welcome to the house of fun!

Rad day with church yesterday… twice.

So proud of my bossman Chris G yesterday morning cos after worship vibes he got up to say something and was deeply moved by what God was telling him to say but not being a hugely demonstrative person in nature he could only say he felt like hitting the lectern… angry with himself for all the crap he allows in his life (although didn’t use word ‘crap’ just in case Charis was hiding in the cry room maybe?) and just settles for and doesn’t deal with… and angry with the congregation for where they do the same… (all in the very Chris G key of not-making-anyone-feel-condemned-but-getting-them-to-think)

Then i got up to do an announcement about youth vibes for next year and a camp but before i did i got people to close their eyes and take time on what he had just spoken… and then launched into a twenty/thirty minute heart ministry/preach vibe really continuing on from where Chris left off cos he was too emotional within himself and just completely led by God speaking into the congregation and some specific situations and issues… totally unprepared…

And Chris pretty much abandoned his preach except for reading 1 Cor 12-14 from the Message and that was really cool – most proudest i’ve been of him i think (no, not proud, proud-est!) cos just a solid sense that we were led by God and did his business… and was spot on for where our church is and what they need to hear…

Then in the evening, although our enGAGE services have officially ended with departure of the majority of students, we are still meeting together (the remnant) and last night there were about 15 of us maybe and we chatted around the topic of speaking life or speaking curses/death into/over people and i was a bit nervous before we started cos it really could have been the shortest service in the history or last night but okes really got engaged and involved in and with the topic and it was really great. And we kicked bum in the cricket. But it felt like we kicked bigger bum just hanging out as Jesus followers. And that is a good thing.

Unless You Cell Everything.

So this morning i was at a pastor’s breakfast and we were having a time of worship singing and some dude left the meeting to go and answer his cellphone and it brought back one of my favourite grinds to axe. I don’t know why i seemingly feel so proportionately huge on this issue where most other people in my experience don’t but for me it is one of the most offensive and rudest things…

On the me level it’s the whole vibe of you going out to have coffee with me at a restaurant and your phone rings and you answer it. Basically what you are saying to me (via your actions) is that even though you have set aside this time for a coffee time with me, actually ANYONE else in the world with a phone in their hands is more important than me. It could even be a wrong number. So in essence you are choosing a complete stranger who you don’t want to talk to, over me.

As i said, i find it incredibly rude and am surprised that most other people don’t seem to find it as offensive as i do. For example if you were in a movie for an hour and a half you would (hopefully) switch your phone off or on silent and leave it like that til the end. So the movie has your full attention. If you have a doctor’s or dentist appointment or a business meeting you won’t interrupt it to have a chat to me so why can’t you afford me the same courtesy. I want you to know that for the next hour i am choosing above anyone else in the world to spend time with and give my full attention to. We’ve lost that because we have openly welcomed the invasion and invasiveness of the mobile phone into our lives.

Then back to the breakfast, we also have a guy in our church who regularly leaves the worship time and maybe also the preach time to go take a business call. And then this guy leaving a worship session to go take a call. What is more important than communing with the Holy and Awesome Creator God and King Jesus for the twenty or so minutes we are going to sing some songs.

If you were in a one to one meeting with Nelson Mandela or Barack Obama or someone else you see as famous and respectable or the king of a country, you wouldn’t suddenly go ‘oh sorry i have a call, i’ll be back in a minute’ and so possibly it’s a question of not really understanding or knowing or believing that when we are engaged in a worship session it really is meant to be a face to face time of hanging with God. And surely He deserves complete focus and attention in that moment.

The cellphone has become an idol for many of us who worship it or its use or images or sounds that emanate from it and we need to really be more aware.

Just Another Blog in the Wall

so i’ve been wanting to start a blog for a long time now. and now i have. i use Facebook for a lot of note blogging but wanted a place to just stick my uncensored, well maybe less censored thorts, and so here it is. now the question is who to let know about it, or to just simply blog here and if people discover it then they do.

to be me or not to be me, why is it that so many people struggle with that question when it comes to life, and too often choose the mask more travelled, or worn or something?

is your me really that scary? that bad? that undesirable? i seriously doubt it.

for God so loves.