Tag: youngadult

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Be An Ordinary Radical

"Don't be afraid," he said, "For you are very precious to God. Peace! Ne encouraged! Be strong!" As he spoke these words to me, I suddenly felt stronger and said to him, "Please speak to me, my Lord, for you have strengthened me." Daniel 10:19 (NLV)

One 16 year old girl has been my inspiration to show strength and courage over the past two weeks. She has stood up for what she has believed in, being an even louder voice in a loud crowd. She has spoken in front of the UK Government and the United Nations. And when people have said, "You're too young" or "You're voice won't be heard", she has proved her critics wrong. If you guessed correctly, I'm talking about the Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg. If you've never heard of her, you really need to check her out. The first time I watched one of her lectures, I was blown away with her resilience. I constantly wish that I can show a strength like hers in what I believe in; God. 

She is an ordinary radical.

Each day, every one us has choices to make when we wake up. The option that most of us take, often unconsciously, is to continue with the status quo, grinding it out in the way expected to us by family, friends and colleagues. Over the past few days, I have found this pretty hard, to be perfectly honest. This week I have got BUCS Regatta, the biggest university rowing regatta in the world. But leading to this, requires a large amount of training and a unchanging routine. Get up, row, work, row, sleep, press stop and then repeat. I'm sure for a number of you, you have a constantly repeating timetable that you wish for one day you could break free from – a timetable that usually leaves you frustrated or down approaching the weekend. But do you ever get the feeling you were made for more than going through the motions on autopilot? Is there something missing from your day-to-day life?

Hold up! There's another way. The way of the ordinary radical. Ordinary radicals are around us every day, but they often go unnoticed. They tend to go under the radar and that's the way they like it. Ordinary radicals seize each day as an opportunity. "Do small things with great love" as Mother Teresa once said. They don't need huge amount of money, loads of spare time, tons of resources and energy to make a difference. They're like you and me – full-time jobs, bills to pay, to do lists to complete. But these ordinary radicals, as Shane Claiborne once explained, are set apart by their ability to see and understand the opportunities presented to them every day to bless those around them, to speak up for the voiceless and to comfort the hurting. These people are rarely thanked, applauded or shown in the media. One of my favourite books, and minor prophets, in the Bible is Daniel. I would describe him as an ordinary radical who didn't bow down and worship an oppressive dictator but instead stayed true to his God even if it meant being thrown into a den of lions.

Closing a Lion's Mouth

The Bible story of Daniel teaches us about the promises God has for us all but, in turn, talks about Daniel's refusal to bow down to man and instead persist in something he believed in. If you've never heard the story, go and read it, but I'll break it down so you have an idea of what's happening…

King Darius was the ruler of Babylon at the time and had appointed several men to help him govern his land. Daniel was one of these, the lead advisor, who believed in God and followed the Lord's commands, But the other men didn't like him one bit and didn't want him in charge so they hatched a plan to get rid of Daniel. These men knew that Daniel believed in the God of Israel, in a society that didn't. A bit like today. They convinced the king to make a new law that meant that the people could only worship and pray to the king and if they worshipped and prayed to anything else, they would be thrown in the lion's den. The lions would eat the one that broke this law. Daniel knew this law but committed to remain strong in his prayer and praise to God. He prayed in front of his open window three times a day. When the men saw Daniel praying, they brought what they had seen to the king. King Darius was devastated. He highly favoured Daniel. But he knew he couldn't change that law and Daniel was thrown into the lion's den.

To cut a long story short, God sent an angel who kept the lion's mouths shut, leaving Daniel unharmed because he trusted God. This showed the king and the people that God is real. The king then threw the accusers in to the den, a pretty gruesome end. If you think about it, Daniel was just an ordinary guy who persisted with courage for the God he believed in. He didn't need to be famous to live life differently. An ordinary radical.

Today and tomorrow, you have a choice: Will I take the everyday opportunities I am given to live my life as an ordinary radical? What will you choose? 

Thanks

Don't Fear ,Only Believe 

To check out my latest blog posts and projects, please visit dontfearonlybelieve.wordpress.com 

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Why I Would Never Choose Invisibility as my Superpower?

“One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer–at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 

(Acts 3:1-3)

It may sound like a typical nerdy question when you ask someone, “If you could have any superpower you wanted, what would it be?” I’ve asked this question so many times to young adults as like an ice-breaker to get a conversation going. And the superpower that most of them have said is – INVISIBILITY. But why this superpower out of all them?

I had a careful think about this question this week after I watched the first Guardians of the Galaxy. And I came to a possible conclusion. No one can see you. You’re there but not there. You could be in the same room with someone, standing inches away from them and they would never realise it. If they wanted to, they could reach out and touch you – but why would they? They wouldn’t know you were there! You could do tons of random acts of kindness, but no one would see you and it would look like magic. But you could also abuse it… it would be very easy to rob a bank and be totally unnoticed.

In movies, invisibility is portrayed as this awesome superpower where the superhero can disappear to protect themselves from getting hurt, reappearing on the other side of the room completely unharmed. But imagine if that character was always invisible. How could they connect with anyone? How could they make friends? How could they live a happy life if no one could ever see them? The answer is they wouldn’t. The only reason this superpower is cool in films, is that it can be turned on and off whenever the superhero wants it to. It may be fun to not be seen every so often, but I assure you that a whole life of invisibility is no superpower at all.

To BE invisible in movies = POWER

To FEEL invisible in life = PAIN

What does the Bible say?

This blog post all stemmed from a Bible passage I had read last week, being Acts 3:1-3, which talked about an invisible beggar. Consider a few things about life for this man. He was lame; couldn’t walk or stand. What this really meant was he sat on the floor ever single day, begging for small change. All day. It also reminded me of a homeless person sat outside Sainsburys. Everyday tons of people walk past them and ignore them, not even offering them a smile, pretending that they don’t exist. A smile can do so much more than people realise. A person once taught me to never ignore a homeless person, they are still human beings. If you are asked for money and don’t have any, to acknowledge their presence, politely say no thanks and smile. In this passage, this guy was treated as invisible constantly.

I think many of us can relate to this beggar more than we think we do. We aren’t homeless or lame but we can feel invisible. Sometimes it can self-inflicted – we try to be invisible to cope with out own thoughts, feelings and emotions. But being invisible can leave us sad and upset. I know too well. I am quite a shy, introverted guy who likes to keep things to myself, avoiding confrontation. So staying invisible sometimes works for me. But being invisible all the time doesn’t. I have hid myself away in the past at the lowest points, thinking that it’s been the best for myself when really I had needed to be visible. A feeling of community when times have been tough.

How can I take off my cloak of invisibility?

What can I do? Why should I live as a visible person? Once we look up like the beggar did in Acts, we’ll be more sensitive to the people with their heads still down. We’ll get the opportunity to be like Peter and John and engage with the downcast. This is a whole life thing, whether you are in school or work, at the supermarket, or even walking down the street…And this is why I would never choose invisibility as my superpower!

Thanks

Don’t Fear, Only Believe

To check out my latest projects, please visit dontfearonlybelieve.wordpress.com

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Love is Patient, Love is Kind

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)

Yesterday I was lying in bed, listening to my Spotify and the song, “Same Love” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis came on. And normally I just let the music play, usually I have a good dance or sing, but in this moment, I felt like I was being called to listen closely to the words. The song is about homosexuality, which I will talk about in a future blog post. But, as the song came to the end, “Love is Patient, Love is Kind” were the words that were sang as the music faded out. These words reminded me of what my God is; patient and kind. But is also reminded me of the thing I struggle to show to those around me. It reminded me of the second most important lesson in the Bible, the underlying theme in a large amount of Jesus’ parables, the thing I wished the world would show – LOVE.

LOVE. Different from the love that you feel in romantic relationships. It’s such a hard word and it’s sometimes really hard to show love to people you don’t think you should show it to. People who have hurt you, made you angry or upset, annoyed and frustrated you. But Jesus’ second most important lesson was to love your neighbour as yourself. I have had to face this dilemma multiple times when something hasn’t gone how I have planned it, or someone has hurt me whether it be through a breakup, an argument between mates or just by someone who has not thought about their words before they say them. And still loving them after this has happened is definitely a challenge, honestly.

When life gets hard, I retreat. I put walls up around my heart and I don’t want to let anyone in, especially if I know they’ll challenge me. Maybe it’s because I’m a tad introverted, or maybe it’s just because I’m afraid of anything unfamiliar or potentially messy, but I’m good at pushing away when I feel vulnerable. It can be easy to classify people (sometimes without even realising it) and therefore not love others truly as our neighbours. At these times, it can be easier to withdraw from community when times challenge us instead of building relationships with people who are different than us. If everyone had the same view as us, there would be no argument against it to challenge us, no open conversations.

“It’s not community until someone you don’t like shows up.”

I read this quote yesterday. This simple and powerful quote made me think hard. A lot of the time, it’s easy to want to extend love and mercy to the ones who seem needy and helpless, but it can be so much harder to extend that same love and mercy to the people you don’t see eye to eye with or don’t get on. You’ve got to think of it like this; if someone speaks up about their beliefs or opinions than look nothing like mine, I’m tempted to shut down or push back… but true community looks like pressing in and engaging them.

Sometimes “loving your neighbour” will mean loving those who have been the first to accuse, humiliate or abandon you. 1 John 4:12 puts it really clear one how to be the bigger person, to forgive and to carry on loving. It says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.” While loving other through heartache or anger, you will bridge a really scary (but conquerable) gap between pain and life.

If there is one thing I have learnt about His love is that it casts out fear. His love draws life. His love is life. God’s love is patient and kind. If He can extend that to me, then I can extend it to everyone else, most importantly those that have hurt me.

Thanks

Don’t Fear, Only Believe

 

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