There's a voice...

One of my notes from the weekend is:

How can you have a gifting in hospitality without a home?

I don't know if I mean that as a question with potential for an answer or more of a challenging statement.  I am suspecting it is the latter, although I am open to people coming back to me with answers if you have one or more.

Where I am staying at the moment is as a lodger in someone's home. The initial arrangement was for two weeks, it's lasted 20 months so far. While I have freedom to come and go and make use of communal areas, I don't feel I have the freedom to have friends or family visit. In fact my parents don't even know where I live, and have to send post to my workplace.

Through my early 20s I was blessed by the hospitality of friends at many of the churches I attended. I knew that I would not be able to repay this hospitality to those that had offered it to me, so I resolved to do so when I was in the position to offer it to others in the future. The growth of a community of 20s and 30s within my current church is spurring a desire to hospitalise* the young people of this group.

I don't know what the future holds in this regard, there's been some interesting conversations about options for places to live, that hopefully will enable hospitality. Moving into a new place in this town will require a commitment to staying here for a certain amount of time, and for other reasons I'm not sure I'm ready to make that commitment to this town...

More thought and prayer needed...

( * - I imagine that this isn't the right word. But I hope you recognise I do not mean cause them injury, but to show hospitality to them).

Ring ring?

Had a good weekend at Retreat to Advance, a New Wine event for 20s and 30s. I've come away I think refreshed encouraged and blessed. There's some things to think about though...

I'm not going to go into detail now, I'll possibly blog a bit more about the weekend over the next few days, but now I'm going to put my laptop away have a little bit of time with God before I sleep....

2012

It's a New Year. I don't know how many people are dusting off their blogs today, but I have decided to revisit this one.

The new year is when most people review the year gone and look forward to what is in the year to come. We make plans and resolutions. (So you know, blogging regularly is not a resolution).

So what has 2012 got in store?

Well London is getting ready to host the Olympic and Paralympic games. I visited Stratford twice in December and I wouldn't say there is a sense of anticipation and excitement hanging round there yet.

2012 has been the subject of some end-time prophecies. I am not remotely an expert on what these are, but I do not intend to live my life expecting the world (or just my own life) to come to an end at a specific time on a specific date.

2012 will see some endings though.

Looking back on my 2011, I see a year when a lot of things in my life stayed the same. For the first time I have spent a full calender year working in the same job and living in the same accommodation. It was the first year since 2003 where I did not seek work or attend a job interview. Today I removed 'seeking stability' from the title of this blog

For me, I see 2012 being a year of changes.

I don't know what needs to change. I realise that there is an extent to which being settled and committed begins to scare me. I recognise though that there are other things that I've settled in to that are not good for me. I hope and pray that this year will see positive change in my life. Not change for change's sake, but for God's. That I can discern His will and his purpose.

So I am still unsure what's next... But I'm ok with that...

Something to think about...

We are in the house group I go to looking at Amos, and started from looking at how the people of Israel were adhering to the religious rituals, were failing to please God in the way they were acting in their day to day life. God's message to them is 'Go Away' as the injustice and oppresion of the poor are making the Israelites offerings of tithes and worship displeasing to Him.
MWe moved onto thinking about this issue in our settings, and didn't get very far, as we considered the challenge that just being diligent in our work (turning up on time, putting in the effort required) is not really getting to grips with God's call to fight injustice and to help those in need. It does not set us apart from other diligent people in the work place either. We considered the impact that Christians had upon matters of social justice in Britain 100 or so years ago, such as abolition of the slave trade, the introduction of universal education and others.
What we couldn't get to grips with was what this might actually mean for us as individuals in our varying contexts and to some extent as a church.
I'd be interested in hearing comments on this,

Just a quick update

Had a busy couple of days, so no blogging. Ok not that busy, but not that inspired though either. I've not really acheived much in the way of applying for work either.
Saturday was camp reunion, which proved an interesting day.
Sunday had a good day at church.
Yesterday had an interview woo! But made the awful mistake of blanking out a chunk of work I've done that was pretty relevant to the job I was going for. I've emailed them about it, slightly embarassed...
Also had house group where we watched and discussed Deborah 13:Servant of God (link won't last forever). It's really strange, this girl's been brought up in almost total isolation in a Christian household. She's been evidently trained up by her parents in a certain brand of evangelism which is not so common in the British church nowadays. Her conservative values clash quite significantly with those she met in the video, especially when visiting her brother at uni. She also doesn't seem able to build relationships with others very well, although she can deal confidently with people from the outset.
We also looked at the story of Mr Genor (or Jenner).

Lent

Various people seem to be thinking about lent on the blogs, or making references to it on Facebook or so on. I thought I might jump on the bandwagon.
I can't help thinking giving up chocolate, or sweets or so on, it's pretty trivial.. Especially when it was instituted as a proper fast...
I'm not sure I've got my head around it, and it's something I've not really observed, even in the not eating chocolate sense... But I've been thinking about 40 days... a little bit...
It's significant in the Flood, and in the giving of the law to Moses, and in Jesus' testing I'll be keeping an eye out for it in the rest of my chronological Bible.
I guess there's some thinking to do...
I've also got this book to read which is a challenge split into 40 chapters...

So my lent:
I'm doing some general reappraising, hence this blog, some of this is, I hope, allowing me to get closer to God, and to be more aware of His leading on my life. Gotta be a good thing, if it happens as it should.
So while I've not consciously decided to 'fast' for lent, I realise I'm trying to give something up. I'm not going to give details, but it's an aim for more than just lent.
I should read this book...
This will probably mean lent won't be for me the 40 days set in the church calender, but a time of re-evaluating, going through challenges and hopefully having something 'new' at the end of it...
Welcome to my blog ;)