A Pause in Lent 2014 - better late than never!

It was a lovely weekend, full of gardening, plant-buying, archery and fish and chips (an unusual find in France...) and I never got round to writing my Pause in Lent - sorry! But here is a really truthful picture for you, from the Facebook page of someone I'm very happy to have found over the last week or two:

Kim Verrier is a Speaker and Encourager (a very worthwhile occupation!) who is the friend of a friend. I followed my friend's link to Kim's Facebook page and found her words very helpful - and in the case of the picture above, very relevant! Do pop over and visit her if you are on Facebook.

A Fourth Pause in Lent 2014

Lent is coming along nicely - I have ordered my leg of Easter lamb from the butcher's!

I am also finding your Pause in Lent posts so helpful. It was Gaz's post last week that really kept me thinking.

I stopped off in our local church on Tuesday (market day) and lit candles for our family and for my father and his wife. If candles aren't from your tradition, well, neither are they from mine. But the prayer next to the candelabrum says it all, I think.

Here's my rough translation:

Lord, let this candle which I light be a beacon for you to illuminate my joy,
Let it burn so that you rekindle my heart,
Let it shine so that you burn away all my selfishness, pride and impurity.

Lord, I cannot stay long in your church.
This burning candle that I leave is part of me that I want to give to you.
Help me to prolong my prayer in my activities today.

Amen

What all came together for me (as part of Gaz's comments on sacrifice, and the prayer about leaving part of yourself for God) was the realisation that sacrifice isn't always painful. There are willing and happy sacrifices we make every day. A mother's life could be described as one long sacrifice - the needs of her children put ahead of her own. The fact that it doesn't feel like that most of the time is because it's a very happy and worthwhile sacrifice made for people we love. This year Ben has sacrificed a lot (including earnings) to study again. I have sacrificed a lot to let him go off to Lyon every week to do this, if I really think about it, but it's both gladly done and gratefully received, which really makes it all worth it. Perhaps we avoid offerning our whole lives as a sacrifice to God because we think it will lead to one long existence of strain and struggle. What if it isn't? What if the day to day sacrifices we make will just draw us closer in love, companionship and understanding?

Reasons to be Faithful, Part Three - a Pause in Lent

Welcome to the third Pause in Lent - it begins to feel like Easter is coming, now! I've started planning the Easter feast, and need to place an order at the butcher's in town. How is Lent going for you all? It's great to read your posts each week (and even comment on some this time) and to see what you are reading, thinking and learning. Please carry on visiting each other, and also commenting - I am really grateful for the comments which I've received, which show me that people are thinking about what I write and and about what I care about.

For my third Pause I want to continue with the line of thinking I started (thanks to CS Lewis) last Sunday. This started off with the idea that it's impossible for a team of people (the Gospel writers and disciples) or for an individual to invent a truly good person who is also completely consistent and likeable. If Jesus comes across as truly good and truly loveable in the Bible, that's genuinely supernatural! No human is perfect, and no made-up perfect person is loveable. Anyone read Horrid Henry? Think how awful his brother Perfect Peter is...

Moving on, people suggest that the disciples and gospel writers took the story of a good man, Jesus, and added on supernatural bits and pieces to make this good human into something divine. Is it possible that the stories are a mish-mash of history and superstition? Is it possible to say, 'Yes, Jesus said THIS, but he didn't do THAT?' I don't really think so. The stories are consistent, as I said above. You can spot made up stories about Jesus a mile off. Once a preacher in my childhood church read out some nineteenth century stories about Jesus as a boy which talked about how sweet and brave and loving he was. And how totally un-natural and inhuman and revolting, all the children thought... Ow, they were horrible! The real Jesus may be lovely, but he is hard work. He's not at all tolerant of hypocricy or privilege or the status quo.

So for me it's impossible to fall into a handy compromise along the lines that 'Jesus was a good man but nothing more'. Jesus didn't say he was 'nothing more'. He allowed people to refer to him as the Saviour of his people and referred to ancient prophecies as if they were about himself. He called God his Father, and encouraged his followers to do the same. Good people don't claim that kind of glory - unless they deserve it. CS Lewis says it comes down to three choices: either Jesus was mad (he thought he was the Son of God when he wasn't), bad (he pretended he was the Son of God when he knew he wasn't) or he was telling the truth.

When I went through my little crisis of faith I really didn't feel ready to compromise. Either there isn't any supernatural element in life, or Jesus is the real deal. I wasn't comfortable with a 'The universe is on our side and good things come to those who think positively' type of spirituality. I do believe that positive thinking is very important, but I don't see much evidence of that as a spiritual truth - it's more psyschological. Spiritually, for me it comes down to a decision about Jesus: is he made up or semi-invented, or is he real and telling the truth? Intellectually, I'm going for the 'real and telling the truth' choice. My emotions can catch up on that intellectual decision when they have time - it's not about current feelings, it's about fact. I have enough evidence from the Bible, from the lives of other people, from my own past and my present, to accept that, however I feel right now, Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Reasons to be Faithful, Part Two - a Pause in Lent

Welcome to our second pause in Lent. Whilst managing to browse most of the contributions last week, I don't think I commented - this week I'll try to do better! You can find all the participants in the blog list to the left, and it's great to read around and find out what other people are thinking and doing as Lent progresses.

My Lent posts this year are a very personal list of reasons to hold on to my Christian faith, after a I went through a rather alarming wilderness patch. It's honestly the first time in my life that I've had to look at faith 'from the outside', and actually, of course, this is a very interesting exercise. Scary, but informative. I hope that my reflections could also be useful to anyone else 'looking in' at Christianity, or at a life of faith in general, too.

So, last week I considered that my role models are Christians. Despite my doubts, they have an enthusiasm, a vitality and an honesty that I want. This week is looking at the person who is central to Christianity: Jesus.

CS Lewis concluded that it would be impossible to invent Jesus. A popular example of an invented 'good person' is dear little Pollyanna. Or is that 'insufferable little Pollyanna'? Personally, I enjoyed those books and think the author had a good point. But Pollyanna is a bit irritating, you have to concede (don't you?) or at least we can concede that she is controversial - like Marmite, you love her or you hate her. I know this because my own family was divided in childhood over those books, and my own dear mum found Pollyanna insufferable! I think that the trouble is that one author (Eleanor H. Porter) just didn't have the scope to make a truly good person also truly loveable to all. There is sometimes an urge to shake such an annoyingly optimistic little ray of sunshine...

But I really don't think that anyone wants to shake Jesus. In the Gospel accounts he is truly good but also truly likeable. I remember one friend (we were in our twenties) who turned to me during a discussion and raged: 'I hate God, but I LOVE Jesus!' People who don't like authority, who don't trust religion, who have bad experiences of fathers or of men in general, may have a very bad feeling about how they imagine God, but they can't find much to say against Jesus. He draws people to him, through the written stories as in life. Do I really think that a bunch of variously-educated First Century men could have been the only people to ever successfully invent (or embroider) stories of a good person? I don't. I think that the reason for these stories of such a powerfully loving, counter-cultural, Godly person, is that he truly existed, and that he existed as the stories tell. No individual (or group) could invent him.

Reasons to be Faithful, Part One - A Pause in Lent

Welcome to the first Pause in Lent, 2014! I was grateful for the reminder about this annual event, as I've not had much time for blogging recently, but it's really good to be joining with you all to take the time to think during Lent. Please use the list in my sidebar to visit the other Pause in Lent bloggers, and to find out what others are doing.

As I said in my first Advent post last year, I had the most unexpected of setbacks last year - a quite significant loss of faith. I think it went beyond doubting, and into atheism, for a while. Your comments and your own posts which were sparked by that 'confession' were really helpful and interesting, and I hope I can spend Lent thinking about why I have held on to faith rather than rejecting it, at that point when it seemed unlikely that there was any reason to remain faithful to my previously heartfelt Christian beliefs.

I've listed the things that made me hold on to faith, and here is the first one: other people.

I asked myself, when I was identifying most with atheist/agnostic friends and writers, if I actually wanted to be like them. Who are my role models, I suppose...

I like my atheist/agnostic friends - they are super people! But oddly enough, my role models were all committed Christians. Interesting, I thought to myself. They have something more, something that I really want.

The first person I realised I want to be like is someone that most of you know. She's going to get embarassed but the rest of you won't be surprised. An important role model for me is Ang. She's real, she's believable, she's larger than life despite being tiny, and her vibrant faith makes her 'go the extra mile' for an awful lot of people. The combination of faith in action and believable humanity is very compelling. I realised I would be happy indeed to be like her.

After that I thought of a few other people I actually want to resemble. There's my mum, whose pared-down faith seemed a bit simplistic and lacking in theology to me when I was an opinionated young adult. Yet her faith was real, humble and sustaining through her prolonged final illness, and at her memorial service I met so many people who wanted to tell me about how she had quietly helped them through difficult times in their own lives. She kept her faith in God's love and strength when others might have felt abandoned. It wasn't a crutch, it was power.

Finally, there are two of the most cheerfully embarassing people I've ever known, now no longer with us. Ken and Lorna were a couple in their early seventies when Ben and I knew them - we were in our early twenties. Ken would look tearfully at Lorna and say to me, 'I love her more every day, even after all these years'. Embarrasing indeed, but incredibly admirable, too. Ken and Lorna never lost their enthusiasm for each other or for Jesus. After decades of rather conventional Christianity, they experienced a kind of renewal and just couldn't stop praising God and talking to other people about him. Well, it was embarassing but it was genuine and it was passionate and enthusiastic. What a great way to be when most people would be slowing down!

So, I thought - it's not time to throw Baby Jesus out with the bathwater just yet. You still think that the most impressive people you've ever met are those inspired by their love for Him.

_________________________

Blogging is full of movement and change, and one great blogger who's been a popular part of many of our festive Pauses in Advent has just said 'Goodbye' to blogging. Vintage Vicki has decided that it's time to move on to other things, and if you haven't yet read her goodbye post then do pop over and I know that you'll understand her reasons. I'll miss her blog, but am awfully grateful that I'll be able to keep in touch with her in other ways.

A Pause in Lent

Ang has just asked me if I was doing a Pause in Lent this year - the answer is: why not? Thank you, Ang, and all the rest of you who have borne with me despite some long absences from my blog. We're well, happy and very very busy, which explains the absences, but I will be happy to pop in each Sunday (or Monday) in Lent to read and contribute to the Pause in Lent posts.

 

If you would like to join in, please leave a comment here.The idea is to take some time to reflect, either in a specifically Christian way or just in a more general 'spring-time, new-life' manner, on what this season means to us. You can share with us what you have been thinking about, what you have been doing at home or at church, what you have been reading or experiencing, and what your hopes or prayers are. The first Sunday of Lent is this Sunday (did you have your pancakes yesterday?) and Easter Sunday is April 20th. So please join with us to post when you can (no obligations, no guilt) on Sundays or Mondays between now and then. Please feel free to take the picture above and to make a link back to my blog, where I will make a list of all the participants and link to their blogs in my sidebar. I am looking forward to joining up with you all!

A final Pause in Lent, 2013

Well, even though it's been bitty and I've not had all that much blogging time, I've appreciated our Pause in Lent this year - thank you for your contributions and comments! My thought this week has been about how easy it is to define ourselves negatively ('well, at least I'm not...') rather than positively. I want to avoid the comparison definitions of myself, and go for the positive ones, the ones which say what I am, not what I'm NOT!

This led on, strangely but logically, to Jesus's story:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God."

The story is in the book of Luke, and you can find the full version here. The logical connection is that the Pharisee was all about what he was NOT, but the tax collector looked at what he WAS. The strange aspect is that what he sees about himself is negative, and not all the positive cheery stuff I was aiming for! So does that mean that either the tax collector or I have got it wrong?

I think not. The tax collector doesn't compare himself to the Pharisee, only to God, and to what he feels he should be in God's eyes. That's not wrong, and Jesus promises that it got him justified by God. I can look at myself and see what I have done wrong, and what I lack in terms of character. I can go to God about it and seek his mercy, without comparing myself to other people. I can also look at myself in the shining light of Jesus' love and forgiveness, and see some wonderful, wonderful things about myself, made in the image of God and redeemed by his grace. I think that this is where the positive definitions come in. As Mother Theresa said: 'For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway'.

Have a special Holy Week, if you're commemorating it. And see you for Easter Joy!

A Pause in Lent - on Sunday for once!

I like what Ang said about this carving of Jesus - it's as if he's holding up his hand and saying, 'Hang on, stop and think about what really matters'! Betty also had some interesting information about the carving, when I posted about it last week - you can scroll down and find the post and comments easily, if you're interested.

So, here I am to hang on and think about what really matters! It's been quite a week - the family are fine but outside the home things have been quite difficult for friends and for Ben too. A week when I realised that God had drawn me towards last week's Pause in Lent quote for a reason. A week when I found myself repeating the words of a Methodist communion service: 'We are not worthy... but it is your nature always to have mercy, and on that we depend'. It's easier not to judge when you realise what a second ...(third/fourth...) chance you have been given yourself.

I also re-read my Simple Abundance book, and found a challenge that I hadn't really taken up before on the previous reads. It was to list ten things you like about yourself. The first list of ten was for your physical appearance. I'm quite vain so that wasn't too hard! But I was staggered to realise how hard it was to list ten things I like about my personality. I'm not a deeply unpleasant person, so there must be at least ten likable things about me, but blow me down, they were hard for me to think of! I'm not fishing for compliments here - instead, I issue you the challenge - write down ten things you like about yourself! I concluded that I spend a good amount of time thinking of how I'd like to improve/confessing, so it's valuable to get a balance and to also remember that God created us in his own image and saw that we were good!

A Pause in Lent

• 
  Fast from judging others; Feast on the Christ dwelling within them.

Well, the above quote isn't an attempt to stop you from complaining about my untimely Lent posts and lack of sidebar links for the rest of you - honest! (But sorry, all the same, as normal service has yet to be resumed...)

It's just that the quote from the optional Lent poem caught my eye - it's so easy to say, and so hard to actually do, don't you think? I remember taking little baby Son 1 on the Newcastle Metro with a new Christian friend, and making some ratty comment about an obvious fare-dodger. When this young woman asked me, very innocently: 'Didn't Jesus say that he we can leave the judging to him?', she really brought me up short. I wouldn't have thought that I judged people, but here was evidence that I was doing just that.

There are sayings all around the world about not judging someone you don't understand - "you have to walk a mile in someone else's shoes" comes to mind, but there are lots of other good ones. This poem takes it even further, if you follow Christ - not only do you need to attempt to understand, but you need to recognise that Jesus is in that person! If I truly understood this, I'm sure I would behave differently, when a driver behind me honks angrily, or when teenagers in my sons' schools smoke and drink... Jesus is there, with those people, loving them. What am I doing?

A long-promised explanation!

I've been using this interesting image for years for our Pause in Lent posts, and I kept promising and explanation of where I snapped the photo - finally, here's the information!

We were in Saint Génis des Fontaines, which is in the foothills of the Pyrenees near the Med, about four years ago, on an enjoyable camping trip, and Ben and I decided to do a tour of the abbey before taking the boys on to visit the Valley of Tortoises (which is a great place in itself). If you've been on holiday in France, you've probably guessed the rest - we turned up at lunchtime, the place was shut, we looked round the outside while taking some photos and eating sandwiches, and it re-opened at just about the point we were ready to head off and see the tortoises! I'm not complaining - it's good that people respect lunch and break times, it just took us years to learn this habit!

So this photo is of the outside of the abbey. It's the lintel, and is very old and quite well known. You can see some good pictures and read about it in French here. And in more detail, but in Catalan here. What do you mean, you don't read Catalan? ;)

Other than the Catalan question, my question for you is: Do you think this is a good representation of God? Does it work for you? Why or why not? I spent some time wondering if it was the right 'logo' for a Pause in Lent the first time I used it, and now I've got used to it, but I wonder what it 'says' to other people?

A Pause in Lent

Phew!

Life is slowing down a little - we still don't know the cause of Son 1's Friday rash, but it doesn't seem to have been anything scary related to his operation. He's feeling pretty good now, and is currently cooking tortillas (from scratch - slowly...) ready for a Hairy Biker's Mexican feast that's planned for Son 2's return from the Pyrenees this evening.

Like Ang, I've been thinking of certain key verses from the Fast/Feast Lent poem:

• Fast from thoughts of illness; Feast on the healing power of God.
• Fast from negatives; Feast on affirmatives.
• Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
• Fast from discouragements; Feast on hope.

And like Elizabethd, I've found the order of the seasons really encouraging:

• Fast from worry; Feast on divine order.

Ben bought me these beautiful hanging vases for Christmas. He suspended them from our little chandelier on Saturday and put the first two daffodils from our garden into them - a wonderful sign of the changing season!

 

And another really positive thing that happened to me this week reminds me of the power of random acts of kindness:

 

I was hurrying home to give the boys lunch (it's the holidays!), and really didn't have time between lessons to manage this and also eat myself. I popped into Intermarché to pick up some simple lunch supplies and rushed to the checkout. The woman in the queue ahead of me (in her early 60s) looked at my smart clothes and said: 'Are you working? If you need to get back to work, please go ahead of me. I don't work now but I remember what it was like...' Phew! One little act of kindness and thoughtfulness saved my day and has been on my mind ever since.

A Pause in Lent

It's not a very spiritual Pause, but I've had an enforced pause today, which is probably quite a good thing!

It snowed hard (by southern French standards) today, and my morning and lunch time lessons were cancelled. After a weekend getting sorted after the operation etc, it was odd and not entirely welcome to have next to nothing to do! The boys are on holiday but Son 2 has gone to play in the snow with his friends (and is now staying over night) and Son 1 is quite independent around the house except when he needs a pain killer! I tried adding a Pause in Lent Bloggers list to my sidebar (I really do want your contributions shared and recognised, folks) but Blogger isn't playing. So, hmm... pause..!

I did visit some Pause in Lent bloggers and Fiona, who has her own busy life at the moment, suggested praying. Yes - I'm tired, I'm drifting, I felt tearful when I saw Son 1's operation wounds when the nurse dressed them tonight - prayer it is. Thank you, Fiona. Thank you, Pause in Lent. Thank you, Jesus!

Sign up for A Pause in Lent 2013!

Phew, thanks to Ang for reminding me - Lent starts tomorrow!

And thanks to Jane, who posted this wonderful Lenten reflection last year, which I suggested could be a theme for this year! Let's post as usual (on Sundays or Mondays in Lent, starting this week), and take the meditation Jane posted as a rough theme:

Fast from - Feast on

• Fast from judging others; Feast on the Christ dwelling within them.
• Fast from emphasis on differences; Feast on the unity of life.
• Fast from apparent darkness; Feast on the reality of light.
• Fast from thoughts of illness; Feast on the healing power of God.
• Fast from words that pollute; Feast on phrases that glorify.
• Fast from discontent; Feast on gratitude.
• Fast from anger; Feast on patience.
• Fast from pessimism; Feast on optimism.
• Fast from worry; Feast on divine order.
• Fast from complaining; Feast on appreciation.
• Fast from negatives; Feast on affirmatives.
• Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
• Fast on hostility; Feast on non-resistance.
• Fast from bitterness; Feast on forgiveness.
• Fast from self-concern; Feast on compassion for others.
• Fast from personal anxiety; Feast on eternal truth.
• Fast from discouragements; Feast on hope.
• Fast from facts that depress; Feast on verities that lift.
• Fast from lethargy; Feast on enthusiasm.
• Fast from thoughts that weaken; Feast on promises that inspire.
• Fast from shadows of sorrow; Feast on the sunlight of serenity.
• Fast from idle gossip; Feast on purposeful silence.
• Fast from problems that overwhelm; Feast on prayer that strengthens.

William Arthur Ward (American author, teacher and pastor, 1921 -1994.)

A Pause In Lent - Reflection on the Cardinal Virtues

Hi, and welcome to the final Pause in Lent 2012 - it's Palm Sunday! I really appreciated my blogging break and I also appreciate your kind words and your understanding of the fact that I haven't been around to read your (surely excellent) Pause in Lent posts until now.I was thinking about which of the Cardinal Virtues that I haven't covered should be the subject of my last post, and I just couldn't choose! Instead I decided to just think about the idea of the virtues as a whole. This won't take long...

What I've been thinking is that, until last year, I thought that these lists of 'nice things' were rather sacharine and cute. They seemed to be about pretending that nasty things don't happen, and didn't appear a realistic way to look at life - similar to the way that I thought about Paul's exhortation to think about 'whatever is good' (I did a post about that last Lent). An alternative way to look at them was that they are all rather dull and hard work - how could a real life full of these virtues be anything other than worthy and unpleasant?As I discovered last Lent, however, choosing to think about the good things, and choosing to live with sacrificial virtues rather than 'a bit of fun', turns out to be neither twee nor bleak. It turns out to be the best way to actually go on living and loving and thriving and growing. Drat. Teenaged cynicism is given its final death-blow. Life is fun and God is good! How hard can that be, really?

A Pause in Lent - Humility (following the events in Toulouse)

There is so much to be said on the subject of humility, but today it's on my mind because of the events that we people of Toulouse and district have suffered over the last few weeks. Seemingly random shootings culminated in terrible deaths at a school gate, and a frightening siege which ended with the gunman's death. Family, bloggers and other friends have sent me emails, left comments and made calls - I told our pastor, who lives near the gunman's flat, that people around the world have been praying for us all - thank you so much. And please keep praying, because it isn't all over, despite the death of the killer.

Humility came to mind because of the varied reactions people have expressed about the whole situation. Politicians knew they had to be humble when faced with the death of innocents. The presidential candidates seemed dignified and human, as they put aside their squabbles and recognised that the grief of families and communities had to come first.

Once the worst was over, the politicians slipped back a little - I'm afraid it's only to be expected. But Facebook was also a bit scary, with lots of ordinary Toulousains getting pretty hot under the collar about how things should have been handled better.

The religious communities seemed to be more able to speak peace at this point. I copied the most simple, heartfelt prayer from a local French friend on my Thursday post, below. I've been looking now for some of the beautiful, noble words that were said at the time of the killings at the Jewish school - Jews and Muslims both spoke so simply and with such humanity. But here's the strange thing: the news articles where I read those words have mainly been deleted. Plenty of articles in English and French about the events and their repercussions, but the gentle thoughts of leaders and ordinary people aren't on the web any more. Humble thoughts and good news don't last as long as grouching and political analysis, perhaps.

One thing I do know is that people who spend more time forgiving the little things are better practiced at forgiving the big things. This is what the poor vicar whose family was torn apart in the vicarage attack back in the 80s said - I'll never forget it. He said something like: "Forgiveness had become a daily habit, so that when I needed to forgive this huge wrong, it still came naturally". His daughter, who was raped in the attack, has also said: "It's not whether you can or can't forgive, it's whether you will or won't". She went on: "Of course, sometimes I thought it might be quite nice to be full of hatred and revenge. But I think it creates a barrier and you're the one who gets damaged in the end. So, although it makes you vulnerable, forgiving is actually a release. I don't think I'd be here today without my Christian faith. That's what got me through."

I recognise a desire for humility and forgiveness in people responding to the Toulouse killings - of course they don't have to be Christian to value those virtues. But I also recognise in myself something that Nancy said in response to my last post: "It is so difficult to be strong; and to be stronger than darkness is only possible with The Light."

A Pause in Lent - Notes on Liberality

Hello friends - welcome to this week's Pause in Lent. Other bloggers who are joining in (not necessarily on the subject of Liberality) are listed in my sidebar. It's fantastic reading through the different posts, and seeing themes which run through the very different posts we all produce.

At first, as Ang suggested to me when we hatched this plan, 'Liberality' seemed to be the hardest Cardinal Virtue to understand. And then when I started looking the word up it seemed so similar to generosity, which is in itself similar to kindness (?) that I wondered how I could do three different posts on three such similar Virtues. But this week things I've been reading and reflecting on for a while seem to have gelled into a series of thoughts which could be (perhaps) collected under the title of Liberality. So here goes:

liberality

noun pl. liberalities

1. the quality or state of being liberal; specif., willingness to give or share freely; generosity

2. absence of narrowness or prejudice in thinking; broad-mindedness

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My thoughts are on the second definition, as otherwise I'm not going to have anything to say about generosity!

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At first glance it seems there are two ways to react to any challenge to Christian faith - a crumbling sort of openess ('Oh yes, this belief is just what works for me, something else might work for someone else') or a narrow, militant certainty ('There is only one Truth and I will proclaim it in the face of all opposition, certain that disagreement is persecution for my faith'), to caricature the two positions.

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However, both of those positions seem to me to be based on fear - firstly fear that someone else will be offended by my beliefs, or, for the second way, fear that someone else's beliefs might challenge my own if I ever gave in and listened to them.

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It strikes me now that there is a Third Way (apologies to T. Blair) and that this is surely the way of 'perfect love which drives out all fear'. It is about having confidence and faith in our loving God which allows us to be open to ideas and suggestions, to research and experiences, without in any way diminishing our Lord or our faith in him.

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God is too eternal, too real, to be harmed by some of the things we try to defend him from. Defending God? Really, friends, I don't think he needs our help. Surely we're really only defending our own positions or our own, inevitably limited, faith, when we get into a row about creation vs evolution (don't even get me started on this - I think it's a false battle) or about exactly who is Saved, or about any other cherished but, let's face it, human understanding of God and His Word. As Fiona quoted in her Pause last week, what God wants from us is that we, "Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God" - Micah 6:8. When I stop being frightened of challenges and instead open up to the "wideness in God's mercy", I catch glimpses of how incredibly big God is, and how human fear only holds us back from him.

*

"For the love of God is broader

Than the measure of our mind;

And the heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind.

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But we make His love too narrow

By false limits of our own;

And we magnify His strictness

With a zeal He will not own."

I had to show you a photo of the chap who wrote that hymn. Don't you think it's wonderful that this somewhat stuffy looking man was so full of what you've just got to recognise as God's grace, shown through Liberality? Find out more about him here:
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/f/a/b/faber_fw.htm

A Pause in Lent - Notes on Kindness

Welcome to this week's Pause in Lent. You'll find the other people joining in on the list to your left. We're thinking about the Cardinal Virtues for Lent 2012 - even in the first week this provided scope for a huge variety of ideas, but also some over-arching themes - I wonder what everyone else has been thinking about this week?

For me the virtue which seemed to be most 'flagged up' this week was kindness. Here is Charley Harper's stylish and charming 'Cardinal Courtship' to illustrate the idea:

This week my Lent readings mentioned kindness, and my life required it. This morning Christophe, one of our preachers, preached on Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 4. He was very interesting, and very relevant, and so for my Lent pause I'm going to write for you the things I scribbled down in my notebook during the sermon. Some of the thoughts come directly from the Bible reading (translated from the French I heard). Others are Christophe's (also translated!) and some are mine:

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'Integrity means wholeness. If we do not have integrity in our lives, our lives are in danger of cracking.'

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It's in my nature to be kind to a lot of people. I am naturally kind to dyslexic learners struggling to understand (it's my profession!). I am kind to people, anywhere in the world, who are struggling against difficult odds.

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'Who can pretend to have attained the goal?'

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It's in my nature to be unkind to a lot of people. I can't stand whiners. I don't like people who won't make an effort. I am naturally unkind with people who appear to have it all but still don't appear to make anything of it. This means I am unkind to myself (remember what Jane wrote last week?) and to my family too - we have so much, what are we whining about? I feel we could do anything, and shouldn't fail..!

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"Put off your old nature."

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The natural kindness of Floss is a good start. But it's imperfect and of limited understanding. Put off the limits to my human kindness. Take on the unlimited Loving Kindness of God, beginning with me, beginning with my family.

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'God does not abandon us. It is he who gives us the power to change.'

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'His Loving Kindness is recreated in us by the Holy Spirit.'

Finally - A Pause in Lent

Hello to all my blogging friends - wow, that was One of Those weekends! Nothing terrible, but so busy...

I took some time out yesterday and this morning to look at some of your Pause in Lent posts, and had a giggle with Betty and Dormouse (I should have been more serious - they were) and went back to my housework this morning to the sound of Northern Irish worship music courtesy of Fraise Lachrimose! Giggles and folk rock (plus) have been about my limits for the last few days...

But now I must take my own advice and Pause for the first Sunday in Lent! Along with lots of the others, the cardinal virtues of Valour and Diligence are the ones that hit me this week. And the virtues do kind of hit you, don't they? They are quite tough and uncompromising, and doen't seem to have many 'get-out' clauses. This is probably quite essential.

Since arriving in France, the Valour I've needed has, so far, been practical, spiritual and emotional. I had to (and still continue to) learn French. I had to learn how another country works, and, more challengingly, thinks. I had to learn, the hard way, the strength of human stubborness which allows us to believe that we have wholy given ourselves up to God whilst we are subconsciously pursuing our own agenda, which could in fact be totally counter to God's will. I had to learn that, in my desire to give up self and follow Jesus, I was actually quite ruled by my emotions - ignoring self is not the same as giving up selfishness! Quite the opposite, it turns out - as I've learned about myself (thank you Happiness Project and Simple Abundance) - I've found out what's good and to be cherished and what's harmful and to be confessed and shunned. Ouch! It all hurt but it continues to be worth it.

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Diligence (am I the only person who wants to type that with two 'l's?) is now required. God has taken me on a wild ride and it has been stunning - I don't want to hop off the ride, thank him and go my own way. Now is the time, I'm sure, for the 'filling' part of the hymn I mentioned a while back:

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'Break me,
Melt me,
Mould me,
Fill me'.

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I sang and prayed that for years, and God answered the first three parts since I've come to France - phew! Be careful what you pray for…

Now I know I will have to be diligent to be available for God - the opportunity to learn from him and to become the real me, living and working with the real Him, is there for the taking. But will I make myself open to him? One practical resolution I have this Lent is to go to church each Sunday. That used to be so easy - a church (or several) in walking or cycling distance, all in your own language, easy to get the children to. As Dormouse has said in her post, Protestant churches in France are none of these things. Why should they be? Our Pastor's wife said to me last month: 'You are in exile here. It's normal if nothing feels easy. Don't worry about it.' That was reassuring. And perhaps her understanding is one of the reasons why I'm willing to haul myself (and often the whole family) the 40 minute drive to church in a foreign language. It doesn't have to be that easy. I don't have to leap into action the way I used to do in English churches. Just turning up is perhaps all the diligence that God requires of me at the moment.

Theme - A Pause in Lent 2012

It's been generally agreed that coming up with ideas for six Sunday/Mondays in a row can be quite a struggle for the Pause in Lent, so those who have left comments have all been in favour of a loose theme to guide our thoughts.

I want us to be very relaxed about this - interpret the theme as you like, and use the inspiration words as you want - maybe you want to take one word and write about it for the whole of Lent, or maybe you'd prefer to look at many different words. And here are the words, suggested by Ang of Tracing Rainbows:

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Valour
Generosity
Liberality
Diligence
Patience
Kindness
Humility

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Do you recognise them? If you do, you might realise why they go, in my mind at least, with Charley Harper's Cool Cardinal, pictured above the list! (See my sidebar for more Charley Harper details.)

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Yes, no doubt most of you got it quicker than I would have - Ang sent me a list of the Cardinal Virtues (or, and this gets complicated, the four cardinal virtues plus three theological virtues - I'm not got to quibble)! Here are the definitions Ang found:

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Valour: Pursuit of Knowledge
Generosity: Pursuit of Charity
Liberality: Pursuit of Will
Diligence: Pursuit of Ethics
Patience: Pursuit of Peace
Kindness: Pursuit of Love
Humility: Pursuit of Modesty

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As Protestants, Ang and I have never really looked much into this list before, and some of them sound kind of complicated, nay, confusing... What are we going to make of them? Well, our Catholic friends may be able to help us out - I'm sure glad you're with us, friends. But the really important thing is that they should give us some kind of prompt for spiritual exploration over the next six weeks - as Yoli, over at Apron Senorita, says: "The goal of every Christian is to leave Lent a stronger and more vital person of faith than when we entered." I'm really looking forward to sharing Lent with you, friends old and new.

A Pause in Lent 2012 - WIP!

A Pause in Lent this year will start next Sunday or Monday (this also reminds us that Tuesday is Pancake Day - not to be forgotten!). Thanks very much for the comments you've been leaving on last Wednesday's post (click on the link in the sidebar to see it). It's clear that a loose theme with a positive, 'looking forward' nature is going to be useful for us. I'm looking through all your suggestions, in comments and emails, and will come up with something for you by Ash Wednesday, which seems appropriate! The most important thing is that this 'Pause' is designed to help bloggers in their own spiritual path. Therefore I try to keep the rules to a minimum, because how on earth would I know what's right for you? If you want to dip in and out, and not post every week, please do. If you want to tie your posts in with something else you're doing, like a Lent group, readings, giving up or taking on things... please do! See you in Lent!