These are the days of Miracle & Wonder!

A Prayer for Success

May all your expectations be frustrated.
May all your plans be thwarted.
May all of your desires be withered into nothingness,

That you may experience
The powerlessness and poverty of a child
And sing and dance in the love of God,

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Amen.

When Football Prays

I grew up loving glamorous football stars - Lee Sharpe, Chris Waddle, Jeremy Goss - these were my favourite people in the world.  As a young Christian who loved football, it was pretty demoralising to accept that these two sides of my life were never destined to find a meeting point.  That's just how it was: Football didn't do God - Maradona excepting - and God seemed to be alright about it.

So it's been quite a mind-bending few years, since Maria has dragged me back into the Beautiful Game: Hernandez on his knees before kickoff; pre-match prayer meetings at several clubs; Berbatov reading his Bible in the dressing room etc.  I mean, for Heaven's sake, the last thing Wayne Rooney does before going on the pitch is to go into the massage room to pray!

And this week it has spilled over in a much more public way.  Fabrice Muamba (another Christian, before you ask), had a heart-attack during Bolton's game with Spurs last Saturday.

Within seconds, players were praying, and after a few hours, as the magnitude of the situation struck home, I was reading tweets like these:

Jack Wilshere: 'Everyone keep praying!'
Wayne Rooney: 'Praying for him and his family.'
Kyle Walker: 'Doesn't matter who you support. Doesn't matter if you aren't a football fan. Doesn't matter if you aren't religious. Pray for Fabrice Muamba.'

The outpouring of support was so explicit in its constant references to prayer that I found myself halfway between continuing to pray for Muamba, and being overwhelmed by the fact that in the middle of a tragic event the footballers of the nations have been leading us in prayer.

These last two photos: Ronaldo & Messi, neither of whom know Muamba, passing on best wishes.  This is how we - the Church, and Humanity - should react to suffering. 'When one part suffers, we all suffer,' and when we 'bear each others burdens, we fulfil the law of Christ.'

Jesus explains Lent to the disciples

He knows the score.

"So what," I hear you ask, "is the Shahid-Rowe household doing for Lent?"

Well (replied Mr Rowe), we've effectively been fasting for 3 weeks already, due to our Paleo Month, which explains the lack of pancakes yesterday.  Therefore, the idea of giving up even more than grains, sugars, pulses and other non-hunter-gatherer-type* foods is not exactly on our radar, especially since Maria is barely getting enough into her to stay alive anyway.

But I like Lent, and I want to 'do it'.

So what we've decided is to give up the 'giving up' side of the Fast, to sidestep it and instead use this period of the Church calendar to instil certain otherwise-lacking disciplines into our lives.  I won't give you the whole list, but for example, every day until Easter I am going to be spending 20 minutes sitting in silence.  Something I've always planned/wanted to have a go at, but never got round to.

And may God use the season to transform our hearts and lives.  Amen.

*TRIPLE HYPHENED WORD - I WIN!!!

a caveat to prefix any sermon of worth

If by grace what I say has in any respect any validity,
it is, of course, only one facet of a truth incalculably rich.

JRR TOLKIEN, 'On Fairy Stories', 1939.

Short thankfulness

Dear God,
Today I experienced my first Chinese tea ceremony,
walked for three and a half hours through lanes & by streams,
and had my ego boosted by passing 500 followers on Twitter.
Now, reading Born Free with my feet up and a piece of cake,
I wanted to stop & say thankyou.
Amen.

Prayer of St Jason the Spiritualized

Please Lord, may I be wrong.
Cos when men are right, they are not young.

Please Lord, may I be foolish.
Cos when men are wise they're not satisfied.

Please Lord, may I be lonely.
Cos when men have friends, they're reckless.

And please Lord, may I be helpless.
Cos when men are strong, they're dangerous.

And please Lord, put a tiny little spring in my step...

 

*insert snide pentecostal joke here*

Speaking in tongues: great stuff.  Great because it makes nearly all of us (including those who have the gift) feel pretty weird or uncomfortable.

Non-Christians try not to think about it unless they need something to ridicule, and Christians try not to think about it because it's a bit out of our comfort zone and we'd really rather prefer God to be more sensible.

So whatever you think, have a little look at this video (particularly from 2:40 onwards).  A (Jewish) neurologist, investigating the relationship between glossolalia and activity in the frontal lobe of our brains.  Interesting stuff.

 

An embodiment of the Kiwi spirit

God Defend NZ

Meeting the Bishop: why and what next

Well, I did give fair warning.

Yesterday, I bumbled along the icy road and up the hill to the Bishop's House - I was meeting Royden Screech, the almost unbelievably brilliantly named Bishop of St Germans.  He is the number 2 (to the Bishop of Truro) in Cornwall, Church of England-wise, and is the guy to whom you go when wanting to discuss the possibility of training for holy orders.

I intentionally dressed down and went for a walk in the snow first, arriving flushed and out of breath - I've always been attracted to not coming across particularly impressively :)

And it went well.  But I'm not going to write about that; I wanted to say something about how I got to this point and why.

I've felt called to The Church (note capitals) for as long as I've felt called to anything really - probably for about 8 years or so.  I've responded to that in a variety of ways (eg. in New Zealand I worked with over fifteen denominations) and basically ended up loving it - loving The Church - to a far bigger and deeper extent than I had even bothered conceive of before.

And then, this spring, I applied for a job as worship leader/musical director for an Anglican church in Hertfordshire.  They didn't offer me the job - fair enough - but told me that if they'd been looking for a new curate they'd have snapped me up; the vicar wanted to encourage me with what they saw in me, in a kind of 'gentle suggestion' kind of way.  Plus, when I went back and talked to him (and my issues with ordination etc.) he beat me to it by saying, "I don't really believe in ordination, and I'm not really an Anglican - I'm a Methodist - but I believe God has called me to do this."  That helped, and made it alright for me to think about it.

And in thinking about it - and talking it through with Maria, family, friends etc. - this big cloud of peace seemed to glide over/through/around me, as we faced up to the fact that, actually, I'd probably suit ordained work really pretty well and I'm very comfortable (and increasingly so) in the CofE.

This was in April and May.  We moved to Cornwall in June, and one of the reasons for that (to my mind at least) was the existing links I had with an Anglican church near Truro, called St Kea - I had applied for a job at Kea in 2009, and our Edinburgh friends Kenny & Bridget go there.  Because of those links, I could (within a few weeks) talk to the vicar about ordination and set in motion the process which I am now in.

So, next?

Well, I'm presently writing out a 2,000 word mini-biography, then I will re-meet the Bishop in January, and in the meantime I have to work through the Criteria For Selection with those who know me best.  Feel free to give me feedback if you have something deep and insightful to share ...

Lord's Prayer Paraphrase

Had a go at this yesterday - doesn't seem quite right yet but am still quite pleased:

Our holy and heavenly Father
Come and rule, in us and around us,
So that Your desires for the world come to life.
And keep us alive, with food and with forgiveness,
Helping us to pass on those gifts.
Protect us from temptation,
Support us when we walk in darkness,
And lead us to Yourself;
Forever glorious, majestic and strong.
Always.
And that's the truth.

The First Armistice Day

The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect.

The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition.

Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern.

Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ...

And the spirit of memory brooded over it all.

As reported in the Manchester Guardian, 12th November 1919.

We Are The Dead

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

   

Henry Allingham [RAF] & Harry Patch [Army]

Our last servicemen from the Great War, died within a week of one another.

-

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

My Friend

This is my friend Phil.  Had I moved to Gaza in 2006 (as was the plan when I left NZ), he would have been my boss.  On Friday he was arrested by Egyptian police after a protest near the Rafah crossing into Gaza Strip.  He's not been charged and has not been able to see a lawyer or his family or anything - this apparently happens fairly regularly in Egypt, when people are critical of the government.

His blog is www.tabulagaza.blogspot.com, if you are interested.

Things will almost certainly be okay in the end, since he is half-German and the German embassy and Amnesty International are on the case, but in the meantime I'd appreciate your prayers for his wellbeing, especially for physical protection and emotional stability.  He's an awesome guy.

 

UPDATE - Wednesday 11th

Phil was released last night and is home with his family, apparently alright but needing time to deal with the whole thing, as you might guess.

Thank you for playing your part in that.

--

FURTHER UPDATE - Saturday 14th

Phil has just posted a message on  http://www.freephiliprizk.org/ if you're interested.

shopping

 

I am rubbish at shopping (except for groceries - I'm great at that).  Christmas is the only time I do it.  Maybe, this Christmas someone will buy me a TV and then I'll become good at it.  Oh Lord NO!

I'm very happy without a telly: I read books & play Take2, then watch old TV online.  Oh the irony.

Nkosi Sikalel iZimbabwe

If there was ever a day to pray (and hope) for a country, it could be Zimbabwe today. Within the next 24hours, we might have finally seen the end of Robert Mugabe as president. There's very little doubt that he has lost the election, it's now a matter of whether he'll let the election beat him.

And in the meantime, I found this story - a reminder of the quarter of Zimbabweans who have had to leave the country and are banned from voting in these elections as a result:

-

Expat Zimbabweans run own election

Zimbabweans cast votes across the world over the weekend as their country went to the polls -- even though their ballots did not count. Mandla-akhe Dube, the general secretary of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign in New Zealand, said it was part of a global protest against their disenfranchisement.

"We wanted to highlight the fact that up to 4 million of us living outside Zimbabwe are disenfranchised," he said. The Government has not made a provision for us to vote by postal means. The only way we can highlight our plight is by conducting a mock presidential election."

Mock polls were held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, as well as in the United Kingdom, South Africa, the United States, Australia and Belgium. At the New Zealand polls the result was conclusive.

"We voted in Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change with 74 per cent, followed by Simba Makoni with 23.65% ... Robert Mugabe got 0% of the vote."

[from www.stuff.co.nz]

Location, Location ...

Does anyone know good things that a person like MisterDavid might do in Edinburgh?

Or where he might live?

Or a job?

Or which hills are best to climb?

oooooOOOOOOoooooooo ... THEOLOGY!!!!!!!!

Neo orthodox 89% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 86% Emergent/Postmodern 71% Roman Catholic 64% Charismatic/Pentecostal 43% Classical Liberal 43% Fundamentalist 39% Reformed Evangelical 32% Modern Liberal 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth.

on the erosion of my britishness

over the weekend, on two seperate occasions, I found myself greeting friends by saying (and I quote) 'sup man?

I would appreciate your prayers as I attempt to navigate this slippery slope ...

of Assisi

okay, so this is something we used to sing in primary school, but I've started getting back into it in the last few weeks ...

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

  ...

written by this guy, about 800 years ago.

[nice belt]

I'm the King of the Swingers

Hello my dears.  I'm typing this (with slightly frustrating lack of velocity) with my right hand only, since my left is now out of action.  Let me tell you why:

It was a classic sunny afternoon, so we were hanging out under the trees and so forth.  I've not climbed a tree for years, but I was quite up for it.  You can see where this is going, yeah?  The inevitability of freewill ...

Yes, so I got up there, & then fancied coming down, utilising the 'monkey method':  hang on a branch and drop.  But, sadly for my poor shoulder, the branch decided to let go before I did so, leaving me to accelarate sharply and land on my back (quite hard).  Thereafter I got to do all the things that you get to do: neck/body brace; ambulance; laughing gas (quite good, but not funny); long long LONG hospital wait; painkillers; and the rest.  Mostly it was quite boring really, so I'm extra glad that my sister was able to come with me.

So, I have a fracture of the 'ball' bit on the end of my humorous (not funny), and a bit of a general shoulder dislocation too - I go back on friday for them to mess around with it.  I would be very up for God healing it (cos it hurts), so if you could please pray for me I'd appreciate that - the healing process will probably take several weeks otherwise.  I wont write more, thanks for reading.

With lots of love ...

  x David x

ps. if you do pray, please remember that when I had my face smashed in (back in 2002) I had a proper miracle come out of everyone who prayed for me.  It can & does work.

Amarillo

If you're in Britain, you'll have heard the Tony Christie/Peter Kay song '(Is This The Way To) Amarillo' - if you haven't, you've SO missed out - but on the news I just saw a version of the video made by the Royal Dragoon Guards whilst on base in Iraq.  I've got to tell you, if you get the chance, PLEASE see this: we'll be telling our grandchildren!

[because having grandchildren qualifies you to talk interesting rubbish]

There's a small clip here, but it just doesn't touch the whole glory of the piece - do your best to see the whole thing, please.

The reason for my particular joy at this work of ART is not just that it's well done, or timely, or anything like that, but more that to me this is an absolutely perfect example of British humour: what it is, why it is, and how many levels it works on!

Now, everyone knows you can't dissect comedy, but I don't care ...

THE RECIPE:
(i) the Tony Christie song
- it reached #18 in the charts in 1971 (therefore almost completely unknown)
- the singer's from Sheffield (ditto)
- the lyrics are simply awesome [rhyming 'amarillo' with 'weeping like a willow' etc.] (slightly surreal)
(ii) the Peter Kay re-release
- made for Comic Relief (therefore 'cool, I suppose')
- cameos from many 'so-crap-they're-great!' stars (therefore 'cool?  Maybe - I'm trying to work it out ...')
- #1 for 7 weeks (therefore 'not cool at all - 14 year olds buy it!')
- Peter Flipping Kay!! (on a whole different level of coolness)
(iii) the squaddies' video
- a perfectly orchestrated tribute (intidicative of sheer professionalism)
- in the tense political environment of the recent Iraq war, whereby we're constantly scared to bits that our soldiers are going to do something terrible or un-PC or culturally flipping stupid (indicative of sheer unprofessionalism)
- Iraqi soldiers miming a song about going to Texas (so I'll let you work that one out yourselves)
- emailed around so successfully that the MoD's system crashed (so flipping dangerous it's just not funny!)

So, to summarise:  a spoof of a spoof of a song too cheesy to require spoofing, irresponsibly but professionally set against an uncertain (and very serious) political backdrop, and sabotaging the technological capabilites of the Ministry of Defence.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is comedy.

[But does it make you LAUGH?]

Flipping OUCH!!

Hi there.

Was just out walking and got hit by a guy who came up to talk to me - can you pray for me please?  That kind of thing's never happened to me before, so it gave me quite a shock/scare, and it flipping hurts too (my left cheekbone - nothing serious, but very ouch).

I'm in town until Monday, and there's no way I want to feel scared of going outside the house or anything like that, so please pray for me (Ps. 142:7) and for those boys too - the one that hit me had those eyes that look like he's got a passenger on board, so please pray for him.

Thank you so much.  Apart from the ouch, I'm doing fine.

24-7 monkeys

Hi hi hi ...

Lord knows what's going to happen (I'm hoping that we'll have most of our 'meetings' in the pool), but this weekend is our first-of-it's-kind gathering for 24-7prayer people from around the North Island.  If you see this in time, I'd love it if you could pray for us, and blow on us ...

from the ashes a fire is awoken
a light from the shadows shall spring
renewed shall be blade that was broken
the crownless again shall be king

Oh yes, all of that - I want to be a Knight!

The Other Side

Thank you so much for praying, if you did.  Man, I was so scared of going through immigration and having someone looking me in the eye and go, "You've already been here more than a year!  How can you be a visitor?!"  before deporting me.

But in the end, immigration took 30 seconds - a lovely Asian lady just got slightly confused that I wasn't a newcomer, but took my passport and stamped it, and now I'm safe ...

And that's all you need to know for now.  I'm jetlagged.  Bye!