time. Perhaps more importantly, alongside not having the time to blog, I’ve also not “had” much time in the last couple of months to be still for myself.

I meet with a mentor in London every 6 weeks or so – these times are incredibly valuable to me for a huge variety of reasons - not least because on the train journey as I go there, I get to look back at the last few weeks since the last time I went, and think about how I’m doing with my own journey with God.

I did this yesterday, and was more than a little disappointed with my own inability to listen to my own words. When in the last few weeks had I allowed myself time and space, truly to ‘be still’?

I used the quotation marks above to make a valid point. I’m so fortunate to do the job that I do, and largely have control over my own diary. It is therefore not the case that I haven’t “had” the time, either to blog, or more importantly to be still, it’s more that I haven’t made the time.

I very much appreciate that some people don’t have this luxury – but we all have ‘free time’ (and if you don’t, then you need a serious re-evaluation of life!). I suspect, if you’re anything like me, then you probably manage to find time to do other things which are much less important, be that watching a terrible soap (obviously I don’t do this!) or playing games on our phones.

There is a preacher's favourite illustration for this. Normally they get a large bucket and fill it with rocks, they then ask if they could fit any more in and everyone says no – then they put gravel in the bucket, around the rocks – again they ask if more could go in, and everyone says no – then they add sand, and this time everyone thinks, surely there is no more room – until water is added.

The point of this illustration is that it matters massively what the rocks are, and that you put those in first. If spending time with God, isn’t one of those rocks, it’s easy to run out of room.

We all need to disconnect ourselves from the busyness of life, from our phones, and from the world around us, and learn to just Be Still. You may do this already, or the thought of it might fill you with dread.

When I talked on this topic, someone said to me “I can’t do silence, I’m too much of an extrovert” It’s important to be clear that stillness, and being Still with the Lord is different to Silence. What I’m talking about here is the need to retreat. Often it will need us to be silent, but sometimes it may just need us to stop focusing our energy, our thoughts and our time on other things, and just to focus on God.

I spent a couple of hours in ‘stillness’ this morning – I began, as I often do, by listening to some worship music and allowing myself to soak in it.

For clarity - this is also different to times spent studying the word, and interceeding - all of which, you may be pleased to note - I've continued to do, and indeed am doing more and more of. This is about retreat - I've known churches do weekends away called "retreat to advance" - I love that idea of us needing to be still, in order to sustain us.

How you do ‘retreat’ isn’t important, making it one of the big stones is, one of the things which is a priority - rather than an afterthought.

So, this is certainly a case of ‘physician heal thyself’ – I know I need to reassess the ‘rocks’ in my bucket. I hoped, by writing this, it might encourage you to do the same. 

If I were to offer two pieces of advice (from my poor experience), it would be firstly to find time each week (at least) to be still – to retreat – and to really rest – put this in the diary, and don’t let other things get in the way of it (I’ve done this).  My second piece of advice would be to have someone to whom you're accountable, it doesn’t matter who, but have someone or a group of people who will ask you how you’re doing.

I hope you find it as fruitful as I do. 

How do we treat people?

In the last 48 hours or so (I'm being deliberately vague) I've had an experience where, I suspect because I'm a 'young(ish) curate' I've been spoken to in such a way that made me feel like I was, perhaps, foolish and unworthy of the individual's time. (Disclaimer, before you start worrying, this happened outside of my parish, and it was someone I had met 30 seconds earlier and will unlikely see again - if I can help it!) 

This reminded me of something I witnessed a year or so ago. When the Bake Off was good, and on the BBC, Jess and I had tickets to see the extra slice hosted by Jo Brand. This was excellent and one thing we observed was that between shots the make up woman would often come onto stage to 'top up' the stars make up. Stage hands would also regularly walk around and give the 'stars' bottles of water.

The first thing which struck me was Jo Brand's attitude to these people. Every time someone did something for her, be it hand her water or tidy her hair, she made a point to look at them and to thank them. 

This was contrasted by another female 'star' (who shall remain nameless) who far from thanking those who were helping her, deliberately ignored them and occasionally acted annoyed with them, like, perhaps, they were getting in her way.

Jo was, as most people know, a mental health nurse for many years, turning to comedy late in life. The other lady is the daughter of a 'star' alongside being a 'star' in her own right, I suspect she has never had the experience of not having people run around after her.

That said, I don't think it excuses her behaviour, nor should anything, even distractions, excuse ours.

This experience has stuck with me over the last year or so, and being treated, as I was this week, has only served to remind me of the importance to not only notice those who we meet, but to make a point of engagement with them if possible.

It strikes me that this is what Jesus did. He often met with and engaged with people who the rest of society would rather he had ignored. He noticed them, he spoke to them, and he helped them know that they too were loved.

One of the three things we're looking at in St Paul's over the next few months and years is how to be more like Jesus. I wonder if this, very small thing, is one way we can do this.

We can notice those who serve us, we can engage with those who the rest of society chooses to ignore.

Perhaps you're much better at this than me, perhaps you always engage folk with a friendly smile and warm greeting. Certainly I know some folk who appear to do this well. I know others who perhaps don't! 

And we aren't perfect, so we will forget at times. So another encouragement - try to catch yourself doing it! Some of the times I've sensed God working through me most in this have been the times I've, for example, been served in a shop and realised as I'm about to leave that I haven't looked up from my phone. When I've realised what I'm doing, I've apologised for my rudeness and asked how the attendant was. 

Noticing people is simple, it's unexpected, it's certainly what Jesus did.

So, my thoughts for this week? Look up, see who's around, smile and help others to know that you care for them a bit, but more importantly, that God cares for them a lot. :-)