Day 39 - remote control

I cant find the remote control .   Every day I set it in the same place and it is always right where it is supposed to be.  Until someone comes along and moves it .  Grrrrrrrr.   I recently resorted to tying it to the radiator on a long piece of string - which does work really well.  Until some bright spark decides, for reasons I cant quite fathom, that they need to detach it from the string to..... well..... to what?  What other uses can one find for a remote control except to point it at the telly?  In which case it needs to be near the telly.  Not in another room.  Or on the kitchen table.  Or under the sofa.

I have wasted years of my life looking for lost remotes.  ( well, a good few weeks at any rate)

Today I came home from a long and busy day and was all set to slob out in front of whatever nonsense is on the box and....... no remote.

Anyhow.... that all got me to thinking about a topic Ive covered before in one of my blogs - control.  And how we often exert it on people without really even being aware we are doing it.

The Bible is pretty clear that there is only one person who is in control - and that's God.   We are to be in control of ourselves and leave Him to sort out everyone else.   So whenever we try to manipulate, influence, flatter, seduce, argue, persuade. force, someone else to do the thing we want them to do we are stepping outside the boundaries God sets for us.

Its tricky isnt it?  Because life is all about negotiation and compromise and working in relationship with others to get the job done.  But I think we all know when the general give and take of life suddenly becomes all take and no give.  When you feel you dare not move or speak at work for fear of losing your job.  When you have to tiptoe round people on eggshells so that you dont upset them.  We all know how it feels to be expected to do something we dont really want to do by someone who exerts just that bit more power or influence than we do.   Or when we realise that the person we thought genuinely cared about us was just flattering and cajoling in order to get something from us.
Being manipulated is not nice.  It makes us feel used and worthless.  

Whilst thinking about the subject of control I came across this

and I suppose this gets the the bottom of it all.   In the same way that privacy is a gift and secrecy is a theft ( see previous blog)  control relies on taking things from people.  Jesus came to bring freedom, truth, life, peace, hope and relationship.   He did not come to control us but to love us.  Which sometimes involves letting us go wrong.  Sometimes He lets us not do the thing He wants us to do but  He loves us anyway.  If we are like Jesus then we will react to others in the way He reacts to us.  We will want their good above our own and will never deceive,  pervert, or poison the other just to get our own way.   You might think that you never do any of those things and that this doesnt apply to you.   But I challenge you to think about how you relate to your spouse, your parents, your kids , your church leaders, your boss, your friends.......   How many times do you sulk when you dont get your own way?  Silent treatment.  Arguments and door slamming.  Subtle hints and withholding of favours.  Sucking up and flattery.  Outright lies.  Avoidance and evasion.  Planning and scheming.   We all do at least some of these regularly.   And when we do we are acting like the puppet masters pulling someones strings.   Not good.   Let's try not to do that to other people.  And where we see it happening in our own lives lets bring it to Jesus and ask Him to release us from ties that bind so that He and He alone can be in control of our lives and our destinies

Day 38 - laughter

Ive just had a text from a friend which made me laugh out loud.   Not because she said anything particularly funny, but just because of the timing and the context and the fact that she knows me well.   Yesterday several people posted ridiculous things on Facebook which also made me laugh.  Laughter is good.  Healing somehow.  Last week Josh got a fit of the giggles and couldnt stop and that made me get the giggles too.  The pair of us were sitting with tears running down our faces not really knowing what we were laughing about.  It was just really really funny.

A few years ago I remember one of the boys asking me why I never smiled.   There was a period of a couple of years when I genuinely dont think I ever laughed.  Life was weighing me down - I now realise I was suffering from depression - and there was just nothing to smile about.  I felt as though I was under a thick cloud all the time.  I couldnt remember what the sun looked or felt like.    But gradually, thanks to medication and some ' friend therapy' I began to be able to see the funny side again.

Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease. Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.

God has designed us to laugh because He is a laughing God.   He laughs at His enemies - ( Ive always thought that this laugh is a sort of derisory snort - a sarcastic smile.  But actually I wonder if it is not more that He actually finds the very notion of anyone being His ' enemy' hilarious)   Psalm 16;11 says that in the presence of God there is fullness of joy .  This can only be because God Himself is JOY.  He laughs and giggles alot and has an awesome sense of humour.  When you get to know Him well, you start to hear His jokes all the time.  He is really good at word play.  He also loves visual humour.  Just ask Him to show you how funny He is.  Seriously.  You will have a smile on your face all day.


Looking through Google images in an attempt to find some though provoking pictures to go with this terribly serious subject I found this.  Which just made me roar  

and that got me searching for more.  And before you know it Im laughing my head off and everyone is wondering what Im up to.   The moral of the story is - it's good to laugh.  If you havent laughed for a while, make a conscious effort to find something which will cheer you up.  Watch some of the daft things your friends post on social media.  Get your kids to tell you their favourite joke. Go out for coffee with your favourite funny friend.  Life can be so serious at times but we all benefit hugely from having a laugh.  May God richly bless you with all the humour of heaven today xx

day 37 - women

Im really not sure why this is on my mind today - but it is, and I feel that it is what I should be writing about - so maybe it is for someone out there reading this.

Over years of going to church meetings I've been to dozens and dozens of ' ladies' events.  Everything from women only housegroups to conferences and residential weekends away.  I have absolutely nothing against these gatherings - there is definitely a different atmosphere when women meet together and its good to be able to take time with each other to bless and encourage and teach and learn.   But one thing which drives me mad is the assumption that as a woman I have low self esteem , am lacking in confidence and need God to reassure me all the time.  I don't.

I'm longing for the day when a women's group sits down to look at how we can all be Deborahs or Jaels or Esthers.   How we can take our ordinary lives and become extraordinarily influential women in our nation.  How we can strike terror into the hearts of our enemies and be so known for our wisdom and righteous judgements that leaders and rulers seek us out for our counsel.  I've never attended a ladies day which has this sort of focus.  😊  I've been to plenty which talk about how we need to have a greater sense of self worth and not beat ourselves up about being too busy to pray.

Most women mentioned in the Bible were awesome.  Given the cultural restrictions of their day they
made such a huge impact that they got a mention in the writings which became Scripture - ( written by men for men to read. )   I was thinking about Ruth this week - what a woman!  Hard working, brave, compassionate, loyal, determined and wise.  She didn't have to take care of her mother - in - law , but she chose to, and as a result ended up in a field of strangers doing back breaking work in the heat of the day just to put food on the table.  She wasn't too proud to take her mother-in-law's advice, she was fit enough to do the hard physical labour , she was canny enough to realise that Boaz was a good catch.  She was lovely enough to come to his attention and obedient enough to come under his authority.  Ultimately she got a mention in the genealogy of Jesus.  Even though she was a foreigner.


Women in the Bible come in all shapes and sizes.  Some are born Queens, most are not.  Some are faithful, prayerful, devoted ladies with hearts after God.  Others are prostitutes and outcasts and sinners.   But so many of them change the course of history when they encounter God and His people. Many of them do it through being mothers - bringing into the world, and then bringing up, men who will be leaders and rulers and kings.   But some of them do mighty exploits for God themselves.   I want to be one of those women who is not constantly apologising for existing.  Not ashamed, or afraid or self- absorbed.   Give me a tent peg and an enemy to slaughter.  Give me an army to lead, a nation to save, a church to plant, a miracle to witness.......

And to the men reading this.....

Don't underestimate the God who promises to be within me at break of day.  Because of Him I will not fall.  Neither will you.   Together we've got this!

Day 36 - Easter semantics

The National Trust Easter egg hunt has apparently been demoted to an egg hunt this year.  ( If you get the chance to go to one you should - we went a couple of years ago and the kids came home with bucket loads of chocolate 😋 )   There has been the usual furore - even down to the Prime Minister appearing on the news to say that Easter should remain Easter and that it is ridiculous to try to remove that word from this time of year.    And every year at Christmas we get the same old social media posts and news items trotted out about Winterval and Happy Holidays instead of Christ being associated with the season.

I suppose there are two arguments to be made.   One is that there is a sure and steady erosion of anything Christian in our western societies.  We bend over backwards to accommodate other religions and to be politically correct and yet we dont fight too hard for our own corner and allow secularism to push us out of the picture.   The second is that Easter and Christmas are both festivals which have been hijacked by the world anyway - getting upset about the ' branding' is missing the point.  We should be far more concerned with preaching the gospel and reaching the lost than we are about stressing that Coca Cola are wishing us Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.   I confess I have some sympathy with both sides.  I have no wish to see Easter and Christmas vanish from our culture as national holidays and opportunities for the christian church to have a platform.   Equally I am not particularly minded to jump up and down and shout about the National Trust or Cadbury when they hit the news like they have this week.

It is sad that Lent has become about dieting,  Easter has become a chocolate-fest and Christmas is a debt fuelled spending marathon  - except that it hasnt.  Not in our house.   In our house we don't really talk about Lent.  We will go to church on Good Friday and Easter Sunday and will probably attend the baptisms on Easter Sunday evening.  We shall give the boys Easter eggs , but they will understand that we are celebrating the greatest event in the history of the world and that a bit of chocolate is a good way to do that.  At Christmas time we talk alot as a family about the giving of gifts and not just the getting of them.  We try to think about those less fortunate than ourselves and to remember that we are celebrating Jesus's birthday.   I like to think that we pick some of the nice things out of the ' culture' of the Christian festivals we celebrate.   But we take it deeper..... as Im sure most of you do too.   

Every time a person is introduced to Jesus and comes to the amazing realisation that He took the punishment that was due to them and has swapped it for His eternal life, then Easter and Christmas suddenly move from being about chocolate and presents to being so much more.   We dont need to worry about corporations and marketing executives using or not using certain words to sell their products.  We just need to get out there and show people who Jesus is.   So that they can celebrate His birth and His victory over death first and foremost in their own lives  - the real Christmas and Easter happen every time someone receives Him as Lord.

Day 35 - resilience

This is my Gerbera.  I bought it last year at a discount as it was the last one on the shelf and a bit dried out needing some TLC.  I watered it and put it in the sunshine and it grew a lovely flower.  But  after a few weeks the flower died and then it got pushed to the back of the windowledge and I sort of forgot about it.  When I rediscovered it it had all but died.  There were about two leaves left on it and they were really brown.  I was pretty sure Id killed it, but I gave it some water and the two dead leaves revived just a fraction.   It sat on the windowledge all winter looking a bit sad.  But I watered it occasionally and then - lo and behold- a few weeks ago I noticed it starting to look  as though it was actually growing.

Despite the thorough neglect it has experienced it has bloomed again.   As I looked at it this morning the word  ' resilience' came to mind.

God has built resilience into so much of the natural world.   The trees are made to bend in the wind.  The animals hibernate over winter and survive without food.   There are seeds which can lie dormant in the ground for years or decades waiting for just the right conditions in order for them to be able to sprout.  Weeds can grow through concrete.   God has made this world robust, tenacious, flexible, resilient

He has made you like that too

 You can survive so much more than you think you can.  Just look back over your life.  You have probably been through experiences which seemed impossible at the time.  You possibly thought you would never survive the bereavement, divorce, injury, betrayal, disappointment, rejection, failure, redundancy.... whatever it was.   But look !  You are still here.  You survived.  More than that, you moved on, recovered, thrived even.    Or, if you arent quite into the thriving again phase, then at least the event didnt finish you off.  Because you have resilience built into you and you will bloom again.




If things are tough just now, if you feel set aside at the back of the shelf - unwatered and ignored, almost dead through neglect...... take heart.  The smallest amount of watering by the Holy Spirit will bring you back from the brink and lead you to flower again.  You may not bloom overnight,  But when you do you will be every bit as beautiful as you were last time you flowered :)   And that has nothing at all to do with what a great plant you are.  It has everything to do with how you were created.  Strength and purpose and beauty are built into the very fibre of your being.   You are awesome.  Dont forget it.

Day 34 - humble

Over the weekend I was at a prophetic conference.  It was good.   It reminded me of days gone by when I used to attend these things regularly.  We had to give words to the people next to us - and there was lots of teaching about character over gift etc etc

In the middle of the day something reminded me of a powerful word which Alan Vincent gave in Edinburgh way back in the 1990s.   ( I think it was A. V.)  He said he saw the Sword of the Lord, dripping with oil and it was being passed back and forth over a room full of people.  Those who were kneeling with their faces on the floor just heard the swish as it passed over their heads and felt the oil dripping on them.  Anyone who was standing up would get their heads chopped off.    If you were there you will remember that word because it was sobering and challenging but so full of Holy Spirit promise.

Yesterday evening in a different context the whole thing of kneeling and humility came up again.  Twice in two days has to be more than co-incidence.

Maintaining a posture of humility is not easy.   As I get older I see more and more places in my life where entitlement seems to have crept in.  I think that I see myself as a relative expert in some things nowadays - just because Ive been on the road for a while.  During the prophetic conference over the weekend I heard myself saying ' yeah, yeah, I know all this.... heard it before'   which is such an arrogant approach isnt it?   As though I  a) cant see anything new or learn something from anyone else and b) am living in the fullness of everything I have heard before over all the years.    As if.  The fact is that I have had decades worth of great teaching and am actually living out about half a percent of it.   If anyone should have their face in the dust its me .

Interesting point brought out in last nights teaching on humility was that it is not about shame.  We are good at beating ourselves up, feeling guilty, blaming ourselves and squirming in the dust. Humility is not about any of that.  Kneeling before the Lord is about an accurate assessment of where we are at, in the light of who He is.  It is a surrender of all of us in order that we can be filled with the fullness of all of Him.  It is a posture of service and a place of receiving.

Funnily enough I spend quite a lot of time on my knees in my job.  I work with little people and most days I can be found crawling around on the floor just so I can get down to their level.  As a result I go through rather more pairs of trousers than would be normal for a woman my age 😊  And my knees are somewhat toughened - I have to put hand lotion on them to stop the skin being like leather !  Theres a cost involved in being on your knees.  It can be sore.  But if that's where the anointing is then I guess its the only place to be.

Day 33 - creativity

Driving into Lisburn yesterday I was struck by the floral displays that the council have put round the bottom of street signs and in various containers, roundabouts etc in public places.   They all look so pretty at this time of year when flowers are coming into bloom and the sun is shining.

It made me start thinking about creativity and how we human beings seem to have a real need to decorate and create even though there is no hard practical purpose for art and culture.  Way back into the very earliest times people have been painting on walls and making statues and jewellery - purely for decorative purposes.  We like to reproduce things that we see.  We like to make things beautiful.  We like to put our own individual stamp on the places we live and work.   Why?

God is super creative.  And because we are made in His image we are too.  But maybe it is about a bit more than that.  Maybe expressing our creativity makes us more of who we are supposed to be and more like Him.  Perhaps there is something inside us all which needs to be expressed.  And which can't be expressed in words - or maybe can be expressed much better not merely in words. 

I smile when I think of Jesus being born into a carpenter's family.  He must have learned Joseph's trade as a young man and worked with wood for most of His life.  Im sure He spent long hours

making buckets and tables and chairs and doors.  But Im certain that He will also have made objects of beauty just for the sake of being creative.  I bet Mary had a house full of carved nicknacks Jesus had made for her.   Can you imagine what a plate or a jug or an ornament carved by the creator of the universe would be like?

I know lots of people who claim that they dont have a creative bone in their body.  But Im certain that this cant be true.  Somewhere inside all of us is a deep desire to make, create, invent, imagine.... perhaps those people have not been given permission to discover their creative language.  Perhaps they have just never given it a go.

Easter is a great opportunity for us to be creative.  We can make an Easter bonnet with the kids,  make a cake, create a greetings card,  find an inventive way to give an Easter egg.   Maybe your thing is computers  - why not photoshop together something meaningful with images and music and words and post it on social media?   Write a song or a poem or a sketch.  Arrange some spring flowers as a centrepiece for your table. Take some photographs.  Mow the lawn in satisfying stripes.  Have a go at cooking something new.  Paint a picture.🎨   Whittle something out of wood.  Or go to the beach and build an Andy Goldsworthy-esque sculpture out of stones and driftwood .    When we do these things something in us comes a bit more alive.  If we offer our imaginings to God we might just manage to create something much more life affirming and joyful than we could possibly imagine.  And we shall have fun doing it.