Is there any point in being defensive?

I love hearing about Church history. Whether that be the early church in the book of Acts or the start of denominations like Methodism and the Salvation Army. Listening to Question Time at the minute and hearing them talking about the amount of people trying to create a revolution in the middle east over the past few months, i remember stories about the abolition of the slave trade or the day of Pentecost and i love the face that the Church has been part of so many revolutions. So what i would like to know is when is the next one? Some would say it if you look at the Church it is a long way off, although some would say we have this sleeping giant just ready to awake. So why isn't it happening? One of the reasons is that we have become defensive about our faith, and defensive about what we believe. In a world that is becoming more secular, and in a country like ours that has become less Christian, instead of using this culture shift as a challenge and a chance to become part of a new revolution, we have become more restrained, by trying to keep our own traditions and our own ways safe. We can see some elements of this still when we see cultures within a lot of churches not being able to connect with the culture outside the doors. Being part of a revolution is not about doing what everyone else does, or even changing because everyone else does. What being part of a revolution means is to stand for what you believe that goes against what is going on around. What it also means is that you don't go into your shell, batten down the hatches and sit it out, but move out and show what you have is of the greater good. Could this be the Church? or shall we just wait until it is all over, but if we continue on the back foot, there maybe none of us left to come out from behind the door.

Richard

What do you want to do?

We have a choice don't we? Well, life is about choices, from whether or not to have breakfast (you can't stop me having mine), to whether we choose to believe someone or not. I chose to collect all the dr who dvd's, yes the classics as well as the new ones. It was a decision i made, it is not a popular one in our household, as they have now been banished to an upstairs cupboard, but i will complete, yes i will complete.
We do 2 things this time of year. We look back and reflect and see what has gone on, and we look forward. This time of year we can choose something aswell. We choose to focus on one of those 2 things. We either choose, as we reflect, to stay in the past and to live our lives with no vision and expect nothing to change and we decide that we cannot influence anything, because we cannot make a diference. We live on past guilt, on past decisions that may or may not have gone well. We can spend our lives in the past. We can also choose to do the opposite and live for what we dream, what we would like to see in 2010. i suppose this is what new years resolutions are about. We can expect great things, we can make a difference and we can dream dreams.
Problem is, we have to hold them in the balance. I know people who do live in the past and are scared to dream, don't feel like they deserve happiness because of what has happened in the past. I also know people who live in past glories and will never admit that the dream is over but live on what has happened. Then again i know people who don't learn and who just keep making the same mistakes, over and over again, without realising they are going over old ground.
I would love to hear what your dreams are for this next year, maybe they are built on regrets of the past year, or maybe they are taking what has happened in the past and moving them onto the next level. Someone once said(someone very important), without vision the people perish. what's going to happen to you in 2010?