A year ago, before work discovered the wonder of UCCF colours and way before the Bluefish branded himself I bought these chairs. It turns out that my cheapo garden chairs are the colours of UCCF. Here they are in all their glory, Pod if you use this I want payment!
As if the love couldn’t get any better.
We looked at Romans 8:31-39 today in church. Wow.
This is what our Vicar told us about God.
1. He’s on our side.
2. He gave us Jesus.
3. He chose me.
4. He died and rose and intercedes for me.
5. He loves me.
Nothing can frustrate his purposes, and Paul throws out some challenging questions to echo around the universe and, by the lack of response, prove whose really in charge of this world.
Some questions: If God is on our side who can be against us? If God gave us Jesus what will he not give us? Because Jesus has chosen us who can bring any charge against us? Because Jesus died to take our punishment who can condemn us? And finally who or what can separate us from God’s love? The world remains silent nothing or no-one remains the answer to each of these questions. Whatever happens. Whatever rubbish this world throws at us, whatever suffering we go through, however dark it gets. God remains who he is, on our side, giving us everything and we can never escape his love for us. Feast on that for a bit.
This post is so exciting, that, as in the cross over nature of Casualty and Holby City, my blogs shall overlap and coincide and other things like that. This post shall appear on them both as a testament to the many wonderful friends who turned up on my doorstep this evening.
The day started as any other day with me feeling slightly morose at being on my own again for another day of work. I pottered around town doing last minute shopping for my trip to Bulgaria and attempted to battle with thoughts of being alone for the rest of my life and not having that one special person etc etc etc. I was trying to remind myself of Jesus being enough but couldn’t quite escape the nagging thought at the back of my mind of fear of being alone. I then had this conversation with the lovely Anna over text.
Anna: How r u mate? What r u up to today? Enjoy the sunshine!
Kath: Ah mate, good to hear from u, am having a fighting loneliness day, hugs to u. k
Anna: Hugs to u to, praying for God to send blessings your way.
Little did I know that God is very quick at answering prayers these days, or maybe prophecy is easier when the outcome is planned all along. At 4pm this afternoon the doorbell rang and I was very surprised to see Anna standing there in person. She managed to convince me she’d been utterly spontaneous and just popped in on her day off (she lives about a hour and a half away). I thought, hoorah another person to join me, Nay and Jon tonight at our prearranged BBQ. The afternoon took on a more surreal turn when from behind the fence Roz and Steph appeared. (from London and Leicester). I don’t think I’ve ever been more surprised. Next to join the fun was my wonderful brother Mark taking a night off from his youth group he helps run in Guildford. Nay and Jon then arrived with the Bluefish and his lovely wife Em. All to celebrate my birthday. I nearly cried. I have wonderful friends. Thanks go to Nay for her scheming ways, all my mates for being good liars and schemers, and for being willing to drive over two hours in pants Friday traffic to see me and surprise me. I’m still gobsmacked by it all.
We ate lots of food, drank beer and wine (to feel fine), visited the beach and then Brighton friends came to join in on the fun, some of my local community meeting up with my sporadic nomadic community. I got to feel very loved for an evening and smile lots at the extravagant love of my friends. I like the timing, on a day when I was feeling lonely and pants I got to see people who mean the world to me and seem to love me, enough to drive through Friday traffic just to hang out. Wow. Grace in action. I’m struck by how much I want to earn that love poured out today, but I don’t have to, and that’s really really cool.
Here’s a picture to prove I’m not lying. From the left, going around in circle, Em Bish, Bish, Jon, Phil, Katie, Me (with wine), Nay, a bit of Marks head, Steph, Roz, Susanna, Cathy and Anna. If any of you are reading this. I don’t know how to thank you enough. THANK YOU. (special mention as well to Birgette and Lizzi (my housemates), Lou, Sarah and James who couldn’t make it)
Lord are You still coming?
This world is all in shame
Everything is broken
But You remain
Have mercy on me, Jesus
I can’t take one more step
The lights go out all around me
I want to see Your face
I want to hear Your voice
I want to lay my burden down
I want to run to You
Forever dance with You
I long for night to end
Lord let Your day begin
(Tree 63- Let your day begin)
Man, my hard heart longs for this day, when nights when I want to believe the lies won’t happen. When I’ll no longer be able to stray from my Fathers house. When I’ll know and won’t be able to unknow the love he has for me. When all this is over. The thing is: Jesus is coming back, faith is being sure of that. The battle gets harder, more boring and perseverance is the first thing to go but there is a future out there.
Watching David Walliams swim the channel tonight was awe-inspiring and made me want to get in the pool tomorrow morning and swim my wee heart out. The bit that made me cry was the point at which he was struggling and his trainer got into the water to swim with him. A simple act, and suddenly I’m undone on my sofa. Mainly because that’s what it’s about, we’re not left to struggle on alone, we have the whole company of heaven cheering us on, the saints of old lining the way and a God who gets into the water to swim with us. We also have a body here on earth to support and urge one another on in the battle, in the long swim home.
What awaits is so much better. But what is possible in this world is also so much better. Forgiveness, grace, mercy from God and the ability to act in love to each other. Right now we ache and groan, but we also get to see the shining work of God in each others lives and in our own. The mercies are new each morning and He has good works for us to do. Time to put down the wine and start believing I think.
One year ago I decided, almost against my better nature, to start blogging. There are many moments when I sit down and try to work out just why it is that I carry on blogging. A state of mind that comes to us all. I guess the truth lies in many places, we all blog for different reasons. Looking deep inside, just for a brief moment, these are my reasons for blogging.
It’s fun.
It makes me try and actually write, as opposed to my usual garbled scrawl which I can’t read later.
Ideas that I have should be able to be communicated, this medium helps me attempt coherence.
It’s a space for a bit of creativity.
I get to share stuff with my mates, and any randoms trawling through the blogsphere.
Some of the stuff I say may possibly be of use to fellow travelers on this journey.
It’s nice to be noticed.
I get to meet new people and be amused, encouraged and entertained by their take on life.
It’s helpful to look back on and remember stuff and events.
But there are reasons I’m not so keen on the blogging thing.
It fuels my twisted compare myself with everyone else nature.
It can become a competition for attention rather than just a fun expression of life.
Really, do I need to spend as many moments as I do meandering through blogs?
It’s all too easy to gain the art of skimming and lose the art of reading.
I guess all this is an expression of some part of me, Kath Arnold. And just writing to express my life is enough motive to carry on without becoming tangled in knots. It’s easy to write things here to impress others, to gain their interest and acclamation. If this stuff does that, that’s ok, but some of the truth might just be that I write here to express myself, to be a referral point for a future self and to have some fun. As with everything in this life, reasons for doing things are always mixed up together. I’m looking forward to heaven and getting to see whether purity in motive really means just having one motive or something altogether more complex. I suspect the latter, seeing as we have a delightfully complex and intriguing Maker.
Navel gaze over. My hope is that visitors here enjoy this as much as I do sometimes, and that the thinking deep thoughts part of these posts never become so ‘precious’ as to escape critism, further wisdom and insight. And that the random bits are truely random.
Now can anyone tell me for one last time, why doesn’t the spell checker on this recognise blog, blogger and blogsphere. Surely someone must have put those words into it when they enabled it to spell check a blog?
The Long Walk Home 