So what do you say when your son asks you this;

Jaden: Daddy, can I catch the moon?

He’s asking because on this bright autumn morning with the sun filling the sky we could also see the moon. It’s a question filled with innocence and I know it’s one of those moments when my answer will enable him to see and dream big or if I give him the wrong answer he may stop asking the big questions, and stop dreaming big.  I want my young man to see visions.

Me: If you want to reach for it darling then you go for it and don’t let anything stop you, ever.

Jaden: Ok daddy, thanks…

Our journey continued without consequence, and we took this quick snap to remind us, he was really eager to tell his teacher that he had seen the moon. And maybe he told his friends that he was going to catch the moon, I hope that if he did that he might have inspired them to do the same. I know that when Jaden asked me the question there was something in me that believed that he could and will reach for the skies, I’m inspired to reach higher too!

Like most people my age I remember where I was when the planes crashed, and like many I’ve watched over a decade of continued fighting and violence on both sides.

There is so much to say but I simply wanted to offer up this prayer from Shane Claiborne.  You can find it here along with this hopeful article of reflections on 9/11: Ten Years Later .This is my prayer today;

“May we continue to choose the folly of the cross in a world of smart bombs. Jesus, give us the courage to follow Your cross in a world that continues to pick up the sword and die by the sword. Help us love those who hurt us—and may our love wear down their hatred. May our grace dull the sharpest sword. 

And may we become people who do not conform to the patterns of this world but are transformed by the renewing of our minds. God give us imagination that we might refuse to accept the world as it is and insist on dreaming of the world as it could be.”

Amen

I realised recently how often I don’t look up.

We had a mini break in a friends caravan and we had some great weather including one really clear night. Hannah and I sat outside on the step just looking up and taking it in, the more we looked the more and more stars filled our gaze.

I couldn’t honestly tell you the last time I did that, just looked up for no other reason other than to marvel at the God at work before my eyes.  There is something deep and profound that happens in me when everything is stripped away.  It’s more than just an appreciation of the simple things I believe it was God trying to get my attention.  I was reminded of these verses from Matthew 6:25-33

25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing,29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

I felt God saying..

“look at the stars, look at what I have created, I literally flung stars into space so that you can have this view, so you can enjoy this moment with me, don’t worry about what’s coming next or what you think you need for it, seek me.”

Honestly there have been times when Hannah and I had wondered where the next food was coming from, and here we are about to enter into another exciting part of our journey with certain needs needing to be met but we trust, we seek and we are trying not to worry.

We can look down, we can look at our circumstances but we choose to look up, we choose to lift our heads and walk in the truth of those verse from Matthew.  We choose to live in love, in the knowledge that we are his children and we can boast about how much he loves us.

We’ve got to fight for love, peace, hope, relationship, healed communities a restored nation.

We’ve seen a lot of fighting on our streets the summer, looting and rioting, damage to property  and someone was killed.  I don’t know how you felt when you saw all of that going on, we watched from the safety of our living room watching the news, reading newspaper headlines, but what I couldn’t escape from was a stirring in my spirit to see change.  We put together a Facebook event inviting people to pray, we went to pray meetings, there was something powerful as the church got together to pray over the nation.  There were economic and social pressures that impacted on the riots but there was also a spiritual dimension.

In his letter to the Ephesian the apostle Paul writes;

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places”

As the summer has gone on I’ve been challenged by what I’ve heard and read, and reminded of the spiritual battles that we are facing, to look at the current age and hope for, pray for and work for better in my generation and the one to come.  This impacts my family, my church, my job and the  wider community.

Patrick Regan recently tweeted that “hope is the refusal to accept a situation as it is“

I saw someone running from a crime that he’d attempted to commit yesterday, I saw the look of fear and desperation in his eye’s as he turned round to see if he was being chased.  I refuse to accept that, that is all that young guy is going to know, I refuse to accept that the young people who I work with have the need to self harm, I refuse to accept that children are being trafficked into our nation, I refuse to accept that people are forced to live on the street, I refuse to accept that families are living in poverty. I hope for more and I will fight for that!

In his book Rousing the Warriors, Steve Uppal writes that we, the church has settled into maintaining and that if we are to see the change that we pray for and see the Kingdom of God advanced then we have to move from that position.  I recognise in many areas of my life, including significant relationships, that I have settled into maintaining rather than seeing those areas and relationships flourish.  In thinking this through a bit I’ve likened it to the recent London riots and the reports of the Police standing by watching the destruction of property, community and lives take place.  Of course there was more to it than that for the Police that week, what else could they do right?  But we cannot be a people that stand on the sidelines and watch while lives are destroyed, it’s an issue of eternity, it’s an issue of the Kingdom now but not yet. But to echo a phrase that has been in my heart, my spirit this summer, Now Is The Time!

I’ll end with this.  In his book the Conspiracy of the Insignificant, Patrick Regan ends with a quote from William Booth, I love it so I put it together with an image, if you click on it you can download a larger size. It’s on my desktop, I keep coming back to it time and time again, I’m going to get it printed and put in many places that I can to be a constant reminder.

I had the opportunity to write this article for RELEVANT Magazine last week, it’s nowhere near the same league as Patrick Regan from XLP’s article, but it was a useful opportunity to put some thoughts down on paper.  It’s also sparked some other thoughts that I’ll hopefully get round to writing down soon, but for now here’s my article.