Step Out Into the Deep

For about two weeks now I have been struggling with a business situation: some goods I was expecting seem to be lost or delayed in transit. Potential customers are already asking questions and begining to doubt that they will get the goods they requested. Now a new avenue has opened up and it will take a large financial risk to begin a new business relationship. I have done as much due diligence as I am able to so now the onus is on me: should I step out into the deep?

I guess it is just me trying to stay within earshop of safe harbours. However, that is NOT where God dwells. He does business in the deep; where one totally and completely trusts Him, and Him alone.

Oh, and just to make things better, a pal sends me this devotion here below:

It takes no effort or faith to live in the familiar!
That’s why many are comfortable in the known...If Abraham never left he would have died unknown and unrecognized. The price of greatness is moving, going, risking and forsaking the past to lay hold on the future.

So there you have it. Amazing how GOd gives a loving, gentle nudge in the direction He wants you to go.

Here I am Lord; send me.

On Sibling Rivalry

I have been following Pastor Jon Coursons through-the-Bible teachings for a while now. I find his teachings extremely witty and yet "deep" and real, and best of all, totally applicable for day-to-day living.

This week he has been teaching from Matthew 18 (you can listen to it free here) and just happened to put the spotlight on something that my wife had brought up very recently.

Perhaps a bit of background will help here: my family is "special" (myself included!). Due to historical events that I really am not too sure about, weighty issues never get discussed. In fact, so much is swept under the rug i suspect there is more under there than there is above it! Unfortunately we (as the kids) tend to have picked it up: elephants in the room are politely requested to keep to the corners, everyone has full medieval armour so no toes are stepped on, and a special resin has been invented that keeps everything below the carpet.

You can see now that no deep, meaningful interraction ever took place. In fact, when I got married, I could not understand why my wife fought so hard with her siblings, and yet at the end of the day they still loved each other to bits! In our house, people hardly ever fought. An atmosphere of "tolerance" (read "emotional constipation") was the order of the day. Sadly, my mum was chief in ensuring the status quo remained, perhaps in an effort to have a peaceful household, but in the process creating an unreal atmosphere, a domestic utopia if you will, that, in hindsight, must have taken ALOT just to hold together.

So now here I am. My sisters are not talking to me because they were involved in a car accident (dont worry they are ok: just a badly dented rear) and I have been unable to go see them due to issues upon issues at my home. One of them sent me a text to tell me so. That got me wondering: where were they when I had a full head-on collision with a chap so drunk he couldnt even get out of his car? Or the time a truck almost took out the entire right side of my car?

And that is where God steps in. Here are a few scanty notes on Pastor Jons sermon:

-Humility: Humility is not thinking lowly of ourselves (that actually is a form of pride). Humility is not thinkng of ourselves at all. Being "other-people-centric" as opposed to ego-centric.
-Honesty: Speaking the truth in love. Remember: Truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is false (the latter is exactly where I am).
-Forgiveness: The pharisees taught that you had to forgive two, maybe three times. Peter must have thought he was pretty hot advocating for seven times. But no. Christ lovingly told him "seventy times seven" or (as in another gospel) as many times as you want to be forgiven.

So Lord please help me. Broaching issues is very difficult but I cant expect it to start with someone else. The change begins with me.

I do not know what to do but my eyes are on you (2 Chronicles 20:12)

Random Rhymes

Yes I know...I havent posted a thing in AGES! AEONS! Millenia even! So here goes. The below is a rhyme that came to mind when listening to my fave radio station - radio316. It was a country song about Noah singing in the rain. I found that an intriguing concept and decided to come up with something more...well...me :-)

Like Noah, singing in the rain
Daniel, dancing in the flames
Christ, walking on the waves
Peter, praising in the jails
Lot, watching as they blazed
The pharisees, confused and amazed
stood, abused and dismayed.
Like a fool and his ways
Judas, a fool who surveyed
Gods Tool to betray
But in the end
Jesus! Who rules and who says
"Come one, come all to Me,
All who are subdued and in pain"