Local Body Voting

We see these all too common headlines:  “Divorce Rapidly Increasing”, “Decay of Religion and Its Values”, “Sports Becoming Increasingly Violent”, “Obsession with Pleasure and Entertainment”, “Taxes and Spending of Public Money Increasing”, “The Dignity and Sanctity of the Home Undermined”.  Where did these headlines comes from?  They were first printed 100 plus years ago by historian Edward Gibbons in a book detailing the social conditions that lead to fall of the Roman Empire.  It’s true – history does repeat itself! 

Yes the Local Body Elections are upon us again.  The signs are out.  Campaigning is in full swing. Soon the votes will be counted, and some will be elated to be elected, others will be disappointed not to have made it. 

Sadly too many are completely uninterested and may not even vote.  They say they’re not interested, and whatever the outcomes it doesn’t matter that much to them.  An understandable position, but a wrong one.  Pericles once said, "Just because you do not take an interest in politics, doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you".  Every political decision locally and nationally will have its impact upon us or our loved ones somewhere along the line.  If we do not vote, we have no right to criticise or complain when unpalatable decisions are made by the court in the decades ahead. 

It can be hard to decide who to vote for.  But in my view some issues are clear.  Certainly we want representatives (Mayor, Councilors and Board Members) who are men and women of values and integrity, who support family, and honesty.  We want voices around our city’s decision making tables who believe in the future of our children, who are concerned about the protection of morality, who have foresight, but are also business savvy, practical, pragmatic, innovative, and decisive. 

Who would volunteer to be such a person?  Thankfully many have, (and they need our prayers).  We have the incredible freedom and right to vote, to influence the future of our city and region.  That is something I for one value highly.  So let’s vote to do our part to stop the headlines of history as above repeating itself in our beloved Bay of Plenty!  

Kids Breakfasts

We’ve heard a bit lately about giving kids a good breakfast at school.  We know how important it is to start the day well fed – it’s not just a brawn thing, it applies to the brain as well.  So this concept is an admirable one.  We want our kids to be in the best state of mind to be able to learn and grow, to become well balanced citizens in later life. 

One can’t help thinking though, as good as this is, is it not just the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff?  Of course we must have the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, otherwise many would be in pretty bad shape.  We must do what we can to those who for whatever reasons, have fallen over the edge of that cliff. 

We now ask the obvious?  Why are our kids turning up at school hungry?  I never did.

A friend of mine (not here) runs courses largely government funded, about Life 101.  Candidates on this course learn the basics of life including personal hygiene, preparing a basic meal and budgeting.  They found that candidates thought doing the washing meant putting the clothes in the bath with some water and stomping on them!  They had no idea about planning, shopping for, preparing and cooking an absolutely basic but good wholesome nutritious and protein filled meal.  They had no concept of prioritising finances, and that things like the latest TV and game program is a lesser priority than the food for the week.  It was no surprise that the children from homes such as these turned up at school starving. 

It seems the things we used to learn from our parents, often our mother or grandmother, are not being learned these days.  Basic life skills that set one up to be able to live and be a good citizen and contribute to society rather than be a drain on it.  Perhaps we as society (which by the way includes the church) needs to look at ways in which these skills can be passed to a young generation.  Because as they say prevention is better than cure (and it usually costs less too).  

Life After Crash ... Finding Meaning To Live Again

A Credentialed Minister for over 28 years with a strong sense of call, I have served as sole charge Pastor in three local churches, and as Director of Studies in a Bible School in large city church.  When I started ministry all those years ago, I thought and totally believed I would serve and preach and minister until the day I die!  In fact I even said I’d die in the pulpit!  We (I say we as my wife is an integral part of my ministry – I could not do what I do without her) have seen the Lord do amazing things among His people.  We have learned so much about ourselves, God, His Word, Kingdom things, and we have a love for and a passion for the local church, people, leadership development, Christian maturity and for Pastors and Ministers.  

But something happened that I had not planned for nor expected.  It changed everything.  I mean everything!  About seven years ago, my body and soul just said enough.  I couldn’t go on, couldn’t do anything.  I was an emotional wreck.  I was given some time off from the pastoral role we were in at the time (pastoring a local church in a small regional town) and basically sat in a chair for five weeks resting, sleeping, weeping, wondering, worshipping, trying to pray, but looking out to a wonderful long view of a mountain.  They were my darkest days.  I had no meaning to life, let alone a reason or purpose to do anything. 

Yes.  I’d just – as they say – had burnout!  Humiliating.  Depressing.  I thought I was a failure.  But my burnout didn’t come from times of success and growth.  I’ve read the stories.  This seems to be the case in many burnout testimonies.  Usually stories of pastors ministers and others I have read about and studied have burnt out at times of incredible success; they’ve had lots of new people coming to the church, invitations to speak all over the place are flooding in so they’re in demand, they’re busy working 80 hour weeks, new initiatives are launched and proving productive all the time it seems, the place is pumping and buzzing, everything is going very well!  To me, looking at a list like that as I have over the years, it was obvious they couldn’t last at that pace.  It’s true; some have an amazing energy, and can survive on little sleep.  (Donald Trump sleeps on average four to five hours a night, and has done so most of his life). 

But I wasn’t working every night of the week, “burning the candle at both ends”.  We were diligently taking our days off and holidays.  It happened when life was just pretty much the same old daily weekly monthly grind.  But I wasn’t seeing any real advancement in what I was trying to achieve, my vision wasn’t happening.  We weren’t seeing any real growth in attendances, financially it was getting harder, and I wasn’t seeing any real advancement in what I was trying to achieve, my vision wasn’t happening.  I was feeling a little trapped in trying to be something I felt was needed to grow the church. 

It’s been amazing for me to have some wonderful mentors over the years, through their books and seminars.  But my problem was also trying to be like them, trying to do the same things!  Upon reflection these years after the event, maybe another reason was unrealistic expectations.  Faith and vision are wonderful things but unrealistic expectations can be a killer! 

Believing it was right we soon moved from that place to where we are now, still within an hour’s drive to our kids and grandkids.  We both felt like all our life and hopes and dreams were over.  They’d been cut off, just like how Job described.  He said there is hope for a tree if it is cut down and that at the scent of water it will grow again.  (Job 14:7-9).  But, in the very next verse he says; ‘But man dies and is laid away; indeed he breathes his last and where is he?’  (Job 14:10).  Job is despairing of life so much that he believes a tree can be revived, but not man.  For us that experience was painful.  When you’ve worked for something, dreamed about it, put your whole life into it for 25 years, and then it is cut off, it is very painful.  It seemed as if there would be no way for those dreams to be fulfilled again.  We felt just like Job.  A failure.  Abandoned.  Cut off.  Without hope. 

Yet over a process of time almost unbeknown to us at the time we were discovering God to be amazing.  Something was happening but not overnight.  Meaning and purpose was returning back into our souls.  Slowly, little by little, things changed.  He has an ability to resurrect things.  Over time with God orchestrating things, closing doors and opening others, a recovery and healing was taking place.  He has and is resurrecting our dreams and vision and refreshing the calling. 

I still have many unanswered questions about the whole episode, why it happened, what lead up to it, what I could have done to avoid it, why didn’t I see it coming, why me, etc, etc!  But we’ve learnt one very significant lesson in recent times.  This is part of the serendipitous moment we’ve had, which is not a moment – although in God’s timing it probably is.  (I guess five to six years can be a moment to God!).  This is what we’ve come to know; ‘Who we are not what we do determines our value before God’.  Our reason for living comes from our connection to God, the Creator and Initiator of all things. 

So when I had no ministry, no preaching, no people looking to me for guidance, no regular sermon study, nothing that had in the past given me a sense of being needed, it seemed I had no value.  But the revelation that God my Father totally loves me and values me for who I am as His son, apart from anything I do or don’t do, has changed everything.  I think this an important lesson we all need to learn. 

This truth was clarified to me in recent times from a Scripture in Matthew.  Jesus before He starts His ministry, is being baptised by John the Baptist.  We read that God the Father booms down from Heaven; ‘This is My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased’.  (Matthew 3:17).  Here we have the Father speaking from Heaven some very important things – things we all need to hear.  It was a public, heavenly, authorised, declaration of the total love and care the Father had for the Son.  But the thing is, Jesus hadn’t done anything at all yet!  He hadn’t healed any sick, cast out any demons, raised any dead, turned any water into wine, multiplied any loaves and fishes to feed thousands!  He was just the Son of God!  All He’d done was probably make some tables, household furniture and other things as part of His earthly father’s carpentry business. 

I needed to know this also.  My being was wrapped up in my ministry doing.  Though the fruit of my ministry I thought was not as public, startling and newsworthy as others, my value was still tied to what was or was not happening around me as a result of my efforts.  So being out of ministry for a while was actually a good thing.  I learned that God still loves me just as I am. 

My identity was too tied to what wasn’t happening, my vision!  But where do we get our identity messages from?  We can get them from achievements, behaviour, or approval, appearance, possessions, or relationships.  But most of all we need to get our identity, who we really are, our meaning to live, from our Father!  I learnt something of the security of Father!  My identity is in Him.  That’s the case if I am “in the Ministry” or out of it. 

Being out of ministry has also shown us afresh what it is like to be ‘in the pews’” so to speak.  It’s given us a fresh understanding into the busy-ness of ordinary Christians’ lives, how they have pressures at home to juggle, more and more demands at work, then the expectation but desire to be at and serve in various way at church.  Life is very different to what it was 25 years ago.  But it has also given me a fresh passion and love for the local church.  It is human but Divine.  It is flawed but miraculous.  It is amazing.  It is God and people.  And God and people have been a huge help and healing to us. 

We have discovered one amazing key that has kept us and brought us through, is this; ‘ … yet at the scent of water … ‘  (Job 14:9).  Water brings life.  Water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  So it doesn’t matter how old, how dead, how barren, how growth-less, how lost, how boring and hopeless a situation might seem to us, when God by His Holy Spirit touches that situation, it can – in His time – spring back to life again.  We were very low.  But only by God’s grace we have maintained a lifestyle of reading God’s Word, worshipping in His house, and connection with other saints.  Even when those disciplines seemed fruitless, we just kept doing them. 

We may think burnout is failure.  I did, but it is not!  But even failure is not fatal or final!  God still loves us just as He always has.  God still cares for us and our earthly destiny just as He always has.  God’s promises are still dependable just as they have always been.  God still has our future at heart, and has great plans for us!  Just as He always has.  If there is hope for a tree, which in the natural can spring to life again, then in God’s economy with His miracle touch, there is also hope for you and me!  There is hope and meaning to live – it is found in Him! 

Read and grow rich!

Read and grow rich!  Sound a bit far fetched?  Well a true story to prove it’s possible.

A little girl was dealt a bad hand in life.  She was only a year old when she suffered a childhood illness which took away her sight and hearing.  She was trapped inside her mind.  She hadn’t leaned to speak.  She uttered grunts and animal sounds.  She went into fits of rage, smashing dishes and physically attacking anyone in the room with her.  More than one Doctor diagnosed her as mentally ill.  But her parents believed.

When she was seven, the family hired a young woman to tutor her.  For weeks the tutor tried to communicate with the girl by spelling words into her hand.  The little girl could feel the tutor’s fingers on her palm, but they didn’t have any meaning to her.  She was still trapped. 

Then one day a breakthrough came.  The little girl was holding a cup under a water spout.  The tutor kept spelling “w-a-t-e-r” into the girl’s hand.  Suddenly the girl understood that the letters represented an object!  The door to the world flew wide open to her!  She ran around grabbing everything she could, begging the tutor to spell the name of each object into her palm.  That day the little girl was no longer trapped inside her mind.  She was free.

The little girl grew to her full potential, and it was the technology of reading that enabled her to transform herself.  Once she understood the concept of reading and writing, she became a veracious learner.  (Remember, she’s blind and deaf!).  By the time she was 10 she was writing letters in French to famous people in Europe. 

She decided to go to University, and her dedicated tutor sat beside her spelling the words of lectures into her hand.  She graduated (the first deaf/blind person ever to graduate) with honours and went on the become a celebrated writer who was honoured by kings and presidents, and went on to publish 14 books. 

Just think – the little girl’s life began when she learned to read!  Her name by the way was Helen.  Helen Keller.  Ah yes, there is power in reading!  Let’s read and grow rich!