Our common theme is Jesus!

Buns are selling out fast at the wholesalers as 3 different women dump literally hundreds into their trolleys, looking as though they are about to re-enact the feeding of the 5,000, only without the miracle part, (now wouldn't that make catering easier!). 'It's our church BBQ this weekend' I say to one lady, by way of explanation for the contents of my trolley, 'Oh, ours too!' she replies. The third lady gave a knowing smile as though she too had been tasked with The Shopping for her church BBQ. My son (2) is 'helpfully' passing up the buns and I get worried that he is going to get squashed by a laden trolley in what is now a very cramped corner of the warehouse. The task is slow but finally we are pleased that our sell by dates are reasonable and that our sausage/burger/bap/finger roll ratio is satisfactory given that we are guessing the numbers of people who will be there depending on whether the sun is out or not - it is a complex equation. If we had visited the bun corner only minutes later there may have been none left and that would have constituted a Big Problem, phew!

The Vicar and I

I love many things about being married to the Vicar (as well as loving the Vicar, of course), and one of the them is being able to open my house and garden to our Church family. Today a good chunk of our church got together for the BBQ in the Vicarage garden. The garden was packed with people chatting, playing, eating and laughing. Friendships are being made and deepened. All generations are represented and are interacting together. People from many nations are present. Our backgrounds, our intellects, our bank accounts, our marital status have no particular common theme. Our common theme is Jesus, He has wooed each of us and won us by His love. His love is unconditional and is extended to all who will take hold of it. That is why we are family. Each of us has been adopted by our dear heavenly Father, and we are in the family that bears His name. We are all children of God, how awesome is that! In all our diversity He is our common theme.

I'm sure the ladies I linked eyes with at the wholesalers also had a great time at their BBQs. They're part of the family as well, you know. Our family is a big one, really big, joyously big. All over the world big.  But we long for others to come join us, we're hungry for new brothers and sisters to come and get adopted too. There are many rooms in my Father's house, and He wants to prepare one for you.

I looked around today and I thanked God for the privilege of having such an amazing family, it warms my heart so much, (especially when they help with the clearing up at the end of the day, which they did, brilliantly.) Thanks y'all! Love ya!

How are your BELLS?

Every Wednesday a wonderful group of ladies gather around my kitchen table for a simple soup lunch together. It is a time of laughter, connecting, sharing our lives, relaxing and occasional tears. It is a great blessing to me (and I hope to those who join me), to be surrounded by other women who long to bring Jesus into every area of their lives and together to encourage one another, pray together and support each other.

After eating we get down to the joyously serious stuff. This half term we are talking about BELLS, and I'm excited about it! "A whole half term about BELLS? How do you stretch such a subject so far?" Let me explain. It's a discipleship tool the Vicar came home with from a conference the other day. My dear ladies are used to my having ideas and trying them out on them, so I thought I would give it a go.

So, you take some of your core values as a group and turn them into observable behaviours. If you can then turn them into a word you will remember then that is very helpful, I have been thinking about BELLS all week. To be honest, we have just used the behaviours the Vicar came home with from the conference, to get us going quickly, but we may think of our own ones in time. We then use our time on a Wednesday, after some worship, to reflect on how we have done with our observable behaviours. The spirit of it is, of course, not to just tick boxes, but to use it as a tool for us to grow in relationship with God. So, this is what BELLS means to us...

Bless - the core value is loving one another, so we seek to bless someone in the church, someone outside the church, and then either someone in or out of the church. It can be anything, a little blessing or a big blessing!

Eat - the core value is hospitality, so we seek to eat with someone in the church, someone out of the church, and someone either in or out of the church. We are intentional about being with others, honouring them and inviting them into our lives. Its amazing how much time Jesus spent eating with people, it must be important! (In fact,  in our Wednesday group I feel we have grown a lot together just by starting to eat together).

Listen - we want to be humble and listen to what our Heavenly Father wants to say to us, so we seek to spend an hour a week in contemplative prayer, listening to Him, rather than bringing our requests. It can be a whole hour but equally it can be six lots of ten minutes.

Learn - a sermon on Sunday is not enough to feed us, so we feed ourselves with God's Word daily. We are always reading a Gospel, we want to be more like Jesus, so its great to keep our focus on Him. Then we are also reading another book of the Bible and then any other book which will edify us (doesn't have to be a Christian one). We read as much as suits us, no pressure. We might chew on a couple of verses for days, or gallop through a book in one reading. All cool!

Sent - we are sent out into the world to be a light, to be about our Father's business, doing what He asks us to do. So we reflect and journal (to help us process and remember), ideally each day, and we ask ourselves these questions - 'Where did I work with Jesus today?' and 'Where did I resist Jesus today?'. I gave everyone a note book for journalling in to help get us started (mine was quickly covered with Cath Kidston gift wrap, it makes me smile and helps me hang out with it!).

It is early days, but I have seen my group really begin to grasp this. Wonderfully, it is equally challenging for those who have been Christians 30 years, or 3 months. When we share together about our joys and difficulties with our BELLS from the previous week we can mentor each other and encourage each other. We feel safe to say we have failed, because that is when we learn together. We can pool our bible knowledge to understand a passage we might have found tricky. We might be inspired to know how someone had blessed another, 'if she can do it, perhaps I can!' Struggling to understand how to listen to God? 'Here is how I do it, perhaps it might help'. The possibilities for the discussions and learning from one another are endless, and all the while we are each all growing throughout the week. Oh, and lets pray for each other about all of this, and when we see each other during the week ask 'How are your BELLS? What fun!

Making Space for Jesus

This week I have begun a good old clear out, something I love to do! However this time it comes with a spiritual dimension, which has added to my joy in throwing out, giving away, recycling and freecycling. For a while now my mental space has been growing smaller, you know, that space where you get to dream and pray and get excited about something, and pray and plan and dream some more, and then perhaps even put it all into action. I used to do that a lot, all the time. But somehow the mundane but important has begun to take up all my dreaming space, my hearing from God space. We all have to do it, shop, cook, tidy,  clean (well, I think about that more than actually do it!), fill out forms for school, tidy, help with homework, iron school uniform, tidy, find shoes, its endless, endless, and somehow I struggle to think of much else. I know there is another world out there, but I just can't seem to reach it!

Anyway, I finally got around to asking the Lord what I should do about it, if He had any wisdom on this matter for me. And yes, straight away He began to remind me about not storing up for ourselves treasures on earth (Matt 6v19-21). Oh, how I have stored up stuff! I might not have considered it treasure, but how I have sorted it out, tidied it, looked for it when it was missing, bid for it, hidden it away in places until it was needed, kept it 'just in case', moved it all again, shopped for it, imagined times when I would have plenty of time to use it and so kept it for that special day. Suddenly I realised just how much my stuff has stolen from me, my time mainly, but also my energy, money and sometimes my patience ("Am I the only one that actually puts things away around here, grrrr, grrrr, grrrr"). Whenever I see something in the wrong place (all the time!), or a bit missing to a game it (very often!) it occupies some of my mental space and robs me of some of my energy. 

Later in the passage, v 21, it says 'For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also'. I had always thought 'heart' meant strong desire towards something, something I really love. And I didn't think I really loved my stuff in that way. However, I have learnt that 'heart' can also mean 'mind'. Yes, I realise that my mind is on my stuff a lot, I don't want it to be, because I don't really love most of it, but just by the sheer volume of stuff we have it requires far too much of my attention, attention that I would rather be giving to 'seeking first the kingdom of God', in whatever form that takes for me. 

So, this time its serious. A lot of stuff is going. And a new attitude is arriving. An attempt to flow against the consumerist tide that we swim in. Already my head feels a little clearer, already Jesus has begun to plant a new dream in me, just for me. It feels so much better!