Lessons from the gym

I have just returned to the gym after four months' enforced absence.  Last time I was there was in August 2014.  Then, as always, I recorded in a small notebook the weights I lifted, the length of time spent on the elliptical and bicycle, as well as resistance levels I reached.


As I revisited each exercise machine I optimistically set the weights and targets only a little below last time. But I could hardly budge the weights let alone last the distances. It was dismal realizing just how much muscle wastage has occurred.  How come that I am so weak?


Time was racing by.  I really wanted to achieve something worthwhile. Reducing weights further on the arm strengthening machines I gritted my teeth and pulled.  A trainer walked by.  Seeing my frantic snatches he gently said, ' Always go for range of movement over weight. What really matters is how much you are moving your muscles.'  I nodded, realizing that I was missing the point.  As I moved to another machine with determination to hit the target, another trainer reminded me that learning back instead of staying upright rather undid the purpose of the whole exercise.


After, I reflected how much I had spoiled my re-entry by two T's:  time and targets.  I was so set on getting the exercises over and done to my satisfaction I missed the point. I took short-cuts which spoiled the whole purpose.  And, as such things tend to do, it made me think about our spiritual exercises and the way that the two T's can ruin those too.  So conscious of passing time and getting our exercises done we can miss the point of being still and knowing God (Ps. 46:10), so that he can pace the relationship and build up our spiritual muscles.  I am grateful for the warning learned at the gym.  

Connections

Yesterday proved delightful.  Carol and I reconnected with Andrew whom I have known since he was a schoolboy in my first church in Blackburn in 1972.  Later our paths crossed dramatically when he became a student at Magdalene College Cambridge and also (as a very gifted young man) became Director of Music at my Cambridge church.  Here he met his wife and flourished.  We met them both again over lunch.

Interestingly, while Andrew was in Cambridge his parents moved here for the last part of their retirement and so the family was reunited in the 80's.  You can imagine the fun we had as we reflected over their Cambridge time.. So many names and memories from the past.  At one point as I mentioned his parents (and the debt I owed them both) he commented wistfully that I knew his mother in her prime.  Sadly, Andrew's wife never did.


Today, reflecting on the joy of reconnecting I happened upon a serendipity.  On Dec. 3rd. my Blogpost mentioned that a bizarre thing occurred just as I was preparing to write some bible study notes on Ephesians. I found a collection of yellowing newspaper columns (also on Ephesians) cut out and sent to me by a lady in my church. Extraordinarily, I discovered these cuttings in an old art materials' box. Written in 1984-5 they had somehow survived several house moves and major decluttering efforts!


Why mention this again? Because today I saw on the floor a crumpled letter dated Oct. 26, 1986. It had accompanied the cuttings and dropped by the bookcase. She writes about a Brazilian pastor who had heard me give one study at the national Baptist assembly and hoped I might put all 36 columns into book form, or somehow provide copies.  And, yes, the letter came from Andrew's mother!  I know that Andrew sometimes reads my blogs - I promise to show you the letter next time I see you!  But what amazing connections there are!  Will heaven be like this, full of connections in God's glory?  I hope so.

NIMBY

Not in my back yard!  I mentioned in my last post that I had walked behind our house. There's a wide expanse of fields with tracks running through giving a wonderful open space, with glorious sunsets (like yesterday).  The fields have been farmed for two thousand years. Underneath are Bronze Age artefacts and Roman remains.  It offers a splendid vista with a couple of farm houses in distant trees, and winter wheat appearing in green bands running off into the distance.  It's a popular area of walkers, especially for dog owners.  Ever since we moved here we have marveled at this countryside backdrop right behind our garden fence.


However, plans are going through to build completely over it with 1750 housing units in a vast development including shops, school, and some high rises of four storeys.  We have followed the planning debate, attending local meetings to discuss this huge expansion. You can imagine the agitations of some of our neighbours. Our main road which is clogged now will have to cope with hundreds more cars emptying out from this new estate Many of our neighbours have lived here for over forty years and have come to love the wide open countryside backing onto our properties.


It really has been interesting to be thrust into this highly contentious debate. I do understand the NIMBY attitude.  So much will change for the worse.  However, there is a desperate shortage of cheaper accommodation in Cambridge.  Younger people are unable to get on the bottom rung of the property market. All round our city, housing is acutely needed.  How can we possibly deny others homes? Seriously?


They scheduled the first building work to begin September 2014.  We braced ourselves for promised massive earth movement as new main roads and services were built.  But, as yet, nothing has happened!  So, I confess that I am enjoying every minute while the fields stay the same, hoping for a few months' respite! 

Best foot forward

It's just four months since I had surgery on my ankle and began rather plaintiff postings about my slow progress from inert bed rest through wheelchair to two crutches... and then (wobbling badly) to one crutch.  One or two folk have kindly asked about my latest condition.


Quite remarkably, and it is remarkable, I have transitioned in the last month from my first painful unaided steps (with protesting muscles and tissues afterwards) to incremental walks.  Today I managed a fairly fast paced half-an-hour through the fields behind our house. The improvement has been exponential though the swelling and some continuing pain reminds me it will take many months yet for a complete recovery.


But, this is what really caught my attention.  A Canadian physiotherapist has been visiting our church.  She has witnessed my recent progress and always asks with professional interest about my foot - with encouragement to keep my physio exercises going!   In her last conversation she said, 'You do realize that your ankle will be stronger than ever now that you have all this extra metal structure in your foot.  You will be surprised how strong it is compared to the other leg!'  What a positive spin to put on the accident!  There's a surprising paradox in Scripture about strength coming out of weakness.  On a mundane level I really do look at my leg differently - once broken now renewed.  So, when I think of putting my best foot forward in 2015....maybe its the damaged one that has now been strengthened!

What does the New Year hold?

The new calendar holds many blank pages.  I have hopes for several projects (and, actually, I shall want your help on a couple of them!)  However, this past year of cancer checks and a broken foot has rammed home the truth, so often neglected, that as finite human beings we just do not know what lies ahead, do we?   Yes, we make plans, and we need to, yet the big road trip is dependent on many factors outside our control but not God's.

I have chosen this prayer of Thomas Merton for the preface of a workbook I am writing to encourage preachers to join the Chicago NKP initiative (see earlier postings).   I like its humility and openness and I think it works quite well for beginning 2015.

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end

Nor do I really know myself

and the fact that I think I am following

your will does not mean

that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that my desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope that I have that desire
in all that I am doing.

I hope I will never do anything

apart from that desire

And I know that if I do this

you will lead me by the right road.
 
In the many uncertainties ahead may we seek to do what God desires in 2015.  All good wishes for a fulfilling year ahead!

 

 

Boxing Day Preaching Surprise

On this day after Christmas, facing the first of the turkey leftovers and too many opened boxes of half-eaten goodies, it is traditional in England to rest and enjoy the holiday.  Go for a walk certainly, but mostly put up your feet!


So, I could not believe my eyes when relaxing with my i newspaper that I learned that Pope Francis has turned attention on priests who bore - or even repel- the flock with turgid sermons.  He has approved a nine point guide to better preaching.  Priests should include in their New Year resolutions a commitment to ensure that sermons are no longer 'autoreverential, purely moralistic or indoctrinating. The homily should not be a light entertainment show but should nonetheless avoid sounding like a conference or a lesson.  The priest should appear like a mother talking to her child with sermons grounded in Scripture.


The Italian press has approved of this message, with one paper declaring 'very often today, priests don't put much thought into their homilies - and that's why many churches are empty.' 
The last thing I expected today was a papal challenge about the need to renew contemporary preaching.  But I applaud loudly and feel that one of my New Year resolutions - to give my best to the 'New Kind of Preaching' initiative - is bang on target!

Responses please

To my horror I have realized (very late) that my Yahoo account has been sending out my messages but likes to delete any responses you make!  I have wondered several times recently whether friends ever received my email. My 'Sent File' shows it was definitely sent.  But, to my great embarrassment I have discovered that friends' replies had been wiped out of existence, even while their systems assured them it had arrived.  This explains much of my recent administrative confusion!   Should you be one of the unfortunates who is still awaiting my reply to your reply please try again on: mquicke@faculty.seminary.edu.


However, this miscommunication chimed with a seasonal thought.  That the greatest message the world has ever heard that God so loved that he sent his only Son is intended for responses from everyone.  And those responses will always be heard.  As I prepare for yet another set of Christmas services I want to be sure there is no over-familiarity, no jading and fading, no miscommunication!  Rather, an authentic 2014 response.  I am always helped by others' prayers.  This year I am praying a challenging prayer from Alan Gaunt.


Lord Jesus Christ be born in us again,
live in us for the sake of other people.
Let your coming be glorious in us so that its light
may go on increasing and increasing,
filling the world,
till joy bursts like balloons and bangs like crackers,
full of great gifts:
love, truth, peace, health, singing and delight,
rushing through this world,
through every world, through the universe,
brighter than a billion suns.
From your cradle to your Cross,
through your Resurrection, take us with you,
this year, every year:
till we come with you and all creation
to the full glory of God and praise you with him
in the Holy Spirit for ever.   AMEN.
. 





A VERY HAPPYLIGHT-INCREASING,  JOY-BURSTING CHRISTMAS from Carol and me to all my faithful readers.