gwanyeboyye

On Saturday past I watched my 14 year old son pivot on his heels over the edge of a twelve storey building. The only thoughts going round my head were ones of fear, sickness and pride. The first two because I had done the same thing before and the memories made me want to puke, the third because he had overcome a long standing fear of heights to take part in a sponsored abseil. Sorry, I neglected to mention he was attached to a robust harness, two safety lines which in turn were anchored to the very best that British Steel could muster and oh yes and he had a hard hat (never quite sure why). There was the anticipation of the ‘jump’ on the journey to the venue, followed by the banter with his mates when we arrived, thinly veiling the bile rising unceremoniously in everyones stomach. I watched him struggle to implement all that he had been taught in the expansive ten minutes of tuition and guidance given just before the descent. I watched the pain as he slid, kicked, pondered and bounced his way down a very smooth 1960’s concrete edifice. He did it, he landed and all was well with the world again

This is a story one could tell in the fellowship of christians, usually incorporating the words…’and you know it’s just like that with God’. There would follow various parallels, some clear some tenuous, about faith, or fears, or about being in Gods hands or perhaps touching on ascension / descension and so on. But what I most remember about the event was the look on my son’s face as his feet touched the ground. It was not just one of nervous relief or even repressed shock – that will come when he is my age – but a look that said: “I did it, its over, I nearly wrecked myself, feel proud if you want to but don’t ever ask me to do it again”.

There is a case to plead, I believe, that at some stage in the faith walk, christians should have witnessed God’s awesome plan / presence / power to such a degree that it’s downright scary. So much so that at the end all you can say to God is: ‘feel proud if you want to but don’t ever ask me to do it again’. Too often we are more comfortable with signing the sponsor form and taking photographs as opposed to getting involved with the ‘plan’. By the way there is no surer way of getting a teenager to hang off a building than by saying: ‘ It will scare you witless and take your breath away… don’t even think about trying this at home’. Maybe there is a lesson to learn about the constant dumbing down of the christian message and lifestyle. Is there mileage in an anti-advertising for christianity? Jesus talked about taking Him and his message seriously, not trivialising but becoming involved, with all the ’scary’ moments that entails. Lets face it by the time my son tells the story in school on Monday morning, fear will have turned into heroism and he will not be able to wait until the next sponsored bungy jump off some dodgy bridge.

PS. I did offer to abseil down with the wee lad but I just had to give up my place for others…I had to give him his moment of glory…there were too many watching…it was a bit windy…they needed someone on the ground to untie the ropes…I had a piece of grit in my eye…

posted by greentea

it takes just like chicken

I was listening to a radio programme where a well known chef had travelled to America in search of the taste experience offered by local cowboys. The a la carte extravaganza was known as ‘Texan oysters’. After much anticipation and expectation he said: ” I know its a cliche but it tastes just like chicken”. I don’t know which was more deflating for him: the blandness of the culinary offering or the fact that Texan ‘oysters’ are in fact boiled bull testes presented as a taste initiation for young cowhands.
Why do I recall this? Well because I was driving back from the breakfast / study time with the guys and thinking about (a) how tasty the breakfast had been and (b) how thought provoking and ‘filling’ the study had been. You know what I mean: food for the body + soul, and all that. Taste and see that the Lord is good – it does exactly what it says on the tin and no need to chase after the extraordinary.

posted by greentea

The Very Excellent Brian Houston

Whilst Bible Study is the main reason we all meet together, naturally enough the conversation often covers other things of great importance to men: football, music, football, films, football, rugby, football – that sort of thing.

Now it’s very difficult to get much agreement about football when you have Celtic & Rangers fans, Man Utd & Liverpool fans, Linfield & Crusaders fans all sharing a sausage, so, apart from our glorious Ulster & Ireland rugby teams, music tends to be the thing that most often helps us find some pre-Bible study common ground.

It’s great fun recommending music to your pals. In fact, it’s great fun recommending music to anybody, so here goes.

In my view, there were two absolutely outstanding albums released in 2005 – “Cole’s Corner”, by Richard Hawley, and “Jesus & Justice”, by Brian Houston. The first album has been seized upon and lauded by virtually all of the most respected critics (made The Word’s Top 10 Albums of 2005 etc) so let’s concentrate on young Houston. Well, he’s a folk singer in the Springsteen/Forbert mould, he’s about the age of the breakfast squad (or most of us!), he’s a Christian and he’s from East Belfast, which should make me biased, but then again he might be a Glenman, which evens things up a bit.

I first heard Brian when local radio began playing “Jesus Again” over 10 years ago. Then a few years ago I was browsing in a record shop when I found his album “In the Words of Dr Luke”. In the sleeve notes the album was described by the great Steve Stockman (author, preacher etc) as a worship album for people who hate worship albums. With a compliment like this, and the artist himself name-checking Springsteen, Dylan & Van, I took the album to the counter pronto. It was an excellent album lifted by one track, “Give me Faith”, the words of which could have been written for any male Christian (and possibly were).

After trying and liking a couple of other albums, I bought “Jesus & Justice” with a certain sense of anticipation. However, I could never have predicted the lyrical power and musical quality that I would find within the grooves (OK – so it was a CD but what’s a little poetic licence amongst friends?). Honestly, this album can be compared to Tunnel of Love, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher, Blood on the Tracks – you name it. Just listen to “How Beautiful You Are”, “Wear My Ring” and the majestic “Everybody Needs a Healer” and see for yourself. I guarantee dear reader, you will not be disappointed. I have played it constantly for the last several months and simply never cease to be moved, uplifted and inspired by this record.

Brian’s new album “Sugar Queen” is out in the next couple of months and already on pre-order from this household. In the meantime, check out Brian’s website and find out a bit more about the man described by Bob Harris as “the very excellent Brian Houston”.

posted by justcoffeeforme

Men and their Football

Well now it’s official…men can be faithful too. Read a piece of research in yesterday’s newspaper about men and their football teams. It seems that 94% of 2000 men surveyed say they would never abandon their team no matter how dire they played, but 52% of those same men say they would walk from a relationship that hit the rocks. Now I don’t want to condone that, or at least my wife wouldn’t want me to condone it, but this team loyalty thing is something women struggle to understand.

Just tonight, as I cheered a brilliant Arsenal performance against Juve, my wife said I would be better off supporting them than Leeds, the team I’ve supported since I was six, when someone told me they were better than Crystal Palace who I’d supported for about 10 mins (so that doesn’t count). Anyway I was only six. Didn’t know any better. (Crystal Palace for goodness sake!)

Anyway, the psychologist who conducted the research was quoted as saying “In an age where jobs and relationships come and go, loyalty is now reserved for something men feel they can believe in – football.”

BTW, 30% of the men said football had been instrumental in helping them bond with other men. 40% of them also said they had spilled tears of joy and despair, and 25% said they would miss a family funeral to watch a match.

Makes you proud doesn’t it?

another one…

i think i read somewhere that there are 40,000 new blogs published every month. no doubt there are many abandoned each month too, but it still amounts to a whole lot of people who believe that they have something to say which others need to/want to/should read. well here’s another one. we have met now for nearly three years, once a month on a saturday morning to eat a hearty breakfast then to read the bible together. our intent is to try and make some sense of faith in the context of our variety of life experience.

most of us are married, but not all. between us we have 15 kids (i think) from nineteen years old down to nearly three. we work in a variety of jobs, one is an architect, two work in IT, one in the printing industry, one is a teacher, one in youth ministry and one in urban ministry. we are all members of the same church; where some of us have official leadership responsibility, but others are just pew fodder, (in the best sense of the word of course).

we met last saturday (early on the morning of ireland’s glorious six nations rugby victory over england) to talk about some next steps for us. one outcome is this blog as we attempt to find ways of continuing our discussions and reflections outside of the regular monthly encounters. we all know more than we know, and one way of uncovering what we know is by saying it out or writing it out, hence the blog.

so let’s see where it goes….