Tuesday 22 May 2012

Living in spin.The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

"Mum! There's nothing in this house to eat!" "You never wash my clothes!" "You never buy anything good to eat!" "You're/we're always late!" As a parent of a teenager, words like these are really good at pushing my buttons. Reflecting on why it gets to me me so much, I realise it is partly because it is usually blatantly untrue (therefore unjust!), but also, I think it is because this way of speaking seems to have become the norm for so much of our society. Not specifically, of course, but the style of exaggerating so much of what we say way past much semblance of the truth.

Actually, one of my pet hates at the moment is the excessive and inflated use of certain adjectives, particularly those such as "awesome", "fantastic" and "amazing". While I agree that it is good to be positive about and grateful for the various aspects of our lives, we can amplify this completely out of proportion to reality, or we use these words so often that they become ordinary; they lose their impact and sense of the special. For those listening (or reading) it can end up having the effect of making them feel as though their lives really could never match up (even though they are not too different). Alternatively when something truly out of the ordinary happens, we have no language left to use.


While, certainly, much of this hype has its source in advertising, where more and more outrageous claims seem to need to be made to be heard above the clamour of "consume, consume, consume", over-the-top adjectives and spinning the truth out to get a good emotive story appear to have become the norm in many facets of life. Media thrives on this (we are ever amused to hear an advertisement about a story on one or other of the current affairs programs which seems to bear little similarity to the actual story that appears, or has no substance underneath), as do our politicians. I have to say that I find it quite disturbing how little of the messages we get from politicians seem to be based on actual fact rather than innuendo and truth 
stretching.

And we are probably all familiar with the idea of the use of spin in public relations, but it is alarming how accepting we have become of this. In a discussion about the idea of a 'just war', John Howard Yoder says that the control of information or "spin" has become a "science and an art". However, he also states that "disinformation and spin control invalidate...administrators’ claim to legitimacy." The problem is, when we start to rely on "spin" to control the people around us, whether it be our parents, our children, or in wider organisations, we sacrifice our integrity and our credibility. People around us either start to tune out to anything we say, or simply become very sceptical and cynical about us and whatever we represent. 


Personally, for quite some time I have endeavoured to remove the words "always" and "never" from my vocabulary (except, of course, in relation to mathematical constructs!). Of course, to my analytical mind  these words are rarely true, and we can't prove it anyway, quite apart from the knowledge that this type of language tends to be unhelpfully inflammatory in personal discussions. I am reminded of Jesus' words in Matthew 5:37, where He says, "Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No'". Although this was in regards to making promises, I think we can safely extrapolate it to mean 'be honest'. Tell it how it really is and don't dress it up to make other people happy or to manipulate them in any other way. Keep your integrity and credibility intact. Genuine honesty is such a rare commodity today and I think people really appreciate knowing that what you say is the truth, nothing more, nothing less. 










Sunday 6 May 2012

Winter...a poem

So it has happened.
Winter has come.
And its coldness and barrenness
Have shocked you, saddened you.
Even though you saw the signs,
Heard the warning,
The emptiness stretching ahead 
Without sign of abating
Seems to have the power to shrink your soul
Even just thinking about it.


How will you survive?


Just asking the question seems to open up a glimmer of a vista,
An iota of hope.
How have you survived winter in the past?
What did others do?


So instead of simply enduring, hibernating
It is time to be overt, proactive.
Seek out those places, people of warmth
Where conversations are filled with life
That will sustain and carry you.
Contemplate anew past promises for the future.
And above all, remember: 
The dying that is Winter 
Is essential
Before the New Life 
That is Spring
Can usher in
A new season.

Saturday 21 April 2012

Signs of the Seasons

I love Autumn. I love the mild, sunny days, the chill of the mornings and evenings, the smell of smoke drifting across, but most of all the changing trees. The colours of the leaves against the deep blue of the sky, or with the sun shining through making them even more vibrant floods my soul with joy and peace. And the way the leaves float lazily to the ground or fall in a flurry, like rain, with a gust of the breeze fills me with wonder. I find myself amazed by this whole process of the trees losing their leaves.


I have heard a number of scientific explanations, such as the fact that the leaves don't actually fall off, but are pushed off by next Spring's leaf buds. (This is how you know when a tree is dead as the leaves die but don't fall off.) Another explanation is regarding the sensitivity of the trees to the subtle changes in the weather, shorter days and cooler temperatures, that we as humans are largely unaware of or remain unaffected by.


Thinking about this I find myself reflecting again on the parallels between the natural world and the spiritual world. I am reminded of a couple of places in the Bible where Jesus also draws this parallel. In Matt 24:32, He says' "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near." And in Matt 16:2-3, He rebukes the religious leaders looking for a sign, saying, 'When evening comes, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red", and in the morning, "Today will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast."' He goes on to reprimand them that they have no problems working with the 'natural', but when it comes to the spiritual they, who are supposedly the experts in such matters, have no understanding.


When Jesus talks to His disciples in Matthew 24 about the signs they should expect in the 'end times', there is a sense of comfort rather than condemnation. I think that in our 'natural' state, we can tend to get fearful about what will happen in these times, rather than simply being informed. Something I read this morning triggered the thought that when we worry and fear our circumstances, the things happening to us and around us, we are actually behaving in a way that is not trusting God. Trusting Him is not something that is automatic, or our natural bent. We have to work at it in the little things - like a muscle, trust gets stronger and grows as we use it. It also comes from relationship. We will struggle to trust those we do not know well.


Being informed also involves deepening our relationship with God. We need to practice hearing in the Spirit, spending time listening to God and asking the right questions, so that like the trees, we increase in our sensitivity to the signs of the times, we recognise the changing spiritual seasons. We then need to place those signs in the right context of our Biblical understanding, so we are not afraid but informed. The signs are not there to bring judgement or condemnation on us, but to help us to live with the changes as they happen. Just as Autumn, in the natural, is a sign to prepare for the hardships of winter, stocking up, harvesting, preparing a warm cosy place, so are the signs we see in the spiritual world there to help us be prepared, like the wise virgins of Matt 25. 



Tuesday 17 April 2012

Its Always Darkest Before the Dawn

So justice is driven back, 
and righteousness stands at a distance; 
truth has stumbled in the streets, 
honesty cannot enter. 
Truth is nowhere to be found, 
and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.
Is 59:14-15a

As I read these words as a facebook post a few days ago, they resonated with my spirit in that way where you know God is saying something. While I had no problem understanding the picture that is painted and how relevant it is for the culture we live in, I was not sure what to do with it.

Reading through the whole of Isaiah 59, I was further disturbed. Words such as "No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies..." and "They...spin a spider's web...Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make" describe so well our society where spin is king, where people have a belief that if they say something often enough and loud enough, it becomes true or that hiding or modifying the truth is justified by the ends they desire to meet. However, these words remind us that God is not deceived, God sees through all the webs we spin to cover ourselves and we reap the consequences (see verse 2).

Reading this, I have a sense of outrage that justice, righteousness, truth and honesty seem to have been rendered powerless. The words "evil prospers when good men do nothing" come to mind, and I wonder why, as Christians, we seem so ready to accept powerlessness as our lot? While a part of me wants to rise up and defend justice, righteousness, truth and honesty, though, I realise equally that they need no such defence. By defending or explaining the Truth I bring the focus back on me, and the Truth loses its power. However, equally I should not fear the Truth, but simply present it and allow it to speak for itself. As verses 19 and 20 promise us, remind us: God's glory will be revered, He will act.

Verse 21 follows with the promise that God's Spirit will come on us and His words will be in our mouths and that neither will ever depart from us. Chapter 60:1-3 completes the picture, noting that it is not so much our action or behaviour that brings this about, but the action of God on our lives as we lay down them down to join with His:

"Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth 
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and His glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light
and kings to the brightness of your dawn."

At times it can be easy to be overwhelmed by the darkness around us and to wonder if there is any hope. However, it is in times like this that we must stand boldly for what we believe, hold onto the Truth and not deviate one bit. We cannot afford to get distracted by what is going on around us, by the ebbs and flows of human opinion, but must keep our focus on God and what He is doing. There will come a time when the darkness will become irrelevant in the light of His glory and grace.






Tuesday 10 April 2012

Faith and Patience

Sometimes when I am reading I come upon something that is profound and yet obvious at the same time. This morning was one of those times. One of the books I am reading at the moment is "There Were Two Trees in the Garden" by Rick Joyner (a book I would recommend without hesitation). In it he quotes Hebrews 6:12 as exhorting us to "be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises". Joyner goes on to point out that "True faith cannot be separated from patience." Indeed, our ability to be patient (or not) is actually a measure of our faith in God; do we really believe that He is faithful and true to His promises? 


The alternative is that we are impatient and like Abraham, give birth to our own 'Ishmaels', symbols of our lack of patience and our belief that we need to work out our own answers rather than waiting on God. And there it is again. Waiting. Waiting takes patience. I would rather be doing. 


Personally, I have felt like I am in the waiting room for a number of years now. Every now and again, I wonder if I have missed something, if I should be doing something different. It's usually when I see others going out and all the pieces seeming to fall into place for them and I wonder why it is not happening for me, why my promised 'child' is so slow in coming. But each time, as I step back, I know that I don't want to run ahead of God. Even though there may be some immediate rewards and benefits (like human approval), long term I know I will not end up where I want to be. As a wise friend pointed out the other day, if we deviate only one degree off the course of walking beside Jesus, the further we walk down that path, the further away from Him we get. 


As I continue on with my studies looking at spiritual formation, I am reminded again and again that it is not about what we do or what we know but about Who we know and what we do with Him. One of my favourite pictures from Jesus is of the vine and the branches in John 15:1-17. Jesus repeatedly affirms that it is as we abide or remain in Him that He remains in us, and that this is where true fruitfulness will come from. The more time we spend abiding with Jesus the more like Him we will become and the more faith and patience we will find we have.

Monday 2 April 2012

His faithfulness is sufficient


This semester my studies are focussed on spiritual formation, perhaps most simply put as being about our growing in Christ-likeness. A discussion in many of the readings is that ever difficult line between what has already been done for/in us in Christ through grace (a free, unmerited gift) and the idea that this grace should change our behaviour and attitudes. The problem is that we have a tendency to measure God's approval and favour of us by what we do. We measure how loved or lovable we are (or someone else is) by various aspects of behaviour, from morals and behaviours to even our 'spirituality', 'anointing' or 'giftedness'.

It is a difficult question, though. I mean, if I am truly impacted by the love and grace of God, I will behave differently, won't I? I will be more loving toward others, more in tune with God's will, hear more clearly from Him. Surely?

On the flip side of this, however, I have wondered about how it seems to be possible to appear to hear from God and yet seem not to be transformed by Him. Then I realised that there is a huge difference between 'hearing from the Spirit' and 'walking in the Spirit'. It's all about what we do with it. Are we mere hearers, or do we actually do what we hear? (James 1:22-25)

Added to this, our hearing can be very
 selective. We can listen to the bits that support us, that help us maintain our position and ignore or remain deaf (blind) to those bits that challenge us to change. One of my readings talked about the idea that we even form "theologies" that enable us to ignore injustice either around us or even caused by us, to keep us in our comfortable place were we don't need to truly suffer or feel the pain of those who do. In the midst of this we walk another fine line of whether we can truly experience God's love and yet not truly love others (see 1 John 4), which might be demonstrated by standing with them in their suffering.

In the midst of this I am challenged by my own lack of love or compassion for others, particularly those who I see as perpetuating injustice. How do I truly love those who behave in ways that I see as damaging to others around them, whom I perceive as perpetrators of injustice and hypocrisy without joining them? I am reminded of the story of the unjust steward (Matt 18) and realise that I lack understanding of the size of the debt I have been released from which is why it is so easy to condemn others. 



A number of times more recently, I have been impacted by the idea that our culture has forgotten (or would rather forget) the importance of grief and lament and that even if we do acknowledge our need for these in the process of repentance, we often skip through it, we don't like to dwell there, and so move quickly on to focussing on the fact that we are forgiven and never properly comprehend our true inability to do good, to do what is right and so never fully appreciate what has been done for us on the cross. 


And that brings us to yet another of those fine lines, between condemnation and conviction. Perhaps we have experienced way too much condemnation (which says 'try harder' and 'you are not good enough') rather than conviction, where in the midst of understanding that our behaviour/attitudes are not acceptable, we experience being accepted and loved. 

Tying all this together, I got a great picture from one of my readings which has stuck with me. It is a quote from Hendrikus Berkhof as he discusses the role of grace in us, coupled with our faith (which, in turn is not ours but a gift!), and our inability to bring about any transformation in ourselves. He says:

"His faithfulness also consists in the fact that he creates and seeks our faithfulness and realizes his faithfulness in and through our faithfulness and so causes it to triumph. We do not persevere, but he perseveres, by constantly calling us, disturbing us, inspiring us ."
As much as we would like to think we have power in and of ourselves over any aspect of our lives for transformation, the reality is that He is gently pursuing, guiding and helping us every step of the way. We really don’t have to do anything but cooperate. How’s that for freedom!

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Blessing comes with a purpose

I was looking back through my journal this morning, reflecting that sometimes my scrawling is at least as impacting to me now as it was when I wrote it - sometimes more so. This was one that stood out particularly. It was from Isaiah 5


My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines...Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit...What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? 

Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”

The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land... 
Two things stood out for me in this. The first is a picture of God's love for His people - that He removes the 'stones', prepares the ground, plants good things. Also, He protects us with walls and hedges and provides us with nurture (rain).

The second is the problem is that it is up to us to bear good fruit. The indictment on these people was that they enjoyed all these blessings as though it was all about them. Verse 8 says that they added house to house, field to field until there was no space left and they lived alone in the land. They failed to give justice or live righteously (verse 7) and therefore there would be no justice for them. (The chapter continues with a long list of woes and warnings about the bad fruit that God is unimpressed with, much of which is surprisingly relevant to today!) It comes as a warning that God will tolerate His people's lack of care about justice for only so long before He will call them to account or remove their blessing.

As God's people today, we who are given so much are called not only to 'live righteously' (not do bad/wrong stuff), but also to be advocates/ambassadors against injustice, to live loudly against the injustice of the world both in word and deed.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Gaining or losing?


So this morning I lost. It started with losing the morning battle with the dog. We have been trying to train her to not jump all over us as we leave, to allow us to go out the gate peaceably. However, this morning she saw an opportunity to escape and took it. Usually I take a deep breath and try to cajole her back in, rather than to aggravate the situation by getting angry with her. This morning I lost my temper. To the point where I was totally unreasonable. Then I lost in my relationship with my daughter who was upset for a whole plethora of other reasons, which I managed to further exacerbate. 


After dropping her to school, as I drove home I calmed down enough to ask myself, "What was that all about?" Straight away the word "control" dropped into my mind. As I thought about that, I realised that at the moment there are a number of areas where I am feeling powerless, feeling as though change needs to happen but that I am powerless to bring it about. As soon as I acknowledged this, I got somewhat annoyed with myself. I have been through this enough times before. Will I never learn?


The reality is, I cannot control anything in life other than my own response (and even there, obviously, there are times when I fail miserably!). 


The reality is that every aspect of my life is in the hand of God, even my next breath. 


The reality is, the only way to deal with my powerlessness is to lay it down, to apologise to God for trying to take control, to admit that I cannot control anything, that only He has that privilege and to 'hand it back' to Him. 


The paradox is that when I accept His control over my life and circumstances, what has seemed out of control suddenly gets re-framed. I realise again that when I allow Him to direct my steps (some might say 'control' my steps) everything is in order, under control. My faith in His sovereignty says that nothing happens that He does not allow for His purposes. At that point, I am free. I don't have to make anything happen because He will bring about His purposes through all things as He has promised. (Romans 8:23 - And we know that in all things God workfor the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.)


So this morning I lost. My daughter lost. The dog...well, I don't think the dog really cares. However, I don't believe we have to live in a place where the loss remains a loss. The loss of my temper highlighted to me that I had lost my freedom in some way and needed to deal with it. The situation with my daughter opens up a much needed opportunity for frank discussion about how we are both travelling. And, praise God, I am not stuck here in the place of my failure. God does not keep reminding me of my weaknesses and mistakes, keep me trapped in that place, but sets me back on my feet to try walking again in the freedom He has given me. That all sounds like gain to me.


Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. Luke 17:33

Thursday 15 March 2012

Gardening with God

God often shows me things when I am out gardening. The other day I was cleaning out a garden bed that was overrun with violets and sea daisies. I had let them grow there to fill the gaps (rather than 'weeds'), but they had taken over to the point that everything else was getting crowded out. I had even lost some plants.


As I was pulling out clumps of violets, I found areas where they had been so embedded and the roots were so dense that the soil underneath was completely dry, even though we had had over 50mm of rain in the few days before. As I dug and pulled I felt God showing me that when my life is over-whelmed with "stuff", all jam-packed in filling my time and space, even if I sit in a deluge of the Holy Spirit, it only affects me on the surface - I may get enough of His Living Water to 'get by', to keep me alive, but it never really changes me or reaches deep down into the roots of my being. I cannot thrive.


A concept about God that I have loved learning and thinking about in my studies is that He loves to create space for life and for relationship. Seeing the adverse way 'clutter' affected my garden confronts me again with my need to create space in all aspects of my life not only to grow but to thrive. I cannot afford to get overwhelmed with stuff that "looks good" or simply fills the spaces (or time!). Sometimes space can be awkward or seem bare (or even be a place where 'weeds' grow), but it is this space that enables me to receive all I need from God. I need to step out and take the risk of a lack of 'productivity' to create space for God to fill with the stuff He wants to grow in me!

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Do you love Me?

In John 21:15, Jesus asks Peter the question, "Do you truly love me more than these?" While it is not exactly clear what the "these" were that Jesus was referring to at that time, I recently heard Him ask this question of me. "Do you love me more than these - your achievements, your learning, the tasks you 'need' to get done, the things you want to do, even My plans or outcomes that you are chasing after?"


If I answer 'yes', (which is what I want to answer), then it needs to be outworked in my behaviour. Simply, I need to prize spending time with Him, in His presence, in His REST. I have had a couple of timely reminders of this message lately - to live in His rest, and when I find myself out of it, to quickly return. His rest is peace and safety and trust that He has everything in hand. I don't need to worry or fuss. In fact, the less I worry and fuss, the more clearly and accurately I can assess situations and what I am called to do or say, not responding to my emotional state, but out of peace and rest. When I am feeling frustrated, anxious, angry or other negative emotions, I need to first take that to Jesus, then ask Him to help me see it from His perspective, and then ask what (if anything) He wants me to do.



Saturday 10 March 2012

What does your loo say about you?


You have probably seen the ad. A bunch of women come to your house, ostensibly to visit your newborn baby, but with the secret mission to find out how you are coping via the cleanliness of your toilet. And they are scoring you, so you better use our product because it will ensure that you are acceptable! Really???

Over a period of time, but especially the last few days, I have been impacted by a number of truths about the lies we believe. One is a recurring thought, which clarified today as I cleaned the tiles in my bathroom. It is about the idea that a certain product will bring your tiles and grout back to perfection with just one spray and a wipe over. I have tried this product. It doesn’t work. Friends have agreed. I have wondered a number of times, how these products keep making sales, keep advertising, keep people coming back. This morning I realised that a large part of the problem comes from our beliefs. Because the advertisement on tv says something, we give it authority in and over our lives. We believe that it must be true because it is so public. So, rather than acknowledging that the advertisers lie, or at minimum stretch the truth, we take the blame ourselves. We must be defective in our cleaning prowess, we must not be using it right, or often enough and so on.

Another insight came from a clip that my husband was watching on the internet the other night. It was a presentation by Jean Kilbourne, who has been highlighting the issue of the way in which women are both portrayed and used in advertising over a number of decades. Amongst many other points (check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ujySz-_NFQ&feature=related), she showed just how much of a lie the pictures are that advertisers present us with, making the point that even the models don’t look like their pictures in reality (the images are so doctored). My daughter made the statement that she doesn’t believe the stuff she is told by advertising. However, the absolute insidiousness of the lie is that it is not the message we are given explicitly, but the images that are stored away in our brains. Although we don’t do it overtly or even consciously, every time we look in the mirror (or at our photo) our brain is comparing our looks, shape, and so on with those images stored away in our brains. This is what is takes to look good, if you don’t look like this, then you don’t look good. The problem is that looking like that is an impossibility because it is not real. The advertisers want us to stay in that place, though, because we will never be satisfied with ourselves so will keep buying products to try to feel good about ourselves, even though there is a part of us that knows we will never succeed. (An interesting side note here is about a mascara ad we noticed a while back, which actually carried the disclaimer that the model was wearing false lashes – it was not the product that gave her those gloriously long and voluptuous lashes!)

Added into this mix was an article I came across in the Herald Sun asking what type of “schoolgate mum” you were. Just to make sure you really couldn’t compete, they used celebrities as the ‘models’ for each ‘yummy mummy’ category, with tags such as “high end glamour”, “sporty”, “earth mother”, “casual chic” and even “homely classic”. Where was the “depressed, haven’t had a shower, but got my kid here on time, fed and clean anyway” (that was me for a period of time), or “slept in, so still in my pyjamas and late for the third time this week”? Again, we are given an impossible image to live up to. In reality, how many of us have nannies and other paid employees to help with child-raising and housework so we have time, let alone money to spend working out and so on to look like that? And even more importantly, who gave the mandate that we are not good enough if we don’t look like that? The reality of the lives of most of us are ignored, and another burden is added as we are given the message that there is only one way to be. I ask the question again, who made the decision that the only look that is acceptable is “sexy” or “hot”? And why do we accept it?

So where does that leave me? It has been a long journey. Going through the pain of divorce meant I had to dig deep to find the resources to deal with my issues of rejection and low self-esteem. But it didn’t take divorce for me to struggle with these issues, they were there long before. And I don’t think I am alone. I have a feeling many of us put on the face of pretending we feel good about ourselves, all the while dying a little more inside each day.

A huge question comes back to what we put our trust in. I don’t think the world’s opinion in general has been a conscious issue for me, but I know I have struggled for many years with a desire for acceptance by individuals. However, I came to a place of realising that other people were not the answer. While I am looking for their approval or acceptance, trying to find my worth from what others say about me (or I think they think!), I will always struggle. The reality is that no matter what they promise, other people will always let you down. They can’t not, as no one is perfect, no one has it all together, no matter how well they present. When we put them in that position, we are also setting them up for failure, not to mention the fact that we have no right to expect them to perform to our tune!

I had a friend at uni who suggested that she could find her strength inside herself. The problem with this is that we start to make ourselves ‘God’ – we become the beginning and end in ourselves. Asides from the self-centredness this breeds in us (it is all about me), it doesn’t work. We always come to a place where I am not enough on my own. Sometimes (lots of times!) I need more than just ‘faith in myself’.

In the end, the answer came in genuinely putting my reliance in God. As much as I had believed in His love for me theoretically, I have to experience it and accept it and receive it for myself, not just once, but by living in that place of knowing that my worth, my value must come from what my Creator thinks of me, the value and worth He places on me. The verses in the Bible that tell me about this are innumerable, but one that I was reminded of again more recently is 1 Peter 1:18,19, “You were rescued from the useless way of life that you learned from your ancestors [Getting your worth from what others think about you, or from what you think they think!]. But you know that you were not rescued by such things as silver or gold [or looking “hot” or having a clean toilet or 2000+ facebook friends] that don't last forever. You were rescued by [bought with] the precious blood of Christ…” (CEV+my additions) As was pointed out to me sometime back, “How much are you worth to God? The blood of His only Son.”

Every time I feel the weight of condemnation over my life, whether it be in reality or in my mind, I remind myself that condemnation does not come from God (conviction, yes, but that is a whole different matter). My acceptability and value to Him does not come from what I do, how I look or who I am friends with or even how many facebook ‘friends’ I have! It comes from the fact that He created me and loves me. I am His beloved. When I find myself comparing myself to others in any of these areas and using this to judge how I am going, I realise it is time to go back to the bathroom. Not to clean the toilet, but to look myself in the eyes and remind myself that I am His beloved, which says far more than any loo ever could!