Hope on the Street

Funny how so many people look forward to the New Year and want to leave the old one behind. At the same time there is a cynicism that anything will ever change, in the world and if they are honest in themselves. It has been said that cynicism is a type of protection and defence against disappointment. How is it for  you? Will you approach this New Year with hope and expectation or will the past hurts and pain hold you back? One of the reasons I hold on to my faith is the promise of new beginnings, that there is a plan for our lives and a path to follow. What if there is a hope of breaking free and finding a life of fullness in 2012? I’m not just talking about the old resolutions, you know, losing weight, getting more exercise or being nicer to the irritating person at work(well at least trying to). This is the deep stuff most of us avoid, deciding to explore our spirituality, why we are here and what’s life all about. Its looking at who we really are, to the core and taking God seriously. Stuff we may have heard when a kid at school or through a friend but dismissed because we were too busy or it seemed wet or far fetched. Well if you are like me maybe you have got to the point in life when you are thinking what have I got to lose. If that’s you and you want to know more contact us and we can give some tips of what to read or watch to make a first step. If you are worried you will be committed to something or organisation, don’t worry there will be no follow up call or any guilt trip. I am just keen to give anyone who wants the chance to really hear and understand what Jesus said and did. Check it out and let me know if you want me to post stuff on this site, Twitter or Facebook.

‘Most of the time I don’t have much fun. The rest of the time I don’t have any fun at all’,  Woody Allen

So much dark news in the world currently but never mind Christmas is looming large. My doesn’t it seem to come round faster each year!  For many it is a time of hope. What about you- are you looking forward to the festivities? No? …I guess you aren’t alone! The holiday season prompts some very  mixed reactions – some say it’s too commercial these days and that it’s lost its special flavour, for others Christmas can be a lonely time with sad memories of loved ones gone, for a few it is humbug and so to be ignored altogether. But there are still those for whom Christmas is special, who remember the reason for the season is Christ himself- the baby in the manger.

How about you, what are your feelings as you listen to that interminable High Street Christmas shopping music?

If you are one of those who struggles at this time of year, don’t struggle alone. Speak to someone or join a group to make friends and find support. Many churches, including ours offer groups you can join, groups for different ages and interests. Sometimes if the negative thoughts are ongoing and overwhelm think of contacting a counsellor for professional help.

For those who have faith  or wish to find a faith that really helps through life’s storms- If God too distant, unreal, try finding the face of  God through Christ. His promise of the season is the peace and joy inside that no amount of gifts and things can give. What ever your feelings now, find hope this Christmas and for the New Year.
Happy Christmas and a hopeful New Year.

DOES GOD EXIST?

Wouldn’t it be good if there were the evidence? Maybe you are someone who thinks Christianity is all about “believing in spite of.” or “blind-faith”. I want to let you know that this is not the case, that there is evidence for God. Problem is, are you willing to examine it? If you are someone who sets their mind against the possibility of God existing then won’t any evidence for God be missed or explained away? It’s just like the person who refuses to believe that people have walked on the moon; no amount of evidence is going to change their mind. Not photographs of astronauts walking on the moon. Not interviews with the astronauts. Not moon rocks. This is because that person has already concluded that people cannot go to the moon, so his mind is closed. If you can we come to this short article with an open mind, then the following three short stories may help in considering the possibility of God’s existence.

1) Goldilocks Story. In the children’s story Goldilocks came across some chairs, bowls of porridge and beds? On each occasion she went for what was “just right” for her. Scientists call the distance of the earth from the sun as ‘just right’ or the Goldilocks Zone. The distance of the earth from the sun at 93 millions miles; the Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day. Any less distance and the earth would fry and any greater distance and the earth would freeze. Freeze, fry or just right points to a deliberate designer or creator at work.

Consider the following: the Earth…its size is perfect. The Earth’s size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If the Earth were larger, its atmosphere would also not sustain life. In addition, consider the Moon, it is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull to be ‘just right’. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents. Two other compelling reasons to indicate this was no chance but the work of a master designer, a creator.

2) Man on a Motorbike. Have you ever been driving when it has just got dark and seen another vehicle without lights? I was driving back from Dunstable the other evening and it had just got dark, suddenly this motorbike appeared out of nowhere! No lights or reflectors. I was shocked for a moment. It struck me that you don’t have to be able to see something in order for it to be there. I know this is self-evident but some people seem to think God would have to show himself before they will believe. But there are many things we accept and trust in our daily lives that cannot be seen and we don’t know the full facts. We trust because we see it works or we do not have the time or wherewithal to test it. For example, love and relationships, when we press a light switch, when we trust the bus or train to get us to work (assuming the driver is healthy and fit, that the vehicle is mechanically sound). So maybe it is OK to trust that God is there even if we can’t see him, lets instead look for the evidence or results of him being there. Scientists too have this problem; because they can’t see or prove God with an experiment they make the assumption God is not there and write him out of their theories. This is seen with the theory of how the universe began; they say it happened with one giant explosion of energy and light and call this the Big Bang. Some scientists feel they do not need to ask who was behind the Big Bang, but surely we must ask where the Big Bang came from as it must have been created by something or someone? Does that not point to some kind of creator or master designer? C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Science when it becomes perfect, will have explained the connection between each link in the chain and the link before it. But the actual existence of the chain will remain wholly unaccountable. We learn more and more about the pattern. We learn nothing about that which ‘feeds’ real events into the pattern. If it not God, we must at least call it Destiny–the immaterial, ultimate, one-way pressure which keeps the universe on the move.”(CS Lewis, God in the Dock, p.78-79).

3) Voice from Nowhere! I remember walking by the river in a place I used to live, Caversham, near Reading, and thinking what should I be doing with my life. I was between jobs and feeling lost. Suddenly I heard a voice cry out, “Go to Africa”. I was shocked for a moment and I wondered if it was heaven speaking, then I thought is there someone there? At that moment my friend jumped out from behind a tree! My friend was teasing me and thought that he would catch me out; he was over from Africa and getting recruits to go back with him. Even if my friend had not revealed himself I would not have taken the voice as from God without testing it, using the critical mind that God has given to think things through rationally. True Christianity is never about blind faith and the brain is bypassed somehow. The reality is the opposite, followers of Christ are encouraged to use their minds and examine the evidence. To test ideas and what they think is from God. Once we have done that then we to have faith and trust in God to look after us and that his plan for our lives is the best one; even better than our own plans. The New Testament accounts of Jesus’s life and death is full of evidence for any seeker of the truth feel confident in the resurrection. I am also confident in the Bible itself, as there is much evidence that the Bible we have today is very accurate to the one that was in circulation when Jesus lived and the writings about him were written within the lifetime of his followers or second-generation believers.  I find my confidence in the Bible as being written by honest authors because it shows many of the heroes of the stories as having many moral failures, some doubting, arguing and being jealous and self centred. The Bible is far from being a propaganda document, it shows all the participants at their best and worst, warts and all. The Bible even records that some of the followers of Jesus still doubted even after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. This leaves my in no doubt myself that true believers and not to follow in blind faith and that honest doubt is good; an open mind that seeks truth and looks for evidence is what God is looking for and he has left many clues and evidence. God wants us to think. Perhaps you are thinking if that is so why is it hard for me to hear him? Well I know from experience that God is speaking but we have to be listening.

So does God exist? Well examine the evidence with an open mind. Look at the world we live in created so wonderfully and at the ‘just right’ distance from the sun. Look at some of the unseen things that everyone takes for granted, the Big Bang who made that? Look at the evidence; use your mind, your doubts. Look at Jesus, who he is and what he did. Has there ever been anyone quite like him, the words he said, claims he made, and things he did as evidence to who he was. Not blind faith but faith seeking understanding. Evidence enough perhaps to start to relate to a God worth knowing.

Something caught my ear this morning when listening to the radio and news of the current financial crisis. One of the commentators reviewing the papers said,’this is like watching a car crash in slow motion’ and then she went on to say this is not only a crisis of finance but of political leadership. Leaders in both the US and Europe have failed to get a grip on the situation. As the ground moves under us and institutions falter where can we put our trust? The car crash should be no surprise to the people of faith. I am so thankful that in times such as these when things fail on the public stage and other times when the fault lines appear in my own personal life that I have an anchor that is sure and firm that does not change. As the song we sang this morning says, ‘ My Jesus, My Saviour, there is none like you’

A tribute to a man I got to know on the Leighton Buzzard market. Here was a man with a terrible degenerative disease but with amazing courage and determination to give hope to others. I meet a lot of people at the weekly community stall that I run on Tuesdays in Leighton Buzzard. I would not describe many of them as inspirational; but Ed was.  I have known Ed for sometime as a regular visitor to the stall. Our stall is run by a group of Christians and is a community ‘swop shop’ where people can exchange books. games, children’s clothes/toys etc; we also offer prayer and other support. Ed was an enthusiastic visitor to the stall, browsing around the stock, looking for games and puzzles and bringing along the following week his stuff to donate to others. For a long time I thought Ed was just shy, as he said nothing, then he wrote some notes explaining his illness. So sad. But here I could see was a man not defeated, a man with great resolve and purpose- always moving on to his next task- taking each day at a time.

I was particularly inspired to see how Ed was determined to give hope to others with Motor Neurone Disease (MND). Ed wrote me a note explaining how he was involved in a research programme for MND. Over the three years since he had been diagnosed with the disease, Ed had been to see Dr Martin Turner, consultant neurologist at Oxford University. Every 6 months Ed had an MRI brain scan and an intrusive procedure to extract spinal fluid. He was part of a large group study to improve diagnosis of MND and to understand the disease more. Ed took part in this study because he wanted to give hope to others, that they might benefit somehow from what he was going through. Another person might have given up or become inward looking, but not Ed. He was determined to get something out of this terrible trial, even donating his body to science at the end.

So what can we learn from Ed’s life? One quote that seems apt is from Martin Luther King, “ If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that keeps you going in spite of it all”. Ed certainly never lost hope and had so much courage. Ed not only gave hope to others fighting this dreadful disease but to all of us- a challenge to each of us to live life with courage the best we can and not to lose hope. To live each day at a time like Ed. So often we can become fearful, inward looking, we can hold grudges against others and give up on them- and ourselves. These attitudes stop us enjoying and living life to the full. Here is the invitation:- live life as best we can. When the crises of life come as undoubtedly they will, feeling fear is normal but I like a quote I came across from John Wayne, “ Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway”.

Ed saddled up and it was a privilege to have known him.

For any comment or feedback, please email to hope@hopeonthestreet.org.uk