Happy February Fourteenth
Dearest Tash,
Valentines Day is just a marketing scam
I just want to say that I’m your fan..
and when you see & hear the lovebirds rave
just think of all the dosh you’ve saved..
Finding Step With You
Song Of The Moment : Won’t Back Down
Mat Kearney
woke the morning up
running off the darkest night
the longest light i’ve seen
here goes a chance i know
cashing in on all my chips
let all my ships come fly
these days, a little bit longer than the last
and all of your ways, a little bit stronger than the past
and your light, found my bottle in the night
kept me in this fight, gave me second life
and i won’t back down i won’t turn around and around
and i won’t back down
doesn’t matter what comes crashing down
i’m still gonna stand my solid ground
you found me once and for all
i laid it down in the sinking ground
the hopeless undertow
singing out the gentle sound
rattling through my smoking screens
my broken dreams last night
hallelujah ripped through my veins
i heard the hammer drop
my blood in the rain
hallelujah came like a train
when all is lost
all is left to gain
hallelujah
My Baby & Me, We Been So Far
The events of the past few weeks have been.. well.. frantic, hurried and more than a little frustrating. It’s that time of the year when my creative self rules over everything else and my head is caught up in Big Ideas, leaving very little time for anything else.
But Anything Else made time for itself at the end of last week, when a young woman drove her heavy European hatchback into the back of my very plastic-fantastic stationwagon. $9500 worth of damage later and I’m still waiting to hear back from insurance companies .. but it’s unlikely to be fixed – especially considering the state of her nose as well! 55km in the rear end can push you a long way up the road.
As Stephen so eloquently said – we were “rooted from behind on a sunny thursday”. More painful than anything else is the jarring to my lower back – I have an official ‘lumbar sprain’ and officially, it’s definitely making it’s presence felt.
146,000km
Yup, one hundred and forty six thousand kilometres I’ve travelled in that trusty Ford stationwagon. Certainly a few deep late night conversations with friends, workmates and God have transpired in that wagon. 5 trips to Wellington, at least 10 to Whangarei and the surrounding districts, and countless trips to Hamilton & Mystery Creek. We’ve endured parking fines and all sorts together, and for the most part – she’s been a faithful workhouse – exactly what she was intended to be. Although I love the feel of slick polish under my hands and a seriously powerful motor begging to be let loose low to the road and with road-hugging power – that Ford was meant to work hard – and she sure has in the short four years we’ve been together.
So I shed a few tears when I handed over the keys at the panelbeater the other day.
Fond Possessions
Speaking of them, I was thinking about my guitar the other day. I love my Gretsch – it’s solid weight and bright presence. I like it’s confidence in itself.
The Maton though, is infinitely closer to my heart I’ve discovered. Something about the warmth of the tone, and the sweetness of the action – I just seem to be able to write better melodies and sing more honest songs with my fingers holding the Maton. Is it really possible to have a ‘relationship’ with material possesions?
daybreak night shade
raw and holy
raw and holy
pure nakedness before a throne
of empty sky
searching starlit galaxy for
a King who would embrace me
now, expectant through my veins
earth water moonsky – in that Holy embrace
You’re making a Love
in my atmosphere for me to drink of
Who I Wanted Always To Be
I’m reflecting on some goals and outcomes I was aspiring to at the beginning of 2005. Here at the beginning of 2007, I find that most are still 100% relevant and true, even though the context of ‘ministry’ has changed slightly.
This is uber-encouraging in light of a friend’s questions yesterday over whether or not I had made the right decisions.
Personal Values: This is what turns me on
Þ People growing, developing
Þ Community growing, developing, starting
Þ Working with ideas, creating opportunities
Þ Watching, observing and creating culture/behaviours
Þ Strategic thinking, big goals, leadership
Þ Creative expressions; art, image, sound
Personal Outcomes in Ministry: These are roles I want to explore
Þ To be creative and creating on a conceptual and practical level
Þ To be relationally involved in mentoring, group leadership, up-side-down ministry
Þ To be strategic in thought and action, observant and culture aware in order
Þ To be a relevant culture prophet, shaping and building community life
Þ To be involved in areas of transition and integration with the youth community
Þ People growing, developing
Þ Community growing, developing, starting
Þ Working with ideas, creating opportunities
Þ Watching, observing and creating culture/behaviours
Þ Strategic thinking, big goals, leadership
Þ Creative expressions; art, image, sound
Personal Outcomes in Ministry: These are roles I want to explore
Þ To be creative and creating on a conceptual and practical level
Þ To be relationally involved in mentoring, group leadership, up-side-down ministry
Þ To be strategic in thought and action, observant and culture aware in order
Þ To be a relevant culture prophet, shaping and building community life
Þ To be involved in areas of transition and integration with the youth community
This is where I want to be SHORT TERM
Leading visibly and establishing a leadership portfolio
Leading network ministries such as BYM Eastercamp
Working with my strategic and lateral thinking skills
Using my creativity
Developing new teams and new opportunities for people
Problem solving
Project launching
Networking
Using my creativity
Developing new teams and new opportunities for people
Problem solving
Project launching
Networking
This is where I want to be LONG TERM
Leading in a strategic, relational regional or national role with youth/young adult networks of ministry and mission; (input and outreach) such as youth pastors, young adult pastors, student ministries, parachurch organizations.
Resourcing, supporting, encouraging and leading ministry and mission endeavours within those communities and networks.
Leading, resourcing, supporting, encouraging, training and opening doors for those working in the field.
On the cutting edge of church practice, policy, direction and vision.
Involved in the study/observation practices of ministry concepts and ideas; ie: further study, seminars, research.
Suffer me
Call on me and I
I will call on you
Suffer me
Call on me and I
I will call on you
And All I Need Is For You To Hold Me Still
I’m reading a book by Beth Moore called Jesus, the One and Only. It’s part of a desperate struggle to rediscover my Christ-center in the midst of madness. A submission to the truth that one can only become a woman of grace by being in the presence of His grace – a surrender I am not easily making these days.
What I appreciate most about her teaching, is her use and appreciation of the Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew language that the text was written in. In the depths of such profound and precise language .. there are found treasures like this.
The root word in the ancient texts for “sign” as in a sign from God .. actually translates to the idea of a fingerprint .. that looking for a sign from God was actually like looking to find his fingerprints on it .. a 2step process – that God would leave his fingerprints for us to find .. and that we then would look for those fingerprints, and take them as a sign to ourselves.
There remain so many questions for me over sacred human places in my heart – where I have sought these fingerprints of God – and still been left asking questions.. and here is what I am thinking about today ..
That fingerprints are more personal and intimate than a sign made of wood or neon strips.
They are more flexible too.
A sign is just that – a noun; an inanimate object that remains in the place it was first built or attached until it is destroyed by the winds and storms that prevailed or it simply becomes old, falters and becomes disconnected (well, maybe only the neon variety).
Fingerprints suggest a persona behind the mark they leave behind them. They leave a trace of where He’s been and imply movement. Fingerprints appear constantly over every created thing, and not just once, but constantly. For a moment on the table until they appear on the glass, and then on the plate. Fingerprints suggest dabbling; deliberate interaction; a longing & groping kind of tactile affection.
This is just the kind of sign I need to see again. Not something motionless and concreted that sits by the roadside getting dusty and broken down, but a sign of God in fluid motion all over this journey.
Telecom Goes The Extra Mile
On my trip to New Plymouth, I lost my cellphone in a tragic drowning accident. It ended it’s short life in a 3cm deep pool of red Powerade. It couldn’t be recovered, which meant that I needed to get a new phone.
About 7 days after I got the new device and had frantically tried to find as many of the 350 numbers I lost on the old one; I received a call from Telecom Customer Service.
They checked all my details and then informed me that the call would be recorded and monitored for quality control and training purposes. I said sure, and proceeded to let them know that I was happy with the service I’d received from the in-store salesperson.
About 7 days after that followup call; I received another followup call this morning, from a customer survey company that is doing some reporting for Telecom. Precisely speaking, they have a company conducting customer feedback on the department of Telecom that calls people surveying customer feedback.
Yup. One day if you ever find me at the reigns of a corporate monster like that, I will laugh in the face of such ridiculous things.
Just Like An Internet Chatroom
That’s what they’re saying round here. That the office is like an open door on an internet chatroom where just about anyone could walk in at anytime.
And I can see what they mean.
We have a lot of people that come through these doors. A lot of them are friends and people that we know well, and then there are a bunch of strangers that make us smile and laugh, sometimes with them, sometimes at them and sometimes at ourselves.
Today was a classic case in point of people coming in and out of the office and introductions being made all round.. and no one really know what was going on!