Great Expectations: Hope for a New Year

Have you ever had a situation where something you were really looking forward ended in a big disappointment?  Let me tell you about how it happened to me very recently…

There was a time when I would regularly stay up to watch Match of the Day on Saturday nights, it was one of the highlights of my TV week and something to be eagerly anticipated.  These days I tend to go to bed reasonably early on Saturday nights, ready for Sunday’s early start and church services to lead.  Usually I record “The Football League Show”, which features the teams below the Premiership (including my own team, Hull City, and the club where I was chaplain for 5 years, Doncaster Rovers).  This means that I can watch the programme later at my leisure.  Last Saturday I also set Match of the Day to record, as there were some exciting and high-scoring games in the Premiership.

I was really looking forward to sitting down, relaxing and watching the two programmes.  It was therefore something of a disappointment (understatement) to discover that one member of my family (who shall remain nameless) had decided to retune the digibox, meaning that all the pre-record settings were removed, and my two programmes were not recorded!  Not the end of the world, of course, but it was still a big let-down.

Sunday started with my first experience of a Christmas breakfast communion at one of my churches.  It was a delightful occasion, as we shared breakfast together as a church family, followed by an informal communion service.  As this was the final Sunday of 2012, I invited everyone to look back over the year and to think of things for which to give thanks to God.  Isn’t it great that even in tough times there is still so much to give thanks for?

Next we looked forward to 2013, and people were invited to share either their hopes and expectations, or their concerns for the new year. 

Towards the end of our time together I shared some words of encouragement from Isaiah chapter 43, including a promise from God, ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.’  In other words, God doesn’t promise that life in the future will always be easy, but he does promise that whatever we face, even in the toughest of times, he will be with us!  So, says God, ‘Do not be afraid, for I am with you.’

 

Isaiah 43 also has another message of hope for what lies ahead: ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!’  None of us knows what the new year will bring us.  But this passage from the Bible reminds us of two wonderful promises of God.  Firstly, that he will never abandon us, he will be there for us whatever happens.  Secondly, God has great plans for us, if we will listen to and follow him.

Some of our own hopes and expectations may never be fulfilled.  But if we put our hand into the hand of God, we need never fear the future and we can know that God has in store for us something far better than we could ever dream of!

Don't have winter without Christmas

I love Christmas!  Yes, it tends to be a busy time, with special Christmas services etc., but there’s no doubt that the Advent/Christmas season is my favourite time of the year.

I guess that this goes back to my childhood experiences of Christmas.  My young mind was filled with expectation and excitement as the great day drew near.  Early on Christmas morning we would gather as a family round the Christmas tree (I was one of six children!)  The presents would have been placed around the base of the Christmas tree; one by one Dad would take the presents and hand them out to us. 

Then, of course, we would go church to celebrate with our church family, before heading back home to examine our presents again and prepare for a hearty Christmas dinner.  The image of those wonderful occasions are still so vivid, even though they recede ever further into history.

The Christmas Day church service was (and still is) a vital element of our Christmas celebrations.  It is a reminder of what Christmas is all about – celebrating the amazing, wonderful fact that God stepped into our world and lived among us.  I love The Message translation of John 1:14, ‘The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.’  Or, as hymn writer Charles Wesley put it, ‘Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.’

The sad irony of the birth of Jesus is that so many people who had been waiting expectantly for so long for God to send the Messiah, never realised that God had fulfilled his promise, and that Messiah had come!  Perhaps many were so focused on other things that they missed the most important event – an event so significant that it cut history in half!

I saw a Facebook posting earlier today which said that a friend had witnessed two women fighting over a turkey in a supermarket.  Another Facebook friend related how they had been in a supermarket queue for approaching an hour.  It’s so easy to get so tied up in the hectic rush to prepare for the celebrations that we forget the One whose birth we are celebrating.

The message of the angels to the shepherds was of ‘good news that will cause great joy for all the people.’  Good news for ALL!  My prayer is that this Christmas time many more will discover that God’s love in Christ is for them.  Finally, the last verse of the carol “Cradled in a manger, meanly”:

And to those who never listened
To the message of Thy birth,
Who have winter, but no Christmas
Bringing them Thy peace on earth,
Send to these the joyful tidings;
By all people, in each home,
Be there heard the Christmas anthem;
Praise to God, the Christ has come!

Playing the blame game

I had a rather strange experience recently.  It was in the middle of the night, still dark outside.  I found myself in that weird in-between zone: I wasn’t fast asleep, but neither was I fully awake.  I was experiencing that feeling when you’re brain seems very hazy, and you’re not really sure what’s going on around you.

As consciousness began to dawn, I heard a high-pitched whining. My first thought was that it must be a burglar alarm going off in one of our neighbour’s houses.  For a while I tried to ignore it.  Unable to get back to sleep, however, I began to get annoyed that our neighbours were taking so long to turn the thing off (I had assumed, of course, that as on so many previous occasions the alarm noise didn’t actually indicate that a burglary was taking place!)

Eventually I slid out of bed and walked to the window to see if I could identify the offending house.  Strangely, the noise didn’t get louder as I walked to the window; in fact the reverse happened.  After some further investigation I discovered, to my horror, that the noise emanated from our own house!  I dashed downstairs, hoping to deal with the situation before our neighbours were aroused.

Why on earth was our burglar alarm making this noise?  We hadn’t set it that night, so there was no reason for it to go off.  I entered the key code: no response.  Not having the instruction booklet to go with the alarm, I wondered what I should do.  Unsure, I pressed as many buttons on the alarm control as I could see (a man thing?)  What happened next caused me much greater panic – our burglar alarm began to sound!  The original screeching wasn’t our burglar alarm after all, but now I’d set the alarm off, making the noise far louder.  I quickly re-entered the alarm code, turning off the alarm noise.

Looking around, I then realised that the offending noise was actually coming from the smoke alarm!  There was no reason for the alarm to be going off; no smoke and no fire.  I reached up and extracted the battery.  Peace descended on the house once more (I found it rather incredible that Sue slept through the whole episode!  Hopefully our neighbours did, too).

Looking back on what happened, it seems rather funny, though it didn’t seem so at the time (and it took me ages to get back to sleep!)  What concerns me is that my initial reaction was to blame my (completely innocent) neighbours for the awful racket which woke me up.  It’s so easy to blame others when things go wrong, and ignore the fact that we might have to take some personal responsibility.

Jesus himself used humour to warn his disciples not to be quick to judge or condemn others: “Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Please, brother, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ yet cannot even see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”  Perhaps one could say that on this occasion I learned an alarming lesson!

A 'Tardis' moment

I did think about giving this blog entry the title "A déjà vu moment", but then the thought of the Tardis came to mind!  I must admit that Doctor Who is my all-time favourite TV programme; I confess that my memory of the programme stretches right back to its beginnings in the mid-6os, when William Hartnell played a rather elderly Doctor.  I do own a Tardis (bought for me by my wife Sue as a 40th birthday present).  Unfortunately, I've never managed to get it to work!

So why have I given this entry the title "A Tardis moment'?  As I mentioned in my previous blog, I spent a few days recently on a course at Cliff College in Derbyshire.  Cliff is a Bible College, and offers training in a whole range of Christian ministries.  During one of the break times, I was strolling along the terrace area at the back of the college.  I looked up at a stone railing, and was instantly transported back in time (in my mind, at least) some 35 years.

In my late teens/early 20s, I was one of a group of young people who were linked with the various Methodist churches in the area around where I lived.  Each year we would attend the Cliff College Anniversary weekend, along with thousands of others, young and old, from around the country.  There were various activities taking place over the weekend, and we always had a great time.  I seem to remember that we boys had to sleep in large tents, whilst the girls were allowed to sleep in less spartan accommodation!

So there I was standing on the terrace at Cliff a couple of weeks ago; yet in my mind I was in the same spot but the year was 1975.  A group of us were together near the concrete railings when a photographer from the local press came and took our picture.  We were delighted (I think) when the picture appeared in the local paper a few days later.  My memories aroused, when I arrived home from my course I decided to see if I still had the newspaper concerned, and lo and behold I managed to locate it (which was a miracle in itself).  Can you spot which one is me?

What great memories I still have of those days.  Indeed, as I look back over my life, I cherish so many wonderful memories; memories of people, events and places.  The gift of memory is one of the greatest gifts which God bestows on us.  Of course, I know that not all memories are good ones, but I thank God every day for the wonderful memories which I have, and my aim is that each new day I will be able to help create precious new memories.  I try not to hang on to bad or destructive memories, though I know that it can be hard to let go.  How much better to cherish the good and positive memories.

There's a fascinating comment from Gospel writer Luke as he unfolds the story of the birth of Jesus, which we will shortly be celebrating.  He writes, 'Mary remembered all these things and thought deeply about them.'  How the memories of those days must have stayed with Mary!  When, some 30 years later, she saw her precious son crucified, did she still treasure the promises given to her by the angel Gabriel?  Were the memories still strong?  I think so.

In the times in my life when I have found the going tough, one source of strength has been memories of the good times, and the wonderful people who have blessed my life.  I thank God for precious memories.  I may not own a working Tardis, but I can still travel back in time!

Disturb us, Lord

I spent last week (Monday-Friday) at Cliff College, Derbyshire, on a Christian Mentoring course.  The setting at Cliff is beautiful, surrounded as it is by the lovely countryside of the Derbyshire Dales.  

Unfortunately I wasn't in the best of health during the week; my lovely wife Sue had kindly passed on to me a mild flu-like 'bug'.  The first 2 or 3 days on the course were quite tough; my head felt 'foggy', and I seemed to spend most of the time either in a lecture or on/in bed! 

From the Wednesday my health improved, due, I am sure, in no small measure to the prayers of friends.  I managed to complete the course!  Despite struggling at times to take everything in, I found the course helpful and thought-provoking.  My big concern now, with a very hectic Advent/Christmas season well underway, is whether I will be able to do justice to my first assignment by the due date of 4 January!

I also hope that I will be able to make the time and opportunity to revisit my notes; we received such a lot of useful information.  During one session, we were reminded of a prayer of famous adventurer Sir Francis Drake, which he apparently wrote on one occasion as he set off for the west coast of South America.  I find it so challenging; it is difficult to think of a better rule of life:

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push us into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.