Why do people like football?

OK so i am biased. As are most football fans. But this morning was hard. After having convinced myself that i wasn't bothered if Forest didn't win last night and get through to the play off final, sitting at half time in the city ground, i was absorbed in the knowledge we were going to do it. But pretty much like always we didn't. Don't get me wrong, finishing 3rd in the league i would have taken at the start of the season, but in the moment, you start to hope and dream of what could be.

Screaming your teams name, jumping up every time they go forward and have a shot, it is easy to get carried away with the occasion and the emotion of the event. I think one of our problems in life is that we live for the experience, the highs of life. This can be great, especially as we learn and experience hoe much God loves us, but it can also become a crutch. When we live for the experience it can be like a drug, and although that time you are on a high nothing feels better, each time you come down from that high, it is easy to feel low, and keep feeling low till our next high. I know after last nights match what a downer felt like, and it was more so because there were times where we were in the lead.

How do we lead our lives? are we looking for the experience or are we content with what we have? Our lives would be so much richer if we look for God in the everyday, see His creation around us, rather than dismissing it and believing He is only around when we feel warm and fuzzy. If we live like the latter we deny God His creativity and His desire to be in every bit of our lives.

If we see what God truly has to offer our lives will be so much richer. Then when we do experience His love and mercy, it won't then lead to a downer but to a richer and fuller life.

Will i listen to my own words? Of course, but i will still be misguided enough to believe Forest will get promoted next season. Duh...

How easy is it to listen?

I don't know if you think your life is full or not? I have come to realise that i like noise, and i like to have stuff happening. I wouldn't say I don't like silence, but i find it hard. Whether i am in the car and have to have the radio on, or in the house and there has to be music or the TV on. Maybe even in the office where i have to have the Internet on or on the phone. What do we put in our lives that helps us avoid silence?

I think silence is very powerful. Whether it is the end of the last Dr who episode where there is just silence, or whether it is the disciples in the boat and He calms the storm, which would have totally freaked me out, the impact of silence is deafening.

I have just been to a convent down in Gloucstershire for a retreat and although it wasn't a silent retreat, it was difficult to get into. No internet access, one small square inch of mobile phone coverage and all of a sudden you feel like there is nowhere to turn, but once I got through the first hour or so you realised how powerful and impacting the silence could be. By cutting out all the noise you start to realise that God doesn't just want to hear from you but He wants to talk to you. I know a lot of people, Christians and not who would say well you can't hear God, or He doesn't speak to me. I think i have realised that actually God does want to and does actually speak to me, the question i have to ask myself though is ' is there too much noise in my life to hear God's still small voice?'

Does anything get in the way of you hearing from Him?

Guest Blog - Rev. Martin Kirkbride : when do you feel audacious?

Rev. Martin Kirkbride is the Church leader at Holy Trinity, Lenton and The Priory, Lenton. He is also regional co-ordinator of New Wine.

Last week I spent a couple of days in London, breathing the refined atmosphere of Kensington (even if my hotel was in Earls Court). Many years ago we lived in London and I miss the place. Would love to go back to the noise and bustle - but please don’t get excited in Lenton, I’m not going to. One memorable part of this recent visit was spending a couple our hours wandering round the V& A ( Victoria & Albert Museum). It was great till we got to the fashion section. There was a 1970’s exhibit that included flared trousers and platform shoes . Now to all you younger guys who walk round in jeans that only start where your boxer shorts finish - I think you look utterly naff. But on reflection I think I’d rather walk round Nottingham with half my backside and Calvin Kleins on display than revert to my 1970’s embarrassment of lurching round 5 inches taller than I really was to the background noise of my trouser bottoms flapping against each other. ( slight overstatement as I can’t afford Calvin Kleins and somehow Tesco branded boxers don’t have the same street cred)
Anyway , sans naff fashions I also attended the nearby early morning prayer meeting at Holy Trinity Brompton . They apologised that the guy supposed to be running it had been held up at Chicago Airport. Having myself had some delay at Watford Gap I fully understood the stress of international travel. The prayer meeting commenced with the challenging greeting “Are you feeling audacious this morning? Are you an audacious person?”. Now those of you who know me will be aware that I’m not even a person in a morning till I’ve had at least one very strong black coffee. Generally it would take me several cups of caffeine before I could even contemplate aspiring to audacity. But the statement immediately resonated within me. What can be more audacious than a small group of half awake very ordinary people believing that spending 60 minutes in prayer can have eternal significance, can shape global events, can bring healing and transformation of lives, can change hearts and minds, repair broken relationships, fix broken hearts, bring peace out of turmoil? How can it be that the creator of heaven and earth, the one in whom all things hang together, the one who unlike the fashions never changes, would invite you and me to have input and partnership to his plans?