If you’ve made it to this point, then ‘Thank you for watching and thinking it over’, and thank you also for anything you can do, however small, to reduce your impact on our climate in the days and years ahead. Many small impacts can add up to something really significant.
The UK Government commissioned a video nine months ago to launch their response to what is now seen as a full blown climate emergency. It’s a good video; it includes presentations by people who are experts in their fields; it’s informative; and it’s very hard-hitting. It’s not widely available except through a series of local meetings throughout the UK where it’s being used very effectively to get people thinking and responding in useful ways at the local community level.
Click the video below to watch the Earth turn on its axis. Your home is here, can you spot it as it rolls by? This planet is home to every single one of us.
The UK Government video is available, however, on YouTube, published there by GB News.
Whether you live in the UK or not, I suggest you watch this video in full. (Note that the useful content ends at 2 hrs 41 mins into the video. There are plenty of natural breaks between speakers so you can watch it in sections if you find that more convenient.)
If you live in the UK, I also suggest you attend one of the many local meetings currently available, discuss what you have seen with others at the meeting, and try to get other local friends and family to join you. If you can’t find a meeting, you can always organise one yourself. as you watch, jot down anything that strikes you as particularly important or significant.
Finally, go through anything you wrote down and consider how it will affect you, your friends, your family, and your community. Is there anyone else you should share this with? Could you watch the video again with friends, family or neighbours and talk it over together? Also (and just as importantly) think about ways of reducing your individual impact on the climate.
If you’ve made it to this point, then ‘Thank you for watching and thinking it over’, and thank you also for anything you may do, however small, to reduce your impact on our climate in the days and years ahead. Many small impacts can add up to something really significant. That, after all, is how we got into this mess in the first place. It may also play a significant part in getting us out of the dangers we now face.
I have one last thing to say, and this is primarily for anyone involved in church in any shape or form; but please don’t let that stop you reading it. Jesus was prophetic and that’s a gift with two characteristics. On the one hand it forges links between people here on the planet we call Earth and the Father we think of as living in heaven. But also the prophetic gift involves bringing people together here on Earth, forging links between opposing sides, rebuilding trust and a willingness to work together, mending broken fences. Prophetic people are always demanding justice and aiming to reforge broken links. A sort of conciliation service. If we ever needed a conciliation service we need one now.
So if you are involved in any form of church, now is the time to recognise your prophetic gift (whether strong or weak) and use it to call as loudly as possible for everyone to work together to save this planet at last from the danger we have put it in. There is no time to lose. We need to bridge the gulf between those who would profit in the short term with no concern about next year or the decades and centuries ahead, and those who would do without in the here and now to secure a long term future for children, grandchildren and great-great- grandchildren.
Prophetic voices would give vision to the former, and hope to the latter. Indeed, there are many prophetic voices in the government film you just watched. It would be a serious mistake to think that church has a monopoly on gifts like this.
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Speech House has a sculpture trail set up and we walked some of it, then drove to Monmouth to explore the lovely old town, and on to Chepstow stopping again at Tintern Abbey before crossing the old Severn Bridge.
We travelled to York by train on 1st January, returning on 3rd. I took the photo while we were waiting for the Cross Country train back to Cheltenham. It was great to see all the family again, and rail travel is definitely easier than the long trek by road. Until I can drive again, Donna would have to do the entire trip both ways, it’s a long way and a bit daunting (though Debbie seems to be happy enough to drive down with Sara and/or Aidan to visit us in Cirencester).
Family in Fulford
The second photo shows some of us at Beth and Paz’s home in Fulford. From left to right are Jess and Aidan, Mero, and Paz. Beth is reflected in the window. It was a lovely, relaxed time and so good to see everyone.
JHM: I wrote about the significant difference between who I am and what I do; and a bit of a hero about Mark Carney. World events: Bulgaria adopted the euro, becoming the 21st member state of the eurozone; and Israel became the first country to recognize Somaliland; while the United States officially left the World Health Organization.
Donna and I visited Westonbirt Arboretum and enjoyed some of the autumn colours; on the way round I spotted this low-hanging branch of cedar and just had to take a photo. Lots of colours here as well as interesting shapes.
Churnside
Walking through the town one day I took this photo. It shows Churnside, 37 Victoria Road; originally my grandparents house, and later my parent’s house. Most of my teenage years were spent in this home and it was a short walk to school as this was also in Victoria Road.
On 15th Donna dropped me off at the Daneway Inn at Sapperton and I walked east along the short section of the Thames and Severn Canal to the tunnel portal. I then walked the above ground course of the canal tunnel to Sapperton, through Hailey Wood and on to the Coates portal following the canal again as closely as possible to Siddington, and then along the Cirencester Arm to meet Donna in town and walk back to Stratton together. It was a 15 mile walk in all as I diverted several times to see the canal at various points where it’s not possible to follow the towpath.
I had my laptop rebuilt and had it back on 5th, now with a 2 TB SSD and the original HDD for internal backup. I hooked it up to our Wi-Fi and began streaming data back from Dropbox.
Gumstool Brook website
Another task this month was to transfer the Gumstool Brook website fully over to Nick Henderson. This was completed on 21st and it’s a relief to have passed on the responsibility.
Aidan was travelling and exploring in Columbia this month, very adventurous and exciting for him. He seemed to be doing well, making some friends with other young people doing much the same thing, and having a generally awesome time.
JHM: I wrote about a terraced border at Blenheim Palace; and installing our heat pump. World events: The Trump administration paused military aid to Ukraine; and Israel launched widespread aerial bombardments and attacks on the Gaza Strip.
I took this photo of the Lauriston Hotel in Weston-super-Mare where I stayed for a week with my parents and grandparents when I was about two-years-old.
I ordered a refurbished Google Pixel 7 phone to replace my old Pixel 3, and I continued scanning photos and documents. Paul and Vanessa visited with the dogs, I took them to see the old amphitheatre but it was too muddy. We bought a second-hand ‘Rollator‘ from Minchinhampton for Isobel so she can sit down at a moment’s notice if she comes over dizzy.
The Roman villa
On 16th we visited the Newt in Somerset where the reconstructed Roman Villa was amazing to visit. It’s complete, based on the ground plan of the remains of an original nearby and built using methods that would have been familiar to Roman builders. It’s complete with mosaic floors, an upstairs section, and wall paintings, furniture etc in the Roman style as well. The Master’s office looks as if he’s just been called away and might return at any moment. Amazing!
We visited the Forest of Dean, just across the River Severn from Gloucester and a lovely journey whichever way you approach it. Speech House has a sculpture trail set up and we walked some of it, then drove to Monmouth to explore the lovely old town, and on to Chepstow stopping again at Tintern Abbey before crossing the old Severn Bridge and making our way home from there. It was a lovely day out; and how lovely to be able to do things like this again after all the COVID-19 restrictions are starting to ease.
SpaceX seemed to be doing well now. Starship SN10 landed rather heavily, caught fire, then later blew up. SN11 was nearly ready to make another attempt within a few weeks, hopefully without the explosion! And I was busy updating the MainEvents files.
Barton Grange Farm
We met Paul and Vanessa in Bradford-on-Avon on 16th and walked part of the Kennett and Avon Canal together, then Donna and I took a look at the historic Barton Grange Farm near the town. The old barn is very similar to the Barton Grange Barn in Cirencester!
World events: Pope Francis met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq. The first-ever meeting between a pope and a grand ayatollah; and the number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered worldwide exceeded 500 million.
We met the family in Leicester for a day at the National Space Centre. The photo shows young astronauts in training, Aidan and Sara making sure they stay well hydrated.
Bury St Albans
We explored Bury St Albans, a beautiful town some distance east of Cambridge and an area we hadn’t seen before. We rented a little space for a week on the east coast and spent the time exploring and visiting old friends. We stopped at St Albans on our way home to St Neots. The photo shows Bury St Albans Cathedral and part of on the central city parks.
At this time I was still typing up my old hand-written notebooks as Diary files, storing them as editable .odt files as well as .pdf? In April I was working through the notebooks for 1996.
Approach roads for the new foot and cycle bridge across the River Great Ouse between Eaton Socon and Eynesbury were making rapid progress. But apart from putting in some piling and rebar, form work and some pouring of concrete for the abutments on both banks there was no sign of progress on the bridge itself yet.
Removing the shed base
I finished removing the old shed base in the garden during April. I smashed the concrete into manageable sized pieces with the sledgehammer and carted the pieces away to the recycling centre over the space of a week or so. The photo shows the job nearing completion.
Verity and Aidan
On the 20th Debbie, Steve and Beth drove down to Sundown Adventureland (near Lincoln) with the grandchildren and we drove up to meet them there. There was a flume running around the site with boats that were actually quite large.
Meredith focused on cake
And of course there were good things to eat and drink though we had mostly brought everything we needed with us. There was a lot to see and do. So we were busy all afternoon long. It seemed like a shame when we made our way back to the car park and headed off home again.
Dad died on 2nd April at Gloucestershire General Hospital. He’d suffered from a dissected aorta a few days earlier, and it was not possible to repair the damage. He was not in pain and died peacefully with almost the entire family around the bed.
Dad’s desk, just as he left it
On 3rd My three sisters and I met with Dad’s solicitor, Richard Mullings, for an initial discussion about what needed to be done and to begin the process of working through the will. I spent the night at Churnside and on 4th I decided to make a detailed photographic record of Churnside just as Mum and Dad had left it.
The back sitting room
The second photo shows the Back Sitting Room (as we always knew it), the pictures on the wall show my parents, Mike and Lilias and the sofa belonged to Mum’s Aunt Annie from Belfast where she and her husband Samuel had lived most of their lives.
Churnside, 37 Victoria Road
I took photos of the outside of the house on 5th April, here’s a view from the west looking across Victoria Road at an angle. The house is close to Tower Street where my grandfather’s family had lived when he was a child, and also to The Avenue where my great-great-grandfather had lived.
This covers about 20 years from April 2006 to January 2026 To be continued…
Useful? Interesting?
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We need to have challenging conversations with one another, Holy Spirit-led conversations like those Jesus had with his disciples and with those he met as he travelled with them in Galilee and in Israel.
I read an article on Run with patience recently; it’s a site I particularly like and value, because the author, Sandy, very often provokes my own thinking in good and helpful directions. Please read her article and see what you think, then below I’ll share what it sparked off for me.
In her excellent and deeply probing article, Sandy writes that it’s always easier to pay attention to what others do than to pay attention to what we ourselves do. It’s far easier to judge others than it is to judge ourselves. Jesus was not like that, and we’re supposed to be on a path in which we become more and more like him.
As I read through the Gospels, I find Jesus continually drawing people’s attention somewhere else. Again and again, conversations that begin with outward behavior somehow find their way back to the heart. Someone asks about washing hands, and He speaks about what comes out of a person’s heart. Someone wants to debate the law, and He begins talking about love.
Early believers were sometimes referred to by their pagan neighbours as Christians, a term that means ‘little Christs’. Meant in a sneering, derogatory way, this might instead be taken as a great compliment. We are supposed to be on a journey (not just a ‘spiritual journey’, but more particularly a very practical journey) to think and behave more and more like Christ.
This series is about ‘activating the church’ and here we get a glimpse of one way in which we need to become individually more active. Turning up on Sundays to listen to a sermon will not be nearly enough, nor will daily Bible reading. We will need to get our hands dirtier than that. We need to practice. We need to notice when we mess up and learn from our failures. We need to make an effort to stop making the same mistakes. We need to have challenging conversations with one another, Holy Spirit-led conversations like those Jesus had with his disciples and with those he met as he travelled with them in Galilee and in Israel. We need to tell one another, kindly, ‘What you did or said there didn’t meet the standard required of a disciple’. Perhaps not in those judgemental words, but gently turning the subject back to the heart.
How much church life needs this! There are people out there facing judgement and unkindness who desperately need to hear truths they may think they cannot live, people within the body and those beyond. Just read Paul’s letters, see how over and over and over again he urges people to follow the way of Christ, to hear the quiet voice of the Spirit, to reach out to one another and to those beyond with healing, grace, gentleness and truth. It’s always possible to find a kind way to share a truth and people will love you for it, both those within and those beyond the church family.
If we’re to grow, reach those around us, and encourage one another, we will only succeed by being both wise and gentle. The more practice we get the better. Paul was good at this, and Jesus of course was the expert he was trying to follow. Read the gospels with this in mind, see how Jesus managed it and allow yourself to grow to be more like him.
Cells in the body
Every person is a collection of cells and the cells are not randomly arranged but are connected as parts of various specialised structures, a heart, two lungs, a brain and many nerves and blood vessels – a full list would be very long indeed. These parts of the body interact and if any part fails to function the body will exhibit medical symptoms and might even die.
Think of yourself as a cell in the body of Christ, the church. For that is what you are! You have a function and you have connections with other cells. Usually you will have very local and strong connections, perhaps as part of an organ, and/or you may have less local connections as nerve cells and blood cells do. But you all play a part, a small but important part in the health of Christ’s body as a whole. The church in this generation is sick, ill at ease and not always (perhaps even rarely) functioning as designed. It’s sick purely because the cells are not working together as intended. Jesus wants to heal his body, and inevitably that means he wants to get all the cells (you, me and millions of others) working together as we were designed to do. Red blood cells must collect oxygen in the lungs and carry it to every part of the body. There they must hand off the oxygen and pick up carbon dioxide. In the lungs they must hand off the carbon dioxide to be breathed out and pick up more oxygen.
What must the cells in the body of Christ (the church) be doing? Prophetic cells must hear spiritual truth and share it widely with the rest of the body. They must also feel anguish about injustice in the world and share that widely too. They are vocal chord cells, if you will. Shepherding (pastoral) cells must notice friction and difficulties between other cells and step in to comfort, encourage and move us on from any harmful disagreement. What about the many cells that come in on Sundays to sit and listen? They must be helped to see what they are gifted for, what their active task should be, and encouraged to begin working in appropriate ways to build the body. Not a single one of of us has been given sitting and listening as a task to do in the body! There are no audience cells in your body, every cell is too busy for that, doing an essential, designated task.
Who are we?
Take church as a whole, whether locally in a village or part of a town, or even world-wide. If it is functioning as it should, that body of individuals will look and act like a person – Jesus! More often, it looks like an unfortunate mess. Local church, if it was a body, would usually be mindlessly hobbling about, suffering from both insanity and damaged bones and muscles. It’s still Jesus, but in a form we’d find hard to recognise. It’s Jesus crucified, not Jesus risen.
What to do about it?
Begin with prayer – Ask the Holy Spirit to open your ears, eyes and mind to reveal the way forward. You can ask this for yourself, for a small group, for an entire local church, or for the universal church – why not pray for all four? Pray particularly for the circumstances around you right now. Be prepared to see these prayers answered, perhaps in ways you can’t anticipate.
Start to read about the topic of waking and activating church. There are links to some of my other articles here. Activating church is the series you’re reading right now. Another series you might find helpful is Developing faith. the story of my own journey and formation. The series on JDMC (Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church) explains more about helping a smallish group grow into a Jesus-focused family, it comes with more reading suggestions, practical exercises, and links to more resources. There’s even a free book with questions for groups to discuss together as they move forward.
Keep notes – jot down the things you ask in prayer, note down in your own words the ideas you come across as you read the Bible, other books on topics that interest you, as well as anything that grabs your attention in online material.
Consider sharing this article, the series, and the other material with the people you are meeting with.
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All that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep … Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
Jesus said many astonishing things, though if we hear them often enough the astonishing nature of them can come to seem quite ordinary. There’s an old English saying, that ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. Few of us would claim ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (John 14:6) has become so ordinary to us that we’d call it contemptible, but it’s certainly lost the incisive edge it must have had the day it was first heard. Let’s see if we can recapture some of that edgy significance.
Barton Mill burned down in an unfortunate fire in 1926 and was never rebuilt. Watermills (and windmills) were going out of business at that time as most industries were running on steam power generated by burning coal, or by electrical energy, also usually from coal-fired power stations. Water power and wind power, now seen as green and therefore desirable, were seen in 1926 as ineffective and unable to compete with the more efficient alternatives. This was long before the downsides of fossil fuels were understood.
A place for wildlife
100 years after the fire, in 2026, the mill pond still exists, fed by a sluice gate taking water from the River Churn. The part of the pond in the photo is usually in water all year round, though other parts dry up in many summers, partly because of some silting up near the sluice and partly because the bed of the pond has silted up too, so now the water is shallow enough for yellow flag Iris and other plants to flourish.
There are many birds to be seen in this area too. Mallard ducks breed every spring, there are minnows and probably stickleback in the water and from time to time a kingfisher hunts along the water channels and the pond. Often all you see of the kingfisher is a darting flash of vivid blue. There used to be (and may still be) a pike. A single but very shy little egret hunted around here for the last few years, but this year I’ve seen two of them, probably a breeding pair. And their larger cousin, the grey heron also puts in an appearance now and then.
All life needs is an opportunity
Take any piece of ground, anywhere on Earth, and just leave it alone, life will move in, even if you choose a patch in the Sahara or Antarctica. If you clear a piece of ground somewhere with a reasonable climate and leave it alone, in just a human lifetime you’ll have thriving woodland with a full selection of insects, birds and mammals, and probably reptiles and amphibians too. The experiment has been made many times, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. If you choose the Sahara or Antarctica you might have to wait a bit longer, but the life forms that are adapted to those extreme conditions will move in eventually. Let’s look at some examples.
Broadbalk wilderness (UK)
A wheat field was deliberately left to revert to a natural state at Rothamsted Research Station in 1882. The land was left unmanaged where before it would have been ploughed and harrowed after harvesting the wheat in late summer and drilled with seed again in the autumn. This field had produced winter wheat every year since 1843, but now the scientists wanted to see what would happen if it was left uncultivated; for the first four years volunteer wheat grew, sparser and weaker year on year and after four years completely choked by weeds.
In 1900 the site was divided into three. One part was left deliberately untouched and gradually reverted to natural woodland; another third was mown annually and maintained as grassland; while the third section had all woody plants removed annually so the land became a natural, open mix of herbaceous plants.
The results have been very interesting and the experiment continues today. Levels of captured carbon are still rising in the soils of the site, nitrogen levels have risen as well. The samples and data are available for study and reanalysis.
Chornobyl (Ukraine)
The Chornobyl nuclear power station accident in 1986 rendered the city and a large area around it unusable. People were evacuated and the most contaminated areas became a restricted zone. Since the accident, time and rainfall have reduced the surface radioactivity considerably and it’s now possible to visit the area. In fact, wildlife has moved into the area from the very beginning and the changing conditions and environment have been studied in depth.
Almost 120 000 people were evacuated following the accident, so activities like farming, hunting, logging, and development ceased over an area of 4,200 km². Forests, wetlands and grasslands have reclaimed abandoned farms and villages; and vegetation grows freely through derelict buildings and former settlements. The pine woodland killed outright by the initial high-dose fallout remains one of the most nuclear-contaminated places on Earth, but even there substantial regrowth has happened. The loss of managed agriculture actually increased habitat diversity, reconnecting landscapes previously fragmented by farmland.
Large mammals rebounded strongly. Long-term census data show abundances of deer, elk, roe deer and wild boar comparable to those in uncontaminated regional nature reserves. Wolves are notably abundant, roughly seven times as common as in comparable reserves. Reintroductions have taken hold including endangered Przewalski’s horses, released in the late 1990s and now ranging freely and breeding. European bison have also been established, while beavers have recolonised rivers, canals and the cooling ponds, in places reversing Soviet-era drainage systems. Lynx, foxes and hundreds of bird species are present too.
However, there’s a mixed message – the abundant populations are due to the absence of humans, yet there remains clear evidence of radiation-induced harm to individuals. Some species are adapting and changing, showing signs of radiation resistance, for example.
Returning woodland (Scotland)
It seems that all that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep. Grazing species eat the young seedlings of trees and strip leaves from saplings. Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
Other cases are numerous
Similar cases of large scale change include:
The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park in 1995 suppressed the elk population, allowing willow and aspen to return to riverbanks bringing back beavers and many other species including fish, moose and songbirds.
Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands where introducing large grazing animals brought back white-tailed eagles and other species.
Marine protected zones where closing areas to commercial fishing have seen biomass rebound. Examples include cod recovery on the Grand Banks off the east coast of Canada.
Reintroducing pine martens in parts of England shows promise in allowing native red squirrel populations to recover as the introduced grey squirrel population is suppressed.
Identifying common factors
A rule to cover all these examples will be useful. If the limiting, interfering factor(s) can be identified and removed life will usually return naturally – in any situation. Identifying the limiting factor(s) is the key to success. Reintroduction of missing species can also be a helpful part of the process but is often not necessary.
Growth and regeneration in church life
We can (and I suggest we should) think about abundance and limiting factors in church growth as well, what are the main interfering and limiting factors preventing abundant life returning like the ecosystems discussed above?
In the book of Acts, we see church life in its natural state, like a healthy ecosystem. Everything was in balance, there were no dedicated church buildings as we see in our villages, towns and cities today, and there was no hierarchy of management. People followed Jesus’ teachings because they understood the practical, social, and personal benefits. They met together as close friends, almost like family, eating together, working together, helping one another and doing so effortlessly and comfortably. I’m sure there were some difficulties and disagreements, and rough spots here and there, but they were all overcome informally.
Am I claiming there’s no life in church today? No, I’m not saying that. What I am saying (and I want you to hear this clearly) is that there’s a curtailed, limited kind of life in church as usually experienced in the 21st century. Church life is short of something essential; if we are to have fullness the parts that are missing need to be identified and restored. Just as an ecology lacking an important species cannot function as it should, so church culture lacking an important kind of leader cannot function as it should. And just as introducing the grey squirrels from North America unhinged UK woodland ecology, so introducing the wrong kind of leader unhinges church culture.
It’s an important factor we have largely failed to recognise. We need the full range of species Jesus put in place, and we need to remove the ones we introduced. Once you start to see the parallels between church culture and thriving ecosystem ecology, it all becomes very clear and is impossible to unsee. I’ve written a whole series elsewhere about church leadership.
Popes, priests, bishops, paid professionals, structures and hierarchies are not necessary (see Other church leaders 1 and Other church leaders 2). Nor did Jesus teach (or even suggest) that such functions and positions were required or helpful. Over the decades and centuries (two whole millenia now) church has grown more complex, more structured, less flexible and more traditional. It has also branched into many independent subsets. We’ll examine all that in a later article, referring back to earlier posts here on JHM as well.
But for now I’d suggest human management and leadership might be some of the limiting factors in the church environment, and that these have adversely affected the natural life and ecology of church as we know it today. We should consider removing these factors to see what will happen. And if necessary we might try reintroducing the leadership modelled by Jesus, going back to first principles.
Church life, too, will find a way. All it needs is the opportunity!
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Sometimes we need to be provoked into thinking things through more thoroughly and deeply. The enemy is so clever at interleaving error quite subtly into everything we think and do, even in meetings we believe to be fully devoted to following Jesus.
I want to point you to two excellent items posted on the website, Life with CD. I’ll give a short taster to both with links to the originals, I urge you to read them both in full (they are not long, but they are very thought-provoking).
Sometimes we need to be provoked into thinking things through more thoroughly and deeply. The enemy is so clever at interleaving error quite subtly into everything we think and do, even in meetings we believe to be fully devoted to following Jesus. We can easily swallow what is wrong and believe it to be right. That’s why I’m adding this post to my series Activating the church.
In part one we read about Eli, a young man who is challenged by a conversation with an older man. He loved the Lord, or at least he truly meant to. He read devotionals in the morning when he remembered. He played worship music in the car. He posted verses online. He served at church once a month, sometimes twice when his schedule allowed. He wanted to be known as faithful. He wanted to be useful. He wanted, if he was honest, to matter.
And that is where the trouble began.
For Meridian was a city ruled by two kingdoms.
The first kingdom was loud and dazzling. It did not always look evil. In fact, it often looked admirable. Its banners read words like success, influence, visibility, control, relevance, security, platform, and image. Its citizens woke early and slept late. They measured life in numbers: followers, income, invitations, accomplishments, upgrades, applause.
He noticed them when he was ignored and felt a surge of resentment. One kingdom whispered, “Make them regret overlooking you.” The other whispered, “You are already seen by your Father.”
He noticed them in ministry meetings. One kingdom wanted credit, subtle control, and the final word. The other was content to serve, listen, and decrease.
He noticed them in suffering. One kingdom demanded immediate explanation and escape. The other invited trust, even in darkness.
Christopher Dryden is right; when we look at church life we can see the two kingdoms battling it out between them. It’s so important that we learn to distinguish the voices, honouring the one and rejecting the other. So many of the things we do and say are serving ourselves, or even serving the enemy. But we’re not here to do that, we’re here to hear the Spirit of Christ as he guides us daily so that we begin to reflect his gentle presence and his patient grace into a world that needs him so much more than it realises.
And Jesus himself told his followers to be as wise as serpents but as innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). He said he was sending them out like sheep among wolves. It’s a dangerous world.
This dangerous world crucified Jesus (the wolves got him). Sheep stay in groups, if the wolf takes one the others may escape. Our purpose here in this dangerous world is not to stay safe, but to spread Jesus’ message further and wider. We must do that by taking risks when necessary, but most of the time focusing on blessing those around us by kind and considerate words and actions whenever and however we can.
It has nothing to do with rank or position. I can wince at the erratic words and actions of a president while admiring the good words from the pen or keyboard of lesser, humbler people with hearts to speak the truth in love. And that truth will win out in the end because of its source: Papa, the Son and their Spirit, all poured out for us.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
Journeys of Heart and Mind 
