1 January 2010 No Comment

(whoopee, woohoo, let merriment be unconfined etc yawn…..)

Happy New Year by the way….

I don’t ‘do’ new year resolutions- Jan 1st does not seem very ‘new’ to me (although, at the tender age of 43, I now find myself living in a 6th decade). A better time to take stock for me is over the summer and a better time to refocus seems to be September. January seems too long and too cold, and when I was a child I used to want it out of the way so February and my birthday arrived.

However, I want to think about 5 things (which should leave me space for an epiphany post on Jan 6th) that right at this moment seem to fire and inspire me. I say ‘right at this moment’ as I have a new idea/thought for a new direction most weeks….as I get older I get less fixed (at least I think so; on some things at any rate).

It is the height of narcissism to quote yourself (actually having a blog is the height of narcissusm..) so what follows is adapted from something I wrote for that august publication, long perused in London debating salons, ‘The Hutton Rudby Village News’.

Back in the days when I could understand or listen to Radio 1, I can remember one of the DJs intoning the aphorism ‘Wherever you go you are always there’. It was the kind of aphorism that was slightly funny the first time I heard it and just annoying thereafter.

 This aphorism is something that makes me feel alive as I hit a new year. I have long grown tired of ‘if only’ in my life and in the Christian community generally. You know the thing: ‘we just need to fix ‘x’ and everything will be ok’…… ‘we are doing this and then we will be ready for mission’ (so what the %^&* are you doing now then?), ‘we just need to do this and then God will descend’ yadda yadda yadda.

One of the best bits about following Jesus that I have come to value is that God meets us where we are, however we are, whether we are happy, in pain, hopeful or despairing: there are no ‘if onlys’ or ‘when I get this sorted’ or ‘when I am holy enough’. It seems to me that one  message of Christmas us that he is with us right now…we just have to find out what He is doing and join in/recognize him in unlikely places…. and perhaps not get so anxious: ‘I can’t seem to find him’ (wait: did you check behind the bookcase?), ‘I wish I were elsewhere’/ ‘doing something else’- the journey to holiness/spirituality/enlightenment or whatever you call it begins right here…in this place..right now…

 So, if I have a resolution this year, it is going to be just that ‘Wherever you are you are always there’…and recognise that in whatever situation I find myself, God may just be there already…..and that is my excuse for not making resolutions to eat more healthy food, exercise more or even trying to be nicer (anyone that knows me knows that I am as nice as it is possible to be )