A Different Sort of Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in the United States, and I also attended a Thanksgiving Service yesterday but not the American harvest-festival sort of Thanksgiving Service. Rather, it was a service of thanksgiving for a beautiful, godly woman with whom I had the privilege of sharing together in our Christian journey. 

My friend, C, was a wonderful role model for many people, myself included, and sadly died at the age of 53. Her 'testimony' was given both by her husband and by the minister. They both noted that, in the face of her illness, she was content either to continue to live and serve the Lord or to die and to accept and the place that God had prepared to her.  She said that she was in a 'win / win' situation whatever happened.

C was also a Deputy Head Teacher of a Secondary School (in American parlance: Vice Principle of a High School).  The former Head Teacher with whom she worked told the story that, in her leaving speech last year, my friend left the school with some thoughts from John Wesley.  Although not strictly speaking a prayer, it has become the school prayer by virtue of the fact that it is a prayer that can be embraced by pupils of all faiths.

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

These are not just shallow words because C put them into action. Surely that must be the best testimony to a Christian life well lived?

Thankfulness Meme

Oh dear, this gets complicated. Sally tagged me with a meme started by John Smulo.

Here are the rules:

1. Write down five things that you're thankful for.
2. Tag five friends who you'd like to see participate in this meme.
3. (Optional) Include a link to this post and encourage others to place a link to their completed meme in the comments section of this post so we can keep track of the thankfulness running around the blogosphere.

OK, so here are five things I'm thankful for:

1) Health. I don't mean to sound corny, but the older I get and the more I see and hear of people in pain and distress from health problems, the more thankful I become for my health.

2) My husband. What do you say without sounding corny? We were married late and have only been married 15 years versus some friends 25 or 30 years, but we are a fantastic team.

3) My ministry. What do you say this without sounding arrogant? This is a 'second career' for me. Being a minister of word and sacrament was not something women did when I was growing up. It's an awesome thing to be called to and it's a wonderful privilege to be able to do it in mid life.

4) Friends. No really. We see God in the people around us and we feel his love by giving and receiving love.

5) Music. Music makes the sould dance.

I don't really like tagging people. Please feel free to do the meme yourself and post your thankfulness on John's blog.

Thankfulness 2

I don't have any profound thoughts, just an experience to share with the 'ether'.

I've been privileged to find a Spiritual Director, something that has been a great help to me since I started in formal full-time ministry in September 2006. I remember that at our first session, we talked about thankfulness to God. After years of studying, I was feeling incredibly thankful for the privilege of being a full-time minister.

The theme of thankfulness came full circle at my last 'session' with my Spiritual Director when I said that God had put in on my heart to ask for the grace of thankfulness and to try to cultivate thankfulness. So this is something that I have been praying about.

Now I don't know how prayer 'works' and I don't know how this sort of prayer 'works'. Some may say that this kind of prayer - praying for a thankful heart- is simply a matter of mind over matter, or visualisation; they might say that praying for thankfulness is an indication of already being thankful. I don't know. I don't quite see it that way.

All I know is that, at the moment, God has opened my eyes to all sorts of things to be thankful for. This is not a 'knowledge thing'. It's a 'heart thing'. And I know that we can't always base our faith and our trust in God on feelings. But right now, I'm thankful to God for a sudden wave of thankfulness.

Godly Fun

I've been thinking about 'Godly fun', thanks to two things that happened this weekend. (In case you think I've given the wrong term to 'Godly Play', I haven't but here’s a link to it if you're interested.)

The first thing that happened - believe it or not - was going to the Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District synod. Yes, don't all fall down, interesting things can happen at synod! At We were privileged and inspired and motived in hearing two talks from Ann Morisy. Ann is a speaker, author, theologian and a sociologist by training. She looks at the church using a very helpful sociological lens.

I won't summerise here everything that Ann said, but she did point out that groups that grow are groups where people have fun and where they are not overly anxious. She said that she wondered what it was about early Methodism that was 'fun' as that must have been part of the reason why it was so successful.

The second thing that 'happened' on Saturday was reading Turbulant Cleric's excellent sermon: God Hates the World – Not!. In it, TC writes:

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury....refers to an evening when he was at birthday party of a mutual friend at which [Archbishop Desmond] Tutu was speaking. Reflecting on how his mind couldn’t wander in Tutu’s company, Williams goes on to write of “an unprompted insight that Desmond Tutu enjoys being Desmond Tutu.”

Now, I've never met Tutu, but this quality certainly appears to come across when one sees him in the news. He really gives the impression being thankful and enjoying life.

So, both of these events have made me think about 'Godly fun'. Can 'fun' be Godly or is fun always and necessarily selfish? If Christians are called to love their neighbours, is having fun antithetical? I think that 'fun' and loving our neighbour aren't contradictions in terms, but I think that Christians often act like they are! I have to admit that even thinking about the idea of 'fun in church' came as a bit of a surprise to me.

It seems to me that 'Godly fun' and thankfulness and praise to God are somehow connected. That 'Godly fun' isn't about 'me trying to amuse myself' but about sharing together our experiences of thankfulness and praise. If we agree that part of our mission as Christians is to proclaim and bring the love of God to those who don't know of it - isn't there an element of fun in that?

I'm reminded of a Rabbinic idea that when we get to heaven, the first thing that God will ask us is 'did you enjoy my creation?'

I have one niggle about Godly fun. It seems to me that if a church tries too hard to be a 'fun' place, that it might become a place where people who are struggling with pain, illness, fear or doubts don't feel that they can express the experiences they are going through. Many Christians probably have some experience of Christian fellowships where they felt that they 'had to be' happy, joyful, smiling, etc. and that they could never say how they really felt.

So how can a congregation be a safe place for those who are going through trials yet still also be a place of thankfulness and praise and fun?

Thankfulness

First off, I just wanted to share this photo. Taken at 2:45 pm out my back window. This is what early winter in the UK looks like!

I remember, when I first came to Northern Europe in 1987 (I was in Belgium before coming to the UK), how shocked I was at the dark winter days. (If Lorna reads this, I know it's even darker in Finland!)

Secondly, I'd wanted to write a post about thankfulness, but I didn't really know what to write. I don't have any deep and meaningful words about thankfulness. I only know that recently - within the last nine months or so - God has, for some reason, given me the gift and grace of thankfulness and I find myself being thankful for so many things.

And then I realised that the fact that I have grown very attached to winter evenings in the UK is maybe a sign of that thankfulness. I'm also thankful for this view. Don't ask me why, but Wonderful Husband and I both just love it. It's ordinary, but there really is something wonderful about it.

I ramble. Just wanted to share that with anyone reading.