Give Me a Hug

Touch is important. Even simple fingertip contact can often convey far more than many words. I like to touch, but don't do it enough, perhaps because I don't want to offend or give the wrong impression. A neighbour of ours had recently lost his wife. I could see he was crying inside and I felt like crying with him - perhaps I should have? After a few words, I touched him on the shoulder, didn't know what else to do, but I hope it conveyed what I felt.

I like to be touched, but in the right way. I am a six-footer, but there are several larger people I can think of, who can make me flinch. There's a real beefy he-man who sometimes squeezes the living daylights out of me and a large well-endowed woman who held me so tight, I felt smothered and gasped for breath.

It’s a warming thing to share a brotherly or sisterly embrace, but we need to be sensitive to the other and their needs. Sometimes, it's seems like a ritual and can give people the impression that unless you hug you are not a real Christian.

Some years ago in our little village church, the minister decided to introduce a slot in the service where we could greet one another and share the love of Christ. I welcomed this and remember holding out my hand to the church steward. He froze on the spot, as if to say "Shake hands in church? What next?" To the other extreme, we have been in churches when, at the appropriate time, all mayhem is let loose as people clamber over chairs to anyone and everyone.

We can learn from Father. His touch is always just right. He knows what we need. There have been times, when I've have felt in need and have said "Father just hold me" He has done so with such a light touch. Rather like a child sitting on Father's knee. His arm ever-so-lightly around the shoulders, giving the freedom to linger or go.

Lets be bold and sensitive. Perhaps there is just one person waiting for the right Jesus-touch today?

"Greet one another with a holy embrace." 2 Corinthians 13:12

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Getting Connected

I had a list of phone calls to make this morning: car service station, insurance company, power company and the photo processing firm to ask if they had lost my photos, just to mention a few. All in all it took over an hour and wasn't very productive.

One of the calls went something like this: dial and followed instructions - press star key - listen - press 2 - listen - press 1 - "I'm sorry but our advisors are very busy today" - and even later, "we really value your call" and "thank you for your patience"and "why not use the internet?" and finally, after 16 minutes, just as I was about to give up, I got through to a human.

I was so overwhelmed that I struggled to answer her opening question. I tried to put my case, but had difficulty getting answers to my two questions. The operator was very much on the defensive, very efficient in an assertive way. She had all the facts on her screen, but the trouble was that her agenda was different to mine. We were just not compatible, we weren't in tune. She doggedly seemed to refuse to get my point, although did agree to get someone to look into something for me. I chalked it up as half-solved. After all it wasn't all her fault, as I was left with just a niggle, that I could have handled it better?

Now we have a God, whose not a call centre operator, but the CEO who is always on the line, always available and gives us His full attention. He is never too busy and will never hang up on us. We don't have to wait for a connection as we have a hot line straight through. He is just longing to hear what we have to say. In fact He knows what we are going to say before we speak. He looks right into our heart and knows our thoughts and what is going on in there, but He waits for us to express those heart desires in words. The trouble is, he often has to wait a long time, so it's a good thing his patience is endless.

So how do I score? Do I stay connected throughout the day and include Him in everything, or do I trot out my shopping list of prayers and requests and then get on with my life, the way I want to. Do I listen, really listen to my Father? If I really care how my Father feels and thinks, I will give time to connect, heart to Heart. Now there's real powerful connecting!

"From his palace he hears my call; my cry brings me right into his presence -- a private audience!" Psalm 18:6 The Message Bible

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Getting bthe Balance Right

I'm a fan of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. In the 'Pirates of Penzance' there is a chorus: "A paradox, a paradox, A most ingenious paradox. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, That paradox."

I sometimes think that on first sight the Christian life can appear to be full of paradox's, with conflicting instructions between two extremes. For example, in the Bible we are told that salvation is a free gift, but it costs everything we have: that walking with God is effortless, but it takes effort: that we don't have to compete, but we need to run the race to win!

Of course the Bible is not a set of rules - we have been freed from all that - but it's about a love relationship with Jesus. We find the balance as we follow Him and allow Him into our lives.

Even as a Christian, I tended to swing between two extremes. There were often crises and difficulties at work which could be scary and stressful. However, as I faced the problems and the adrenalin flowed, I found it stimulating and fulfilling. In a way I didn't want to stop, so took this pattern into my private life. And then, as I tried to relax I would swing the other way and even become lethargic. There seemed to be little in between full pelt and stop.

I have discovered something about adrenalin. It boosts your energy, but it also releases a stress hormone that eventually can have a suppressive effect on the immune system. Now you just cannot live on adrenalin for too long before you get stressed out and you become ill. That's what happened to me.

My life was out of balance and I was forced to take stock and spend more time just abiding in Jesus and feeding on that love relationship.

Now, I try to flow with Him rather than do things in my strength and cause stress. I am mindful of two things. First, that God's energy and power are His, not mine - obvious, but very important - and secondly, when God's power works through us, it is effortless. When things are moving in our life in the right balance we are at rest - and that's another paradox!

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life -" John 5:39-40 New International Version

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It's All in the Name

Before we were married, I remember that in conversation, friends and colleagues often referred to their 'girl friend.' This alone, told me very little about their relationship and left me wondering whether they were referring to a casual acquaintance or something much more serious. In the same way, the married men sometimes used the phrase 'the wife' or even worse, 'her at home.'

I became so passionately in love with my 'girl friend,' that just saying her name was music to my ears. I couldn't bare for us to be apart and found it difficult to wait for our next meeting. When the time eventually came to introduce her to my parents, I was just a little apprehensive. After saying, 'this is Sally,' I waited and held my breath. I wanted them to like her, but I was so taken up with her, no matter what they may have thought, I wouldn't have changed my mind.

So often we may talk about 'religion' or 'church' or 'prayer' or 'faith,' but unless we go further, the conversation stays impersonal, general, cerebral and safe. We may even use the word 'god,' but unless we explain what we mean, listeners are left in doubt and can apply their own interpretation. Maybe that's right at times, but once the name 'Jesus' is used, it starts to become personal, because we are talking of a heart relationship with God. It almost demands a response and at this point some may even feel uncomfortable and want to change the subject.

Now Jesus loves me with a passion and I love Him. He has implanted a longing inside me and He has become my life. I often mess up and let Him down, but at such times it seems - if that's possible - He loves me even more. He forgives and forgets and wipes the slate clean. His name is music to my ears and I long to use it and speak of Him without meaning to cause offence.

Everything is in that name, because he is God.

"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." John 14:6-7 New International Version

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Don't Forget the Journey

I always liked to have a project on the go, whether it was a new job, a challenge at work, a house extension to build or just planning a holiday away. I enjoyed the planning, but once I was under way, I was keen to achieve my goal and then move on to something new.

My attitude began to change as God allowed difficult circumstances in my life, that slowed me down. I began to learn first hand that the journey was at least as important as getting there. My legs were stronger then and I took to walking in the hills. I loved conquering the mountain peaks, but also marvelled at the changing scenery of God's creation on the way and took time to reflect during the climb.

One day an acquaintance asked me to join him on one of his regular walks. Although he was older than me, he was fitter and walked at a cracking pace. It was all I could do to keep up with him, as he strode on ahead to take the lead. We stormed past banks of daffodils in full bloom and hardly gave the glistening lake below a second glance. I suggested a break, but within a minute he was off again, without even a glance at the profusion of wild flowers, let alone the opportunity to chat together. It seemed like we had completed the eight-mile trek in no time. He bid me farewell, leaving me breathless. I felt we had missed out on something precious.

I remember an old lady in our village. She always left her visit to the local store until the last minute in the evening. In her headlong rush to get there before closing time, her head was pushed in front of her body. You could say that her head got there before her heart!

We need to be certain of our destiny, but it's the journey that matters. It's the heart-to-heart relationship with Jesus that makes the difference. Sometimes we have to slow down, or be slowed down, in order to move forward.

"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end." - Ursula LeGuin

"You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God." Psalm 119:1 The Message Bible

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