Thursday 3 September 2009

moving...

so this will be my last blog on this site, i've went to wordpress so you can continue to follow me there

http://inthegraspofwonder.wordpress.com/

i hope you visit

Sunday 30 August 2009

Fulfillment on the yellow brick road

What is fulfillment? For some it's money or job or family but for me I believe it's the knowledge that I'm walking in the footsteps that the Lord has traced out for me. I've struggled over the last couple of months working in McDonalds, I needed a two month job and they kindly took me on, however it brought feelings of unfulfillment and my summer being wasted. I just had to trust that I was serving the Lord and that he was using me for his purposes even if I didn't notice.

In whatever circumstance we are in, God can use us we just have to let him and he will lead us. Sure I often slip of that path but he places me back on it.

Grace.

How sweet the sound.

On another note, my parents return from Nigeria tomorrow where my Dad has been for 3 months and my Mum for a month. I'm excited to hear their stories and how they saw God work.

I lacked inspiration over the summer hence the lack of blogging but the tide should have turned when I head down to London in a weeks time. I will be working with London City Mission and I'm confident they'll be many stories to tell.

For those who pray, pray for me, pray that I show the Lord's love to the people I meet and that I walk on that path he has drawn out for me over the year.

I'll be blogging alot more now so happy reading.

Grace and Peace my friends

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Opposites Attract

Last night I was at Glasgow Elim church listening to Heidi Baker talk about her life and how God is using her to reach people in Mozambique. Those people who are starving, lonely, homeless, hurting and struggling to survive. What she said was a real inspiration and challenge.

Today I was working at my summer job, McDonalds, watching people buy food and then throw it away. People who are privileged to afford food and living a fairly comfortable life. What I saw made me sad that food is wasted and that those customers don't realise how lucky they are.

One extreme to the other.

I'm not perfect in any respect and I hope God can keep transforming me and teaching me. I want to be able to show his love by being with the poor and the hurting instead of just listening to talks. I hope that the western world will realise how privileged we are to be able to easily obtain food and have shelter to stay in.

Why do we deserve this?

However is our comfort a blessing or are we too comfortable to realise how much we need God. Heidi spoke about how real God is too those African people and about the miracles that have occurred. Is our comfort and lack of faith blinding us from the work of God.

Jesus.

Made the blind see.

May we not be to proud and see how the Lord is moving amongst the people in Mozambique. May we in the West think about our everyday desisions and ask if this is showing God's love.

God's Radical Love.

Wednesday 1 July 2009

music to my life

Random post for you...

It happened again today, I was listening to music while I was walking to work and the song 'Rain down' came on by David Crowder Band*, just at that moment it started raining outside and the rain practically stopped when the song finished. I always find it very weird when that happens. When I was running once my ipod was on shuffle and 2 songs came on that were about running, they did give me that wee boost.

Anyway I thought I would share that with you.

Tuesday 30 June 2009

Designed for Community

I always considered myself a bit of a lone wolf, able to go off on adventures by myself but recently this idea has been turned on it's head. I must have watched too many superhero films!

I was walking the west highland way (Milngavie to Fort William - 95 miles) with a couple of mates but they pulled out on the second day, 25 miles into the walk, my pride got the better of me and I decided to go on myself. 20 miles later I pulled out feeling very low and lonely.

I needed someone to share the experience with, someone to encourage me when I was struggling, someone just to enjoy the walk with.

Someone.

This is the same with life. We need to share the experience with people, how often do people get depressed and start to struggle when they don't have someone there to love and encourage them, who have an ear to listen to their problems.

We each need a community of friends to be with, to enjoy life with. Of course there are times when we need to be alone but on the overall grand scheme of things we need someone.

We are designed to be in community.

I'll be finishing the West Highland Way another time and it will definitely be with someone.

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Gluing the world back together

I came home from a five day trip to Paris yesterday which was amazing but one major thing that stood out to me in that beautiful city is the obvious divide between rich and poor. Paris is an expensive city so some who live there have a lot of money and may have second homes elsewhere in France while there are many people who call the streets of Paris their home. Of course this is the case of most cities across the world.

There is enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed - Ghandi

When I went to visit the Sacré-Coeur, a huge church in Paris, it was so grand and gives a great view over the city. At each entrance sat a different woman, each pleading for money. It was so hard walking around that church while thinking about those women, why is the world like this I asked myself. We cry out to God asking what he is doing but he is also crying out to us asking what we are doing about it. When leaving the church I saw a visitor talking to one of the homeless women and she handed her some perfume. This may not fill a homeless women's stomach but it will give her a sense of identity that they are a woman. The reaction was confusion at first but then a smile appeared on her face.

A smile.

The world is full of divisions and continues to split, countries, governments, religions, the church, myself and yourself. I was reading this morning about the split of Israel into Judah and Israel back in 945BC due to the pride of King Rehoboam.

Pride and humilty.

Let us not be too proud to help that person in need, that person who is lonely and needs a friend, that person who just needs someone to talk to, that person who needs to fill their empty stomach. Let us mend those divisions and the world to become one community and to have a wholeness of peace.

Shalom.

Tuesday 28 April 2009

The world needs a hug

Last weekend was slightly unexpected and crazy but so good.

I made it to 'the rescue'in Edinburgh on Saturday after rearranging my study plan and I am so glad I did. The protest started out with us meeting outside the parliament buildings to be made into a group of 20 and given a rope to hold on to (I ended up at the front of my group). We then walked to Princes street gardens to symbolise the children being abducted. Once we got there we did some photo and film shoots before setting up camp, well, rolling out our sleeping bags. Letters were then written to be sent to Gordon Brown and David Milliband. Billy Boyd (aka Pippen from the LOTR films) came and rescued us, he made a speech and stuck around for quite a while which was really sound of him. We left in the morning at 6.30pm, knackered but happy.

It was my first experience of being involved in a protest like this, it didn't seem to make too much of a difference at the time but knowing that it was happening in a 100 cities in 10 countries all over the world made it special. Hopefully the media attention and letters will drive the governments into making a difference and get the peace process back on track. Those children out there, who are suffering in an invisible war, who are killing for a man who is insane and who are dying in the process, need a hug and may that happen soon.






On Sunday afternoon I ended up on Sauchiehall Street giving out free hugs with a group from church. You should have seen the faces of the public, some were shocked, some confused, some excited but all those who got a hug left smiling. It's amazing what one hug can do, a few people said it made their day and a few came back for more. The free hug was just a way to show how much God loves us.

God

Loves

Us

It can be hard to see this in situations like in Uganda but just because we can't perceive a reason for it doesn't mean there isn't a good reason. Sin has caused this injustice but God has a plan to end it.

He wants to give us all a hug.

He wants to give the world a hug.