Still He bends to hear us sing

Around 300 years ago, the saintly Madame Guyon was imprisoned in the Bastille for her faith. For seven years, she was in a cell lying below the surface of the ground, with no light other than candle light. While imprisoned, she wrote the poem ‘A Prisoners Song’. Here are the first two verses;

A little bird I am,
Shut from the fields of air;
And in my cage I sit and sing
To Him Who placed me there;
Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

Naught have I else to do:
I sing the whole day long;
And He Whom I most love to please
Doth listen to my song:
He caught and bound my wandering wing;
But still He bends to hear me sing.

Whatever we face, wherever we are, still He bends to hear us sing.

Awe and sobriety in London

I was in the City side of London for meetings today. I had some time to spare between meetings, so called in on the London Museum. As you might expect, it's all about London through the ages. I left in awe and somewhat sobered.

Awe: That thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, have walked the streets of London before me. Traded, worked, loved and lived here. Died here. Awe over such an amazing city. Aware of my smallness. My small part in this history. Moments in this office or that. Jobs here and there. A few years living in South London. Moments in history. I met the early settlers today. The Romans, invaders, Medieval Londoners... the vastness of history.

Sobriety: As you go out of the museum, there is a book of remembrance for the 52 people killed in the atrocities of 7/7. Right at the front of the book is James Adams. Pictures, letters from friends. Words of remembrance from those who knew him. He lived in Peterborough, where I live. I knew many of the names of his friends. Some of them are my friends too. I never met James, but his Christian faith stands out through the pages of remembrance. He lived life as an adventure. He loved his Lord. Blown away in a second. But what a sound to greet him as the words 'well done good and faithful servant' ring through eternity.

Awe and sobriety. O my God, may I live every moment of my life as an adventure. Small in the picture of history, but significant in the book of life.

The Human Spirit

The TV news carried two main stories last night. Both are to do with who we are and what God has made us.

The first story was to do with the death of Jane Tomlinson from breast cancer. Jane was diagnosed with the condition 7 years ago. She was told she had 6 months to live. Jane decided to fight. She competed in triathlons and ran the London Marathon a number of times, cycled across America, from Rome to Leeds and from John O’Groats to Lands End. Over the 7 years, she raised over £1.5m for cancer charities.

What a fighter. What spirit she had to keep going against the odds. I don’t know if she had a faith in God, but there was such Godly determination on display.

The second story from last nights news was the Government decision to allow Human-Animal embryo’s for experimentation. Again, there is a determination to fight disease. Again human spirit, human ingenuity is on display. But this time, the cost is high. To quote the Christian Institute: “Manufacturing new creatures out of humans and animals is deeply repugnant. It offends against the principle that human life is uniquely made in the image of God. It offends against the created order that humans and animals are of different kinds. Mixing them has rightly been called ‘in-vitro bestiality’.”

A human is a human from conception. To treat that human embryo as a test tube specimen, to mix that human with animal parts… God forgive us. We are spiritual beings. As Jane showed, we can show extraordinary courage against the odds. Sadly those of us who remain embryos for experimentation never get that chance.

Odd Moment (2)

I travel to and from London regularly, and use the Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) to do so. Their announcements as you get on the train at Kings Cross are about the most unwelcome ever invented. Below is the announcement as I remember it, and I've put in brackets what I think they are saying.....

"This is the 6.20 to Leeds, calling at Peterborough, Newark, .... If you have a Hull Trains or First Capital Connect ticket, they are not valid on this train (Get off my train!). If you have a Saver Return or outward portion of a Business Return, they are not valid on this train. (Get off my train, really!). If you have an Apex, Daypex (Any other Pex!) these tickets are only valid for the train as printed on your ticket. (I don't want anyone on this train!).

If you have not got the right ticket, you should leave the train now or you will be charged the standard open single fare (This is how we make our money). "

Really, that's just how it comes across! You are made to feel so unwelcome! You would have thought that in our age of communication, someone would have taught them how to treat their customers. Anyway; odd.... and slightly annoying!

Odd Moment

I called into Dollond and Aitchisons in town the other day to buy some eye drops. Imagine my surprise when I was told 'I'm sorry sir, we don't sell eye drops, we're an opticians'...

Hmmm. That's a bit like Waterstones saying they don't sell 'Lord of the Rings' because they are a bookshop. Odd.

Bigger than you think

In 24 hours you or I could travel from the UK to New Zealand, just about the furthest country from our shores. Bearing in mind it took Captain Cook, the discoverer, about 2 years to get there, that’s improvement! With my work, I have travelled to most continents and many financial centres around the world. So it could be argued that the world is ‘smaller’ than it used to be.

Right and wrong. We only know a small amount about the world we live in. For example, a couple of years ago, a whole new species of mammal was discovered in Borneo. As this thing was quite a lot bigger than a cat, it really does show how little we know about our world.

When I was in Shanghai, I met some students from Beijing. They told me that they could immediately tell the difference between people from both cities- mainly to do with the size of the nose! (Incidentally, Westerners are all ‘big noses’ to them!) There are so many different tribal groups in China, but to most of us, they are just Chinese.

The same with Asians. This is a quote from AA Gill in the Times: “Almost every Asian you see on TV is an Indian, whereas almost all the Asians you’re likely to come across in real life are Pakistani. Television’s sympathy has always been with India. It has the romance, the colour, the western values, Goa and your bank details.” India also has my wife’s ancestry, so guilty as charged! (I quite liked the comedy in the film ‘East is East’ where the Pakistani in hospital turns the thing around and objects with horror that he is being treated by an Indian!)

194 nations. Thousands of tribes and sub-nations. 6.6 billion people. Plants and animals still to be discovered. The world is still a big place.

Famous for a minute, known for a lifetime

"In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes". So said Andy Warhol. And it's becoming true before our eyes- Big Brother, X Factor, Apprentice (I like that one!), House Swap, Stars in their eyes, Fat Club, thin club, slim club, cook club, Beenthereseenitdoneit club... Fame for everyone. A fleeting glance at celebrity. But it is so fleeting. I remember who won the first Pop Idol and even who came second and third (shame on me), but who was it who came fourth, fifth etc? Fame for a moment. Not really fame at all.

The Bible tells us God has a design for our lives, planned before we were born. In fact before the world was made. (Check it out: Ephesians 1: 11). We read that God has planned our days, written them down (Psalm 139: 16). Finding out why I'm here gives the best purpose of all. The fact that God thinks I'm 'famous' is better than Any Warhol's 15 minutes could ever be.