70 Not Out!

My sincere thanks to all who sent greetings, cards and messages yesterday on my 70th birthday. I am so grateful for the blessing of your friendship and the privilege of knowing you all. But I am also thinking deeply about the amazing fact that I am still alive to see this date! I very nearly died when I was 45 during my first brush with acute hemorrhaging pancreatitis and then on other occasions too over the 22 years that followed. On more than 100 times I was admitted to hospitals in Cardiff, Guernsey, Southampton, London and Newcastle, during two decades of battling one of the most painful conditions known to humanity. By all rights I should not still be here, but there must be something for me to do!

One of the effects of a long fight with pain and frequent hospitalisations is a sense of gratitude for any relief. I am so grateful for the cutting-edge transplant surgery that transformed my life 5 years ago, and am happily living without a pancreas, spleen, gall-bladder or bile ducts. But I am free from that dreadful, gut-wrenching, tearing, red-hot agony of pancreatic pain, thank God.

In my book Through the Storms: a manual for when life hurts I deal with some of the other issues that arise in long-term pain or distress of any kind. Fear, loneliness, post-trauma disorders, all complicate the already fraught matter of physical recovery. Added to that, for those of us who know that God is our loving heavenly Father, who only has good plans for us, are the questions that the writer of the Psalm might have had in mind when he coined the phrase 'deep calls unto deep'. 'How long, O Lord?' and yes - 'why me?' 

I don't have the answers, but I do know someone who does. Hope is spelt J-e-s-u-s and he has been faithful to me throughout this long ordeal. Today I am privileged to continue sharing life with my lovely wife, Diane, and with Matthew and his wife Chula and our precious grand-daughters. Life is good, but I don't take it for granted. The very air I breathe is a loan, and I know that it will be called in one day. Till then, I am going to share the good news of hope and life in Jesus as widely as I can. For me, that's what 'many happy returns' really means!

The Greatest Challenge in Leadership

Photo by Mathew Browne on Unsplash

 He may look content here, but don't be fooled - it's a waxwork!  Whatever we may think of the lifestyle or the leadership of the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, or the way he has been made to step down, none of us can have missed the race to become the next leader of the Conservative party, and the new PM. The news media are in a feeding frenzy, poring over each candidate and their credentials. Social media is abuzz with speculation and options, and the only thing that seems certain is that the British people will have a new leader soon, probably by September.

In all this, Christians should remember the wise advice of St Paul who urged his followers to pray for ‘kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives’. He did so in a day when the government was in the hands of cruel emperors and their delegates, who were overwhelmingly godless and immoral, violent, exploitative, and abusive. Yet, Paul is so convinced of the power of prayer that he urges his readers, and us, to make praying for secular leaders a priority. As the incoming British Prime Minister faces problems like the soaring cost of living, cataclysmic climate change, war in Europe and its subsequent food shortages, not to mention the ongoing pandemic, he or she will need our prayers more than ever.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

But leadership is so much more than dealing with issues, urgent and important though they may be. Leading ourselves can also be a great challenge. Just getting through each day without giving in to fear, despair, and hopelessness can be a huge task. Coping with change in society, church and family life can leave us feeling all at sea. Choices and personal morality may seem so much more demanding as the boundaries of behaviour appear to be moving. But Jesus offers us his leadership one day at a time, built on his integrity, sacrifice, promises, and his continuing presence with us in all our struggles. He reveals a programme of love, forgiveness and personal transformation that can affect whole nations. A leader like that gets my vote every time!

Fifty not out!

 

It was no seaside holiday 50 years ago this week when I was inducted to my first pastorate - as Assistant Pastor at Eastbourne Elim Church in the south of England county of Sussex as it was. I was 19, and had just graduated after 2 years at Elim Bible College in Capel, Surrey. I had only been a Christian just over 3 years, and for the first few weeks was single, as I married the wonderful Diane on September 9th that year (1972). The Senior Pastor, John Lancaster, had just been elected as the President of the Elim churches, and so was expecting to be away from the town around half the time during his year of office, leaving this young sprocket in charge of the church of 2-300 folk, and responsible for the pulpit! As you can imagine, he was a man of great faith!

As Eastbourne was (rather unkindly) known then as the 'costa geriatrica' where many folk went to retire, I spent most of the early part of my twenties visiting people in care homes, sitting with the dying, and taking funerals, as well as leading and preaching at services in the busy church. It was a steep learning curve, but made all the easier by the amazing folk that I served. Among my 'heroes of the faith' at that time was Samuel Gorman, an early leader of the Elim movement and author, who had been forced to retire early through ill-health. He took me under his wing and mentored me, sharing his wisdom and insight graciously and patiently. Two other early Elim pioneers were also in the church - E.J. Phillips and his brother F.B. Phillips, with their wives. E.J. was just a shell by then of what he had been, but he would be brought to the prayer meeting midweek and would sit at the piano before the start and just begin to play worship songs and choruses from years before, all by heart. Great people!

Eastbourne Elim today

Our neighbour was a Miss Chrissie Jardine, who had been wheeled in to one of George Jeffrey's early Gospel and Healing crusades in the 1920's in a wheelchair, quite paralysed. (Principal George Jeffreys was the founder of the Elim Churches). She was healed instantly after prayer and rose up from her chair never to need it again! She was full of stories of those days, and remained an ardent follower of Jesus all of her long life.

So, after a half-century in full-time Christian ministry, on three continents, I give thanks for the people and places that have been a big part of my journey, especially Diane and Matthew. And, as I set off hopefully and excited into the next 50 years, trusting in the faithfulness of God, I thank God for the many who have made this journey with me, and alongside me, in my first innings.

An Offering and a Sacrifice

June 23rd is the day we remember the 9 Elim missionaries and 4 of their children who were killed in the Vumba in Zimbabwe this day in 1978. 

When we worked in Mutare, the nearest city to the Vumba, Diane and I planted a congregation in a building that had been purchased at the time as the Elim Memorial Church. That church has since been renovated to a high standard and has become a real focus for the Elim Church's work in that area. At the time of our being there Elim had around a dozen churches in the country, together with schools and a hospital. Now there are over 65 congregations all over Zimbabwe and the work is thriving. Stephen Griffith's excellent book The Axe and the Tree tells the story of all that led up to the massacre of 40 years ago and the great suffering and faith of the national church and its leaders at that time. I recommend it.

Peter & Sandra McCann, Philip & Joy died in the Vumba

One of my responsibilities was to keep an eye on the upkeep of the mass grave of those who died in the Vumba. Once a year, on the occasion of the graduation of the young men we were training as evangelists in what was known as Project Timothy, they would gather with me around the grave. I would explain to the young men that they were the fruit of the sacrifices these people had made, and then pray for them that, as they went out two by two into the community, they would remember the example of these friends of ours who paid the ultimate price for the gospel and the service of the nation of Zimbabwe. Each year it was common for tears to be shed and the impact upon the young evangelists was clear to be seen. 

Today, I pray for the relatives of all who lost their lives in that dreadful time in Zimbabwe, but recall that there has always been a price to pay for following Jesus and doing what is right. 

"They were stoned; they were sawn in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and ill-treated— the world was not worthy of them...

These were all commended for their faith" (Hebrews 11:38-39) 

Stronger than Ever?

 

Five years ago today I was the patient on the operating table in this photo. It was taken during a 16.5 hour transplant op at the International Transplant Centre in the Freeman Hospital Newcastle. It has absolutely transformed my life! I have been out walking in the wonderful warm sunshine on Guernsey's magnificent sea-shore this morning, and really thanking God for the Professor, his team and all involved, and for the many who prayed for my recovery from 22 years of the most appalling pain and suffering. Their prayers were answered that day, and on this anniversary I give thanks to God.

Before the surgery my life was blighted by daily agony, requiring industrial doses of opiates to give me even a modicum of pain control. Today I am largely pain-free and able to live a normal life, as I tell in my fifth book Through the Storms: a manual for when life hurts but I shall never cease to be grateful for these bonus years following surgery.

The thing about surgery is that you have to go down into a very deep valley before you can come up the other side. I very nearly died in the aftermath when I contracted pneumonia in ICU. It was hugely painful and challenging, but you don't get a testimony without a test! If you are facing a similar valley of pain or perhaps medical intevention, I hope you find the courage to press ahead in faith that although maybe the medics have got this - God has got you!

Today I thank God for his mercy and grace. He did not take me out of the situation quickly or easily, but he was with me throughout, and has delivered me in the end. Very early in our two decades long ordeal, God gave us a promise from the Bible - 1 Peter 5:10 which we have called our 'stronger than ever' text. Here it is; "After you have suffered a little while, our God, who is full of kindness through Christ, will give you his eternal glory. He personally will come and pick you up, and set you firmly in place, and make you stronger than ever" (Living Bible).

"Don't do as I do - do as I say!"

 

Does integrity matter in public life today? In an age of terminal truth decay and the practised art of lying, have we given up hoping that those who lead, in government, business or church, can be trusted? And if they can't, do they deserve their position and the rewards that come with it? Or, have we become so innured to the problems of betrayal and half-truths that we shrug our shoulders and say, wearily, 'well, what more do you expect?'

I define integrity as the state of being where your outsides match your insides, and what you see is all there is. It is often revealed by how we behave when we think that nobody else is watching.

Dallas Willard, author of the book Renovation of the Heart, tells of a pastor who became very angry over a perceived mistake during a service and at the end got hold of the person responsible in a side room and let rip with a tirade of a merciless rebuke. The trouble was that the preacher had left his radio mic on and his furious rant was broadcast over the church audio system for all to hear, even in the church car-park! That pastor moved to another town shortly afterwards. 

But then, shouldn't we always be aware that the audience to our words and actions may be a lot wider than we imagine? In this day when cameras are everywhere and CCTV watches every move we make, we can hardly do or say anything without some kind of witness. Emails and WhatsApp messages come back to haunt people years after they were written. In a sense, our words and actions simply reflect our inner thoughts and motives. As Jesus said, it is not what enters into our bodies that defiles us, but that which proceeds out of our hearts.

Integrity and character do matter in leadership if people are to trust us. The apostle Paul set out his own approach to the subject in 2 Corinthians 6 when he said that he was determined not to put any 'stumbling-block' in anyone's path, so that his ministry would not be discredited. He also described himself as 'genuine, though regarded as imposters' (v 8). But the ultimate example of trustworthy leadership is Jesus, who lived and died for the sake of others, not for himself.

I am not wanting to make a political statement here, as others must make their own decsions on such things, but we should pray for those in authority both in the church and the world, that truth, honesty and integrity might be restored in our day.

Trust me - it matters!

Tactical Training in Tough Times

The Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, once said: 'To fold one’s hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world'. And don't we have some disorder now? As the pandemic rumbles on like a receding thunder storm, the rising sound of distant shellfire comes from a Europe where we were assured there would never again be a major war. The cost of living is going into inflationary orbit causing children to be hungry in one of the world's most developed nations. And leaders in the world either appear weak, elderly, divided or compromised, or else look like sinister replicas of Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot!

The writer of Psalm 11 asked the question that seems so appropriate today - 'When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?’ Well, they can pray. Prayer still moves the hand that moves the world. Jesus challenged his followers to pray bold prayers, and to pray them with faith. 'Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’ (Matthew 17:20). 

So, why is it so hard to pray? Possibly because we need to relearn the value of silence. Mother Teresa wrote: 'We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence'. Our lives are constantly punctuated by pings and rings, notifications and noises off. Maybe we need to switch off those devices and find a quiet place to fold our hands and pray.

And then - could it be that we have forgotten the prayer skills that previous generations took for granted? Seduced by the empty promises of much doing, we have neglected the graces of simply being - climbing up onto our Father's knee and whispering 'Abba, Daddy, I need you'.

On Sundays through May and June our church is doing the Prayer Course. We will gather in groups to simply watch, learn and pray. You might want to check it out online as a useful and helpful resource and a way of relearning the simple art of folded hands. 

The world is waiting.

 

A Garden with no Easter Bunnies?

 

There may be a few Israeli rabbits nesting nearby, but there are no Easter Bunnies here! This is the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, believed by many to be the actual site, or very similar to it, of the grave where Jesus' body lay on the first Easter Saturday.There is a tomb at the centre of the Easter story. A place of cold grief and bitter tears. A real tomb for a really dead man, not just somewhere for a swooned imposter to await rescue by his fellow conspirators. This is God's tomb, where God the Son tasted death for me. This is the devil's best, an attempt to wipe out the catalogue of miracles and mercy that Jesus wrote in Galilee and substitute his own pathetic offering of "always look on the bright side" and "did God really say..?" doubt.

And the view from the tomb of Jesus is magnificent. Its light casts a quick flicker of hope over a place of suffering and pain, Golgotha or Calvary, and slowly expands towards the brilliant dawn that is already starting to change the colours we see only through our tears. Yes, this is God's tomb, but much more than that - it is MY tomb as well. For, in the words of the Apostle Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20). The old me is dead and buried, and just as Jesus breaks forth from the tomb outside Jerusalem, so I am set free by Christ from self, from having to impress others, even from the fear of death itself.

And here's an offer you won't see in many catalogues - it can be YOUR tomb as well! "Oh thanks Eric" I can hear you say "that's all I need on top of everything else I am suffering". But that's the whole point, this tomb is the place where you can lay your sufferings down, and your achievements, and stop trying to impress God and others. You can be identified with Jesus in His death also, and rise with Him to a completely new life!

I am grateful that God knows what it feels like to suffer and die, and be laid in a tomb by weeping loved ones. I am glad that he understands my pain, and yours, and that he comes to us on our 'silent Saturdays' and dark nights of the soul. But I'm also rejoicing that the tomb is no longer in use as a grave. The Lord of life and glory could not be held by those chains of death. It may be Easter Saturday, but hey - Sunday's coming!

The Trivialisation of Easter

 

The sanitisation of Easter is underway again. Bunny rabbits, eggs, chocolate, and daffodils are piled up in supermarkets, while store assistants dress up in Disney costumes (at least in our local Coop) and the lambs on UK hillsides shiver in the cold. And shiver they should, because the British tradition of roast lamb is probably closer to the symbolism of the original Easter story than you might think.

I was taking a look at that story this week and I noticed much more similarity between the news reports coming out of Ukraine and the first Easter, rather than any semblance of a link to the whitewashed, commercialised, trivialised and largely dismissive 'celebration' of the holiday where I live.

I saw Jesus - God's Son - lied about in court. That court was a stitch-up of people probably paid to testify against him, and he just remained silent in front of them, a picture of steady purpose and dignity. Then I watched him being tortured and abused by invading foreign soldiers. He was a civilian, not a combatant or a terrorist, but brutalised invaders don't care about that. Jesus was stripped in public, beaten, paraded by his executioners and finally nailed to a wooden cross, wearing a cruel crown of thorns. No bullet to the back of the head for him, his blood was mingled with sweat and gore as he hung on a gibbet meant for a criminal, for hours on end. There was no bunny rabbit at Calvary, no Disney character to swing down and save him. 

Perhaps the cruel images from Bocha and the station at Kramatorsk are more helpful in understanding the true nature of what was happening at Golgotha around 33 AD. Of course we have to find ways of interpreting that to children, - enter the rabbits etc - but we should not lose sight of what it cost Jesus to deal with our sin. 

'O make me understand it,

Help me to take it in,

What it meant to Thee, the Holy One,

To bear away my sin'. *

This was God's lamb put to death for the sins of the world. Here was a sign of God's presence amongst the bloodshed and horror perpetrated by sinful men and women driven by the lying spirit of Satan himself, such as we see laid out before us on our tv screens today. There is no sanitising sin. But if Easter means anything, it means that God knows what it's like to suffer injustice and rejection from people gripped by evil. And still he went on to the cross.

And on the third day he rose again! But that's for another time. And maybe the new life of the egg does have some symbolism? hmm Let's see.

* 'Give me a sight O Saviour' by Katherine Kelly © 1944 HarperCollins Religious       

When Pressure meets Presence

 

Two years ago this week, after the UK went into lockdown, we had our first cases of Covid 19 here in the islands. Within a few short days we were also confined to our homes and the nightmare had begun. Now Europe is at war again for the first time since 1945, at least from the invasion of a sovreign country by a neighbour. And the cost of everything is soaring, so that the dreaded word 'inflation' - the plague of 1970's Britain - is back with a vengeance. Tough times are here, and nowhere more so than in the residential areas of Ukraine.

Part of the learning experiences of the last two years has been the understanding that we can't go on behaving in the way we used to. Hand hygiene and mask-wearing in enclosed spaces have become common-place, driven by the fear of infection. Adversity forces change. It makes us think again about our safety and comfort. It changes our priorities. Think about the people huddled in a Kyev basement, hiding from Russian bombs. They have fled their homes with only what they could carry, pets and all. Now, all that matters is life and freedom. Their ordeal has totally realigned their priorities.

But we should not be surprised that suffering produces change. The Bible teaches that it at least can produce patience and perseverance, and those are good, but we would far rather dispense with the adversity in the first place and go straight to the 'lesson learnt' stage without the pain. Yet nobody gets a testimony without a test. Perhaps it is only in retrospect that we can see glimmers of light in the black overlay of struggle and pain that life can be for so many.

So, two years on in this global pandemic, with war raging in Europe and the cost of living soaring, are there any signs of hope? God may not have given the deliverance we longed for, but he has given us his living presence. Once when Moses was facing a great challenge he famously prayed, 'if your presence does not go with us, Lord, please don't take us there!'. But he did, and he was, - with them in their battle to claim a promised land.

The name 'Emanuel' means 'God with us' and it was given to Jesus. Born in a borrowed stable, fleeing with his parents as refugees into another country, rejected by his own people and then crucified by a cruel foreign invading army - he truly is with us! And the best news is that the grave could not hold him - he rose again. Thank God for Jesus!

A Bad Case of Truth Decay

 

‘The first casualty of any war is truth’. This statement, maybe by an ancient Greek dramatist called Aeschylus around 550BC, or else a US Senator from just after World War 1, is proving to be so accurate in describing the current war in Ukraine. For weeks US and British intelligence agencies were warning of impending invasion whilst all the time being mocked by Russian leaders claiming this was a figment of their febrile imaginations! ‘Russia has no plans at all to invade Ukraine’ was reported around the world.

Once the invasion began, pictures of Russian aggression were being shown on their TV station but claiming that NATO and Ukrainian ‘Nazis’ were bombing their own cities. The Russian forces were on a ‘peacekeeping mission’ to protect Ukrainian civilians. If this were not so sad it would be ludicrous, but of course, claim and counter claim will be used by both sides in this conflict to try and gain popular support, and even being used as weapons.

But truth decay has also affected our society incrementally. It is not only the bomb and the bullet that can impact human lives. When Royal celebrities are asked to reveal ‘your truth’ by TV interviewers, as if truth were a commodity to be owned and shaped by individuals to suit their lifestyle, behaviour, preferences or even sense of gender, then truth is indeed ‘fallen in the street’. In fact, ‘justice is beaten back, righteousness is banished to the side-lines, truth staggers down the street, honesty is nowhere to be found, good is missing in action’ (Isaiah 59:14 The Message).

It was a great Russian, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn who said, ‘One word of truth outweighs the world’ and that philosophy undergirded his resistance to the Soviet system and his belief that ultimately, the truth will out. And he was right. Joseph Goebel’s elaborate propaganda organisation, for instance, died along with the Nazi regime in the burning rubble of 1945 Berlin. Truth has power. It can, eventually, overthrow systems and states built on deception and lies.

Jesus distinguished himself from these corrupt leaders when he declared, ‘I am the truth’ (John 14:6) and that his Spirit was and is ‘the Spirit of Truth’ (John 16:13). He also said that his followers ‘will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (John 8:31). Only the truth will liberate, morally and spiritually and culturally. 

For now, though, the liars have the floor. Satan, the father of all lies may be delighted. But his rejoicing will be short-lived. For the Truth is returning, and possibly very soon! When he comes, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Till then, let’s pray that the Spirit of truth will open blind eyes and hearts all over the globe so that the tinsel deception of truth decay will be replaced with radical love and the return of peace, especially to the dear folk of Ukraine. And may God intervene to expose lies and deliver the innocent by miracles of protection too!

 

Storm Damage

Watching a man from London being interviewed on the TV news this lunchtime standing in front of his broken house and crushed car, I was made aware how long it can take to recover from storm damage. Of course, the effects of storms Dudley and Eunice in the UK recently will be cleared away, and will be done so much more quickly than parts of the world affected by flooding and landslides where there are no sophisticated means of repair. Never-the-less, the emotional and psychological pain of storm damage may take a lot longer than the physical effects, to make good.

Part of the pain is the shock of the unwanted, unsolicited violation of your property and potential safety. A sudden, unexpected intrusion into a world that seemed so normal and predictable, blown your way by some faceless blast, even if it is given a fancy name by the Met Office. However sophisticated our Western lifestyle might have become, it only takes a big storm to make us aware of our fragility and the potential for everything to change overnight, literally.

Life's storms are very real. In a moment, what was chugging along nicely can be turned on its head. Where once were security and familiar circumstances there can come uncertainty and chaos, bringing with them fear and apprehension on a grand scale. For me it was the sudden onslaught of devastating chronic ill health. Along with it came a flood of problems like - how will we pay our rent? Who will provide food for our family? Will I even survive?

Thank God that we don't have to face life's storms alone. God says 'When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.' (Isaiah 43:2). The storms of life can be endured and overcome when we know the active, manifest presence of Almighty God with us. That's why I published my book 'Through the Storms; a manual for when life hurts'. If you are going through devastating storms right now, or you know someone who is, get a copy of this book for yourself or to give to them. Click here to order one in paperback or Kindle format. Or you can email me to obtain a signed copy at throughthestorms750@gmail.com.

It's likely that many more would have died, and much greater damage would have been done, if the Met Office in the UK had not warned in advance about these storms, and the authorities put in place strategies to cope. Don't wait till the waters rise or the floods come. Remember the motto of the Scouts movement; 'Be Prepared!'

 

Baby Steps to Freedom

 

As Covid restrictions ease and, at least legally, end completely in Guernsey after February 17th, and in the UK a couple of weeks later, there will be some of us feeling a bit nervous. The two-year long battle against this unseen but potentially deadly foe has taken its toll on us all, whether we have had Covid or not. Some have lost loved ones whilst many have been shielding, afraid of going out. We are grateful for one of the best vaccination records in the world and for all the care and oversight of our medical and Public Health teams, but it feels strange to be coming out of this pandemic with hundreds of cases in our islands and lots of new ones being discovered each day.

Taking baby steps out of the pandemic is a challenge to our faith, our hope, and our love. Our faith because we must choose not to let fear dominate us in the aftermath of all we have been through. Our trust in God means that we need to heed the many ‘fear nots’ in the Bible (some say that there are 366 – one for every day of the year and one for a leap year) and choose to be grateful for the amazing grace that has seen us through thus far and will take us forwards. Faith in our dedicated public health and medical teams is also well founded given their track record. And hope, because ultimately our hope is in God, his faithfulness, and his promises. The opposite of hope is despair and no good ever came out of that, so we don’t want to go there. Keeping a positive and hopeful attitude can see us through the most appalling difficulties if we put our trust in God, so as we climb up the other side of this viral valley it is needed more than ever.

Love means that we recognise that not everybody is travelling out of this pandemic at the same speed. Some feel very unsure, vulnerable, and uncertain, while others are bruised by grief, financial hardship, and loss. We can help one another by respect and patience and by simple words of encouragement that can lift a heavy load. Faith, hope and love may be the three main virtues of the Christian faith, but they make good sense for people of all faiths or of none as we move into the uncharted waters of recovery from a devastating global pandemic.

Blue Monday or Jubilee Year?

 

70 years ago today a wonderful lady was born! Diane Jean Guille arrived as a tiny baby in our home island of Guernsey. So, this January begins a Jubilee Year for us as I will also turn 70, and we will celebrate our Golden Wedding anniversary in September, God willing. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second became our monarch in the same year we were both born so we have truly lived through the 'Elizabethan era' and are grateful to God for his blessings and grace to us throughout. We both know that I should have died at 45, but was brought back from the brink so that we could continue to be together, through both pain and pleasure. To God be the glory!

When we set out on this journey called life none of us can know the time allotted to us or the direction our paths will take. For us it involved submitting to what we felt was the call of God, though not without struggle. When that call meant leaving our home island and heading first to the UK, then to Seychelles and Zimbabwe, it seemed really scary and intimidating. We both questioned whether we had got it right many times, but looking back at lessons learned and lives changed, we can see that it was always meant to be.

The most difficult challenge, mind you, was not going forth in service, but staying behind in pain. Our hearts were seared most deeply by the long season (13 years) of Diane's own battle with anxiety and debilitating depression, and my own 22 years of facing some of the worst pain known to humankind. Compared to that, setting out to serve God and share his love with others, was both a privilege and a learning curve. We bear scars, however, that are trophies of overcoming, not marks of despair. Diane's joy and cheerfulness in every experience of life, may have been hidden during her years of anguish, but have burst forth in blessing right up to the present day. She is the light of my life.

So, no 'blue Monday' for us here. Instead it's Happy Birthday Diane and welcome to our Year of Jubilee!

A King Size Bed

 There are beds for every shape and size, even beds for dogs! Yet, in many parts of the world, children don't get to sleep in their own beds. They sleep on the floor or on a mat, or else share a small bed with others. It is interesting to see how much bigger and more luxurious beds have become in the wealthy West in recent years. Still, we do spend a third of our lives in them, so I suppose they had better be comfortable.

But there was no fancy bed for the King of kings. When Jesus was born he was laid in a feeding trough because there was no room for him in the Inn. Whether formed from pieces of wood as in our picture, or hollowed out from stone, the main purpose of this receptacle was providing food for hungry animals, not being a bed fit for a king. Three times in the brief first part of Luke chapter 2 the gospel writer refers to the manger. It was remarkable to him, as it is to me even today.

It was a borrowed bed. Much later in his life Jesus pointed out that foxes have dens and the birds of the air have nests, but he had no place to regularly lay his weary head. Everything Jesus had was lent to him, usually by grateful followers. But, this manger was lent by the animals and their owners. How amazing that the arrival of the Son of God, the world's creator, should be greeted by willing creatures lending him a place to sleep! Jesus still inhabits borrowed quarters. He waits for us to hear his call and lend him our hearts and lives. 

It was a humble bed. No fancy throne here. In Matthew's gospel Jesus said; 'Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls' (Mt 11:29). Jesus chose to humble himself so that we could be lifted up in him! At the cross his lowering of himself became complete. 'God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God' (2 Cor. 5:21).

It was a sign. The angel appearing to the shepherds said as much. 'This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger' (Luke 2:12). The humble manger became a sign of a humble saviour. It pointed to something and someone way beyond its lowly confines. It pointed to the one who can truly be King and Lord of our lives if we will let him. And if we will? Then our lives can become signs also - pointing others to the Christ of Christmas.

Have a blessed and peaceful Christmas and a glorious New Year!

A Fearful Possibility? - or a Place of Shelter?

With news of a new variant named 'Omicron' by the WHO that may possibly dodge the effects of the vaccine on our immune systems, as well as being even more transmissible than the Delta version, it is clear that the pandemic is far from over. The fear of new variants has been acknowledged for some time, but now seems to have been realised due to the low take-up of vaccination in the global south. As one scientist said on the radio recently, 'none of us are safe until we are all safe', urging the fairer spread of vaccine into the poorer nations, now that rates of protection are fairly high in the developed world.

Our own island community has seen infection rates soar since the borders were re-opened in July. The freedom from 'non-pharmaceutical interventions' that we knew - mask wearing, social distancing etc - is now a distant memory as we are tasting what the rest of the British Isles and elsewhere have been going through in the last couple of years. Covid came even closer home to me recently when Diane, my wife, caught Covid and went through a couple of weeks of the symptoms of a really heavy cold, though thankfully nothing more. At the time of writing I am grateful to be still free of the infection.

But some of he stuff I learned during my long battle with life-threatening illness is helping me now. I realise, for instance, that I must make a decision not to let fear dominate here. Why should I be afraid if I know that my life is held in God's hands? Illness and death have always stalked the Earth since the earliest days of mankind, as have wars and famines, but God has always shown himself to be faithful. Christmas is the announcement of God breaking into our fallen humanity with the presence of the one who is described as 'Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace and Everlasting Father'. None of the horrors of the pandemic have taken him by surprise and his hand is still on the tiller of history.

A prayer from the book of Psalms says; 'when my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me to the rock that is higher than I'. (Psalm 61:2). If you are starting to feel fear's icy grip on your heart, you probably need to pray that too. The new variant may be coming, like another wave of evil, but God's rock is still strong enough for you and me to shelter by. That rock is Christ!

 

Scars of Victory!

 

Watching the Remembrance Day march-past at the UK Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, once again today, I am moved by the faces of the veterans in parade. Regathered after last year's pandemic shutdown, the serried ranks of the comrades, men and women, showed faces beaming with a sense of achievement. As the bands of the Coldstream Guards played wartime tunes they marched past in their thousands, medals jingling, berets askew, arms swinging, chests thrust forward with pride. Yet, for many, the march was a test of endurance. I saw several double amputees in full regalia tottering forward on their artificial limbs but keeping in step with their colleagues. There were guide dogs for blind veterans and several young people in uniform accompanying others. Some marchers were bearing their scars of war so bravely it seems that they were almost decorations, not disabilities.

In my book Through the Storms I describe this scene at the start of a chapter about bearing our scars with pride and not shame. So many of us do have scars from our encounters with pain, disappointment, trauma or battles of all kinds. I have many, both physical and emotional, from my own two decade long struggle with acute and chronic pancreatitis and the many long stays in hospital and appalling pain I endured. When I bared my torso for a medical examination recently the nurse exclaimed 'wow - that's not a scar; that's a shark attack!' The trauma of more than one 'near-death encounter' and long spells in intensive care has left its mark on my sub-conscious, and still affects me occasionally. But these veterans of war marching today by their thousands have reminded me again that our scars are not shameful - no, they speak of our overcoming, our victories.

If you are badly marked or impaired in some way either outwardly or within due to to trauma, hold your wounds up as badges of honour, not signs of disgrace. When Jesus overcame even death itself, his resurrected body still bore the marks of his traumatic death on the cross. They did not disappear in the glory of his victory precisely because they describe his triumph so clearly. Those wounds also become a sign to me of the way he enters into my own suffering so completely. They qualified Jesus as the perfect man as well as God, able to enter into our own battles and sufferings with complete understanding, and total victory.

So, scarred warrior, march on with pride, and when the devil reminds you of your past - just remind him of his future!

No COP out now!

As the worlds' leaders and their teams gather in Glasgow for COP 26 this weekend let's be praying for action instead of merely words and grand gestures. The need for urgency is clear, despite the protests of those with huge vested interest in keeping things the way they are. Certainly our young people seem to understand the message even if their forbears have literally grown deaf. Of course, such action will hurt the lifestyles of those who have become used to the luxury of multiple vehicle ownership and the mass consumption of fossil fuels, but is there a Plan B? I think not.

One aspect of all this that does concern me is the lack of balance between the haves and the have-nots of climate change. Many of the world's poorest communities are experiencing the effects of this period of human tenancy on Earth. From widespread drought in sub-Saharan Africa to wild fires on Greek islands, the threat to the very existence of homes along the rivers in Bangladesh, and the potential disappearance of whole communities into the sea in low-lying island nations like the Maldives, this imbalance is clear. The Western and developed world has made its fortune extracting ore, minerals and fossil fuels from the Earth and it is, quite literally, payback time. The time has come to recognise the essential unity of mankind and the responsibility placed upon us all to be stewards of God's creation.
 

When stuff goes wrong with any piece of equipment in my life, I often refer to the maker's manual. Whether online or in a booklet, I pay attention to the original purpose for the item in question, seeking answers from the one who made it. This is what God has said in his Creator's Manual that goes with the Earth, and reflects His plans for mankind: God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature, so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.

God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature.  He created them male and female. God blessed them: 'Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.'" (Gen. 1:28-30 The Message).

Shortages? What shortages?

 

During our visit to the UK last week we were amazed by the long queues at petrol stations and the empty shelves in some shops. It seems that panic buying has a lot to answer for, but the underlying problems are more complicated than that. The aftermath of Brexit followed swiftly by the pandemic has disrupted supply chains across Europe, and certainly in the UK. So we see troops driving tankers instead of tanks, and 80 year-olds being begged by the government to drive heavy goods vehicles again! You couldn't make it up!

Apparently it doesn't take much disruption to affect supply chains. A container ship stuck in the Suez Canal for a few days was a big part of all this. Yet, if it wasn't for our human tendency to panic and hoard, a lot of this pressure would be a great deal more manageable. What lies behind this feature of modern life?

Well, fear has a lot to do with it. The fear that what I want, or even what I need, might not be available or perhaps affordable in the future, leads to panic buying. Fear is a powerful force, and as we saw in the early stages of the pandemic, can affect human behaviour in profound ways. Some are positive, like the fear that makes us aware of speeding traffic around us, or a threat posed by hostile groups of young men as we walk about. But fear can also paralyse us, or drive us to irrational actions such as panic-buying or hoarding. In certain circumstances fear can rob us of joy and peace, even causing distressing symptoms in our bodies and minds.

It is for these reasons that he Bible says so much about fear. Some people say there are 366 'don't be afraid' phrases in the Bible - one for every day and one more for a leap year! Jesus spoke about fear a lot, urging his followers to try and let go of anxiety about having whatever they need. Here's a sample, taken from Matthew chapter 6;  “What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met".

Living with a bit of trust in that kind of relationship with God should surely help us to avoid panic. St Paul had lots to worry about, yet whilst languishing in a Roman prison he wrote "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:19). No shortages there then, and no blinding fear either. Handing our lives and our future over to a loving heavenly Father makes so much sense in a world of increasing uncertainty.

Who can we trust anyway?

 

When PC Wayne Couzens pulled out his police warrant card there was no point Sarah Everard running away. If she had done, she might have lived, as the monster was depending on her subservience. She knew that running from an arresting police officer was a criminal offence, and like so many of us would in similar circumstances, she bowed her head and complied. It was the last decision she would ever make.

The judge who sentenced Couzens this week to die in jail rightly pointed out that the murder of this innocent and beautiful soul was compounded by the betrayal of her trust, and ours. We appoint these officers to be guardians of our society and the abuse of that trust horrifies us. But sadly, this is not an isolated betrayal, as the dreadful murder of George Floyd by a policeman in the USA in 2020 shows. 

The abuse of trust by people in power over us, who ought to be protecting or helping us, stuns our
minds, shocks our hearts, and shakes our confidence to its core. Whether teachers, or clergy, or football coaches or broadcasters, the issue of breaching trust can lead us to doubt the value of trusting anything or anybody ever again. Cynicism grows like bacteria in our souls in an atmosphere of mistrust and is fed by the curdled regurgitation of evil in the media. I have not read the sordid details of the Couzens case in the papers, and I don’t intend to, for this very reason.

But we cannot let this evil rob us of the power and hope that flows from trusting something or someone outside of ourselves. Over the years I have had to put my trust in doctors and surgeons who warned me that the upcoming procedure might kill me, and the only way I could make the choice to go ahead was to recognise that higher hands were holding theirs as they operated on me, time and time again. Bowing my head and signing the consent form was only possible because I had previously bowed my head to the Great Physician and put my trust in him. Of course, they could have made errors and sometimes did, but in the end my trust was not in the professionals alone, but in the God who loves me and has a plan for my life.

A very moving verse from the Bible letter of James says: ‘So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle’. This tells us that there is not an iota of abusive intent in the heart of God. He can be trusted. At my baptism as a young teenager, I was given the Bible verse Proverbs 3:5 ‘Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track’ (The Message).

‘There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced’ – but tragically there often is in people. As we put our trust in higher hands, let’s also pray for the family of Sarah Everard who showed such courage and dignity in the courtroom at the Old Bailey this week. And let’s not allow a murderous fiend like Couzens to steal our ability to trust others as well as well as trusting the God who loves us. And may God help any of us in leadership or places of authority to be trustworthy in thought, word and deed.