Friday, January 9, 2009
Day two
Well here I am again - faithful to the cause of blogging. I have had an experience at work in the past couple of days that has forced me to reflect on my future, which happens to me from time to time. I came to the conclusion that security and familiarity can often become tools which stop the vital work of change and growth in our lives. As humans we react so poorly to change, particuarly change that occurs after long periods of service or loyalty. Our reaction, which is perfectly normal, can be grief and fear. In my work with people with alcohol and drug issues this was always the last barrier to those ready to have a life without drug use. The complete change of life. It is a very daunting thing, yet those who have had the courage to walk that path have had incredible transformation experiences. There are times in life when we react to circumstances in an emotional way and change occurs due to this. This I think can be unhelpful in the long term, someone once told me that 'you should never get off a train when its going through a dark tunnel'. When we react emotionally to our situation we can make sweeping changes which cause regret. However if we wait till the train pulls up to the station and decide to get off, this will lead to new opportunites. I know that I need to keep in mind that change is good and when opportunity presents itself I hope I have the courage to take it.
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Anytime we examine our motivation and realise our need for security is driving us we need to acknowledge we have taken a wrong turn. It is not what Jesus exemplified and is somewhat 'anti' faith. While I am by no means a radical thinker, I know that we suffer we continually compromise ourselves and eventually our faith suffers as we collect dust in the mundane. I am curious as to why you defined your blog as emerging Salvo:ROCK
ReplyDeleteHi annonymous, Thanks for joining my previously schizophrenic discussion. I have named the blog address emerging salvo because of some of the reasons in the first post. Regardless, this is probably a temporary name before I come up with something a little more suitable.
ReplyDeleteDude, where did the faithful blogger go? Dish it out man!
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone in your struggle brother. As you are already aware change is constantly happening for us. How we sit with it is the key. The issue for us is 'how do we know it is happening', because we dont see it taking place so obviously. Can it happen, will it happen, hopefully. We need to cultivate a salvos that are not too concerned with its image, whether that be the shield in a PR sense or in a fundamental evangelical way. We live now in 2009 and the Army needs to reflect this. I too am not totally confident about change taking place at all let alone in the future but I know there are snipets of hope around and thats what keeps me going. We need to focus on our context and essence of who we are as followers of Chrsit that happen to be salvos. How do we communicate this to everyone? We need to be inclusive and emphasis social justice over personal morality, plus our leadership needs to change from the top down. Easy! No we wait like our Jewish friends. Fazz.
ReplyDeleteWDP
ReplyDeleteThe thought of change is one of the most daunting experiences you can confront when you have been part of a movement that has provided you with a ministry that is diverse and wonderfully challenging, which also provides the security of living a very comfortable life, for me that has been Officership over many years now. So the challenge is to face the fear change and look for new and exciting opportunities, which also creates a strange fear when change forced upon you. I am continuing to learn that changes makes you not rely on self, but on the very presnce of God and wonderful family and friends that join our personal journey.
You cannot live a life that is a lie or false representation of yourself, you will eventually be caught and the consequences are huge, so be open to what is around the corner and allow God to bless you and know that He has already been there before you.
I have this wonderful promise from scripture, it has been with me since life for me took an enormous change, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11-
So, fear is OK, as long as God is centre of that fear....plans not to harm you.....
Keep the faith.
Well I tried to post a loooonnngggg comment before but the combination of being slightly retarded and my computer playing up it was completely wiped. So I am going to summarise; '...trains in the dark...' don't do it - trains move to fast, the carriage platform is six feet off the ground and stating the obvious... it is dark. This leads me to my main point. I am not such a fan of the dark, as an analogy or in reality (lucky this is anonymous or people might think me wimpy). In the dark it is easy to be caught by surprise, in the dark it is difficult to make informed decisions and in the dark (as we are not rabbits) we can not see more than about a foot in front of us (which is basically just what creates for the first two statements to be possible outcomes).
ReplyDeleteIf you will excuse my laziness for not writing this all out again, please appreciate you gave me the chance to open my bible for the first time in quite some time (and it took me awhile to find this) but what I thought of that may be something or nothing? though I am hoping it is encouraging: John 15:18 When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you. The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of this world, and so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? 'A servant is not greater than a master.' SInce they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me they would have listened to you! The people of the world will hate you because you belong to me, for they don't know God who sent me... v26 But I will send the counsellor (Comforter, Encourager, Advocate)- the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me. And you must tell others about me because you have been with me from the beginning.
Now I know that was Jesus speaking to particular people at a particular time though I think there may be at least a nugget of objective truth in there. I think that anyone who decides to truly be a disciple of Christ and not just a leader of what can be a self serving religion and institution is going to suffer and be hated at times. Anyone who decides to truly be a follower of the way is going to go through many 'tunnels', some that seem to go from one to the other and never ending.
Please for the many people who you work with and minister to allow those tunnels and change to create strength and resilience.
As an anonymous person I don't pretend to know much though I think I can safely say both heaven and earth need more people like you.
Pardon the pun but I hope there is light at the end of the tunnel and some comfort and rest for you (here on earth, not in the heavenly Christian sense, whatever that is...)
Anyway I will stop ranting now, as mentioned above this is your 'schizophrenic discussion"
Your anonymous and slightly retarded friend
Anon
Ps Bet you haven't seen TUF s8, one word - AWESOME!