Hold on...I haven't got anything to say!

Well, I have been called to account over my apparent lack of blogging by someone who really doesn't have a leg to stand on but, as we are accountable to each other in our blogging community, I will blog!

Over the course of today, I taught 100 children about The Salvation Army and Easter, and I have to say God Bless teachers who do this teaching business every day.I am shattered!

For those of you who might go to school and lead assemblies or do lessons from time to time,or just out of interest, I can really recommend the SA Schools and Colleges pages on the SA Website for some great resources and lesson plans http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-dynamic-arrays/5C76A8FCB068C69E80256F890034A919?openDocument.

At the end of both sessions I taught the kids 'Our God is a Great Big God' and it was pretty cool. Hearing kids sing always makes me emotional, but this was special, and there was one little boy who already knew the song from his own church, so I invited him to do the actions with me, which ALL the kids and teachers were joining in with - he was jumping about all over the place!

Speaking of actions and kids worship songs, we had the opportunity this Sunday to sing 'The Way it's Gonna be' which is now a bit of an anthem after it became cool at the commissioning last year - thanks Matt. Now in the normal course of events, I might be up on the platform exhorting the kids and the congregation to join in, but this week I had the special privilege of sitting amongst the congregation.

Of course I did the actions - are you mad? But why? To support the kids or to enhance my own offering of worship or to make some kind of a statement or stand? 'Look, grown up's can do the actions too and not look at all silly!' ...well some can :)

Kids Worship Songs? What do you think? Are they enjoyable for anyone out of the context of purely kids worship - or do the children feel awkward too when all around them people they love, respect, look up too etc are looking out of the window or cleaning some invisible spot off their tunic rather than join in? At the same time I recognise that this SPECIAL style of worship really isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Can I suggest that a child's that sence of freedom in worship is shaped when they are old enough to notice how the rest of the church responds in various situations, and that can be even before they understand a word!

Children's Ministry? It's everyone's job!!

Extras, Extras!

'All the world's indeed a stage, and we are merely players' Shakespear

and Rush added - 'performers and portrayers. Each anothers audience inside a gilded cage' Exit Stage Left.

I had the strangest experience today - I was driving through Grays and I had stopped at a pedestrian crossing, for the lights were red, lovey, and it was as if someone, somewhere had shouted ACTION, because loads of people seemed to appear as if from no where to cross the road and I was strangely aware of all of them ( just read this back, it's quite surreal, but I hope there's going to be a point at the end!)

It seemed to be a perfect mix of people, like you might see in a kids tv programme filmed in a politically correct town, mum and baby, baker pushing a trolley of cakes, a rastafarian, some old people, a goth, an ordinary bloke ( for a given value of ordinary, I know I'm in danger of over using that phrase, but I LOVE It)...There might even have been a lollypop 'person' there too.
( Hmm, y'see, I've forgotten already, but for that moment, they all seemed so.... deliberate.)

Here's the point I think - this morning I prayed that I would actively see God's presence in ALL the people I met today. Now, I wouldn't presume that God would drop everything to answer MY prayer and quite possibly I was having one of my moments...have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror and wondered who you are? This might seem to imply that I sit and gaze into a mirror often. I don't! ( as I said before; surreal)

Anyway, this morning I actively saw a bunch of people as individuals and they all seemed so important that if one of them had been missing from that scene, it wouldn't have been right somehow.

Is that how God sees us...I don't mean as a bit player in some scene for the day, but as a deliberate, individual, important part of The Bigger Picture? Did my prayer this morning tap into some vast cosmically divine plan so that for a moment I caught a glimpse of how God sees 'us'? Or was I just 'a bit tired'?

Been pondering over the phrase - God is IN. Watched one of the Nooma DVD's 'Breathe' last week ( BTW well worth a look!) and was astonished to be reminded that God is in. He is just in. To say he is 'in Heaven' implies an over there kind of feeling. To say God is in ...the house' implies that he can choose to move from here to there, which I guess He can, but God breathed His Spirit into us, IN.Into mankind, through Adam.The breath of God was in all of those people that crossed that road, whether they knew it or not.

My naive question is - How can they NOT know it?

Discovery.

A follower of Christ looks at:

• death and thinks life,
• losing and thinks winning,
• tragedy and thinks opportunity,
• brokenness and thinks humility,
• accidents and thinks purpose,
• coincidence and thinks destiny,
• despair and thinks hope,
• poverty and thinks wealth,
• wealth and thinks poverty,
• failure and thinks success,
• the seen and thinks about the unseen,
• history and thinks God's story,
• science and thinks God's laws,
• psychology and thinks Christ's wisdom,
• anthropology and thinks God's image,
• astronomy and thinks God's heavens,
• the human body and thinks God's dwelling place,
• war and thinks man's rebellion,
• the cross and thinks everything made new,
• truth and thinks Jesus.

Pulled this off the Purpose Driven Daily Devotional discussing the quote “Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.” — Roger von Oech - and replacing the word discovery with the word worship.

Interesting!

I Wonder what YOU think?

I'm on Matt White's List of Friends Who Blog!

I'm speechless - other that to say that I did cheekily ask why I wasn't on it, but now I am, so I must be living proof of the saying, 'If you don't ask, you don't get',which does actually go against my personal parenting ethos of, 'Askers Don't Get', except when it's a hug, or to go to the loo (why do kids ask if they can go to the loo at home?)or a drink in the middle of the night, or for essential small items of clothing that might need tumble drying but hey....ok, I'm calm now :)