revmusings

Just got back from holiday at our flat in Devon - good weather generally ( which I judge by only using the umbrella once and being able to spend many hours sitting outside the Beachcomer cafe and reading!) We did lots of days out and despite knowing the area quite well still finding new places and new trips to do. We only tried to use the Sat Nav once when we got lost but as it was on Dartmoor there was no signal so we had to use our instincts and a good old fashioned map to find out way.

But it did remind me of a recent children's talk I heard using Sat Navs. The preacher's one says 'Turn round you are going the wrong way' should they stray from the directions given. This was linked to God telling us off when we stray and reminding us to get back to the right path. God has told me this many a time but that has more often been about my attitudes and behaviours rather than the direction I am going - The God of this Sat Nav has only one route we are supposed to travel and it is disaster if we fail to follow instructions.

My Sat Nav is more gracious - when I deviate from the prescribed route my lovely lady merely says 're-calculating'. Admittedly, she does try to get me back to the route she prefers ( Leicester to South London has to be via the M1) but after a while, when she realises this is not going to happen, she accepts this and re-calculates to a new route (via the M11). There is a plan A but also a plan B, C, D etc. Somehow God sometimes does this too -  God uses my weird and selfish choices and still manages to weave them into the divine plan.

I realise you can pick all kind of theological holes in this very simplistic Sat Nav thinking but for me it is the thought that even if I go the wrong way somehow God always me leads forward, uses my many mistakes and poor choices and it is not the end of the world. Of course, that is no excuse for not seeking God and God's desires for my life but that, in the absence of telegrams from God or a bit of sky writing, as long as I have tried to do my best all will be well ( and even if I haven't God's graciousness can still re-calaculate my route through  life)

How does a bank get away with opening an account in someone's name, take a large amount of money from it and then charge them interest? Well HSBC have done just that over a dispute that they finally have agreed was not the person's fault yet still they ask for the interest?

I love it when the same idea comes at you from many different sources and  begin to hear God.....

None of them are new or innovotive but I really want to explore them as I begin a new ministry.

In no particular order...

• Hospitality and meals - Jesus did it a lot and so should we inside and outside the church
• Authentic relationships - really care so we don't respond or expect 'fine' as the response to 'how are you' at all times but actually engage with one another in all of life's journey
• Have as many non-Christian friends as we have Christian and spend more of our time outside the church
• Disciples- grow and mature us everywhere we go others can see Christ in us and all we say and do and are
• Confidence in our ability to hear God through scripture - so everyday with Jesus not Selwyn or whoever
• Prayer and worship that reflects (as the psalms do) all aspects of life - joy and sorrow, life and death, confidence and fear, trust and doubt
• Openess to and care of the stranger and alien - remembering our life on the margins as the people of God and fighting for others to have freedom as well.
• Difference is enriching not threatening - within the church as well as outside of it.

I know there are more thoughts milling round my mind - the queston now is how....