Where are we taking them?

I have a passion. Not just for Doctor Who, not just for Nottingham Forest but for seeing young people impacted by the love of an amazing God. The question that i keep asking myself is 'What does that look like?'

Being a dad of a couple of amazing children, i often look at them and wonder what they are going to look like when they are older. Not just in looks, but in what job they may do, the kind of people they will hang out with, what their hobbies and interests they may have and what kind of families they may have (well Joel that is, obviously Amy is not even allowed a boyfriend until she is 30). Obviously I have no idea of what is going to happen to them, and in someways I am glad, as i am sure i would want to control it more than I should. What I do know is the world will be a different place. I know that because it is different now than it was when i was growing up. I remember having a ZX81 computer system and that was top range with its 16k ram pack you could add onto the back.

I also know that the way faith looks like nois different to when i was growing up. It is now more about how you live your life everyday rather than just turning up to Church every Sunday morning. That is hard to get my head round, that actually what faith looks like to me is different to what it looks like to those lovely older ladies who were in Church every Sunday making me feel welcome and loving me. Neither of us are wrong, it is just different, and will continue to change.

Vincent Donovan in his book, Christianity Rediscovered, says this:

"...do not take people back to where they were or do not try to call them back to where you are, as beautiful as that place may seem. You must have the courage to take them to a place neither you or them have been."

Faith can be and is an amazing thing. Are we willing to walk with others to somewhere we haven't been? Am i willing to take young people on a journey where I am trusting God for a new fresh destination? Or am i the one in control wanting to feel secure and 100% certain that the way God works in my life is the way He works in others?

Richard Dawson

can everything be man-made?

Do you find you have to try and control everything? I think there are certain things i cannot cope with if i am not in charge. For example it was Joel's 4th birthday last week, and for his party he had decided to have it at a soft play area. In itself that seems fine, but this was the first party either of my children had had that wasn't a good old fashioned kids party. No musical chairs, no pass the parcel, no mad games, just soft play. So, my most successful part as a dad so far, had suddenly stopped. I had nothing to run.
As you are aware there has been this most surprising effect of a volcano over our flight paths over the past week or so. This is something that no one had seen coming, and has created the most havoc that we have seen in the air the UK has ever seen. Now for a lot of people it has effected their lives, some have just had extended holidays, others it has cost them a lot of money. What i do find interesting is that, having a conversation with someone the other day, is that there is the feeling that this should have been sorted before, and that someone didn't do their job properly.
You know what, i get the feeling that we think, sometimes, everything has to be controlled, and when it can't we just can't cope. It also seems to me that when we get to that situation whether that is through extreme weather or through a natural occurrence, that we still need someone to blame, someone has to be at fault.
Let's face it we are like that as a Christian as well, we need to be in control, and it is so hard to let God be in control. The problem we have is that He knows us better than we know ourselves, and that it is always best to let him lead, even if it is hard. If we try and run things in our own strength, we know there is a chance it will fail, but letting Him lead? only leads to success. So are our lives going to be man made or God made?