The Fog

This is part of a series I'm writing this year called 'The Other A-Z of Christianity'.
In most A-Z lists of Christianity you'll find that 'J' is for Jesus, 'F' is for faith, 'S' is for sin or salvation and 'A' for atonement.
What I want to do in this series is to go a little deeper and write about some topics that don't always get top billing but are still important.

C. Community

Community, family, fellowship, call it what you will, but at the end of the day it has become the unwilling casualty in a world gone mad.

We live in a world that's destroying itself, not through global warming but through the global war to be in control, to be the one who's right, to be the one who others look up to. We've become a society where selfishness is applauded, where money can buy you anything and where the right to own a gun is more important than the right for every human on the planet to have a regular healthy meal.
We've become a world where community has become little more than a dim light in the fog of selfishness.
And to make things worse, this fog has crept into some niches of the Christian church.

We, as Christians, need to take a good look in the mirror. Not our own fragile fogged-up mirror, but Gods fog-free mirror, the Bible. Trouble is, we've managed to fog up that as well with our own selfish, comfortable, naïve theologies that put us on a pedestal instead of God.
We need to drop the chains of theology and very simply do what Jesus said....'Follow me.'
Follow his example of love, selflessness, compassion, mission and prayer. Jesus 'power' came through submission to the Father. We try to do it the other way, to get our power by having others to submit to us.

It saddens me that people have become nothing more than pawns in the power plays of the powerful. And I'm not just talking about politicians. I'm talking about everyday people, you and me, who, in our own selfishness seek to get our own way in any given situation.
What we need to do is step back and let God have his way.
Each of us needs to let Gods love, grace and wisdom be our guiding light in every situation.

When we let the warmth of Gods love shine through then the fog of  our selfishness will fade away and communities will, once again, flourish as God intended.

Showing Love

I'm starting to discover that writing is very therapeutic. It's also very frustrating when the things in my head and heart seem to get lost in translation on their way to the computer screen. Most of the time I write my posts in long-hand first, then type it all onto the computer. But today I'm going to try something new, which is supposed to be therapeutic as well, and write this blog post straight onto my computer.....

Everyone wants to be loved whether we know it or not. That's the bottom line of human existence because that's the way God made us. We are made in his image and the Bible declares that God is love.
If love is missing from our lives the we are empty vessels.

Often, love is looked for in the wrong places.
Whenever we hear phrases like 'I want to belong' or 'I want to be famous' what is really being said is 'I want to be loved'.
Kids will actually use those phrases. Adults will just think them.

Here, in New Zealand, almost every young boy wants to be an All-Black. The All-Blacks are the worlds best Rugby team. The American equivilent would be like being at the top of the NBL or NFL. The players are household names etc etc.
Why is it that boys want to be All-Blacks? Some will tell you they love the game but others will tell you that they want to be famous. In other words they want to be noticed. They want to be adored.

They want to be Loved.

It's the same with all of us. We're wired to be loved.

Unfortunately, modern western society has fractured communities to the point that 'families' often now consist of one parent and a number of children.

I love the old saying that 'It takes a village to raise a child'. Too often parents get the blame when children go off the rails. 

The reason children go off the rails is because they didn't find 'love' on that track.

To show children (and adults) that they are valued and loved is the responsibility of the community they live in, not just the small nuclear family they live in. (They're called nuclear because often a bomb has gone off within them!)

Because communities in general are very fragmented nowadays, the door is open for Christian communities to step up and show the world what love really looks like. 

We make it harder to show love than it should be. Simply take an interest in people and use your talents.

If you're a mechanic, offer to fix a solo mums car.

If you can cook, do some baking for a struggling family

If you're a photographer, offer to do portraits for a family that can't afford it.

If you own a car, offer to take someone shopping who doesn't own a car.

If you're financially well-off donate to community organizations.

If you're you.........