God the Great Gardener

I am not, as anybody who know me will tell you, a natural gardener.  Alan Titchmarsh I am not.  In fact, when it comes to gardening I’m more of a Jeremy Clarkson in that I’m pretty clueless about the whole thing and have not desire to learn.

However, there was gardening needing doing today and as I’m not currently at college or on placement the lot fell on me.  There were front and back lawns to mow and a leilandi hedge at the back to cut.  The hedge cutting was particularly irksome because it isn’t even ours but was planted by the people behind us much against our wishes; but it had grown out over our garden to such an extent that there was no option other than to do some serious pruning.

I decided to tackle the bigger job, the hedge, first.  Cutting the lower parts was easy with a pair of very sharp long handled shears, but then I had to balance precariously on a rickety wooden step ladder cutting the higher branches.  Finally I had to climb on the shed roof to get at some branches that were overhanging badly, but eventually it was all pruned.  I stood back and realised how much better the hedge looked now, how much more pleasing it was to the eye.

On to the lawns, a job I always find mind numbingly boring, on par with watching paint dry or waiting for the kettle to boil when desperately in need of a cup of tea.  An hour later the job was done and again a reflection on how much better both lawns looked after they’d been mowed.

There was nothing technically wrong with either the hedge or the lawn before I cut them, both were growing as God had designed and made them to do and both were flourishing; but how much better they were with intervention from me as the pruning and cutting not only males them look better to others but also encourages new growth.  Especially in the case of the hedge cutting out the dead wood encourages new growth and helps the plant to flourish.

Sometimes I think that God gives us a good pruning.  There are bits of us that are great, that are formed by God through the power of the Holy Spirit, bits of us that are good and right and true.  Then there are the bits that aren’t so good, the dross in our lives, the things that lead us away from Him; the sinful, selfish things we think, say and do.  These things God gently and lovingly prunes from our lives.  Sometimes we resist this pruning and try to hang on to things in our lives that we really are better off without; but eventually we need to let God have his way if we are to be the best we can be; because without that pruning we cannot grow into the wonderful Christ-like people God wants us to be.

God loves us just as we are, it is true; but he loves us too much to leave us the way that we are.

Methodist Conference – Proud To Be a Methodist 2

I have lost my Conference virginity.  Since Monday I have been attending Methodist Conference in Southport on placement with the Methodist Media Team (who are a lovely bunch of people) helping to ‘tweet’ a digest of Conference on Twitter and keeping an eye on the Conference Twitterfall page.

There were many highs and some lows during the four days, but I genuinely came away feeling proud of Conference and all that it achieved, grateful for the hard work put into Conference not only by Connexional Staff but also by the hard working volunteers and immensely proud to be part of a connexional church, The Methodist Church of Great Britain.

Two things particularly stood out for me.

The first was the prayerful and worshipful atmosphere in which the important business of Conference is conducted.  It is, perhaps, not surprising, that each day starts and ends with worship and prayer, but there is worship and prayer throughout the day as well and spontaneous prayer as the Spirit led.  The Conference Communion Service on Wednesday morning was particularly powerful, especially during the memorial section where the names of Presbyters, Deacons and other Methodists who died during the year were read out and prayerful thanks offered for their life and faith.  It was also very moving and humbling to share Communion with Methodist brothers and sisters from all over the Connexion.

The second thing that stood out was the debate on Poverty and Inequality on Wednesday afternoon.  As I listened to the thoughtful and impassioned speeches of Methodists expressing their genuine and Scriptural concerns for the socially and economically disadvantaged in our society my heart ‘was strangely warmed’ and I felt genuinely happy and proud to be Methodist; part of this band of brothers and sisters seeking faithfully to share the good news not just in word, but in deed as well.  If this genuine passion is shared by Methodists throughout the Connexion then we really could help to bring about a transformation in our society.

On a personal note I was immensely pleased to hear a quote from one of my personal tweets read out by the Vice-President of Conference at the opening session this morning, where I had tweeted that the Poverty and Inequality debate had made me happy to be Methodist.  The second personal highlight of today was when the whole Media Team were thanked by the General Secretary Martyn Atkins for all our hard work.  It felt good to have made a contributing to the communication of Conference to a wider audience.

As Methodists we should value our Conference.  Although some of it seems boring, confusing and even a bit like naval gazing the vast majority of it was inspirational and God centred.  I left Conference convinced that the Methodist Church has good and genuinely servant leadership and that it is a church dedicated to the mission of God and to the outworking of Christian discipleship in twenty first century Britain; a church I can feel proud, in the best sense of the word, to belong to!

Should I Be Watching The Simpsons? Reflection On Media Content!

Last week I attended a MediaLit course at college, and very interesting it was too.  We studied all sorts of areas relating to Christianity and the media.  The evening sessions included watching episodes of popular TV shows and commenting upon them from a Christian viewpoint.

One of the shows we watched was Glee, the episode involving a grilled cheese sandwich with the image of Jesus on it.  I confess that I had never watched Glee and approached it with a certain amount of apprehension but I actually found the programme  had slightly more depth than I thought it would and addressed faith issues without being either preachy or condescending.  I'm not saying that I'd rush to watch it again, but wouldn't automatically turn it off either.

The same, unfortunately,  cannot be said of The Simpsons, a TV show I have watched and enjoyed for many years but have decided I can no longer watch.  I have always thought The Simpsons to be very clever, a close to the bone satire commenting on all that is wrong in American society (and, to a degree, British society too) and have found it very, very funny.  After we had watched one episode, though, people questioned whether it was suitable viewing for Christians, because of the violence content (especially Itchy & Scratchy) and language.  I was initially quite defensive, but determined to watch the second episode of the evening through the eyes of somebody who had never watched The Simpsons before.  The episode in question was the one where Lisa becomes a Buddhist.  I found myself agreeing with the critics.  There was unnecessary and gratuitous violence that added nothing to the narrative; there was language that some could find offensive and the central theme of this particular episode, criticising Cristianity whilst promoting Buddhism was also offensive to me as a Christian believer, especially since it was a gross exaggeration.  I now feel i an no longer watch The Simpsons as entertainment.

The discussion about The Simpsons lead to a wider discussion as to whether there are some TV programmes, films etc that Christians simply shouldn't watch because their content is unsuitable for Christian believers.  This self censorship is something I have always shied away from a a Christian, thinking it too close to the legalism of the Pharisees; now I am not so sure.  I'm coming to think that a steady exposure to gratuitous violence, objectionable language, questionable morals and even on screen nudity has a desensitising effect; we become used to it and instead of seeing it as sinful we tolerate it, not just on the screen but in the real world too!

As Christians we should perhaps be careful about what we allow our eyes to view; whether that be TV, films or even words on the pages of a book, not to mention the internet.  We only have a limited amount of time and whilst we must not loose touch with popular culture we must not allow it to influence unduly either.  There is a mass of Christian media content out there just waiting for us to access it; so perhaps we should be reading those Christian books more, watching those Christian TV shows, listening to Christian radio and supporting and encouraging our brothers and sisters in the media who work to spread the good news of the gospel of Christ.  I'm not saying we should abandon secular media, but that we should perhaps be more responsible and selective as we consume from different media.

Finally we need to remember that we are, to an extent, shaped as people by the media we consume; it affects our thought processes and opinions to a much greater degree than many of us realise.  If we are to think and live as Chritians then surely we should be accessing mainly that which is noble, that which is right and that which is true!