Saturday Catch-Up - 6th April 2019

I spent a lot of my time looking at blue.
The colour of my room and my mood:
Blue on the walls, blue out of my mouth;
The sort of blue between clouds, when the sun comes out,
The sort of blue in those eyes you get hung up about.

When that feeling of meaninglessness sets in,
Go blowing my mind on God:
The light in the dark, with the neon arms,
The meek He seeks, the beast He calms,
The head of the good soul department.

I see myself suddenly
On the piano, as a melody.
My terrible fear of dying
No longer plays with me,
for now I know that I'm needed
For the symphony.
(lyrics from 'Symphony in Blue' by Kate Bush)

Saturday Catch-Up - 30th March 2019

It's 2:15am as I sit and draft this blog post. It's a quiet night in the Winter Night Shelter, and all the guests are fast asleep. It's my last overnight duty as the Shelter shuts on Sunday.  I have the dulcet tones of Kate Bush on my headphones as I sit in the dark, blogging. I had quite a busy day today at work, however I achieved everything I set out to do. It's my turn to give something back tonight.

I am so full of energy, despite the weird hours I need to keep because of the shelter.

And I am feeling amazingly content.

I feel really blessed tonight.

Saturday Catch-Up - 23rd March 2019

Psalm 37: 1-6 (NIV)
Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

Saturday Catch-Up - 16th March 2019

"I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down..."
(lyrics from 'Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba)

(sigh)
I sprained my ankle on Tuesday. However, it didn't stop me. I got up again, and carried on. I've been through so much over the last few months, so I'm not going to let a little bruising and a little pain get in my way.

So I carry on.

A bit slower than usual, however I am still going.

Bruce Wayne: I wanted to save Gotham. I've failed.
Alfred: Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.
Bruce: You still haven't given up on me?
Alfred: Never.
(dialogue from 'Batman Begins' movie, 2005)

Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Saturday Catch-Up - 9th March 2019

In this, the most stressful time of the year for me, I know that I am blessed. Which is such an improvement on the way I felt this time last week...

Thankfully, I was reminded of this in a series of emails that I received this week. Emails from a well-known Christian writer, and most timely, too... Coincidentally, I didn't have a chance to read the emails until I took the day off on Friday, and had chance to catch up on my own inbox!

The emails reminded me of one of the perils of our modern society - with all the things the 21st Century has given us, we can miss out on time to rest. We're often pushed to the limit, and maxed out on everything. We cram so much in to our busy days.

But that’s not God's way.

God, in his goodness, created rest because He considers it just as important as work. You need to get enough rest if you want to stay healthy. And by healthy, that includes all aspects of your health - your physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

Psalm 23:2 (NIV)
“He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters”

Saturday Catch-Up - 2nd March 2019

Lord, I'm not feeling at my best this week. To be brutally honest.

I've been trying to keep going, to keep moving, trying to lift my mood where I can. It's been... difficult. I feel that I'm running on empty. I often feel that I've simply been going through the motions.

I've been trying to push myself through the barriers caused by my negative feelings, through the lethargy. My life is quite dark at the moment.

Lord, all I can do is affirm the goodness of life and try to hold on to you until the darkness that I see is replaced by your light and love.

I know that I am loved. Life will be beautiful again. Soon, I will see it once again. Help me to see it.

I need you to be my strength and salvation. I need you to restore me and make me whole.

Fill me with your Word and your Spirit that I might be recreated anew.

Amen.

Saturday Catch-Up - 23rd February 2019

Does it bring you joy?

I'm regularly encouraged to live.. simply. The world outside is increasingly complex, and I simply don't need that in my life any more. I have told that I have everything I need (Psalm 23).

As you may know, we're re-evaluating a number of different things at home, and this year that includes a regular decluttering regime. My son told me about the adage, the simple question noted at the top of this blog entry. It's a simple question, and comes from a book entitled The Life Changing Method of Tidying Up  by a Japanese author, Marie Kondo.

Do I need to keep it, bin it, sell it on, regift it, or recycle it? Far too difficult. Too many options. Too much emotion! So, let's simplify the question. And Marie's initial question in her book is far simpler... popularly known as the KonMari method, there's only one question:

Does it bring you joy?

If you answer yes, you keep it. If you hesitate or say no, you donate it or throw it out.

It's working!

Romans 15:13 (NIV)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Saturday Catch-Up - 16th February 2019

What a difference a week can make!

Doug Putman, the head of Canada’s Sunrise Records, has successfully rescued 100 HMV stores from administration, including (thankfully!) my local branch. Hooray! This teaches me that, although things appeared pretty bleak last week, you should never give up hope. You don't know the whole picture... what is happening behind the scenes; what might happen tomorrow. 

In 2017, Sunrise Records took over 70 Canadian HMV stores after that branch of the chain collapsed. They seem to be doing pretty much the same here in the UK.

Putman says that HMV’s problems were due to them being unable to react quickly enough to the decline of CD and DVD sales. Many people have changed to downloading films and music online, but some of us still prefer to browse the shops for that special, rare find for our collection... and were quite vocal about it. And it seems that this public outcry is having an effect. Which teaches me that the voice of the public can influence decisions made by people in authority...

“Where certain stores have closed, our public have really rallied around and I credit that with some of the landlords coming back to us.” Putman said, in a recent article in The Guardian. “They can see how much support we are getting..."

"We are getting away from the corporate mentality where every store is set up the same – we have to move away from that and let each store have its own personality... I want to unlock the passion and creativity.”

Hmmm - individuality. Passion and creativity. That confirms to me something we all need in our lives. :)

Saturday Catch-Up - 9th February 2019

No catch up from last week (everything was delayed by the snow!), so I'm trying to comment on the last fortnight now...

• Maplins
• Toys 'R' Us UK
• ... and now HMV Shop

All stores where I used to frequently shop. Regular trips to each store, just to see what was on offer. Loyalty cards, the works. And these are all stores that I can't use any more because the companies have fallen into administration. They've essentially gone bust...

(sigh)

Things aren't the same. They don't feel the same. However, I know that I can't turn the clock back. I mourn, and then I move on.

So, forward we go. Into an increasingly uncertain future. One where the landscape is changing day by day, month by month. Each news bulletin brings a new complication, a new twist to the story. I can't begin to tell you how it's going to end.

Lord,
I don't know what the future holds, but I know only You hold the future. Bring me to a better tomorrow. Help me and my family. Make the days of my life and the life in my days overflow with love, kindness, gratitude, and appreciation.
Amen

Saturday Catch-Up - 26th January 2019

January has seen the family get to grips with a heck of a lot of baggage. Physical and emotional!

Spring might well be the season of cleaning, but we've started early, well into Winter. Every week this year our family has tackled a different room in the house, and ruthlessly culled things. Recycling, re-evaluating, re-ordering or binning. It's making a difference.

I've blogged before about the emotional baggage that we unearth as we go. I think I'm actually in a better place than I used to be, as this time around I've found 'letting go' to be a much easier exercise than previous sessions. Far less painful. Mementos trigger memories which trigger emotions. But the memories this time around seem to be predominantly happier ones. I've smiled and laughed more. And thanks to my family, kept on going.

Still a whole bunch of rooms to go.

Saturday Catch-Up - 19th January 2019

“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” ― Winston Churchill

Well, that was a week to remember! Feeling so much better health-wise, feeling so much worse when I start looking at the news headlines ... oh well ... I've made it to the end of yet another week!

And so, it's onward and upward. As I look back over the last seven days, I revel in those many little victories at work, when so many things have combined to conspire against me. I rejoice in those precious incidents when I feel I have bonded with a kindred spirit, each of us battling to do the best job we can in our own small corner. I pat myself on the back when I continue to take a stand to help my fellow man - when so many others want to sweep them under the carpet, to boot them out.

It's the small things that have made a difference to my life this week. Because most of the big things have been, to tell the truth, a bit... meh!

Yeah, I know, it's more how I have felt about this week, and not what I have actually experienced. And I know, feelings can be deceptive.

Feelings come and feelings go,
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God -
Naught else is worth believing. 
― Martin Luther

Saturday Catch-Up - 12th January 2019

Do I truly believe that 'My God is a God of Miracles'?

I'm writing this whilst I am actually feeling pretty low. I'm full of cold, and am therefore taking cough and cold remedies on a regular basis - well, as best I can so that it doesn't interact adversely from the other medications that I am on. I'm finding it a bit of a struggle to keep on going, at a time of the year when the workload is just starting to ramp up for me. And yet, I can't give in and rest up. And, I've got an overnight session at the Cold Weather Shelter tonight to look forward to. Oh, the joys!

In fact, I gave in to the cold on Thursday night, I simply couldn't fight it any more. I retreated into bed for the rest of the evening, weak as a kitten and racked with pain. And twelve hours later I woke and struggled to my feet on Friday morning for yet another round. As Captain America might say "I can do this all day..."

And yet - I still believe whole-heartedly that this is only a passing time of struggle. If I don't weaken, and don't give in, I can win through. I can make a difference. I truly believe we are 'more than conquerors' here (see below). Things will change, there will be a miracle just around the corner... Just keep on the right lines, keep faithful, keep believing...

So I keep going. I pick myself up, and struggle on for the extra mile. Pushing the boundaries as far as I can stretch them.

Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight: old Japanese proverb

Romans 8:31-39 (NIV)
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
   “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I keep going. I look for the miracle just around the corner. Maybe tomorrow...

Saturday Catch-Up - 5th January 2019

Yes, I'm trying something just a bit different this year. Because I want to get back to blogging. I am sorry to say this has taken a bit of a back seat to other things lately. So I'm trying to commit to a catch-up post at least once every week...

I'm blogging less, because I am spending more and more time in the car, driving. I used to do quite a bit of blog writing on the train. But at least I've got away from commuter train delays!

I'm blogging less, because I've not been in the best of health, and to be honest my heart just hasn't been in it. But I'm now told that I'm responding well to treatment.

I'm blogging less, because quite frankly I've been a bit disheartened by a good many things that have happened during 2018. Some of these are obvious, they've been splashed over the newspaper headlines...  Some of these have been a little, shall we say, closer to home. The way certain things have turned out, the way certain people have reacted to me and mine. But I still remember the words of  Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."

Lean not on your understanding. Mmmm. I don't understand a whole host of things that happened during 2018. I didn't like them, either.

This is a New Year. Let's start again. And do things a little differently....