here’s to…
i’m struggling with the fact that many of my contemporaries seem to be dreaming their futures in countries other than our own.
there are just so many reasons to go. i really want to believe that i will stay (no matter what) but hey, you never know. never say never.
but, if I’m going to stay, then i want to stay well. i don’t want to stay, but full of cynicism, negativity and pessimism. I want to stay with hope. I want to stay, with a confidence that I have something to contribute to the country of my birth.
same with the community of faith of my birth. i am fast realising that people of my age are not commonly found in churches today. we are a scarce commodity. not more valuable for our scarcity unfortunately. the generation of which I am a part has largely lost faith in organised religion.
there are just so many reasons to leave. i really want to believe that i will stay (no matter what) but hey, you never know. never say never.
but, if I’m going to stay, then i want to stay well. i don’t want to stay, but full of cynicism, negativity and pessimism. I want to stay with hope. I want to stay, with a confidence that I have something to contribute to the community of faith i call home.
so here’s to engagement - to growing confidence that will provide the platform from which to reach out - to keep on giving and investing and contributing and venturing…
and here’s to good news - the stories that are so often be neglected in our negative and previously-privileged milleu.
and here’s to faith - that desperately scarce commodity in a world of bad news stories. faith is to keep on in the face of the barage of reasons not to!
and lastly, here’s to compassion - a distinctive response to bad and painful and disappointing news in a world of pessimism and negativity. it might sound cliched to say “let’s pray about these situations” but if prayer is primarily about learning the heart of God (and not trying to influence the heart of God) then compassion will always be the marked and distinctive response of the community that bears faith and hope and charity.
here’s to this planet and this body, this town and this country, this place and this space…
right now,
and forever.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am
barry
please read thru your post to top to bottom. It seems te copy and paste gremlin was at work in you post.
enjoy your day
Hanno
July 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
on second thought , maybe I just read all of this wrong and you meant to write like this. I n that case, please excuse my ignorance.
as far as the church is concerned - I look at the church with all of it’s politics and senseless programs and corrupt ministers etc and I despair. I do not think that this is the type of church that I want to be a part of.
But I do like the doctrine. At the moment I am hoping that someone in the Methodist church wakes up and sees what we are doing. The church is becoming more and more heavy with a top structure that is only there to line their own pockets and boost their own ego’s.
Sorry for ranting like this on your blog.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Hi Barry
We are called to follow the one who came as light in the darkness (John 1)…. which probably means that Jesus will lead us into darkness so that his light may shine. And the darkness is in South Africa…and the darkness is in the Methodist Church of SA…. and sometimes I wish that it were not quite so dark.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
gees okes - so much negativity!!!
(ja, i’m feeling the strain too)
but check out the RCL (revise common lectionary) readings for this week - John 13: the wheat and the weeds and Romans 8: creation groaning as in child-birth…
somehow i don’t sense we’re being invited into quick-fix-glorious-light-church. Pete, you’re right about the Light leading us into the darkness - in order to shine…
i really like the parable of the wheat and the weeds: like jesus is saying, “hold the tension of this seemingly messed up broken world, or your painful hurting circumstances…” rather than “quick - fix everything and make it squeaky clean for when the Master arrives…”