Renovation as a spiritual discipline…

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This week I am on annual leave, and am taking the opportunity to do some work on the house.

Our house is old and well lived in so is always in need of renovation and repair. When time, energy and money allows, I will start a project, and work like a slave until it is done. I get stressed as I feel responsible for getting the thing finished.

This time, however, things are different- as I am the understudy to a craftsman.

Michaela’s uncle is up here to upgrade the plumbing.  This involves ripping out a massive inefficient old boiler that is asthmatic and rusty, and virtually rebuilding the boiler room around a sleek and compact new model. We will then rip out the old hot water tank, which is surrounded by a network of pipes- many of which are redundant.

What we will be left with is something that still burns the same gas, but quite a bit less of it, and will provide the house with heat and hot water just like the old one- only it will be reliable, and cleaner.

And after a day testing my bad back carrying huge bits of old plumbing, and sawing and drilling, I am tired, but not stressed. I am working with a man who has been a plumber for 40 plus years. There is next to nothing he does not know about pipes and plungers. And he has pride in a job not just done, but well done.

So, this left me thinking…

We, the church, are in need also of constant renovation. Some (perhaps me sometimes) would even wish to demolish and rebuild. Houses are to be lived in, and as we live in them, they become tired and worn. Plumbing leaks and boilers break down.

Technology brings new innovations- new gadgets and household appliances, new ways of using space, and so the building evolves and changes- or it’s value will plummet, and it might find itself only fit for selling on to property developers, or- dereliction and demolition.

But- people still need a roof- a place of warmth and shelter, where family can be nurtured and loved.

So renovation- which is born of hope, nurtured in vision and achieved through hard work, broken finger nails and skinned knuckles.

And as we renovate- how we need to learn under skilled craftsmen- men who need to prove nothing, and take no personal glory from the acts of resurrection they release. Rather the quiet satisfaction of a life lived well.

The Argyll forest in autumn…

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Today we walked into the forest at Glenbranter.

It was a lovely autumn day, with the occasional shower serving to polish up the colours.

The trees have not yet given up the summer- some of them are still green. But others have decided to go out with a blaze of glory.

The forestry commission have worked hard to encourage people into the woods. They maintain footpaths, set up wildlife hides, and put on special events. Today there were exhibitions of birds of prey, films of ospreys and information about the experiment to re-introduce beavers to Knapdale. They have been extinct in Scotland since the 16th century, and the idea of them living in our woods again makes me happy.

So we waked past waterfalls and ate sandwiches watching the red squirrels…

And it was good to be alive.

Winter is coming. Soon the trees will be bare, and the nights cold and long. But this too will pass.

Capitalism, Durkheim and Rev. Billy.

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Laurie Taylor on Radio 4 has set me thinking again, on his programme ‘Thinking allowed’- which looks at social scientific research. You can listen again here.

This time, he took me back to my ‘A’ level sociology days, and to the French 19th C philosopher Emile Durkheim, and his great work ‘Suicide’.

Durkheim wrote about a kind of existential crisis that people could experience in a time of economic crisis- when the norms and structures people have been used to living by break down, and people find themselves in a state that he called ‘anomie’.

Durkeim suggested that people need to be part of something bigger- to be integrated and linked, and when this begins to break down, the end result is anomie, which in turn, leads to a time when the anchors and moorings that hold us together are gone.

Durkheim thought that this was one of the three main reasons why people committed suicide- a breakdown of what made them human, and held them in community.

He suggested that the way to overcome this was through ‘moral education’, or ‘moral regulation’- and these things would be managed through the function of the institutions of society.

So, how does this relate to the current economic crisis?

Taylor made these fascinating comments. He sited a review of 2300 major research papers- looking at business research and training. The study concluded that the focus had been almost exclusively on minor techincal problems to do with the operation of markets, rather than the larger political and ethical considerations. Here is a quote from the researcher;

‘We have failed to teach our students the kind of social conscience and ethics and concern for the world and the environment and the poor that might have had an effect on the selfish exuberance of the finance markets’ Dr Harni.

I have heard a lot of economic ‘experts’ being interviewed giving opinion an comments as the economic crisis unfolds. They are often made to look fools by the events of the next day. It has often occurred to me that these are the same movers and shakers who moved and shook us into the current predicament, now being wise after the event…

But even from them, you hear some talk of ethics, and regulation. REGULATION- in the free market?

Almost like Dr Frankenstein wanting to cage the beast.

So is it too late? Will anomie, or whatever, result in a change to the way that we are? It remains to be seen. But the system we have in not sustainable.

Check this out, it made me smile.

This is cool- Kiva microfinance website

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Check this out.

It is a site that allows you to make small loans directly to small businesses in parts of the world where, credit crunch or not, people would not get the money elsewhere.

My friend Pauline suggested that our group get involved.

This is a message that I was asked to send on to others- I would not send this via e-mail, but will post it here

Hi!

I just made a loan to someone in the developing world using a revolutionary new website called Kiva (www.kiva.org).

You can go to Kiva’s website and lend to someone in the developing world who needs a loan for their business – like raising goats, selling vegetables at market or making bricks. Each loan has a picture of the entrepreneur, a description of their business and how they plan to use the loan so you know exactly how your money is being spent – and you get updates letting you know how the entrepreneur is going.

The best part is, when the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back – and Kiva’s loans are managed by microfinance institutions on the ground who have a lot of experience doing this, so you can trust that your money is being handled responsibly.

I just made a loan to an entrepreneur named Leonia Benitez in Dominican Republic. They still need another $400.00 to complete their loan request of $3,150.00 (you can loan as little as $25.00!). Help me get this entrepreneur off the ground by clicking on the link below to make a loan to Leonia Benitez too:

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=66911

It’s finally easy to actually do something about poverty – using Kiva I know exactly who my money is loaned to and what they’re using it for. And most of all, I know that I’m helping them build a
sustainable business that will provide income to feed, clothe, house and educate their family long after my loan is paid back.

Join me in changing the world – one loan at a time.

Thanks!

What others are saying about www.Kiva.org:

‘Revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries.’
— BBC

‘If you’ve got 25 bucks, a PC and a PayPal account, you’ve now got the wherewithal to be an international financier.’
— CNN Money

‘Smaller investors can make loans of as little as $25 to specific individual entrepreneurs through a service launched last fall by Kiva.org.’
— The Wall Street Journal

‘An inexpensive feel-good investment opportunity…All loaned funds go directly to the applicants, and most loans are repaid in full.’
— Entrepreneur Magazine

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Derek Webb and hope for the New World

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I have been listening to Derek Webb’s album ‘Mockingbird’ today in the car, at high volume.

It gave me some hope for the world, that an American can write words like this;

Who is your brother?  Who is your sister?
You just walked past him. I think you missed her,
As we’re all migrating to a place where our father lives
Because we married into a family of emigrants.

So my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood.
It’s to a king and kingdom.

There are two great lies that I’ve heard.
The day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die.
And that Jesus Christ was a white middle class republican
And if you want to be saved you have to learn to be like him.

So my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or to a man.
My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
It’s to a king and a kingdom.

But nothing unifies like a common enemy
And we’ve got one, sure as hell.
He may be living in your house.
He may be raising up your kids.
He may be sleeping with your wife.
He may not look like you think.

Derek Webb, ‘King and a Kingdom” from the Mockingbird album.

Here is another song from the album…

Gods great big hoover. Or the last noo noo.

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When I was but a lad, growing up in Nottinghamshire, I watched this film…

We attended a local Anglican church, and things started swinging with a bit of Holy Spirit revival. We sang choruses rather than hymns, I learnt to play the guitar, we had healing services and people ‘spoke in tongues’. All in a C-of-E church in small town Kirkby-in-Ashfield.

And there are memories that I cherish.

And some that I do not. Some still make me twist inside with that old faithful adolescent companion- pervasive raging cringing embarrassment.

Some of the memories that I shelved as just plain dysfunctional I have in recent times reached down, dusted off, and managed to look at through the eyes of the 41 year old man that now I am. And some of it, I can now even laugh at.

One of these things is the aforementioned film.

You see, there was a lot of fuss about the ‘end times’ in the 1970’s and 80’s. I suppose there always is a section of people somewhere in every generation, in some part of the planet, who are proclaiming the imminent return of Jesus, and the time of judgment and tribulation.

So in our church- the chick cartoons were circulating. If you have never had the pleasure- check them out here– you can still buy them. There was one spelling out the ‘truth’ about the second coming, along with rapture, tribulation, and most memorably, the lake of fire in which sinners (like I surely was- I was a teenage boy after all) would burn for eternity. Here is a sample;

There was also Chuck Smith, who I believe still is a big cheese in Evangelical circles, who told the world that Jesus was coming again in, I think, 1980. Jesus did not, but Chuck seems to have been able to recalibrate. We watched a film that came from Calvary Chapel in those days all about the end times, and the signs of the coming age that could be seen in the world around us- particularly in the re-birth of the Jewish nation. Compelling stuff- most of which was nonsense, and this is not the film that I am talking about.

We were also taken to see a film in a church hall. Where this was, I have no idea- because I remember having to travel in the church mini-bus to get there.

And this too gave me nightmares.

The film began with a song by the late great Larry Norman. Should have got him to sing it…

…and then the terrifying story unfolded. All ‘biblical’ and straight from the pages of the book of Revelation, or so we were told.

A woman wakes up, and her husband has gone. Rapturously raised up to heaven by (as my friend Janet described it) God’s Dyson.

And so came the rise of the beast, and the time of tribulation. All in cheesecloth.

Quite why people thought this was good material for kids, I have no idea.

There are still many who would use versions of this story to frighten people into the pews. Babylon is built anew each time they do, say I.

The cartography of competition…

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A little while ago, I met someone for the first time, and took a dislike to him.

It did not really matter- we are not likely to have a lot to do with one another. But it troubled me as it was quite a strong reaction.

I bolstered myself with an examination of his faults. He liked to talk- all the stuff he had done, how good he was at things. I followed standard meet-new-person procedure, and asked him lots of open leading questions about himself and his stuff, but after a while I stopped as he did not really need the encouragement. He asked nothing about me at all.

After an hour or so of this- I was annoyed, and… strangely depressed.

Of course things are never one dimensional where human interaction is concerned. This man had been through a tough time and was rebuilding his life. He was also someone who had gifts in similar areas to my own, and the talent comparisons were inevitable- given the fragile self-esteem issues we artistic types tend to suffer beneath.

There was a whiff testosterone-competition in the air, and I did not like it, or what it did to me. It had no place in my idealised understanding of the elevation that art brings to the soul.

Not to mention the Jesus way of being that I set myself stumblingly towards…

But there is was.

In dysfunctional style I chewed on it all. And wrote the poem below.

We meet and move about one another
Probing, exploring borders
Negotiating
Presenting our petition
And revealing this badge of office-
Sewn on sleeves whilst our hearts stay hidden
Revealing carefully edited glimpses
Of whom we want to be
But are not yet.

Then begins the measuring
Of the size of armies
The bore of canon
And the reach of your rockets
As we carefully deploy our camouflaged troops
To occupy the high ground
To hide uncertainty behind
A cloak of accomplishment
And capability.

Sometimes it seems that who I am is only revealed
In understanding what you are not
In seeing you
And finding you wanting
In mapping out your strongholds
And avoiding them
And raising up my tattered flag
Above this uncomfortable alliance.

The last great liner leaves the Clyde…

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I kind of knew that something was happening today out on the Clyde.

It was a beautiful day- one of those soft sunny October days when summer kind of forgets her wrinkles and hitches the tweed skirts and goes for a paddle. And the water was full of boats and sails. Naval vessels like great grey sleek speed boats, tugs pushing a bow wave way above their station and countless craft whose size was proportionate to the wallets of their proud owners.

But there was a kind of hummm to the day that was more than the sum of the distant outboard motors.

And then, I glanced up, and there she was- filling my doorway.

Then I remembered.

The QE2- making her last ever visit to the Clyde- where she was built. In a different age.

When the Clyde still made the best and biggest ships that sailed the seas.

And whole generations lived a life in sight and sound of the shipyards.

Late tonight the mighty ship made its way out again- to a mooring somewhere far away as a floating hotel. Fireworks split to cold night air and temporarily obscured the stars.

And with long mournful blasts on her foghorn, she was gone.

Graceful people and brokenness…

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There are some people whose way of loving and looking after those around them is beautiful. I am privileged to know a few of them. One of them (although she will hate me saying it!) is my wife.

Their way of being is a gift to people around them. It can often be seen in a creative playfulness that seeks always to find ways to bring good things into the lives of those around them. So here is a list of things that I have seen some of my friends (and my wife) do in recent times;

A gift of an MP3 player, full of special music pre-loaded.

A trophy made up with ‘the resilience cup’ engraved on it, as a gift to celebrate the end of someones medical treatment.

Little cards made up with a message/meditation for every day of a trip away or a hospital stay.

Soup for weary workers.

Needs spotted, and quietly filled.

The spiritual gift of remembering anniversaries- birthdays and wedding days, but also days of bereavement or loss.

Card and letter writing.

Refusing to see the bad in people, and hoping for the best.

A travel pack made up for friends who have a long journey to make.

The people I know who do these kinds of things on a daily basis- they are blessed as they bless others. But it occurred to me recently, that they do not necessarily do this from a position of strength.

By this I mean that sensitive, kind, thoughtful people often carry their own scars.

Something put them out on the edge- whether this was childhood trauma, or difficult life experience. For some, this becomes a bitter stain. Others find that their swords are beaten into ploughshares…

I think this is one of the ways that we see the Grace of God in the very fabric of humanity. Bad can be made good. Healing can come as we seek to heal. Sensitivity is born in the sensitised.

I have heard this instinct to serve others described as a need-to-be-needed. Or the application of that horrible phrase ‘people pleaser’. It may well be the case that there are unhealthy limits to this.

But my life, and the lives of many around me, would be so much the less without these ministers of grace.