Amazed & Confused

Video Greetings for IAM10

I filmed this little offering with the 24-7 Team in our London Office.  I'm giddy about all the different national and international celebrations 24-7 is hosting around its 10th Birthday next year.  Steve and I got together at the UK gathering IAM5, it's hard to believe we're now planning IAM10.  It's such a privilege to be a part of this with so many amazing people.  I can't wait to see all the Birthday greetings flooding in from around the UK.  Please click through to YouTube and add a Birthday greeting of your own.  Mine's below...

Let Us Pray

Today is the last of the 40 day season of prayer and fasting for the Revelation Church community.  It's been an amazing time with a great sense of camaraderie and an interesting journey of prayer and worship together.  Some fasted the internet, others television, some food, others altered sleep patterns... each chose something that would be a sacrifice and release time to spend with God.  

During the six Sundays of our prayer experiment we've explored different ways of praying together: meditation, liturgy, symbolic acts, installations and films to name a few.  Last Sunday our family meeting prayer time was one of my favourites.  Way back in September, crowded around a pub table some friends and I brainstormed how we could inspire our church family to pray.  We racked our brains for anything that would focus our minds on Jesus and invite Him to make His presence felt among us.  (If you're not a Christian that sentence probably sounds weird... ask me about it some time).  Charlotte brought her boundless creativity, Smiles shared experiences that have profoundly affected her, and many others volunteered to build, write or lead something inspirational.  The lovely Ben Wilkes stuck his name down for something I considered to be rather ambitious... Ben offered to lead us in prayer for the world... The fantastic film above was the fruit of Ben's prayer and thought and as I watched, it moved me to tears. It's just one week of headlines and a simple response in prayer... I hope you enjoy it and find it as inspiring as I did...

Three Years...

Today is the third anniversary of the day Stephen and I made vows to one another before friends, family and God. Today we celebrate by looking back together, sifting through the memorabilia and reminding ourselves of the promises we made. One quote shared by a good friend and tucked away in our Wedding box made me pause and smile. These words are true... 

"Being in love is a good thing but it is not the best thing. Love is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habits re-enforced by the grace which both patterns ask to receive from God... On this love the engine of marraige is run, being in love was the explosion that started it." CS Lewis

A Little Light Reading

I absolutely love to read.  There is something magical about opening a book, locating the first word and (with luck) falling immediately into a world that captivates and enthrals.  Not every tale grabs me so, I'm definitely describing my ideal.  Sadly I tend to only experience such immediate and complete immersion in a story about once a year; but with every crisp new spine, every un-touched page there is the potential for something like...

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

or

"Mr & Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

or even

"When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would soon be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton..."

Each of these books has enraptured me at different points in my life.  I feel gratitude to their authors whenever I glance their spines on our bookshelf.  The Lord of the Rings was my companion after late nights on the streets of Ibiza.  The conclusion of Harry Potter's saga was read aloud on my living room sofa through an outpouring of tears.  The tail of Roland Deschain and the Dark Tower (probably still one of the richest pieces of writing I've delved into) found it's conclusion/continuation on our Honeymoon.

Memories of these books lead me to others, more first lines that took me to unexpected places...

"My suffering left me sad and gloomy."

"I'd never given much thought to how I would die..."

And the timeless...

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

Each book is filled with people I've learned from... others I've loathed... heros, villains, victims and bystanders who's lives have become as familiar as my neighbours.  Many have taken up residence in the culdasac of my imagination.  As I began to compile the stack of books pictured above for the holiday Steve and I are embarking on today, I started hoping that hidden within their pages may be one or two new additions to my most loved list.  Many of these titles I've been hoping to read for some time and with five days of nothing ahead of me I look forward to exploring them...