I’ll cry if I want too

Ok, so it’s my birthday. The day of the year which is supposed to be extra special. If you’re a kid your all about the presents and the cake, if you’re over 30 you’re supposed to be depressed, if you’re a typical student then you’re supposed to get drunk a little bit more than usual, and if you’re a friend then you need to make a little bit more effort.

I’ve grown up in a culture, which says that the day you were born is significant; that how old you are matters, and each millstone should be celebrated. A culture, which picks out one day in the year, which is your day, and people should give you gifts in celebration. A culture which says if you don’t give a gift then you don’t care. A culture which psychology compels you to buy this, that and the other, not because the item itself is necessary, but because giving on birthdays is a necessarily. A culture which says for the first 18years of your life ‘you’re to young’ and then last 50 years ‘you’re over it’. A culture which says that if I don’t enjoy my birthday then I’m a grumpy old man.

I’m over this birthday stuff.

I want to live in a community where age isn’t an issue; you’re never too young, never too old. Everyone is equal and valid and can take part.

I want to live in a community were I feel special and loved all the time, not for one day. A community where people don’t feel they have to give me stuff to tell me they love me, but I know it because they really do love me.

A community that buys gifts for people when they see that they have a real need for something in particular. Or they see something they know someone will really really like, so they get it then, there and now, not for ‘my special day’.

It’s ‘I saw this and thought of you’, not ‘It was you’re birthday so I got you this’

It’s ‘because I love you’, not ‘because it’s your birthday’

This doesn’t mean it’s my birthday everyday, but it means that surprises come along the way. This means that you are never too old to learn new tricks and never too young not to matter. This means when you throw parties you celebrate life, not milestones of decay. This means gifts are no longer an essential cultural commodity, but rather we get back to the heart of what giving should be about – from the overflow of a community far deeper than perhaps I can even begin to imagine, let alone create…

Now there is a happy birthday thought…

Turning Around

Turn around from a path of destruction and be part of something bigger and better!

A new way of living is available now, which requires one thing of you, to re-evaluate yourself, up root what is crap and nurture what is good!

Overcome evil with good; love yourself so you can love others as yourself, take care of the world and use it for the better not worse, set your sights on community and compassion, not on ego and economics!

Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!

The word repent means to turn around or turn away from what you’re doing and although it may seem a little condescending Jesus sees a people who are too focused on the future to appreciate that today they can have life to the full. Most Jewish groups in Jesus times held views that things would be ok in the future, but Jesus says ‘No more waiting! The heaven you are longing for is available now, to everyone who will accept it’. The statements above are what I believe Jesus is saying, that being apart of ‘Gods Plan’ (or Gods kingdom, or revolution, or nation, or mission, or dream, or party, or whatever) requires us to think about who we truly are, to turn away from the things which detach us from truly living and to discover knew ways of living and that this is available now!

I think that Jesus’ message often, but not always, requires a shift of peoples thinking. It doesn’t just require a small way of thinking, but its something that impacts the whole of your life and others around you. Its good news for you, and the community. Jesus is looking for disciples and followers, not converts or believers.

Sometimes I think I let God into my life, but I don’t let my life into Gods.

Sometimes I want God to simply be a part of my plans rather than let my plans become Gods. It’s like I change the Lords prayer to ‘let my will be done, let my kingdom come, but with your help’ or I’m praying that my agenda will be Gods agenda. When really I should be asking Gods agenda to be mine.

When I let God into my life, instead of letting my life into Gods, then God is simply there to help me with my decisions, my priorities and my values. As if God is just a worldly councillor making my life more how I want it. But if I give my life over to enter Gods, if I’m transformed, then my values, decisions and priorities become aligned with Gods.

God must weep when people talk to him, sing to him, love him, worship him, believe in him and wait for him but don’t follow his agenda. I think God weeps when people believe in him and apply him into the nooks and crannies of their lives, rather than being restored and transformed into a new way of living, a way of living, which really could overcome evil with good.

Sometime I fail to see the difference between the kingdom of God, in my life and the church, and the kingdoms in this world in regards to the following issues to name a few:

fashion

health

wealth

knowledge

power

commitment

love

the media

community

the nation

the world

violence

peace

status

purpose

position

future

Perhaps future is sometimes the only value believers in Christ hold which is different to non-believers – just like the 1^st century Jews Jesus was chatting too. A crying shame for such a long list.

‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand!’