Could You be the Next ‘Dancing Dog’?

This is a light-hearted  reflection that I hope will inspire …. particularly if you’ve feeling life is a bit of a dog today and you’re chained in the kennel somewhere….

In case you missed it, a dog named Pudsey won Britain’s Got Talent last Saturday together with Ashleigh his teenage trainer. They pranced around the stage mesmerizing everyone with how clever and cool this little canine was dancing around on his hind legs. It certainly was entertaining. Part of the reason was the chemistry between Ashleigh and her pooch-  and the fact that she was able to train Pudsey to venture way beyond the comfort zone of most four-legged creatures.

The response people had to the dog and trainer routine was absolute awe and wonder at what Pudsey was capable of – how he ‘appeared so human and responsive’ working in synch with Ashleigh. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” some exclaimed as they applauded with delight. And we thought that dogs could fetch tennis balls and sticks, go for walks, keep us company, bark at strangers, and that was that.

Most dogs never get to dance and play, perform and go to the places Pudsey trotted with panting tongue and no make-up. The vast majority of us subsist far below what is possible because we never encounter someone like Ashleigh who will put in the time to enable us to reach beyond… and become.. unbelievable. Show me a person living apart from God and I’ll show you a gross under-achiever. “Rubbish,” you retort, “Look at the morning news and what Mark has done with Facebook, or Paul McCartney has achieved in music…. and many others.” To which I reply, “You’re right, they have been incredibly successful – in a Godless environment where success is measured by the acquisition of dollars and the decibels one rocks with the applause from adoring fans who desperately desire someone to be their god or role model.” Begs the question really… how do we measure success and who do we look up to? I’m not saying that everything Mark does is bad or that Facebook is wrong or that Paul writes lousy music. I’d just be intrigued to know what Jesus could have accomplished in them and through them if he’d been their friend and trainer.

We are designed and intended for much more than survival, fetching sticks, and ‘being good’; even being independently wealthy and successful – what does it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his soul? The Christian life is meant to be an adventure with Jesus in whose company we discover that we are capable of so much more than we could ever ask or imagine. Pudsey loved doing his routine with Ashleigh. Their mutual success was totally dependent upon their relationship, trust, and fun in one another’s company. It was from such a foundation that the performance grew and became a winning combination.

The same is true for us. God doesn’t stand over us like a ferocious ringmaster with a whip screaming instructions. He has no desire to see us ‘do tricks’ either. But He certainly invites us to enter into the ‘more’ of life He revealed in Jesus and promises anyone who follows Him – on earth as in heaven. He wants to encourage us to venture beyond our comfort zones in order to experience what He/God (our trainer) can release in us and through us with a little practice and training. Except this is not entertainment; it is hearing God speak, healing the sick, encouraging those who are lost, and sharing the love and joy of the Father into a broken world.

The miracle of Jesus is that He releases amazing things through any who say, “Here I am, use me.” We don’t have to be ‘exceptional’… just available. If a dancing dog will get our attention God will even speak through Pudsey. I hope you’ve been inspired this week to not settle for less…. there’s so much more for you too! But it does take time, and practice, lots of love, a willingness to try, and even make mistakes along the way….. have fun!

Now here’s what’s possible… their audition…..

If you could read my mind…..

“If you could read my mind,love…. what a tale my thoughts would tell….”

I learned the song years ago as I tried to pick ‘n sing Gordon Lightfoot’s beautiful melody in a manner that never did him justice, but hey, the people around me joined in anyway.

The tune’s  a song of love lost and a longing to regain a reality that seems to have slipped away forever.

I never thought I could act this way
and I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it.
I don’t know where we went wrong
but the feelings gone and I just can’t get it back.

If you could read my mind love,
what a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie about a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
with chains upon my feet the story always ends.
And if you read between the lines
you’ll know that I’m just trying to understand
the feeling that you left.

As is the case with many songs, they capture a universal theme and longing that resonates in our hearts and articulates inner emotions we couldn’t find words for. The depressing conclusion that most attempts at love end in a dungeon ‘with chains upon my feet’ is far too frequently a bitter truth. If we can’t find a dungeon we fabricate and customize our own with lifestyles, depression, addictions, or for the more sophisticated – work, possessions and all kinds of ‘fun’ … even religion or church!

And if you read between the lines
you’ll know that I’m just trying to understand…

Aren’t we all?

It’s the space between the lines, what we cannot see, and what is not spoken, where so much truth resides in quiet anticipation of discovery. Jesus walks in those places and like the consummate songwriter and ‘word’ that he is – reads our minds and hearts, unlocks the chains, and blows dungeons apart.  He understands that authentic love and acceptance is the cry of every heart and the song of all songs. It’s a love that’s impossible to sustain in human form, altho’ skin on bones is never brushed aside as irrelevant in the eyes of God. He never intended Adam to live without Eve or vice versa; but neither was the plan for them to be ‘enough for one another’. Human love was/is incomplete when divorced from it’s source arising from the heart of God the Father.

If we could read God’s mind what a tale his thoughts would tell.

He desperately tried to convey some of those thoughts through the person of Jesus – the ultimate Valentine message from ‘between the lines’ into full view for all to see and receive. His love is the key to freedom and the foundation for every relationship… and to ‘getting the feeling back’.

It’s not really complicated :-)

“Life is unfair.” Scott Peck begins one of his books with the simple statement that has most of us protesting and agonizing… particularly when we feel we are the victim of injustice. I’ve lived in that posture for years and it’s a tough mindset to break free from when circumstances around and within appear to be relentlessly challenging and negative. In the midst of my tirades I inevitably shook my fist at God for his apparent indifference, his teasing words of love, and his seeming paralysis when it came to actually doing anything to make my life better. I was a prisoner to circumstances, history, and a heart that had grown bitter and closed….. When that happens my very, very, very limited perceptions and mind rule the day… and it’s not a pretty sight.

At last through the mists of disillusionment the whisper of God the Father broke through and encouraged me to stop my ranting and consider what it would be like if I dared to believe that He was for me , not against me. It was not He who was rattling my cage or playing havoc with circumstances….. if I chose, He’d be more than glad to help me in my weakness. Because I was so weary – and desperate – I turned and saw One who with one word shattered my deceived mind and unlocked my tightly chained heart. Everything changed in a slow, quick, mysterious, wonderful metamorphosis of escalating hope, release, and renewed vision… that I’m still processing and walking into.

All I know for sure is that life get’s really complicated when I attempt to control the agenda. However, as I walk alongside God my Father with an open and yielded heart, trusting with what may appear to be naive simplicity…. heaven opens and freedom pours out, fear leaves, hope rises, and whatever the circumstance an abiding sense of peace and presence prevails. It’s not complicated. My mind cannot comprehend the ways or thoughts of God but my heart is able to receive His love and abide in that place. A place where I live from His victory, His sufficiency, His timing, and His empowering….. I can’t overcome the world but Jesus has…. The way we fight and try to win approval – or as Christians and Churches, attempt to be ‘right’…. who would know it?

God is so kind and loves to hand out gifts to the unexpected….. On Sunday I offered a word that he wanted to heal someone of a condition in the bronchial tract region…. After the service the person came to me proclaiming with a smile, “That was me! I’ve been healed of a condition that has prevented me singing for six months!” Earlier, I’d sat at my desk and asked the Lord for words of knowledge to heal those gathering. I wrote a few things down and as I did so it felt I was merely making it up… it didn’t feel like some great spiritual presence. And that’s my point. God works in us and through us with an amazing simplicity that suddenly bursts forth and we’re humbled and amazed.

I wonder how he wants to amaze you this week? If we focus our minds on Jesus, open our hearts to the Father’s love, and remain humble and playful like children…. we will be amazed! It’s such a contrast to the stress of the denominational struggles I’ve witnessed over the past week… where dear brothers and sisters are so enmeshed in working out the true structure of ‘Church’ with hierarchy etc. They’re willing to sever relationships to ensure the doctrines and decimals are in the right place even tho’ we’ve lived through the futility of relying on such paranoid foundations built on the sand of rules and regulations.

Jesus is the foundation, the root, the beginning and the end….. His Kingdom come on earth as in heaven….. with power, laughter, a banquet, and much singing and dancing. Religion kills, Jesus gives life….. keep it simple and fly on eagles wings…..

Hunt ‘em down and kill ‘em… that’s what I say!

I attended a great meeting yesterday which was encouraging and a breath of fresh air.

One of the biggest problems in the Christian Church is our delight and love for zoo keeping and acting as game wardens. We protect a few select species that we feed and nurture at the cost of everything around us. We’ll guard and caress these animals to the detriment of our relationships, we’ll deny Jesus five times a day in order for them not to be disturbed, and we’ll go to great lengths to embrace them rather than one another.

I’m talking about sacred cows and ‘elephants in the room’.

The reason our meeting was so refreshing was that we committed ourselves to prodding these lumbering self-absorbed beasts out into the open and slaughtering them. The result was that more space was created in the atmosphere for us to listen and hear one another. It was easier to move closer to each other without the smelly presence of a sacred cow between us or the lumbering shape of  the invisible but ever present elephant messing things up.

So this is a cry from the heart for others to join in the hunt…. let’s not allow sacred cows and hidden elephants to flourish where we live or to disturb our team building any longer. They’re not the real deal and they cause absolute havoc despite the reverential silence that often veils their presence. They feed from the trough of hell and they never are tamed….

I’m thanking God for those I shared precious time with yesterday who have purposed to rise up and make a difference; to courageously take the land once and for all where sacred cows and invisible elephants have ruled the roost for way too long.  Hallelujah… truth sets us free…. not elephant/cow bull@%#****

Truth is a person….. Jesus…. where he lives there ain’t nothing else sacred…..

 

And here’s another way of saying something similar….. from Africa….. just stir in Jesus – who gives power to make words come to life in real time….

 

 

You Must be Out of Your Mind!

You must be out of your mind to receive the gift that Easter offers – every day. It can’t be received any other way – because it is unbelievable. That God would reduce himself into the smallest of microchips in the person of Jesus is astounding. That he would live among us for thirty years in virtual obscurity with no perks or special treatment defies my hedonistic logic. That he would heal the sick and demonstrate what it means to be fully human in the face of skeptics and cynics – remarkable. That he would willingly submit to ridicule, abuse, violence – to the extreme of crucifixion – and forgive us because we did not know what we were doing – breathtaking. That he would rise from the dead where we placed him and invite us to follow him – anyway… inspiring, awesome, beyond words or comprehension… I’m losing my mind now!

How does one wrap one’s mind around that revelation. Much like the open tomb – the only way is to travel in one’s heart to the places where Jesus touched the earth and find out for yourself. And when it gets confusing and too hard to comprehend and your head hurts…. open your heart, watch this and relax….:-)

I reflect on the immensity of space, the order and beauty, and I’m humbled and astounded…. I share with the first disciples a sense of confusion as they tried to wrestle with what was going on on Good Friday and then later after the resurrection. Everything about Good Friday and Easter stretched those around Jesus to the limits and beyond. The wonderful truth that emerges from the empty tomb is that God was neither disillusioned by them nor surprised at how events unfolded.

The meaning of Easter that breaks open for me this year…. is the truth that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is ultimately about a God who believes in you and me enough to go to unbelievable lengths to encourage, heal, redeem and restore those who were beginning to think they were the centre of the universe ( a very small mind leads to such delusion… all creation shrink-wrapped into my understanding). What a relief to know that because of the empty tomb I can entrust my limited perspective into the hands and heart of one who is infinite and yet intimate, creator of the universe and a friend of rebel hearts. The most believable aspect of God is that his ways are not my ways and he is absolutely unbelievable to me.

‘For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom – and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.’ Hallelujah!

I believe in Him because He first believed in me!

May you know the joy of Easter alive inside you… bursting forth with hope and expectancy…. that He will accomplish exceedingly more in you than you can ask or imagine if you’re willing to step into the unbelievable adventure with the One who loves you and holds your very heart and life…… make sense? Understand? Happy to entrust that ‘knowing’ to another greater than I can ever be….. Trust like a child…..

Another Susan Boyle Inspiration

Nothing really to say other than watch, enjoy, and be inspired

 

Want to witness a miracle?

Sometimes we come across someone or something that leaves us speechless… it’s beyond understanding and wonderful to behold.

If what Derek can do is possible then why is it so hard for us to consider a God who is bigger and beyond our understanding? Our paradigms and frameworks are the constructs of our experience and thinking – up until now. Then a new possibility, encounter or experience stops us dead/or alive in our tracks and if we are curious and humble we may take time to ‘think again’. I’m often looking at suffering and asking God why he doesn’t take it away.

There’s mystery around every corner on earth and I don’t have a clue about the answers. Then witness the exquisite and unexpected gifts of Derek and I think God might smile at our incredulity and say, “See, I can do anything through anyone; just accept and enjoy because you’ll never figure me out.”

Sit back, watch, listen…. and smile back

A hero you’ve probaby never heard of….

Like me you’ve probably never heard of  Kathryn Bolkovac.

I browsed the video store on Saturday evening and was depressed by the amount of violence and ‘nothingness’ of 90% of the material. Then I saw ‘The Whistleblower’. In the light of my post last week about sex trafficking my interest piqued as I read about an female law enforcement officer who had joined the  United Nations peacekeeping force in Bosnia. During her tour of duty she uncovered a frightening level of abuse and exploitation as young girls were captured, used, and sometimes killed for the money they brought in through sex trafficking. What was even more disturbing was that they were driven across borders by those working for the UN and their services were exploited by peacekeeping force personnel. Instead of protecting the various groups in Bosnia they exploited their vulnerability.

Kathryn Bolkovac challenged the powers that be in the UN and was eventually forced to flee. She broke the story in Britain and no-one was ever called to account except her – she was fired and cannot gain employment with the UN again.

It’s stories like these that make me angry and yet reinforce my resolve to follow Jesus and to serve him. He was a whistleblower as well. He challenged religious leaders and people in power who used status and privilege to fulfill selfish agendas at the expense of others. He was killed by them.

If you want to know how people can do such a thing look in the mirror and face Jesus yourself. He speaks truth about how our lives have become disfigured and rebellious. Out of the deep corruption of hearts people do foolish things such as exploiting young girls for sex. You have to hate yourself, be numb to justice, and have no regard for others to do such things. As with drug abuse no-one starts with full-blown actions of rape or addictive behavior. It’s a gradual decline and desensitization, a seductive dance between compromise and self-gratification that captivates and intoxicates. Before you know it you’re lost in the shadows amidst weeping and corpses protesting, “I never knew.”

But before we Christians become too arrogant and proud that ‘we would never do that’ consider your life. If sex trafficking is wrong, alongside all the other acts of human depravity that scream ‘lostness’ into a callous world, what are you and I doing to bear witness to a better way?

The one we follow, Jesus, laid down his life quietly and privately at a time where YouTube couldn’t send the crucifixion ‘viral’ and almost no-one understood what he was doing. Except God His Father had his hand upon history and held His only Son firmly in His grip. He raised him up from death at the hands of men so that one day you and I would hear and possibly know an unimaginable hope and a rescue mission no movie script could ever portray as believable.

Why Jesus?

Because when our best attempts at justice represented in the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces (and there are many good and noble people there) can be so blind, politically sensitive to prostitute justice, and inconsistent with matters of truth and peace -  I can’t find a trustworthy foundation or reason to place my faith in the hands of men and women.

I thank God for what Kathryn Bolkovac had the courage to expose….. and for Jesus who paid the price so that hope can be found in the darkest of places because of Him.

We’re approaching Easter – the vast majority of our contemporaries have dismissed the greatest whistleblower in history as a myth, irrelevant, or worse.

The creativity of human corruption has twisted the Cross into a harmless easter bunny and Christians nibble chocolate with the best of them, take holidays in the sun on Good Friday, and would prefer any celebration on Sunday to be over in time to watch their favorite sporting event.

It doesn’t have to be that way – if you and I care enough to do what Kathryn Bolkovac did when no-one was looking. If we stand up for what we believe and joyfully share the life of Jesus, and act differently because of him… maybe some will not turn to pornography for love, or hire a girl for gratification; and maybe the light will grow and spread as we determine to ‘be light in the darkness’ whatever the inconvenience or cost. We can all do something right where we are today.

Practice by serving in your local Christian church, committing yourself to love those around you even when it’s inconvenient, and place the interests of others before your preferences and comfort.

Be a hero…..

Your Love o Lord…. Third Day