Was it an accident - or part of the plan?

I recently had to fly out to Ireland on a short business trip.

Flying by Ryanair with no seat reservations leads to some interesting scenarios.
However as I had done this journey before I knew what to expect.

My preferred option on a Boeing 737 as far as seating is concerned is up the stairs and the first row of seats just in the door.

This has three benefits.

1. There is unlimited legroom
2. The porthole gives an unobscured view of the countryside
3. You get to be first off the plane at the other end.

The downside is that if you are one of the first to get on the aircraft, you are stuck right next to a large hole for the weather to throw whatever it likes at you.

Nevertheless it is a small price to pay for such a good seat!

I was on a bit of a roll with 3 flights in a row giving me my desired seat. However having checked in early at Dublin airport, and arriving at the departure lounge, my heart sank.
Ryanair load their aircraft in the sequence people have checked in. The first 95 get on board first followed by the rest. My ticket said I was number 96! The only exceptions to this are people who have checked in online, or families with small children.

I reconciled myself to the fact that I was not going to get my seat!
Sitting in the departure lounge I soon had a young mum with a toddler asleep in a baby buggy sit in the seat next to me.
I caught her glancing occasionally at me as if eyeing me up. After a few minutes she asked if I would be willing to keep an eye on her youngster while she went and purchased a bottle of water for when her child woke up. This I agreed to, surprised at her trusting a total stranger with her child.
She soon returned and thanked me, adding that I had looked a reliable sort of person, and that she didn't make a habit of this.

We continued to chat, and I learnt that she was flying to Gatwick to connect with a flight to Zurich.
It became very quickly apparent that she had her work cut out walking across the apron with a buggy, a large holdall and a young child fast asleep. This with strong wind and squally showers.
Laughingly I offered to be her husband for 10 minutes by helping to carry whatever she wanted to the aircraft for her if that would be of help to her.
She gladly accepted the offer, doubling up with laughter at the suggestion, however said that as we were going to have to exit the departure lounge together we would need to know each others name, and just as important that I knew the name of the child.

It was only at that point that it dawned on me that the number 96 on my boarding card was now redundant, and that miraculously in the absence of online bookings, and no other young children on the flight I was going to be the first person on the aircraft!!


As we were walking together across the apron me carrying the baggage, and she pushing the baby who was oblivious to her recent adoption, Helen turned to me and said "this must be my lucky day coming across you".
To which I was able to reply "Its nothing to do with luck. I'm a Christian and I believe God puts you in the right place at the right time!"

I got my seat, helped Helen at Gatwick with her luggage at baggage reclaim, and put meaning in what was going to be just another day. I wonder what she was thinking at the end of the day when she recalled the events that had taken place after she had left home that morning.

It got me thinking that our Master goes to enormous lengths to work out the plan that He has for each of us.
When the psalmist wrote "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." He too must have been looking back on how amazing God had worked things out in his life.
It is mind blowing when you realise that the tiniest detail of our lives has been either planned or allowed for in the great scheme of things that God calls the plan for our life.

To quote part of a poem written by Rick Warren in his book Forty Days of Purpose which I would highly recommend, he writes -

You are who you are for a reason
You're part of an intricate plan
You're a precious and perfect unique design
Called God's special woman or man."

The Restorer has been at work

It seems so long since I have sat here and had a moment to put a few thoughts together.

We returned from a week in Cornwall three weeks ago and my feet have hardly touched the floor!

It is all too easy to get caught along with deadlines, action points, tasks and in no time to feel overwhelmed with life.

This week has been particuarly manic with my assistant taking time off and the pressure for me being quite intense.

I am away to Ireland on a business trip next week, and there have been, and still seem to be hundreds of things to sort out before I go.

While we were away we paid a visit to the place I photographed above. This is a tiny cornish village called Boscastle. It hit the news two years ago when a slow moving depression dumped several inches of rain on the hills above the village in a short period of time.
This in turn ran down the valley and washed away over eighty cars and destroyed a number of buildings.
The bridge above suffered such a battering from the cars that were being carried in the rapid flow, that it too was badly damaged.



Miraculously there was no loss of life, this was almost certainly due to the fact that it happened during the hours of daylight.

However two years on and there is little evidence of the massive destruction that took place. The reason being that they have had many experts at work restoring the village. If anything the work has been so well done that in many instances the latter is better than the former.


It reminds me that storms and and catastrophes can sometimes give us such a battering that we can feel as though we are all but destroyed.
When the winds subside we look around and see only debris littering our lives. We maybe even sink in despair and wonder if ever again can we know life as we knew it.

Just as there were experts to call on to rebuild the village, so I am reminded that we too have a Restorer. He is the Restorer of our souls, and is in the business of restoring ruined, and wrecked lives.

It reminds me of a beautiful simple chorus we used to sing years ago.

Something beautiful, something good.
All my confusion He understood.
All I had to offer Him was brokeness and strife
But He made something beautiful of my life.

We may get frustrated with the speed that it is taking to make us into the vessels that we would like to be, however we need to keep in mind that He is building something that is eternal.

What we need to remember is that He is not just shaping us, but also fitting us.
Yet to make us fit means that the preparation is also going on in other lives so that like it says in
Eph 4:16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Sometimes the hammer blows can seem so hard, but be encouraged by the answer the sculptor gave when asked how he could carve such a magnificent horse from a block of marble. "I simple hammer off the bits that don't look like a horse".
Our restorer is simply hammering off the bits that are not shaped in the image of Jesus. Surely this is a work in progress, and will not last a moment longer than He deems fit.

Let us submit to the hands of the Master Builder in the sure and certain hope that we are being changed from one degree of glory to another.

When God Says No!

One of the ideas that has been giving me food for thought lately has been, what happens when God says no.

The church often encourages us to share answers to prayer so as to bless and encourage others.
This is great, and can be used to increase our faith in prayer, and to demonstrate the goodness of our God.
So many of our worship choruses are to celebrate victory and overcoming the enemy. I would be the first to encourage this because this is echoed in so many places of scripture. Many of the Psalms are written in praise and adoration of the goodness and faithfulness of God.
David was one to extol the greatness of the Lord, and the many answers he saw to his prayers when he had been delivered out of all his fears.

Yet we know that this is only half the story. When people share from the front about how good the Lord is because He has come up with the goods just as they had prayed, and how wonderful He has been to them in answering prayer I have to confess there is something inside of me that says, yes - but would you be saying this if He hadn't come up with the goods?

When was the last time you heard somebody share that they have had a pig of a week. This went wrong, and that relationship was disastrous, God seemed a million miles away, their prayers were bouncing off the ceiling, and then the cat was sick all over their Sunday best!











You see when I read the Psalms I do read about the blessings, the victories, the wonderful deliverance of the Lord. Yet I also read of David crying out in Psalm 22, "My God, why have you forsaken me. and in verse 14 "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me".

I think we need to learn a lesson here. Yes, its great to tell of all the blessings that are ours every day of the week. Paul exhorts us to rejoice, and says again, to rejoice.Yet let us be real and honest too when things are not so great.

He pleaded with God three times to remove the thorn in the flesh, and God said NO!
There are going to be times in our lives when God says No to us too.
How are we going to handle this if all we ever hear about God from others are the wonderful answers to prayer they have received.
Lets not be afraid of bad news.



Habbakuk could say " Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour".

How do we get there? Paul said that after God told him that although he wasn't going to get a yes to his prayer about that thorn, he would learn that God's grace is sufficent. That it is in a place of weakness that he would know strength.

I look forward to hearing someone sharing, "that this prayer hasn't been answered, that door is firmly closed, this healing just simply doesn't seem to be happening, but I am learning that when all this is apparantly going wrong Gods grace is constantly sufficent".

When all is going pear shaped lets have the courage to declare "Isn't God good!

Walking and Talking

The photo is not a pretty one I have to agree!

But let me explain. This year in January someone laid down a challenge. How about doing the Itex walk?

The Itex walk is an annual charity walk that takes place in June. It entails walking the whole perimeter paths of Guernsey in one day.
This includes 15 miles of cliffs at the start that have a total of 4200 steps incorporated in them. The walk is a total of 40 miles.

The walk starts at 04:30 and can be done in your own time with checkpoints along the way with refreshments and much needed encouragement.

It is not advised to take part unless some training has been put in, because of the conditions along the way.

So I accepted the challenge and spent many hours plodding the roads, in the dark, in the cold, in the rain, in gale force winds, early in the morning, after a day at work. You name it I walked in it!

By the end of May I was up to 100 miles a month! However I could never get beyond 15 miles because of cartilage problems and sore feet.

Yet the reason for the rough picture is, this was taken at the successful end of the Itex walk.

It took me 14 hours, on what was the hottest day of the year, and the last 7 miles were with severe blisters on the soles of my feet. But Hallelujah I did it!! Plus raised £500 for charity.

Why the reason for the post?
A couple of reasons.

Most of my training was done on my own so it gave loads of time to reflect, listen to my I-Pod, and let the Lord do some talking without to many distractions. It reminds me that God's favourite time with Adam in the Garden of Eden was walking and talking.

You never know what you can do unless you try.

When you think you have reached the end of your resources God kicks in with His.

I have a couple of other things to share on perhaps some future posts, about the lessons the Lord has been teaching me while I have been walking with Him.

So watch this space, and please don't think I always look like this, I had just walked 40 miles!!

You've got a nerve!

Strange day today.

It started in the local Accident and Emergency department!!

I've been troubled these last two weeks with a trapped nerve in my neck and shoulders and have been having treatment for it.
Last night in bed things took a very sudden turn for the worse. My whole neck went into excruciating spasm that had no relief throughout the night.

Hense my visit to A&E this morning.

The doctor gave me a short dose of valium to endeavour to relax the area. Within an hour my eyes wanted to close and the edge was taken off the intense pain.
It has indeed been a day of rest!

Yet in the midst of the pain in the middle of the night, what a comfort to be able to say "Thank you Lord that even though I am in agony you are still in control, and you promise to turn even this to my good".

Rubbish

This is the subject that seems to be occuppying more inches of print in our Guernsey Press that any other at the moment.
We live in a wonderful island. It has outstanding beauty almost everywhere you look.
The trouble is that where there are people there is rubbish!
Also what compounds the problem is that it is a small island with only limited options to deal with it.

• Concern is raised that the only existing landfill site is filling rapidly and will soon be closed for business.
  
• The possibility of incineration has been ruled out as too expensive,
  
• and the option of exporting our waste to nearby France was recently thrown out by our local government.

The problem however is not going to go away.

I too had a whole lot of rubbish that needed getting rid of. The Bible calls it sin.

The trouble was similar to Guenrsey's, I couldn't bury it because I was already full of rubbish.
I couldn't export it and make it someone else's problem - nobody wanted it.

Thank God that Jesus was prepared to come up with a solution. He said "Give me all your rubbish, and I'll deal with it.

Not only did He want my rubbish, but He wanted to exchange it for something so much better.

We used to sing a song that went:-
He gave me beauty for ashes
The oil of joy for mourning
A garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness
That we might be trees of righteousness
The planting of the Lord
That He might be glorified
Now that's what I call a solution to the rubbish problem!

We never know what influence we have on people's lives, and may not fully know until we reach eternity.

A word from a long lost friend reminded me of that today, and of one of the first poems that I wrote over 20 years ago.
I thought I would submit it as perhaps a challenge to us all that if we want to be a blessing it has to be on His terms not ours.

Lord make me blessing.

Lord make me a blessing in all I do and say,
I want to be what You were as You walked the narrow way.
For everywhere You went in every love filled day
You touched and healed, and helped each one
That in Your presence stayed
Lord You were a blessing to the woman at the well,
To Your disciple Peter who before Your trial fell.
To the lepers who were outcasts, to the beggars and the lame,
Lord You were a blessing, please make me the same.

Lord make me a blessing especially in my home,
But send me only nice folk to share my jam and scone.
For Lord I’d really be put out if at my door there came
A dirty, smelly, longhaired lout who stood there in his shame.
Lord make me a blessing to everyone I meet,
While I do my shopping and I’m walking in the street,
But Lord You really can’t expect for me to help that drunk
Who’s fallen off his seat and in the gutter sunk.
He’s there a victim of himself, there’s no one else to blame,
But Lord make me a blessing as I go out in Your Name.

Lord make me a blessing as I go up to my school,
I would be a light for You, and there I’d be a fool.
But Lord don’t ask that I should speak about my life in You.
Nor ask me turn the other cheek, or leave revenge to You.
To do that is too hard Lord, that’s just not playing the game,
But Lord make me a blessing at school just the same.
Lord make me a blessing as I go about my work,
To those You put into my path may Lord I never shirk,
Just let me work with Christians where we all believe the same,
Lord make me a blessing, as I speak out in your name.

Lord make me a blessing in all I do and say.
I want to be what You were as You walked the narrow way.
I want to be a blessing in my work, home, and school and walk,
But Lord my prayer so often is a lot of empty talk.
“My children if a blessing to me you want to be,
Count not the cost of loss of face if Christ your friends would see.
Because My walk is lonely, My cross so hard to bear,
And few there are who wish to be a blessing where
I would lead, and say just when and what to say,
Or who to see, and help, and share the burdens of their day.
I ask of you just one thing, and that is when you pray
Lord make me a blessing, say, I obey”.

Well, in the words of Victor Meldrew from One Foot in the Grave, "I simply don't believe it!!"

Here we are just starting the school summer holidays, enjoying these wonderful hot days, and lo and behold in today's Guernsey Press is an advert reminding people to submit their Christmas lunch menus for publication.



Come on, give us a break! What's wrong with simply enjoying now. Why have we got to be reminded that there are only five shopping months to Christmas, (I know it should be --- shopping days, but to be honest I couldn't be bothered to work it out), I refuse to be made to think about it.

The trouble is, the fact that I am even writing about it means that I am thinking about it, see, the powers that be have got me beat.

Isn't it the same with other things though?
Ask a 20 something how much are they putting aside for their pension, and you get a look of disbelief, as if to say why on earth would I want to be thinking of something like that at my age for goodness sake?

As I can count the years using only my hands, God willing, beforeI will be claiming mine, I guess it is further up my agenda of things to be considered than it was thirty years ago.

It does however serve as a reminder that the years do pass all too quickly, it also reminds me that there are probably more years behind me than in front, and begs the question what after this life?
Just as Christmas seems too far away for me to get excited about it, we too can think that the next life is too far away to give it any thought at the moment.

Something just to bear in mind though, we know Christmas will be on December 25th. We don't however know even what lies around the next corner.

My mother often quotes a little line that goes " Life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf".

Perhaps it is a good thing to be reminded that the Christmas menus will soon be published!

Saturday 22nd July 2006

We have just returned from what for us is the perfect summer afternoon occupation, relaxing on Fermain beach.
When the sun is out and the weekend is here you can almost guarantee where we will be.
In fact that dot on the beach just at the foot of the buttress is Judy in our favourite spot.

This afternoon the tide was coming in and was eventually only a couple of feet away from us on a steeply shelving beach.
Swimming in the crystal clear water, and making our way out among the boats that were moored just offshore, and turning to view the magnificent cliffs that rose up from the bay, it truly was heaven on earth.

Later, as I was lying on the beach listening to the waves gently breaking on the shore, the gulls calling and wheeling overhead, it was hard to believe that elsewhere in the world people were cowering in fear at the sound of gun and rocket fire.

Indeed on the Mediterranean coast where there should have been people doing the very thing we have been doing today, there are mothers grieving over children that have been killed, sons caught up in the conflict, and families that are fleeing their homes not knowing if they will ever return.

Yes the world is indeed a place of contrasts, even Fermain bay carries the evidence of previous conflict with fortifications from both the Napoleonic age and the second world war when our island was occupied by a hostile force.

Let us remember in our prayers those caught up in this current conflict, for whom peace seems a million miles away, where bloodshed is in the very streets where they live, and may we appreciate the tranquility we can find, and which if we are not vigilant can so easily be snatched away.

Thursday 21st July 2006

Well, this is a first for me!

Never submitted a blog before, but I would like to welcome you on what I trust will be an interesting journey.

I am a life long member of the Guernsey club.
What a wonderful place to live.

The longer I live on this emerald isle the more I appreciate its beauty. They say that familiarity breeds contempt but I am finding a deepening love for the quality of life that is ours here.

There are not many places in the world that you can: -

• step out of your office and within two minutes be on a beach swimming in your lunch hour!
• never be in a traffic jam in the rush hour for longer than 15 minutes.
• commute to work and never be further than 7 miles from home.
• have most of your family only minutes away.
• have stunning scenery, wildflowers, and wonderful wildlife within easy reach.
• have the choice of many beaches all with their individual character and beauty.

The list could be endless, and yet the sobering thought is that in the midst of such beauty and tranquility lay deep needs in people who are hurting.

In spite of full employment, and a very high standard of living, we have one of the highest divorce and suicide rates anywhere in Europe.

This teaches me to be constantly grateful for what I have, and also to be constantly aware of the needs of others around me. To do whatever is in my power to do, in extending the hand of fellowship and friendship to whoever is placed in my path.