Freedom writing…freedom living February 25, 2008

Loved the movie Freedom Writers (kindly lent to me by Sarah) and loved this quote from it -

“You have been blessed with a burden.”

I guess that is going to make no sense at all if you haven’t seen the movie so a basic synopsis would go like this:  Hilary Swanks’ character in the movie takes a job as a first-time teacher in an inner city US school where the kids are steeped in gang culture, violence and hopelessness.  After a shaky start she begins to feel life with them, to see it through their eyes, to share their frustrations and she longs to awaken hope in them.  And through a tough and sacrifical process for her she achieves massive breakthrough with them - coming up with the idea of liberating them to explore their own past by telling their own stories.  These hidden stories seem to have the power to change lives and unlock the culture that had been imprisoning them.  It’s inspiring stuff!

For me I’ve so many thoughts burning through my mind at the moment…I do feel blessed with some burdens that I want to see through.  I long to see kids that I know in Woodvale become the people God longs for them to be…and for them to be influencers of culture in that place.  In a different sphere I dream and am working towards seeing stories of hope brought into mainstream media culture – to point people to the God who is offering them Life.

 And I guess right now I’m praying about and hopefully working towards following through on both these burdens.  I’m trying to learn how I can live to serve…

‘ ” For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” ‘  (Mark 10:45)

Chasing pavements… February 6, 2008

I’m really intrigued by the lyrics of Adele’s chart-soaring song ‘Chasing Pavements’ and have spent a bit of time debating it with a few people…ITs an immense piece of music but its meaning does seem a bit elusive.  Here’s a wee sample:

’should i give up
or should i just keep chasing pavements
even if it leads no where,
or would it be a waste
even if i knew my place should i leave it there.
should i give up
or should i just keep chasing pavements
even if it leads nowhere’.

 Somebody has said to me that the ‘chasing pavement’ idea is what brings the song down – for them the image doesn’t work.  But it really resonates with me and I’ve come up with a few thoughts…

Lots of us for lots of our time spend our time on the pavement – we’re told its safer.  It’s too easy to follow a route of predictability that the world encourages us along - we’re following the pavement and we’re maybe starting to pursue the dreams that we’re told are good to have.  We’re starting to chase pavements.

By the way please feel free to let me know if you think those thoughts are off-beam! I guess it just scares me how easy it is to pavement-chase and maybe miss out on unknown paths that God is calling me down.  It’s cool that beyond the pavement His dreams are so much more colourful and exciting.

Chocolate hair…sticky thoughts February 1, 2008

I’ve got chocolate caked in my hair!  It’s after a bit of an incident in at work – which could also be described as a chocolate sauce scuffle!  Aside from the chocolate in hair thing I’ve also got a head jammed full of sticky thoughts which I haven’t really managed to offload or work through yet…

It’s been an interesting/ confusing week.  I guess it kicked off at a meeting in at work where it was stated that three news’ jobs were going in our company.  So it’s been a week of flux – trying to get my head around everything and to start to think where God might be pointing.

I’m starting to see hope in the situation….but that seems to go hand-in-hand with frustration at the moment because I feel like a dream is taking shape for my life  -but I’m realising just how much hard work that’s going to take to get there….I am up for that – but just not quite feeling it right now…