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If i rant here i dont need to burn someone's ears off!

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Location: Leeds, Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Became a Christian on the 10/03/00 and my life hasn't been the same since... I went to Uganda, China and South Africa on short term mission, spent 4 years at Bristol University, and five working in Kent & London. I'm now enjoying working as a student pastor in Leeds, being married and learning to be a dad!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Selling chairs

"Hey Jones, I've come up with this amazing invention - it's called a chair. It has a flat plate held up on four legs of equal length and a back rest. You can sit on it and it is comfortable and very practical. Would you like to buy one?"

"Tyler, thanks but no thanks - I've been sitting on this stick for years. I'm used to it and I can carry it around with me. Chairs sound interesting though and I'm sure it's good for you."

One day I visited Jones in the hospital.

"Hey Jones, what happened to you?"
"Tyler, you know that old stick of mine that I used to sit on - well it broke one day and, well, I'm in a bit of pain as a result"
"Jones, fancy buying one of my chairs for when you come out of hospital? It's never going to do this to you!"
"I might give it a try"

When I go around talking up a Christian worldview I often get the response 'interesting - and good for you - but I've got my own worldview so I'll pass thanks.'

East of the Iron Curtain the worldview they used to hold was that once we put all the power firmly in the hands of the government and they treat all people equal then we'll find our utopia. This was their hope. Until 1989 when the Berlin wall came down and the USSR fell with it.

West of the Curtain the worldview we used to hold was that once we give everyone an equal proportion of power and the freedom to make what they want of themselves - free from regulation and 'big-government' - we'll find our utopia. This was our hope. Until 2008 when the shares fell, the banks failed and our savings and investments fell with them.

Last week people's materialist worldviews broke - and a lot of them (probably me included) got hurt by the reaction. The worldview that people have held since the 60s - the worldview that says accumulation of numbers in a bank leads to security, comfort and my utopia just broke. People will stop believing they can trust capitalism. They will stop believing in democracy.

But they've already rejected the Church being in charge (in the 1600s), the monarch being in charge (in the 1800s), communist philosophy (in the 1950s and 60s) and now they're rejecting 'me' being in charge. What is left for us?

My guess is that people will demand a radical form of socialism including a nationalisation of the banks but they will be scared of it - knowing that it leads down a path they don't want to go.

What if Christians step forward and say - do you want to buy our chair? Our worldview has God at the centre and people putting others needs before their own. It leads to the eradication of poverty, the development of close-knit communities (the reduction of 'moral entropy' if you like) and a hope in a utopia that has every chance of coming true! The west has been hurt by the stick - and now it's time to buy a chair.

Particularly in the light of the Credit Crisis I am not ashamed of the Gospel - I am damn proud of it!

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Grin and bear it?

I bought a house a few months back!

When we were looking for the right house to live in we went to visit some nicely decorated small flats and some less nice big houses. It was almost like we had a little checklist of everything we wanted in a house. Once we decided that a certain house was too small, too derelict or just plain odd we would leave that house and move on to another.

I think we approach life like that - bringing our expectations to our partner, our job, our family, our church... Sometimes we decide that they just don't make the grade and leave - but mostly that's rare.

What's more common is that we just get on with it. Grin and bear it. Think to yourself - 'it could be worse', or imagine sort of martyrdom - 'let's do it for the kids'.

In all this, the person who genuinely believes that things can be better is mocked and the one who believes nothing can get worse because it's so bad already is shunned for fear of breaking the pretense. The optimist is ridiculed and the pessimist is reviled.

Christianity demands of us not to live at one end of this spectrum nor the other and it certainly commands us never to live in the 'grin and bear it' place. Christianity demands that we live simultaneously as a fanatical optimist and a fanatical pessimist. Both infinitely reviled and ridiculed.

Christianity involves recognising everyone has sinned - there is no one perfect. It involves recognising everyone was made in the image of God - everyone is infinitely valuable. This is so counter-intuitive. Everything in this world is given value because of how close it is to perfection. A perfectly clear diamond with colour 'A' is of massive value, and the value decreases as you go down the scale of perfection.

The Christian value system says that things have value - not because of their perfection - but because of the worth that God places in them. The old teddy-bear is worth more to the child than the big shiny new one.

Our role in our world is to live as it's citizens - seeing the image of God in the world that we would gladly die for it. Being the fanatical optimist that believes everything can be great because of Jesus. We have to be optimists when it comes to our marriage, optimists in our church, optimists about our family (because of the value God places in them) and we have to live our lives to bring about this good.

But being a citizen of our world means hating the imperfections we see. We have God's eyes to see the world - and this makes us the ultimate pessimists because we will always see that everything is not as it should be.

Being a Christian, having the spirit of Jesus, knowing the mind of God. The one place this will never ever leave us is 'Grin and bear it'. More like: 'weep and love it'.

God has put you in your own little world for a reason. Weep and love it. God does.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Bifurcation points and becoming a Christian

I don't really know how to explain it - but becoming a Christian is a bit like moving along the x-axis of a topological graph and suddenly hitting a bifurcation point.

All the trajectories before the bifurcation point converge into one point - and all the trajectories after the bifurcation point converge on the likeness of Christ. Some trajectories are much faster than others (converge more quickly), some start by going the 'wrong' way and some don't really seem to move that much at all.

I guess the point I'm making is that becoming a Christian is a complete ontological shift. It's not the compilation of several intellectual arguments, existential Soul Survivor moments or the build-up of certain number of good experiences of the Church.

None of those work - none of those stand the test of time and persecution. Simon's identity was changed by Jesus - to Peter. Saul's identity to Paul. My identity from a curious alien bystander to a child of God.

How did I know? I was suddenly able to pray this very simple prayer about 8 years ago.

"Jesus reign in me, reign in your power. Over all my dreams and in my darkest hour. You are the Lord of all I am. Lord, wont you reign in me again?"

The Bible says that no-one can profess Jesus is Lord without having the Spirit of God. I had crossed that bifurcation point (although i wasn't to know what the word bifurcation meant until many years later!)

Entropy and a vision of hope!

You drop a glass from a table - it smashes into lots of pieces. Chaos from order.

It takes a lot of effort to put it back together. You can't just throw all the pieces back onto the table and expect to get your glass back.

Scientists call the amount of 'chaos' the amount of 'entropy'. They would say that the entropy has increased by dropping the glass off the table.

In fact scientists have a rule: entropy always increases within a system. It means that the natural state of a world full of stuff is disorder and the entropy (or disorder) will always increase until it is completely disordered.

An untended woodland, a rock on the seashore getting battered into a pile of sand over the years, a bunch of kids in a playroom with no supervisor! You get the picture... chaos increases if something is left unchecked.

What if the same is true in the moral sphere? What if the natural state of humans is to have disorder, disunity, disharmony in the relm of morality. What if a society is naturally prone to become less moral, less civilised and less human over time? Does the moral entropy increase naturally as well?

The Lord of the Flies springs to mind - as does my time at university!

How do you reduce entropy in a system? In scientific terms the only way is for something outside the system to reach in and organise the system - the tree surgeon, the sea breakers and the teacher would fill this role in the examples above.

What about the moral entropy? What moral energy is going to reach in to restore humanity? Jesus stepped in - from outside the system - with a new moral code and a new 'power/energy' to reduce this entropy.

Jesus restores - in each one of us - a heart for justice, a heart for peace, a heart for community, a heart for reducing the moral entropy around us. The Holy Spirit lives in each one of us giving us the energy from 'outside the system' to bring about these changes.

Ever since the Fall in Eden moral entropy has increasing. One of the things Jesus is trying to achieve is to reduce the moral entropy in this world we live in. If I am bringing about justice, mercy , compassion and community in my 'world' then i am rebelling against the natural law of the world and instead bringing in the Kingdom of God.

As we begin - in our society - to reevaluate the worth of the woman, the unborn baby, the environment, the homeless person, the city banker and our family we are not only being nice. We are reversing the increase of moral entropy. We are destroying the work of the evil one.