Cobwebs

Right it's time to sweep out the cobwebs and blow the dust off of this place.

I've been gone too long. I've been suffering from a dry spell of late... and I've not been keeping the blog up to date. Sometimes if you just leave things, time moves on around them and they change and move on without you... and they can easily become unrecognisable:

I feel like I've stumbled upon one of my thinking places up Cold Comfort Lane. If I don't go to them for a lengthy period of time, they get overgrown with brambles and I can't use them until they are cleared.

It's a bit like walking back into a church that's been left empty for too long. However, there is a difference between a church that is empty and a church that is deserted. This blog is most definitely not destined to fall into the latter category, not while I still feel it serves a purpose both personally and publicly.

So as we draw nearer to Christmas, I hope to up my work rate somewhat. I need to. I need to get my creative juices in full swing again. I know striving is not the answer... my best inspiration comes from above. However while fire may not come without wind... sometimes you need to rub sticks together to prepare a catalyst for when the divine wind comes. It's not about doing things in your own strength; it's about making sure you are in a position, a frame of mind, to receive what is freely given.

I've had a similar debate about this with people who prefer to remain away from attending church on self-imposed sabbaticals while they wait for revival to come. I maintain that while the race may not be run until God moves... part of discipleship and faithful service to him, is our willingness to be ready. Paul puts it far more eloqouently:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

So while it's important not to rush ahead and act without God... it is extremely healthy for us to spend time focussing on him, flexing our spiritual muscles so that when the starting pistol sounds, we are off the blocks in the best possible condition. Don't misunderstand me here... I'm not saying we have to slave away or God won't pour out his blessing. We are not the centre, God is... if he needs to do something powerful through us and we still aren't ready despite his prompting, his abundant transforming grace is there for us. My argument is merely that we have the option to choose a beneficial course of action while we wait for God... and not just the freedom to choose a permissive one.

Well, this post was just intended to be a quick wave through the window to get me back into good habits... a toe in the water, but already just the act of sitting in front of a blank screen has borne fruit.

So until next time (and by next time, I don't mean next month), be blessed.

A Slight Return

Sorry I've been away from the Sanctuary.

I've been pretty distracted this week, between swatting up for my First Aid at Work course and trying to prepare a sermon for the preaching course I'm on. My brain has pretty much been mashed.

Well I can confirm that there was no human to human resuscitation demonstration at the First Aid course (run by St. John Ambulance).

The course was a lot of fun and I learned a lot... I just hope it sticks somewhere in the back of my mind. On the morning of the final day, the lady running the course (Michelle, who had a great personality and sense of humour), put us through some hair raising first aid scenarios that tested the skills we had picked up to the max in order to demonstrate that we didn't need to worry about the assessment itself. Of course my psychology doesn't work like that. It's not what I'm doing... it's when people are scrutinising me, that I am most likely to get petrified.

One scenario I was given was someone with a cut to the arm and a fractured hip... standing. My biggest problem was getting them to transfer their weight onto their good leg so I could get them into the correct treatment position. Once I had done this, they decided to have an asthma attack. Apparently I was a lot quicker in the room at picking up what was going on with my patient (all the volunteers of that round were having asthma attacks). I got them to take their medication and then proceeded to complete treatment of the wound.

The second scenario I got was a total nightmare. Truth be told... those of us who had gone out the room for this round were anticipating something pretty nasty because as patients in the previous round, we had been told to lose consciousness within 10 seconds of the first aider arriving.

We were not to be disappointed.

As we were called in by our "helpful" bystander, I was shown over to someone with a fractured jaw and stab wound to the leg. Not so bad so far... except my "helpful" bystander was being anything but helpful and running around like a headless chicken, screaming her head off. I genuinely surprised myself with an authoritative command to her to calm down as I needed her help. She calmed down immediately (I must have sounded uncharacteristically scary). As I proceeded to treat my casualty, I was waiting for my patient to deteriorate and be magically transformed into a plastic "Little Annie" manikin... but that didn't happen. What did happen was my bystander pointed to a spot behind the table where poor "Little Annie" had keeled over (always likely when you don't have legs, arms, lower torso, or any real internal organs), she was a separate casualty.

I switched priorities and checked vitals... called for help and got an ambulance called while I commenced CPR. It was all rather bizarrely automatic to me. However when my bystander returned I was stuck because I needed to get the other patient stabilised. It was pointed out to me that my bystander could do CPR if I showed them how. That is an interesting one though isn't it? The thought had crossed my mind... but I had been reluctant to because as I was playing the person with responsibility and training, I was acutely aware that I held this plastic doll's fragile life in my hands... and if she was going to "die", I didn't want someone else to have to live with the onus of that responsibility.

It's strange what goes through your kind at times like that.

I was told I did really well....but I was still feeling like going into shock before the assessment.

As it turned out, the assessment was nowhere near as harsh as those scenarios... but having less to think about coupled with a constant scrutiny of my actions, I found I was severely pumped with nervous energy.

However... I made it through and am now the proud owner of a resuscitation face shield keyring.

I'm proud of my new skills, but if anyone dares collapse in the office on Monday I shall not be impressed with them!

I'm hoping to incorporate my first aid training into my sermon for tomorrow, which I hope to republish here for your perusal in some form.

Further Instruction

I've had a bit of manic weekend.

Tomorrow marks the third session of the preaching course I'm on. It'll be the first one where we'll have to produce some homework. As part of the course, we are required to submit two sermon outlines and two full fat sermons. I'll need to submit the first outline based on Isaiah 40:1-11.

I found it tough going. If you've read any of the things I've recorded here, you may guess that I don't tend to work in that fashion... I like to keep myself on edge - call it theological free running. In short, I lack a methodical approach when it comes to sermon preparation.

Nevertheless I have produced the outline on a pristine piece of A4 paper. I found it a bit tough doing things the disciplined way. I've been advised I need to have to perform an exposition of scripture with a distinct aim and challenge. Now I'm not saying I wouldn't normally do that... but I tend to like writing a few key lines that form the basis of prompts or signposts to where I'm going. I like to have only a skeletal structure, preferring to leave the muscles and meat to stew in my brain between when I set out the framework and when I deliver it live.

This is not something I will be able to do for the preaching course. I'll have to have outlines summarising the choicest portions before they are served... and when it comes to delivering 10 minutes "mock"sermons (although I plan to deliver it for real... after all I am talking to other genuine Christians and it is an opportunity to teach and learn at the same time), I will have to submit transcribe notes of the material. This is where I'm likely to come unstuck... it's where I lack discipline. You'd think it would be easy - after all, I write my thoughts down here often enough... but my approach to speaking is different to my approach to writing,so this is a matter of some concern to me. Still it is an opportunity to learn discipline and it could prove a very valuable exercise.

I also need to prepare some teaching material and a talk on the subject of light for SU camp. I only need to have the teaching materials ready in the near future...but I need to make sure those materials tie in with the message I'll eventually be giving. Fortunately I already have a good idea of the approach I'm going to have to take with that, but it does mean that I'll be writing several lots of teaching and sermons in a relative short space of time. It'll be a good test as to how much juice is in the tank spiritually. The demands are higher than normal, so if I don't keep step with God... I'll get myself into a tricky spot!

Finally this week, I am taking part in a First Aid training course.

This terrifies me more than anything I have written above. You may very well be asking why on Earth that is.

Well, the mere mention of First Aid brings back terrifying memories from my college days. I was off site at the town leisure centre with two friends, minding my own business shooting pool. Our game was rudely interrupted by one of the college lecturers. She was flanked by an extremely hot young lady... and two extremely grim looking lads.

The lecturer was leading a First Aid course... but there was a problem.

There were no mannikin's to perform CPR on. A fiendish plot surfaced in her calculating mind. There were three of them and three of us. She asked if we wanted to be voluntary mannikin's. Now at the time, I wasn't sure if this was safe anyway... breathing into the breathless is one thing, but my lungs were functioning perfectly. However this was not what was primarily occupying my thoughts... nor those of my companions. We were simultaneously evaluating the same equation. Namely, what were the odds of us getting one of the ugly blokes as our manikin compared to the odds of getting the girl? It was very clear that one of us was going to be extremely lucky... and believe me the temptation was sore - like a carrot on a stick to half starved donkeys. It was also abundantly clear that the other two of our trio were going to be... well, lets say... uncomfortably numb.

We looked at them.

They looked at us.

We looked at each other.

Then, in an act of male solidarity... we scarpered.

Now it's true that he who dares wins and that if you want to reap the rewards of a venture,you have to take risks... but we were feeling particularly cowardly that day. Would I do the same thing if the situation presented itself once more?

I'm hoping I don't have to find out the answer to that one this week.

I'll let you know.