This year I've gone crazy for books.
I have read loads.
Over the last few days I treated myself to a classic.
Dickens to be exact
A Christmas Carol.
A massive contrast to my recent brushings with Lee Child and Dan Brown amongst others.
I've been reading like mad to help dull the pain of a difficult period in my life where I am assessing where I've been, where I am now and where am I going in the future.
Hence this.
A Christmas carol got me thinking.
You know the three ghosts.
Christmas past, Christmas present, and Christmas yet to come.
Weird little apparitions that give Ebenezer Scrooge a tough time of it yet they ultimately helped him to change for the better..
when I finished the book I had this bizarre little vision of me decorating three Christmas trees.
Each tree represented Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas yet to come.
I was decorating them with stuff.
Stuff from the past.
Stuff from the present.
Stuff yet to come.
I think I might even do that next year.
The past included stuff like my my Jobs including my relationships, my successes, my failures, my hurts, my joys, my disasters, my mistakes, the stuff I got right, all kinds of stuff.
The present was difficult to decorate. There are some really good things, but I've been a bit disillusioned and unhappy lately, feeling I am not heading towards realising my hopes and dreams. I feel stripped of them in many ways and restricted by circumstance and the bad side of religion. So the tree looked a little drab.
Yet to come? My hopes and dreams don't seem to fit with where I am in my life right now. I feel restricted and a bit trapped at times in my ministry. Yet the decorating seemed to help me focus a bit more on what is possible for my life. As I decorated it I laid on a lashing of tinsel. written in the tinsel was the word bravery.
That was it.
I want my bravery back.
Yet to come looked kind of much brighter than the others.
I thought of the change in Scrooge.
I thought.
That's what I need.
Change.
The heart of the whole gospel is change.
Change.
Change takes bravery.
As I imagined decorating the future tree, Christmas yet to come, I began to long for change, in myself, in my life, in my direction. I need to be myself, not someone others wants me to be.
Dawn was preparing for a talk at church last week and she was using that amazing song mary did you know.
As I was listening to the song as she was preparing a line hit me.
Mary did you know your baby boy has come to make you new.
I focused on the birth of Jesus.
Born to make me new.
I thought of the things that surfaced in my character when Jesus made me new.
I was brave. prepared to take a chance, a risk, enjoyed being chancy even when I failed. That bravery has helped us to work on Gods plan and plant three churches from scratch. But lately working in my denomination I really believe that my bravery is being stolen. By a system that wants me to be like them. A system that wants me to just accept strict boundaries despite of who I am. My character is just not wired up like that. I want to be myself not some generic robotic leader who a denomination feels I should be.
I want to rediscover my uniqueness.
i have to be myself.
That takes bravery.
My prayer, my desire, my aim from now on is to be myself.
Christmas began to look better.
I've changed massively over the years since giving myself to Jesus.
Yet I need him to make me new again right now.
I need change.
I need to be brave.
I will be brave.
I need newness more than ever.
A new future.
Christmas is a great reminder of the new.
Christmas is a great pointer to change.
Christmas is a time where the past is past away, the present is worth reflecting on and the time yet to come can be glimpsed.
If you had those same three trees to decorate, what would you put on them?
what is past, what is present, what is yet to come?
I pray this Christmas will be special for you. I pray you will be blessed and you will be touched not by the magic of the season but by the Spirit of God.
I pray bravery all over your life.
And.
My message to you is this for what it is worth to you right now.
Don't be afraid to be brave. If there are things that need to change, change them, If there are desires that need to be fulfilled fulfil them, If the is vision in your heart then pursue it. Do not settle for being like someone or something wants you to be like.
Be you.
Do all of this despite what others say.
And I pray that will mean?
Change.
And.
A dramatic realisation of your dreams in the time yet to come.
Thank you for your encouragement, comments and kind words about my blog this year. I pray you've been challenged and blessed.
Have a great Christmas
Gaz
I have read loads.
Over the last few days I treated myself to a classic.
Dickens to be exact
A Christmas Carol.
A massive contrast to my recent brushings with Lee Child and Dan Brown amongst others.
I've been reading like mad to help dull the pain of a difficult period in my life where I am assessing where I've been, where I am now and where am I going in the future.
Hence this.
A Christmas carol got me thinking.
You know the three ghosts.
Christmas past, Christmas present, and Christmas yet to come.
Weird little apparitions that give Ebenezer Scrooge a tough time of it yet they ultimately helped him to change for the better..
when I finished the book I had this bizarre little vision of me decorating three Christmas trees.
Each tree represented Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas yet to come.
I was decorating them with stuff.
Stuff from the past.
Stuff from the present.
Stuff yet to come.
I think I might even do that next year.
The past included stuff like my my Jobs including my relationships, my successes, my failures, my hurts, my joys, my disasters, my mistakes, the stuff I got right, all kinds of stuff.
The present was difficult to decorate. There are some really good things, but I've been a bit disillusioned and unhappy lately, feeling I am not heading towards realising my hopes and dreams. I feel stripped of them in many ways and restricted by circumstance and the bad side of religion. So the tree looked a little drab.
Yet to come? My hopes and dreams don't seem to fit with where I am in my life right now. I feel restricted and a bit trapped at times in my ministry. Yet the decorating seemed to help me focus a bit more on what is possible for my life. As I decorated it I laid on a lashing of tinsel. written in the tinsel was the word bravery.
That was it.
I want my bravery back.
Yet to come looked kind of much brighter than the others.
I thought of the change in Scrooge.
I thought.
That's what I need.
Change.
The heart of the whole gospel is change.
Change.
Change takes bravery.
As I imagined decorating the future tree, Christmas yet to come, I began to long for change, in myself, in my life, in my direction. I need to be myself, not someone others wants me to be.
Dawn was preparing for a talk at church last week and she was using that amazing song mary did you know.
As I was listening to the song as she was preparing a line hit me.
Mary did you know your baby boy has come to make you new.
I focused on the birth of Jesus.
Born to make me new.
I thought of the things that surfaced in my character when Jesus made me new.
I was brave. prepared to take a chance, a risk, enjoyed being chancy even when I failed. That bravery has helped us to work on Gods plan and plant three churches from scratch. But lately working in my denomination I really believe that my bravery is being stolen. By a system that wants me to be like them. A system that wants me to just accept strict boundaries despite of who I am. My character is just not wired up like that. I want to be myself not some generic robotic leader who a denomination feels I should be.
I want to rediscover my uniqueness.
i have to be myself.
That takes bravery.
My prayer, my desire, my aim from now on is to be myself.
Christmas began to look better.
I've changed massively over the years since giving myself to Jesus.
Yet I need him to make me new again right now.
I need change.
I need to be brave.
I will be brave.
I need newness more than ever.
A new future.
Christmas is a great reminder of the new.
Christmas is a great pointer to change.
Christmas is a time where the past is past away, the present is worth reflecting on and the time yet to come can be glimpsed.
If you had those same three trees to decorate, what would you put on them?
what is past, what is present, what is yet to come?
I pray this Christmas will be special for you. I pray you will be blessed and you will be touched not by the magic of the season but by the Spirit of God.
I pray bravery all over your life.
And.
My message to you is this for what it is worth to you right now.
Don't be afraid to be brave. If there are things that need to change, change them, If there are desires that need to be fulfilled fulfil them, If the is vision in your heart then pursue it. Do not settle for being like someone or something wants you to be like.
Be you.
Do all of this despite what others say.
And I pray that will mean?
Change.
And.
A dramatic realisation of your dreams in the time yet to come.
Thank you for your encouragement, comments and kind words about my blog this year. I pray you've been challenged and blessed.
Have a great Christmas
Gaz
