New Years Resolutions!

Whether we express them out loud or quietly keep them to ourselves, we all make them... and then break them! To some it's a joke and to others it appears to be a lot more serious.

Give up smoking, lose weight, start exercising, learn a new skill... these are some of the more common resolutions. Skydive for the first time, go spelunking, finish my book, learn to eat sushi... these maybe some less used resolutions...

What ever your motivation and how ever long the resolution lasts, is irrelevant! The fact that you made a resolution says everything. It says: I am alive and I am going to live my life, I have plans and I am resolved to achieve them. I look forward, not forgetting my past but not being held back by it(many resolutions are repeats - so what!)

We have so little time here on Earth, You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. —James 4:14
Why waste it on "what if's" or "coulda beens" or "only if's" or "whateva's" or some lame-ass excuse to procrastinate.

So where are you today? What are your resolutions? and mine? well I always had the flippant answer "I made a resolution never to have any more resolutions!" but I still have them... So tell someone what your resolutions are, or write them down in your journal or blog, at least that way you have one sign in your life that says "I believe in tomorrow!" - that's important dontcha think!

Here are mine for the moment - and I have no illusion that they will last but I'm gonna try!

• Start a daily walk (haha I hear my wife's laughter!)
• Spend more time with God
• Cut down my spending (more laughter ...)
• Get closer to my kids - they are the future!
• Listen more, talk less (ok! enough with the laughing!)
• Read at least one meaningful book

Good luck and God Bless on your resolutions!

Time, the unstoppable river that leaves All Things Changed

So at the beginning of the New Year and the end of the Old Year we find ourselves between time. There's a moment of inertia as the old year seeks to hold onto us with it lasts grasp, reminding us of it's great times and memories, as if to entice you to stay, all the while the new year beckons to you with adventure and second chances. We drift momentarily without time, wanting to keep our precious memories but in one moment wanting also to make new ones!

Then there's us... placing ourselves out of time by earnestly desiring to forget the pain, forget the past and to make a new start, fresh and devoid of the burden we carry. We are so good at protecting our sanity that we take the pain, the bad memories and like a clever centerfold artist, touch them up. Hiding blemishes, covering over the unsightly, even going as far as gratuitously changing facts to make the past more palatable.

Over time we warp parts of our past in our minds to such an extent that that hardly resemble anything that we were part of. We do it little by little, leaving enough truth to keep it believable and surrounding our thoughts with "supporting" facts. Thus creating our "perfect" past to match our "perfect" life! To reiterate, this we do to protect our sanity, and for the most part it's harmless and necessary. However, too much of anything corrupts and more so when the we start to live in the past we've "touched up".

Time is unstoppable and leaves everything changed!

"A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it." - Winston Churchill

Remember everything as it really was, this will often make the pain greater but it will also make the joy sweeter!

When we sang the Old Year out and the New Year in with the traditional "Auld Lang Syne", it brought these thoughts closer to mind. This past 2007, we have loved, we have lost, we have failed, we have triumphed and we have survived!

Auld Lang Syne - Robert Burns
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
And surely I’ll buy mine !
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

May 2008 be a Blessed and happy year for us all!

2007 just some thoughts

As many point out the year seems to have been one that most of the family (in SA) would chose to forget! We were beset with one crisis or another on a regular basis, my in-laws had a similar year, laced with tragedy and pain! Yet amidst this I celebrate! Throughout this year I have waited for my reserves to fail, for my resolve to weaken, for my courage to falter, and it hasn't. I feel stronger and more at peace at the end of this year than I have felt in years. Our lives are richer and fuller than they have been, our joys are sweeter. If you choose to deny the pain and sorrow, to ignore the suffering of others and run and hide from the terrors of the world, then you will find a restless, unsatisfied life, devoid of real meaning and you always feel that something is missing.

I listen to a morning Breakfast Show (Highveld Stereo - The Rude Awakening), and every year they run a "Christmas Wish" program for the month leading up to Christmas. It is all about the community climbing in and helping the less fortunate. This year while listening to the many requests (made on behalf of the needy) I was so deeply touched by the real suffering that some families have. What amazed me was the small gesture they longed for, the tiniest act of grace or mercy they needed, to feel whole again. Then I am ashamed of feeling "hard done by" or unjustly targeted or for having uttered the words "life's unfair!", no, I am afraid we're missing the point, we have not even scratched the surface true suffering! So I count my blessings and then I see how many they are, because I can't stop finding more things to be thankful for. Then I thank my God for all of those blessings and celebrate 2007, for it was actually a good year!

May your Christmas be blessed, may your family fill your lives with happiness and joy, may God make His face to shine upon you and grant you His Peace in 2008!

Faith in the "small still Voice"

When listening for God open your ears! Many a Sunday-church-goer will have the expectation of an uplifting message delivered within a convenient time frame, surrounded by announcements and interspersed with generous dollops of praise and worship! We leave the Church on a Sunday with a light step feeling good about the commitment we've made to our faith. And I guess God's okay with this, because He uses all things to His good! But, why not go to the Sunday Service expecting more? We spend time each day sending "knee-mail" to God, but we don't wait for his replies... So He makes use of other opportunities to grab your attention. Like when you have to sit quietly on a hard pew for one and half hours every Sunday! Open your Ears and Listen!

Here’s what can happen…

The message on Sunday was all about overcoming exhaustion, spiritual exhaustion. How God reaches into our tiredness and revitalises us. First a bit of background in getting to this day! Over the past year we have been through a very trying time. We have faced all sorts of trials and tribulations... however, never were we despondent, instead "we have counted it all joy!" (James 1:2-4) I was very grateful to experience the strength that God had been growing in our family over the years, seeing the fruits as it were! Then after all the testing was done, things started to improve and the future was getting back on track, so much so that we celebrated the fact with our Life Group, rejoicing that we had, with God's grace and mercy, "passed" the test(s)! Then suddenly last week, another test. I was starting to understand what Job went through (only on a smaller scale, thankfully).

And this was where I related so much to Sundays message. In the message we saw that Elijah, after overcoming many enemies, walked into the desert and sat down under a broom tree...(1 Kings 19:1-18) saying that he was done, finished, giving up! and then we read about Peter,(John 21:1-6, 15-18) after having been through the pain of losing his Lord and basically feeling lost, he returned to doing what he had always done before, fishing! I am sitting in church and thinking “yeah, I am going to hang that sign on my door! ‘Gone Fishing!’ ” So in the midst of this latest test of faith, I am listening to the message yesterday and there I find God's "small still voice" amid the roar of life going on around me. I want to add some additional thoughts on what God was saying to me yesterday. In the passage where Peter and the disciples return from fishing with no catch, Jesus urges them to try again by casting their net on the right side of the boat. Well I was struck by (made aware of by the Spirit?) the language use, "the right side of the boat" and not the "right-hand side of the boat". So He is not instructing them(us) to fish on the left-hand side or the right-hand side of the boat, He is saying don't fish on the wrong side of the boat, they(we) must fish on the right(correct) side of the boat.

The message to me is clear and I will be testing it's validity over the next few weeks to make sure I'm not following my own voice but rather that of Christ. It's time to take a deep breath and cast the net on the "right" side of the boat! I will also be "listening expectantly" more frequently, besides it's easier to shut-up than to make a lot of noise. lol!

There and Back again...

The saying "time flies when you're having fun" can only be true when the "fun" you're having is superficial. In my experience, and the last holiday in Cape Town is a case in point, when you have meaningful "fun" then a week feels like a life time, every second an eternity and memories pile up to the sky.

We travelled aprox 3910km in 10 days, saw 63 Towns and experienced the breath taking awesome beauty of the Karoo, Cape Winelands, the West Coast, Darlings Flowers, Cape Point, Table Mountain etc etc. Most importantly we saw family and friends along the way and reconnected and made more memories for the family annuls. To record it all there are 810 photo's to sort through - phew!

This year our family has been fortunate to have travelled the length of South Africa, from the Limpopo to Cape Point and it has been a truly memorable experience. Thanks to our Lord who kept us safe and who created it all for us to enjoy!

I am back at work today and while I would rather still be on holiday, I am ready to pick up the reins and charge forward. As I started this morning, looking at the endless electronic blur of e-mail and piles of work on my desk, I was rudely confronted by a test of faith! Recently I was offered a "prestigious" position in another part of the company. I place prestigious in inverted commas because what some people consider to prestige is not necessary so... Anyway, the offer was made but no incentive other than the "prestige" was given. As a result I was not impressed by the offer and turned it down. A colleague of mine was then offered then same position and she has accepted it.

The little test I got this morning was hearing that she had been offered additional incentives to take the position. Incentives I asked for but never got... So immediately I cry "FOUL!" "UNFAIR!" and then a small still voice says "Is My hand too short to save you? what is it to you if I give the worker who started in the afternoon the same wage as the worker who has been there since day break? is it not My vineyard?"

And so I repent and accept. To have Faith in what God has in mind for me, Believing that I am tied to Him and that He is my Jehovah Jira, this is what I choose.

There and Back again – is Bilbo Baggins' title of the book he starts to write in story "The Lord of the Rings" by JRR Tolkien. That sums up our holiday and a test of faith, we went There(Cape Town) and Back(Home) again, and I went There(a test on what I believe about God) and Back(a choice not to react wrongly)again!