Puncture a human heart and it will bleed; pierce it spiritually and the result is tears.

Columba Stewart, Prayer and Community: The Benedictine Tradition

I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships so will our healing.

Wm Paul Young, The Shack

This is a health and safety announcement, this is a health and safety announcement. You may be hit by a ball.

I know on an individual level my behaviour is influenced by the size of the audience. Anything over two and I’d rather not know. What about on a larger scale?

There has been a huge amount of reporting of economic events – “credit crunch”, “financial tsunami”, “World growth worst for 60 years”, “Grim predictions for UK economy”. The internet news pages and 24 hours news channels all need their content and the economic situation is the latest story subjected to the media frenzy.

Now the mass media we have these days can be a good thing. World events are instantly in our living rooms or on our mobile phones. We were able to watch the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony from our hotel in Italy last Summer. Great.

There isn’t always things that need reporting though. It’s not a case that the media makes things up, but the stories get laboured far more than they would have 15 years ago. I remember seeing job losses on a scoreboard on the ITN News at Ten. But that was once a week I think. Unemployment isn’t as high as it has been in the past. Inflation is a lot lower than it has been. Interest rates are at record lows. But I think the population has been scared into thinking it isn’t safe to spend your money because it is going to run out. I think it is more about confidence than reality. And confidence is being undermined by a repeated doom and gloom message from the media.

In the words of Private Fraser, “we’re all doomed”.

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Cicero, 55 B.C.

Angel Chimes

A Christmas edition of this feature that I was reminded of when Mrs A and I visited the Christmas Shop in Lechlade this weekend.  They were selling them as the original Swedish Angel Chimes. I didn’t realise they were Swedish in origin, but they must have been the feature of many households in the 1970s.  We had one, my friend who lived across the road had one at his house and Mrs A had one too!

I found a You Tube clip, but it didn’t have very good sound, so I’ve put in this photo.  When the candles are lit, the heat drives the top round and round causing the bars hanging under the angels to strike the bells.

Lovely!

Did anyone else have one of these?

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Gil Bailie

A phrase often used, and not just about newly marrieds. The press say this about a new Prime Minister or leader of a political party, or about a new football manager. They’ll say it about the new US President. It of course refers to the end of the period of newness and excitement. The possibility of a change from the old ways and new beginnings that promised so much. Then reality hits, and the dawning that there is no change. There is no new. The new leader is just the same as the old one. Excitement diminishes and life returns to normal.

God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel:

“I remember how eager you were to please me
as a young bride long ago,
how you loved me and followed me
even through the barren wilderness”
Jeremiah 2:2b, NLT

Again in the New Testament God speaks to the church:

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”
Revelation 2:4, NIV

God is saying the people’s honeymoon with him is over.  They have drifted away and forgotten about their first love.

Does the honeymoon have to end? Why does it seem as though it ends.

I think the answer lies in our feelings.  Reality hasn’t changed.  In the case of a marriage, when you come back from honeymoon you are still married.  The new leader is still the leader.  The new manager is still the manager.  How we feel about these situations is what has changed.

In his book Walking with God, John Eldredge asks the question what agreements have we made about love?

I’ve been noticing that most mornings I don’t wake up super-happy, and I’m not sure why. I’ve also been noticing for some time now that when I first wake up, I find myself racing through the coming day in my mind, bracing myself for what’s required of me, but even more so searching to see if there’s anything to look forward to. It’s not really voluntary. It’s almost as if my heart has a life of it’s own, and it wakes up before I do and begins to assess the prospects before me. “I slept but my heart was awake” (Song of Songs 5:2).

By the way, I think this is how our addictions get their claws deeper into us. Our day-to-day grind isn’t anything close to Eden, and our hurting and desperate hearts look for something to which we can attach all those yearnings. We’ll settle for a doughnut if that’s all there is to look forward to. We have to be careful what we give our hearts over to.
Walking with God, John Eldredge

I think this is the key.  Our emotions, and in particular what we give our hearts over to which determine our emotions, have a dramatic impact on our day.  We eat the doughnut, but then then memory of it fades and we wish the day over to yearn for the next day’s doughnut. We buy the latest gadget, and then look forward to the time we can buy the updated version. We have a great holiday and then return to work and book the next holiday so we have something to look forward to. We give up on a relationship because it doesn’t feel the same anymore. We don’t commit to things in case something better comes along. We aren’t present with the people we are speaking to, we instead wonder about the next thing and whether that will be better.

Why do we live in tomorrow or yesterday, but never today? Never now?

What then is the answer?  What should we be doing instead of yearning after doughnuts? God says through Jeremiah:

“For my people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me—
the fountain of living water.
And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!”
Jeremiah 2:13, NLT

Losing our first love, means giving our heart over to something other than God.  God promises a fountain of living water, but we are happy to rummage in the mud looking for other sources that won’t sustain us.  We should give our heart over to something that will last.  Then each day is not about looking forward to some illusory promise. Each day should be about living in the now of the Kingdom.  Yes our emotions will go up or down.  Life is hard sometimes, and these hardships will affect our feelings.  But they don’t affect the reality of our relationship with God.  Even what we eat or drink will affect our moods.  But that is not who we are. We drink to excess to blot out our feelings.  We eat to much or too little because of how we view ourselves.  We let our random emotions rule our live.  God calls us to have one emotion.  Love.  Love God and love our neighbour as our self.

So restoring our first love, and giving our heart over to something that will last forever means tapping into this living water. But where do we get the living water?

Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘streams of living water will flow from within him’.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified
John 7:37-39, NIV

Jesus is the only true source of living water that we can drink from and never thirst again. I make this song my prayer.

Let Your living water flow over my soul
Let Your Holy Spirit come and take control
Of every situation that has troubled my mind
All my cares and burdens on to You I roll

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
Father, Father, Father
Spirit, Spirit, Spirit

Come now, Holy Spirit, and take control
Hold me in Your loving arms and make me whole
Wipe away all doubt and fear and take my pride
Draw me to Your love and keep me by Your side

Give your life to Jesus, let Him fill your soul
Let Him take you in His arms and make you whole
As you give your life to Him He’ll set you free
You will live and reign with Him eternally

© 1986 Ampelos Music