Happy New Year

All over the world fireworks explode in dazzling bursts that light up the sky. At home the neighbours rush around setting off there meagre offering of a fireworks display with more noise than beauty. It's midnight and a new year is dawning. 

One second and 2013 gives way to 2014. Each person greeting the New Year with hope  - hope for happiness, peace, prosperity, health, achievement. So many dreams and wishes are placed at the door of the New Year.

Strangely, the New Year cannot provide any of these things for us. It is just one second in time - and life goes on - as it did last year and the year before. 2014 will be no different from 2013 - joys and sorrows, health and illness, life and death, smooth sailing and storms are all part of the journey of life.

What will make the difference is our attitude to the circumstances of our lives. We see health, happiness and prosperity as gifts from God, but we fail to see illness, sorrow and failure as gifts from God as well. 

Paul says,  "I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.  For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:11-13). What was Paul's secret?

He revealed his secret earlier in the text:  "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  ...Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:4-7).

Later in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 he says,  "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus".

Paul's secret was thankfulness to God in every situation of his life - the good and the bad. Ann Voskamp, a Canadian author tells about her discovery of this secret and her gratitude journal in her book, One Thousand Gifts.

So let us enter into 2014 with gratitude to God for ALL His gifts - large and small, those desired and those which seem to us to be undesirable.

To assist in your journey of gratitude in 2014:

Visit Ann Voskamp's website http://www.aholyexperience.com and get hold of a copy of her book One Thousand Gifts to discover more ways to make 2014 a life of abundant life and gratitude.

Listen to a this beautiful song by Matt Redman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqd8MoiCbcI

May your 2014 be filled with gratitude in every circumstance of life. May you know that God is in control and all things that come to us are gift. May His grace find you wherever you are right now.

Beauty from Ashes

Proteas - amazing wild flowers from the Western and Northern Cape in South Africa.  Prehistoric shrubs burst into resplendent spring time beauty.  Each bloom glorious and dignified.

Then - the tiny blushing brides! Delicate almost transparent petals and  fluffy rose tinted centre.

Beauty does not come without cost and suffering. For new plants seeds need to fall into the ground, be buried and die. Protea seeds endure further trial - germination occurs after the seeds are burned by fire.

Beauty rises up from the ashes.

On the spiritual journey transformation, growth and beauty rise up from suffering.

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as 

if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these 

trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have 

the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

1 Peter 4:12-13

There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

1 Peter 1:6-7

Suffering with Christ allows the human soul to rise up - beauty from ashes.

Early Morning Message

The cellphone lay like a rock in my hand as I read and reread the early morning message. Five words that became imprinted on my soul as I tried to determine whether that message could possibly mean something, ...  anything ...  different from the obvious. 

"We lost Jenni yesterday evening".

Hadn't we celebrated the birth of Jenni's baby in our cell group yesterday afternoon ... premature and many complications ... but all was fine with both mom and baby?

Now my phone is the harbinger of terrible news... Jenni has gone. Surely not! I read the message again. This is the twenty first century! Mothers no longer die in childbirth! Is this a mistake? Medical science has all these complications covered, doesn't it?

 A phone call to Jenni's mother confirms the message. I go numb with shock and disbelief.

I remember the blond haired, sparkle-eyed beauty who was my son's good friend throughout their school years. Her bright smile that never failed to melt my heart. The happy, innocent days of childhood play and friendship, Sunday School classes and shared joy.

Thoughts turn to her husband whose dreams of a happy family life lie shattered, 
and the newborn baby who will never see her mother's beautiful face and loving smile, 
and her elder daughter who sleeps, blissfully unaware that life as she has known these past three years will never be the same again, 
and her loving and admiring parents who will never thrill at seeing her name on the caller ID or be able to share coffee or a meal together, as they have done for 28 years,
and brother, sister and friends who will feel the gaping hole of loss.

There are so many questions with no answers ... no words of comfort ... no understanding ... but to trust in God's sovereign wisdom (He who lost His own Son) ...  and take courage from the apostle Paul:

We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. (Colossians 1:11b-12 The Message).

Rest in Peace, Jenni, until we meet again. Deepest sympathy to my special friend Ruth and the family.