Jehovah-Jireh.

So, I was struggling for a fair while, economically. I was proper broke for a little bit there, which was not fun. But during that time, I was getting help all over the place from different people that I didn't expect, which was really great and really helpful.

But now, God has come through :D Which is muchly awesome. And in more ways than I expected. And better ways than I expected. And all this sort of thing.

So, Centrelink payments just started to come through, I got my first one yesterday. Thought they would still be a couple of weeks away, so that's pretty cool :)

I also got some work from last week - which isn't great work, it's doing cold calls from a call centre (not as bad as I thought, but still not great) - so that's giving me some money as well.

But, more interestingly/importantly, I got some more work just this week, with a charity - someone had posted up about it on a page that I was following, and they were looking for creatives. So I thought, sure, why not. I met the guy this week, and he's pretty enthusiastic, and he wants me on board :D At present, it's not paid - though he's given me a little money to start off - but we're working towards a musical (yes, you read that right, a full-blown musical) in July (yes, this July), and after that I'll start to get paid. But it's pretty much awesome. It's using basically all of what I know and have learned, and lots of my different skills and passions, which is awesome. And I'm working from home - at least at the moment - so it's really flexible. And it's all going towards something that really matters. So it's a bit of a dream job, you could say. :)

It's made me realise that when you're in a fix and you cry out to God, he doesn't want to just get you out of that place. He wants to bless you, and put you in an awesome place. And yeah, he's really done that for me right now. So I'm pretty happy, as you might be able to tell :)

Yet Another Level.

A little while back, in the middle of last year, I did a post on my analogy of the well. If you didn't see it, you can find it here. Essentially, the deal is that when you're telling someone about struggles in your life, I was saying that there are three levels you can go to.

The first I like to call the lookout; it's from a distance, you can see that there are wells out there, you might have an idea of how many there are. This is where you tell people that you're struggling with things.

The second I call the tour; you take people around through the wells, and they can see down them. This is where you tell people how much you've been struggling with things.

The third I call the descent; you get out the ropes, carabiners and harnesses, and take someone down right to the bottom. I don't think that needs too much explanation.

Since then, though, I've realised that there's actually a fourth level, beyond that. It's what I call deconstruction.

Here, you need to imagine that the well is made of bricks. And in this one, you're not just taking someone down to the bottom and shining a light down there - you're taking out each individual brick and showing it to them. There's nothing they don't see. Absolutely nothing.

This is the sort of thing that you won't see happening too often; and it's also something that can really take a lot of time. Obviously, depending on how deep the well goes. I'd say that this is usually something between husband and wife, or that you might do with your mentor.

But for me, it's just challenged me again in how radically honest and open I am with people, particularly people that I trust and care about.

At The End Of The Rope.

I've heard lots of stories before from friends, who have been through really tight situations financially, and God has come through for them - often in unexpected ways, and when they didn't anticipate it.
Now, it's me who's hoping that God will come through.

I have a lot to be thankful for. I don't have many expenses, and I still live with my parents, so I have food and a place to call home. Which is really nice. And people is nice too. People are good.

But yes, money is very tight. It's not a position I've ever been in before. I've been close, but I've always had money coming in soon. This time, there's no guarantee; nothing that I know is happening. I've applied to heaps of things, thrown my CV around a fair few places, but nothing has really come good for me yet. It's not a fun feeling.

There's a bit in the Bible that says you're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. I can certainly see a lot of ways in which I've been blessed - and keep being blessed. Unfortunately, not too many involving finances. I've had some bits here and there that have been really great, but nothing that's really going to pull me out just yet.

Funnily enough, I just spoke on courage the other week. And I'm about to speak on faith in just over a week. They do say that before you teach something, you have to learn it. Looks like I'm learning it, all right. Hopefully, the lesson finishes in time so that I've got the other half of the story to share....

That's all from me for now. Hopefully there will be more before too long - maybe detailing a new job, for all I know!

Feeling The Summer.

Sorry that I haven't been posting much lately, folks. I've been quite busy! And that's actually a bit of what this post is about, in a way.

Last year, I got the opportunity to hear my then-mentor do a sermon on the Seasons of Life. It was about how we have different seasons in our life, and looking at how we can work with that rather than trying to fight it or not being aware of it. The seasons can be grand-scale, and over all of your life, but they can also be over particular parts as well, like in work, ministry, family, relationships, etc. And they always go in order as well, though not always for the same length of time.

In essence, the seasons are:
Spring - a time of new beginnings, of learning and trying new things. Starting afresh.
Summer - a time of work, of growth and making things happen.
Autumn - a time of harvest; of reaping what has been grown in the Summer. The peak period.
Winter - a time of cutting back, of letting go of some things. A fallow period, as such, to get ready for Spring.

To hear them in a bit more detail, you can listen to the sermons on each different one here.

Last year for me, I had a lot of different seasons operating at different levels. But overall, I think it was Spring; it was the start of something new, something fresh, something different. It was a time of learning and new growth.

This year, though, is coming in to a time of Summer. And that means work.

And I'm not just saying it's Summer because Summer is after Spring, so that must be next. I'm saying that because based on what I'm seeing and what's happening, I know that this is a Summer season. Historically, I have not been fantastic when it comes to Summer seasons. I'm not a fan of summer in general. It's very hot, and I don't like hot. I like warm, but not hot. Thankfully, this summer (actual summer, not what I'm talking about above) has been quite moderate - and even a bit wet and cool, so that's been nice.
But come Summer, I've often just rested on my laurels and sailed through fairly easily. Didn't need to do much to get by; and it only started catching up with me (as it inevitably does) at the end of high school.

And this Summer season, I know, is going to be quite important. I don't know exactly what it has in store; but I know it's going to be busy. I know there's going to be effort, and work involved. And I know that if I don't put in that effort and work, come Autumn, there won't be anything to show for it. And I'll have only myself to thank for that.

For those worrying that I'm going to overwork myself - I don't think that's possible. I'm a little too good with giving myself breaks. Which is good in some senses (means I don't get overworked), but not good in others (means I can get a bit pressured with deadlines).

So yeah, that's what this next season is looking like for me. Thought that you folks might find that interesting.

I Still Call It Home.

So, today is Australia Day. For those who aren't aware, I'm Australian. Living in Australia, Sydney(ish). Go back a fair way on both sides as Australian - I think nearly to the First Fleet on one side, with a convict who stole a watch. Think we had another who stole several lengths of rope.

I'm not particularly patriotic. For myself, I don't see the point - I didn't have any control over the country that I was born into. I'm quite glad that this is the country that I've been born into - there's a lot of great things about it - but it's not something I've really been able to do anything about, even if I wanted to. I still can't really move to another country (thanks, lack of job!) or anything like that. So for me, patriotism doesn't make a lot of sense. I think it's a pretty good country that I live in, in a lot of ways - it's got some beautiful wildlife and places, and we're a lot cleaner than some places out there. And a lot less crowded. We just have so much - space. It's kind of ridiculous. I mean, a lot of it is nearly uninhabitable desert, but you know.

But I think there are people who can be proud to call this their home. And that's people who have had the choice. People who have come here from other countries - particularly people who have come seeking refuge, seeking a place more peaceful than from where they came. When they come here, they have chosen to come to this place, because they believe it is better. Greater. And so, they are proud to call this place their home. And I think that's pretty awesome.

I also think that trying to keep people out of this country is just not Aussie. "For those who've come across the seas, we've boundless plains to share." This beautiful, massive space was made to share, not to try and keep to ourselves. Don't be so paranoid. People are people. Practice that good old fair go and mateship this Aussie Day, whaddya say?

Love Does - and it keeps on doing!

The book Love Does by Bob Goff is actually just a collection of short stories. Almost like Aesop's Fables, in a way (except real), they each have a bit of a lesson to them - to do with God, or love, or living. Particularly things that you can actually do, rather than just think about.

And there are some fantastic stories in there. Everything from the story of taking his kids to meet leaders around the world, to sneaking on to the set of National Treasure 2, to romancing his now wife, to flipping over his old Jeep and flying out the top. You'll be pulled in to each story, and taken by the reality of it. There's no airy-fairy here - it's all about things that you can do, because, as the title of the book says, love does.

Because of the short nature of the stories, it's great for those who aren't avid readers, who just want to read a bit at a time. That's actually a fantastic way to read this book. And if you want a little point to get out of each chapter - he summarises it very nicely in a short little sentence at the beginning of each story. One of my favourites is, 

I used to think being loved was the greatest thing to think about,but now I know love is never satisfied just thinking about it.

But then, I'm a little biased. ;)

This is an incredible book, and one that I've really enjoyed. I'm definitely planning on passing it on to other people that I know will enjoy it, and if any of what I've said here gets your attention, I think you'd enjoy it too. :)


As an aside, sorry I haven't been posting much lately. There hasn't been much to post about! Always a bit of a lull at the beginning of the year. But I think the last couple of years I've done a bit of a miniseries at this point in time, so I'm thinking I might do that again. Any ideas on what to do? I'm open.

On The Secularisation Of Religion.

I watched an episode of QI recently where one of the guests said that (he was speaking particularly in regards to America, but I think it can be applied to other places too) there had been a secularisation of religion - it focussed more on this life than the next, and it had become more of a self-help program than anything else. Just wanted to reflect a bit on that statement, and flesh it out a bit.

In Christianity, I'd say there are two major processes that happen. Salvation, and transformation.
Salvation is where you are saved from your sins. It's something that has already happened, because of Jesus' death on the cross; but individuals need to accept it as true in their life, and give their lives to God for them to be saved. At this point - you're going to heaven, and there really isn't anything that's going to change that. God's pretty awesome like that :) But Jesus also calls us to follow him - that's what giving your life to God is part of. And that's where the second one comes in.
Transformation is about your life becoming all that God meant it to be. Because this life is still important! It might be short, but it still matters, and you can still do great things with it. And God wants that for your life - and so you start on the process of transformation. And this is something that goes on throughout your life.

Now, Christians can have some different attitudes towards these two ideas. Some focus so much on the first that the second gets neglected; others focus so much on the second that the first gets neglected. But both are important, and both need to be present.

This 'secularisation of religion' that I mentioned before seems to me to be like an over-emphasis on the latter. It's a bit like - you're saved! Yay! Okay, now let's make your life awesome, and not worry about that being saved stuff any more, because it's all good now.
The problem is, of course, that's there are still lots of other people out there who aren't. And so it very much becomes more like a club pandering to its members, rather than inviting in new people.

I get the thought, though - it's very much a reaction to the Bible-bashers and turn-and-burn preachers a while back (though they're still around here and there), that focus so much on salvation, and barely touched on transformation. They were out there trying to convert people by the masses, sometimes scaring people into salvation, and then just leaving them there, because they were saved now, so it's all good.

Neither approach works. The former will leave everyone on the outside not wanting to come in, because they've been excluded; the latter will have everyone on the outside wanting to leave, because there's nothing to keep them there.

There needs to be a balance. And, by nature, people will probably be better at one or the other of these. I'm more on the transformation side of things, and I know people on both sides. But I think we need to do more work on figuring out how these two can work together and feed into each other, rather than being two separate processes happening in different places. Because I don't think that's healthy.

....And The Start Of 2015.

Well. Again I'm doing this slightly in advance - I think that when this goes up I'll probably be sleeping, after just getting home from seeing a sunrise. I'm going with a few friends of mine from church to a really nice spot that should give us a great view of the first sunrise of 2015 :)

Sunrises are a bit special for me. Most people really like sunsets - and I like them too - but you see them every day. Most people don't see the sunrise. That's one thing that makes it special. I've also had some really great moments watching the sunrise come up over the water (one of the advantages of living in a spot where the coast is to the east), so that's another thing. And it also really symbolises to me a new start, a fresh hope, the beginning of something amazing and incredible.

And that leads me into this year.

This year, I think God is setting me a bit of a challenge. Well, a lot of a challenge, really. Last year - 2014 - has been a fair amount of me learning more about who I am and who God is, and making that transition from head to heart. There will still be more of that, I'm sure, but there was quite an intense period of that this last year.

But this coming year, I think he wants me to go from heart to hands. There's been a whole bunch of things - from what people have been saying, from what I've been reading, from things that have been happening - that have really been pointing clearly to God saying, "Okay, so you've learned a lot. Now, what are you going to do with it?" As a friend put it nicely recently, he's calling me out on an adventure. And no, I don't know exactly what it looks like. In fact, most of it I don't know. At the moment, work is up in the air; I've had an idea for a ministry, but I don't know if it's going to work; and there are a lot of other things that have been shaken around recently, that have left a fairly big question mark over 2015 and what it holds for me.

What I do know, though, is that he wants me to start doing something. He wants me to be active. He wants me to be living. He wants me to go on this adventure with him, and take risks; take leaps of faith, and not be sure where I'm going to end up. To not always have everything planned out in my head beforehand. (Because even when I do, he seems to still surprise me.)

And it's easy for me to write this. It really is, writing is quite easy. But living it - that's going to be a lot harder. And therein lies the challenge. Thankfully, I've got some pretty awesome people around me that seem to be good at giving me an idea of what to do. Also reading a fantastic book at the moment called Love Does (look it up if you don't know it) that's giving me a fair bit of insight and inspiration. And God's with me.

So, life? Look out. I'm coming.

;)

The End Of 2014....

I'm doing this one a touch ahead of time, but it should post up on New Year's Eve. I want to have a bit of a reflection on this year and some of the things that have happened in it, because it's been pretty incredible for me.

This year....
I've cried tears of joy.
I've shared stories with people I never knew.
I've made closer and quicker friends than I have in a long time.
I've learnt that as I am, I am a man.
A son of God.
A brother of Jesus.
A bride of Christ.
That I am pursued and loved by my awesome Father.
I've been able to grow closer to my brother.
I've been shaken by fear.
And I've challenged that fear.
I've been able to share from the deepest, darkest places.
And have people still smiling, and still loving.
I've made a CD, and had an album launch.
Didn't go how I'd planned.
Seems to be a pattern with God.
Got to be in a play.
Where I was depicting domestic violence and religiosity.
Got to write music for a musical.
Gotten so much further in my battles with addiction and temptation.
Been part of an awesome group of brothers and sisters.
Learned so much, all over again. From the heart, this time.
Been able to use it.
Been part of another awesome group, because one clearly isn't enough.
Studied at Bible College.
Joined a Christian band.
I've been impacted and changed by so many people.
Many of them younger than me.
Walked on the beach with God, quite a few times.
Flew.
Lived dreams.
Wrote another album.
Broke a ukelele.
Saw the musical Wicked.
Been encouraged.
Encouraged others.
Had the privilege of sharing at my church twice, and another church once.
Had God come through for me more times than I can count.
Wrote poetry.
Got to share it with Church of Christ leaders across NSW.
Ran in the City2Surf.
Went to see Adam Hills.
Completely revamped my room.
Saw Mythbusters live on stage.
Celebrated my Great-Nan's 100th birthday.
And my Dad's cousin's wedding.
Went canyoning.
Painted a few rooms and chairs at church.
And so many more, probably a lot that I've forgotten....but hopefully that's most of them.

Thank you so much to everyone who has journeyed with me through this year; everyone who I've done life with. Special mention to the Impart, Navigate, Tops, youth group and Zaō crew, who have seen the best and worst of me and still loved me through it all. You guys are super-duper-awesome, and I've been so blessed to live this year with each of you. You are all an inspiration an encouragement to me, and teach me so much about who I am and who God is. Keep being awesome, and I'm sure I'll see you all again before too long :)

This year, God has really been making the move from my head to my heart. Next year....next year is going to be a little different. But that's for another post....

Goodbye, 2014. You were awesome!

Shine The Light.

There's a movie/TV show from a while back called Dinotopia. Essentially, it's about this hidden island where dinosaurs still exist, and castaways over the years have built a society around them.

As part of their society, they have the Code Of Dinotopia. There are eleven codes, but the last one is broken off. Eventually, it's revealed that the code is "Find the light." And that is a bit of a theme throughout the movie. 

It also related in really well to the sermon at my church the other night. The topic was on Jesus being the light of the world; we've been going through Jesus' "I Am" statements recently, and this one was wrapping up the series. And our pastor talked a lot about how we are very much drawn to light; and in the same way, people were drawn to Jesus and what he did. Throughout the Gospels, you get the stories of people crowding him to ridiculous lengths. And, of course, light very much relates in to the Christmas story - the light of the star, the angel Gabriel, the host of angels - seems to be a theme. 

So that very much reminded me of this idea, "Find the light."

But I think that it goes a bit further than this. I think that this light can still be found in our world today; shining out from people that are living lives like Jesus did. They are shining the light; they are helping others to find the light, to see the light of Jesus. Just like Jesus said, "Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house."

God calls us to shine the light, so that others can find the light. He will always be the light; but so that more may see the light, he asks us to shine.

So, this season, shine. Shine the light. 

Merry Christmas. :)