iGod

Are you worried that you might be boring?

It is not too often I feel sorry for MPs, but my heart did go out to Labour backbencher Rachel Reeves who was humiliated by Newsnight’s editor.

Ian Katz accidentally told his 26,000-odd Twitter followers how he thought the female MP was “boring snoring” in her interview.

The mistake was quickly picked up and seems to have touched a very public nerve. Well, no-one likes to be considered boring, do they?

In wanting to be seen as interesting, some of us are tempted to take on opinions that are not our own. We listen to culture-current music to impress our teenage kids that quickly gets turned off when they leave the room.

We have a view on Syria. Should we bomb? We have a stock statement on saving the planet and the merits of Aldi. We have more than one opinion on how to solve the NHS crisis. We also store up amusing anecdotes to add sparkle to social occasions.

Apparently, 8 out of 10 of us lie in social situations to sound more intelligent, worldly and more travelled than we are.

Now as I approach the end of my 40s I have to accept that I have failed to conquer the world with my own brand of rock and roll, so I will probably never make it onto the interviewer’s couch. Instead. I find myself middle-aged, middle-incomed and, well, er, middle of the road.

Have I become boring? Well, I have to admit that I have found myself saying, “If I go now I can beat the queue at the tip” and “That looks a great film. Must watch that when it comes round on TV.”

The trouble is ‘boring’ is a downer. For our own self-esteem and public confidence we want acceptance. We want to be loved.

Through God’s eyes there appears to be no such concept as ‘boring’. I have searched through my whole Bible and not found one single reference to it. You might think that is boring in itself, but I have to deduce that we are able to get God’s attention for who we are, without the need to be someone special. I find that rather liberating.

Being around God and his church has undoubtedly built up my self-esteem and public confidence.

The Bible says that when two or three people get together in the name of Jesus he is there in the midst of them. In short hand, that means in the church, through our worship, through prayer and through acts of kindness to one another.

He takes ordinary people like you and me and does extraordinary things with us and through us, if we dare to believe in him and take his words at face value.

Becoming a Christian some 25 years ago was one of the best decisions of my entire life. It’s been a blast! You might think that makes me boring, but maybe that’s because your view of church is boring.

 

ASD

Wasting time

A little while ago I was in my study when our youngest daughter came in to tell me rather excitedly that she was about to go off for her first ever sleepover at a friend's house. She had meticulously packed her little pink bag with wheels the night before in anticipation. It was a monumental day in her small uncomplicated life and so subsequently was almost beside herself with anticipation - but I was busy. very busy, doing very important pastor-like things.

Every few minutes or so she would come in and tell me she was about to go. I said I would be there in a minute to see her off. She must have been down about five times to get my attention. It was beginning to get irritating as I was in the middle of my deepest thoughts and it wasn't as simple as just leaving my desk. 

After a while, I noticed the silence. Then it happened, the awful deadening sound of nothing hit me. My heart quickly began to race. I jumped up from my chair and rushed into the hallway and saw that her carefully packed overnight bag by the front door had gone. The family car in the drive had gone too. I was devastated. I felt like the worst father in the whole entire world that had ever been born or will ever be born. My heart broke with shame. That thing to me that was so important just two minutes ago now seemed of no importance whatsoever.

In the Bible there is a famous passage to be found in the book of Ecclesiastes where the writer, King Solomon, wrote that 'there is a time for everything, a season for every activity... A time to laugh, a time to cry.... a time to live and a time to die.'

There is nothing like a missed opportunity to help prioritise what is important to us.

What was so important to me was only important to me, no-one else, not least to my beautiful seven-year-old daughter. I wondered if you have ever had that similar experience. You realise you have spent your time and efforts on the wrong thing and found out too late to do much about it.

Time, I believe, is a gift from God, as is life itself. Every second, every minute, every hour, day, year, is as precious to someone else as it is to you. How we spend time with another person is just as important as the time we spend on a task.

Jesus was often accused by the great and so-called good around him of wasting his time on people who did not matter to society. They thought he should be using his time as a rabbi better doing more religious things. Instead he chose to mix with people such as prostitutes, employees on the take and the social outcasts.

So if Jesus Christ was willing to waste his precious time on seemingly insignificant people and things when he had only three years to do his work, then maybe we can all reflect whether our time can have greater purpose too.

What can seem like a waste of time may actually turn out to be worth more than gold. It may not produce anything tangible, build anything, make us money or get a job, but something special might just start to happen.

When my daughter came home the next day she rushed into to see me with the biggest of hugs and smiles as she told me all about her 'late night'.  I put everything down to listen and asked her questions. I then told her in a hushed tone, sitting her on my knee, that I loved her. She put her hand over my mouth, rolled her beautiful green eyes at me and sighed in a very grown up matter-of-fact way, 'Oh Da-ad, I know you do. And I love you too.' 

'There is a time for everything'.

ASD