iGod

Let it glow! let it glow! Let it glow!

I hope that you have extra large, fully absorbent hankies– because the John Lewis Christmas advertisement is now showing on a small screen near you.

The store’s seasonal ad is fast becoming an institution and it tells us that it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas on our high street. Anyway, if you’re ready for a breathless, raspy cover of an old Oasis hit and something cute involving children, here it is:

From what I can gather, it’s about a little girl who spies on an alien disguised as an old man living on the moon, using an implausibly powerful telescope that her parents bought her from John Lewis. The girl tries to reach out to him, eventually succeeding with magic, self-targeting delivery balloons (presumably also from John Lewis, unless that’s Amazon using drones in outerspace that bring the alien/old man a telescope of his own). Cue tears and shopping sprees.

It is commendable that the campaign aims to raise money for Age UK, as loneliness among elderly people is a terrible thing for sure. But I am left wondering whether a psychological association with the season of goodwill actually delivers a Christmas with any kind of real meaning.

Ads and TV programmes that feature celebrity chefs may want our noses pressed firmly against the screen to get us to ooh and believe that we can have an impossibly perfect time, but I, for one, am getting just a little bit tired of it.

Recently I heard how St Mary’s Church in central London got its Christmas tree up super early. A children’s choir were heard singing in perfect harmony while a pile of presents were strategically placed under its branches. However, this was no school carol service, but the Toy Industry’s trade launch of this season’s twelve must-have presents.

The UK's toy market is now worth over £3bn with an average of £300 spent annually on toys for each child up to the age of 11, and globally in 2015 sales are expected to reach £58bn - so a lot is at stake.

But what if Christmas does not come in a van, as thought by poor Margo in The Good Life? What if it wasn’t left to a retailer’s ‘sadvertising’ or a celebrity chef’s recipes to give our day shape and meaning?

What if, instead, it arrived in the ordinary and the imperfect family experience? What if it included all those flaws and rough edges that we are meant to hide away?

The Bible gives the real reason for the season and provides us with the story of how God sends his only son, Jesus into the world to give us hope through his own life and death.

Born to poor parents in a smelly, unsanitary animal stable, Jesus’ arrival reminds us that the perfect Christmas has nothing to do with what we have, but actually in what we don’t have. The angels say to the terrified shepherds, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” (The Bible)

Joy is different to happiness. It’s not about a state of mind, but a deep contentment, whether life is good, bad or indifferent. It is what makes the joy that Jesus offers us so powerful and why he is often referred to as 'a light in the darkness'.

This Christmas Eve you are warmly invited to come with your family to GLOW at the Delphi Centre, Sudbury. It’s a one-hour service of singing carols by glowsticks and hearing the Christmas story through readings, drama and media. It’s a lot of fun. The service starts at 6.30pm, but why not arrive early from 6pm to enjoy some mulled wine and seasonal treats? And, relax, you don’t have to be religious. Just come as you are.

 

ASD

 

 

Why walkers really shouldn’t get any stick

When someone asked me recently if I walked very much, I almost had to reach for my iPhone to see if there was an app for that.

We can get so used to travelling around the place by car that we can think our legs were designed for the purpose of pushing pedals, rather than pounding the ground.

Of course, you dog owners are forced to walk, come rain or shine. And in the dark winter months I have nothing but deep admiration for you. I really do. But the rest of us have to work a little harder to find the motivation to leave our armchairs and desks behind.

Even with free access to Suffolk’s 9800 registered public rights of way, adding up to a network of routes with a distance of 3500 miles and over 12,000 acres of open access land, we can still struggle to find our walking shoes.

So ask yourself this: have you ever had the urge to get out and take a walk to clear your head and think through a situation or problem? Me too! Researchers at Stanford University tell us that this is no coincidence.

They have found that walking boosts inspiration. A person’s creative input is increased by an average of 60%. One prime example is Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple, who was famous for his walking meetings.

When we walk a neurological and physiological connection is being made. In short, our movement influences our mind and manipulates the way we think. Our feet and head might be at the opposite ends of the body, but Stanford’s research tells us that they are closer than we think.I remember in theological college I was encouraged to take a break after every two hours of study. We were repeatedly told that a rest from the intensity of study was good not just for the soul, but for the brain and would make us more productive.

So it is probably not that surprising to discover how important walking is in the Bible. Admittedly, there wasn’t much choice as the combustion engine was still a number of centuries off, but nevertheless significant things happen when people move about.

On one occasion two guys were walking towards Emmaus as they were trying to get their heads around the events of the past few days in Jerusalem. They had seen how the great miracle-worker and teacher from Nazareth was publicly tortured, crucified and buried. They had hoped that he was the one to bring freedom and life to all. And to cap it all, his body had gone missing.

Jesus appears on the road with them, but his identity is kept hidden. In their conversation he is able to speak into their thoughts and open their eyes to the bigger picture. He later reveals himself to them when breaking the bread at a meal.

Well, the penny finally drops and maybe while slapping their foreheads in comedic fashion said, “Did our hearts not burn within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures up to us?”

It has been said that the destination is the catalyst, while it is the journey that that changes us. Jesus joins us as a companion on the paths in life, however challenging, and in return offers us a close communion in himself. Through his loving presence he provides hope through the gift of creativity and revelation.

And that in itself is worth getting out more for.

ASD

Storehouse Foodbank and Christmas at VIneyard

Being responsible for Storehouse, the foodbank in South Suffolk, I was recently contacted by a national newspaper. They were running a piece on how London is economically divided from the rest of the country.

During the interview I sensed that the paper’s economics lead writer could not quite get his head around the fact that a place as idyllic as Sudbury needed a food bank. And yet here we are.

Requests for emergency food bags have more than doubled since April this year. Yet this is not a story about statistics, but people’s lives. Many of the accounts I hear simply break my heart and reduce our team to tears.

It takes a lot of courage to admit that you cannot feed your young family and to seek help outside your own means. More than a twinge of shame is often attached to that.  Personal confidence takes a severe blow and you want to withdraw from the company of others. Meanwhile, inwardly, you are at war with yourself and wondering ‘why me?’

Of course, some situations are self-inflicted but, then, haven't we all done things that we are not proud of? Who are we to judge? Then there are the others who have worked hard all their lives and now find themselves in an inconceivable position.

We try our hardest to make people feel ‘human’ as they come in to our Storehouse ‘Drop In’. It gives us some satisfaction to see people walk out just a little bit taller than when they first arrive. I am keen to say that we are not an extension of the benefits office, but a safe place run by caring individuals whose faith in God has inspired us to serve others.

Does anything ever change? You bet.

There was a young mum who came in to see us for emergency food who had been a victim of domestic violence. Her children had been taken away from her because she had become mentally ill and drug-dependent. She was rehoused, but had no furniture, so Storehouse and the church did what it could, which included contacting a qualified handyman who we were told could lay carpets. It turned out that he was helped by Storehouse in the past. He did the whole job for free.

Christmas is a time for hope. To quote Mother Teresa, ‘Small things done with great love change the world’. The one star over Bethlehem 2,000 years ago signifies the one hope in the world through Jesus to help guide us ‘home’ safely.

Why not join us for a family Christmas at Stour Valley Vineyard Church and reflect on these things together? We have a number of events going on.

Shine – free young families’ fun afternoon, 3-5pm, Saturday 14 December at the Delphi Centre, Newton Road, Sudbury.

The Great Big Mince Pie Giveaway, Market Hill, Sudbury 11am, Saturday morning, 21 December.

Christingle – the increasingly popular family church service, 10.30, Sunday 22 December, The Delphi Centre, Newton Road, Sudbury. Includes craft activities.

GLOW –Community Carol Service, 6.30pm, Christmas Eve, Delphi Centre, Newton Road, Sudbury. ‘Carols by glowstick’ with readings read by people in our local community’.  Mulled wine, soft drinks and mince pies served from 6pm.

One last thought. Maybe take a moment this Christmas to look up at the sky on a clear night and imagine what that single bright star over Bethlehem might have looked like some 2,000 years ago. The truth is, it still shines as bright today in the darkest times in our lives.

Happy Christmas and a peaceful new year to all. God bless.

ASD

On the road to recovery? Some food for thought.

This week I was interviewed by the Guardian's economics lead writer, Aditya Chakrabortty for a feature on the divide between booming London and a struggling rest of the country.

Sudbury, Suffolk, where I live, was used as a place of reference, being in the centre of East of England. A place that can get overlooked being off the M1 corridor.

The piece gives starling comment on the staggering contrasts of wealth between our capital and the rest of the country.

For instance, the affordability of fine dining has long been a benchmark of prosperity, so it may surprise you that London will see around 152 independent restaurants opened by the end of this year. Last year it was 137 restaurants.

There was some disbelief that a foodbank like ours is needed in such a 'chocolate picture box' location like Sudbury.

However, the requests for emergency foodbags from our Storehouse foodbank has more than doubled since April this year.

It is quite evident something is not right. Although my own contribution is small I hope it has helped to illustrate a little that we are living in an increasingly divided country, which as I am discovering is equally dividing opinion.

While I may be dwelling on the gap between the have and have nots', parts of wealthy London appear to have moved on and are now only divided by the 'have' and have yachts'.

Food for thought.

ASD

What are you looking at?

Be honest, do you like what you see in the mirror?

There’s no escaping it, in our culture looks matters. Ask any actor, musician, politician, or man in the street.  Our overall confidence and emotional well-being is tied up with it, which I guess is pretty good news if you are in the cosmetic business.

Talking of which, Dove, in their latest campaign for “Real Beauty”, recently hired Gil Zamora, an FBI forensic artist to prove that when it comes to looks, we are our own worst enemy.

He undertook a social experiment to illustrate the ongoing struggle women have with recognising their own beauty.

Without seeing his subjects, the forensic artist created composite sketches of women based on their own descriptions, plus a second sketch based on the description of a stranger that they spent a short amount of time with before the sketch.

The end result was extraordinary. In each case the woman’s own description was different than the description by the onlooker. Their faces were full of “flaws”, but when the stranger described them, the sketches were more accurate and more flattering. In an accompanying video a woman tears up as she realises her self-description resulted in a "fatter, sadder" version of herself, while the stranger saw her as "open, friendly and happy."

 

Dove research shows that women are their own worst critics. Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful.    

So yes, we do have an image problem. Now, I am not sure quite what percentage of men would consider themselves as good looking or handsome, but the ever-growing shelf of men’s products at my local chemist might be a good indication that low self-esteem and confidence are an issue for us too.

Of course, at one level, none of this should surprise us. We are constantly bombarded with advertising, magazines, films and TV programmes showing people’s skin to be clear, wrinkle and spot-free with symmetrical faces, straight noses and super white teeth.

Is it any wonder that our self-esteem plummets when we look at ourselves in the mirror? And as the weather warms up (finally) we will become even more conscious of our numerous imperfections and want to spend money to fix them.

Yet if we, perhaps, notice more of what we have rather than what we don’t have, our self-perception might just change a little.

Maybe we would stop comparing ourselves with others and for once not be left wanting.

When I read the Bible I don’t see beautiful, perfect, gorgeous people nominated by God to be an example to others. Instead, I see Moses with a stammer, who chose to have his brother Aaron speak on his behalf. I see Paul the Apostle suffering with a speech impediment, as well as well as having bad eyesight. Jesus himself was described as ordinary in appearance. His disciples were equally described as ordinary.

So here is another way to look at ourselves.

Polish psychologist Andrew Bienkowski, a man who was exiled to Siberia and starved himself to death so his grandson could eat his meagre rations, said that we could approach ourselves by thinking: I have breath! I have life! I have shelter! I am here…

Be inspired to see yourself differently. Look at the four basics of life. If you can say that you have breath, family, somewhere to live and some place to sleep you can say, “Thank God my life is full!”

God allows us to focus on his own perfection and goodness and to see ourselves as he sees us. We become grateful and satisfied and learn to avoid discontentment, which always leaves us wanting.

King David famously declares in Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want.” So the big, fat, honest questions are: what is the “shepherd” of my life? And does it make me not want?

Our confidence and self-esteem can come from knowing that we are accepted by a loving and gracious God. And by those who know us, perhaps, better than ourselves.

So, come on, put that anti-wrinkle cream back and get real. You too guys!

ASD

Enjoy life’s disruptions

Recently I had a meeting planned over in Oxford, but having heard the weather forecast for snow that weekend I wondered momentarily if I should go.

I kept hearing phrases like ‘adverse weather conditions’, ‘severe weather warnings’ and ‘don’t travel unless absolutely necessary’. And on top of that we are all supposed to know what ‘amber alert’ means.

Not one to give up easily, I decided to toss back my head and laugh in the face of weather warnings and continue with my plans for the trip. Okay…well almost.

I packed an overnight bag, put a shovel in the back of the car, along with jump leads, a blanket and, for some unknown reason, a large bag of Minstrels, thinking if I was stuck in my car on the motorway at least I wouldn’t starve. Oh! and a double CD of Charlie Parker. Well, it could be a long night!

The thing about snow is it is a very disruptive thing. Motorways shut, trains get delayed, schools close, and Amazon can’t deliver.

As someone who generally hates disruption and likes to plans ahead for any anticipated inconvenience, snow is very much my bête noire. (I once drove 26 miles to avoid a 3-mile traffic jam on the M1, I am that sad.)

But having seen the fun that my kids have in the snow and the joy it brings me in seeing them play, I have been helped to rethink one or two things.

What if disruption was not a bad thing, but an opportunity for spontaneity?  What if disruption was a gift that stops us in our tracks and breaks into our carefully planned routine?

What if disruption could be seen as a voice that speaks into our soul and says, “Stop what you are doing and listen to yourself. Listen to others around you. Listen to creation.”

When was the last time you did that?

When did you seriously listen to someone else apart from yourself? When did you give your undivided time to someone you love and spend it actually listening, not just hearing?  When did you stop to ponder about the direction of your own life? Maybe you are slightly afraid to listen to your own real feelings for fear the wheels might come off?

The good news is you are no different to anyone else.

When we are inconvenienced we can find ourselves getting angry, irritable and short with people. True?

These are not good personal discoveries, but then we can think we don’t need to be cured of anything in particular and believe life is just fine.

Stopping is not easy. Like a car, it requires a reasonable breaking distance, depending how fast our life is going. We have to prepare to stop. Sometimes we are forced to slam on the brakes hard.

So what is our Plan B when Plan A does not go according to plan? Do we even have one?

A friend of mine who has partly inspired my thoughts here, Brian Draper, works with executives to nurture their spiritual intelligence. He calls these times ‘holy disruptions’. In his book Less is More he talks about divine opportunities that force us to reconnect with ourselves, others and God. They actually start to help us feel human again and see the return of a sense of purpose. It is where we begin to breathe again in between the quantity of demands and rediscover a quality of life.

As Christians, we would call that a spiritual encounter. We become aware of something other than us that leads to life having a greater significance.

I love those poetic and profound, words of Jesus’ found in Mathews’ gospel: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

The funny thing about snow is how beautiful and delicate it is. Something we might not notice if we are too busy trying to avoid it.

ASD

The best of times and the worst of times

There is something in us that loves it when a record is broken. And what a summer it has been for records. But just when you thought nothing could outdo the Olympics for breathtaking achievements I found myself watching on TV the fearless skydiver Felix Baumgartner leap from edge of space, beating as many as three world records, including the highest freefall jump.

He becomes the first man to break the sound barrier in a record-shattering, death-defying freefall. He reached a top speed of 1,342km per hour and travelled 39 kilometres.

As I watched from my conservatively 18-inch high comfy chair seat I thought, you have got to be insane! I quickly made a promise to myself to never ever contemplate going up in a hot air balloon without a short chain first attached to the ground. But, still, what an achievement.

Of course, not all broken records are to be celebrated. Recently I read that the demand for emergency food by struggling families was on the sharp incline. According to food bank charity The Trusell Trust, four years ago the number of people in need of its services was 26,000. In 2012-13 it is predicted to rise steeply to 200,000.

If I may borrow from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, these are then “the best of times and the worst of times”.

Last month I shared some of my own personal journey how, by faith in God, I came to have my heart broken for the most harassed and helpless in life. Also, how our church, Stour Valley Vineyard, in its small way, is wanting to make life better through Storehouse, our compassion programme.

What I wasn’t expecting was the response.

We have simply been blown away by the response of local schools, churches and organisations who have been in touch to hand us cheques. You are all amazing people. It says a lot about our community. Thank you.

As we hurtle towards Christmas, there is now another opportunity to do something for those going through “the worst of times”.

Our church’s Storehouse has been asked to partner with Waitrose for a special seasonal food bank initiative. On the last weekend of November and first weekend of December we will be there, collecting items of food for our Storehouse Christmas Hampers. We want those who have been bruised, crushed and beaten up by life to experience a Christmas like no other.

As Christians celebrate the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, so we would like to see the birth of new hope for many living in gloomy circumstances.

Last year, with the help from a couple of local churches, we were able to provide a record 43 hampers (we started our first year with seven), but by the grace of God and the goodness of people’s generosity, I would love to see that record smashed.

As you arrive at Waitrose some nice person will give you a suggested Christmas shopping list and doubtless a smile. We are not saying buy everything on it, but if you could purchase maybe a couple of items you’ll be doing a fantastic thing for someone in desperate need.

If you are unable to get to Waitrose or don’t usually shop there, don’t worry. We also have an online Storehouse Christmas Hampers online shop.

Meanwhile, as Christmas draws ever nearer, I pray that out of the darkness, out of the toughest and longest of recessions, out of “the worst of times”, comes “the best of times”.

As someone whose own life has been changed by the one who put Christ into Christmas, may the lives of others be changed too and given hope for a brighter future in 2013.

Together we can make a family or individual in crisis this Christmas a time of joy.  On their behalf, we’d love to have your support.

ASD