Eternal Echoes

be...

be still,

rest,  be still...

+

be still,

rest, be...

+

be still,

rest...

+

be still...

+

be...

+

be

+

be

Picture Beside still water by Ruth Calder Murphy

 ^8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God! 
      He plants flowers and trees all over the earth, 
   Bans war from pole to pole, 
      breaks all the weapons across his knee. 
   "Step out of the traffic! Take a long, 
      loving look at me, your High God, 
      above politics, above everything."

(Psalm 46; The Message) 

Take a long, 
      loving look at me, your High God....

BE STILL!

 

life....

here is life,

here are light

and loved released

where once

destructive darkness

 ruled

and reigned…

+

life is the

overcomer,

the empower,

 the truth-teller,

speaking against the lies...

+

life comes

planting new truths

in our souls...

listen ,

listen

do you detect

truths' whisper?

you are worthy,

you are precious,

you are honoured

you are held beyond all holding

by the arms

of everlasting love...

+

life stands

vulnerable

yet strong,

a shelter in the blackness

of the storm,

life offers open arms,

and an ever present welcome,

a table set,

a seat prepared,

and succour

for the soul…

+

here is life,

here are light

and loved released

where once

destructive darkness

 ruled

and reigned…

+

here is the invitation,

how will you respond…

+

 

Pictures by Tim

Marked

Encounter

 

 

 

 

victims, vulnerability, relationships and justice... . (pondering the reality of the spiritual battle)

Today I have been pondering the realities of what St Paul calls a spiritual battle, I’ve read and re-read the wonderful passage in Ephesians that exhorts us to clothe ourselves in the spiritual armour of trust, righteousness, peace and faith, applying them all with prayer that we might be ready to stand. I love the way the Message version reminds us to “be prepared, you’re up against far more than you can face on your own…” (Eph 6. 13)

 

I’ve also been pondering also how unpopular this kind of language is in some Christian circles for it is seen as being over the top, or even harmful. It has sadly become associated with a “devil behind every bush” theology, and even offers us an ultimate cop out; “I am not responsible, the devil made me do it!”

 

These unhelpful extremes have robbed too many of us of a vital tool for our Christian life, by rejecting any thought of battle we too easily dismiss the raw and real power of spiritual evil as it effects us on a daily basis. It is easy to see evil and injustice on a global level, but on a local and personal level all too often we are willing to give up the fight to change things, and probably mostly because the oppressor comes dressed up in disguise, and we find ourselves not wanting to be counted and not wishing to rock the boat.

 

Recently I have been introduced to what to me is a  a wonderful tool for helping us to understand our relationships, how they go wrong and how we can begin to put them right. This tool consists of two “triangles to help us to understand ourselves and our reactions;

 

The Drama Triangle was originally developed in 1968 by Stephen Karpman, a Transactional Analysis trainer, as a way of graphically displaying the dance that occurs whenever we make someone else responsible for how we feel. According to Karpman, any time we don’t take responsibility for our feelings we are acting in a part of the Drama Triangle.

 

 

 

The roles of the drama triangle are: Victim, Persecutor and Rescuer. Karpman shows the relationship between these three roles by putting them on an upside down triangle. This shows the Persecutor and Rescuer in the one-up position that they take to the Victim.

• A Persecutor is someone who puts other people down and therefore goes one-up. They can act actively or be passive in response to the Victim.
• A Rescuer also goes one-up. They do more than their share, taking responsibility from the victim, and do the things they don’t really want to do taking on the persona of a martyr.
• Victims don’t take responsibility for themselves. They will often feel overwhelmed with their feelings or even numb to them. They go one down.

 

If we live out our spiritual lives as participants in this triangle might it be that we are denying the armour of God, we are refusing to step into the light and end up in a destructive spiral of negativity towards ourselves and others.

 

There is an alternative; The Winner’s Triangle uses the same structure as the Drama Triangle but uses adult roles to replace the parent/child roles of the Drama Triangle.

 

 

The roles of the Drama Triangle each have their equivalent role in the Winner’s Triangle. Each of the three roles in the Winner’s Triangle is an ‘OK’ role and requires the development of a different set of skills (see table below).

Drama Triangle Role	Winners Triangle Role	Skill to be Developed
Victim	Vulnerable	Problem solving
Rescuer	Caring	Listening
Persecutor	Assertive	Assertiveness

 

Any technique that the vulnerable person can use to get themselves thinking about options and consequences is valuable. In the Caring role the development of listening skills that involve empathising with a vulnerable person is required. Listening is frequently the only Caring response needed. Assertiveness is about getting your needs met without punishing. Self awareness is essential in all three roles.

Could it be I dare to ponder that putting on the spiritual armour means putting on responsibility, but a holy responsibility that enables us to see that we cannot do it on our own, to admit our need of God to help us to stand tall, and perhaps to admit that sometimes we get ourselves into our own messes and that we need help to get out of them.

 

I believe all pf this can be very helpful to us all, because I see again and again that we struggle with issues of justice in our relationships and actions as Christians together and as a Churches of all denominations, and sadly we too often opt for the drama triangle rather than the winners triangle, indeed I would even go so far as to suggest that all too often Christians struggle to display the assertiveness necessary to be and become winners, and I wonder if this is all down to a radical mis-understanding of the nature of the cross and the resurrection…

 

I’ll leave it there; I’d be interested in your thoughts!

 

Related articles

Living the resurrection...

Drama Triangle (Karpman)

Dear Church (3) a ministers plea (service, rest and fullness of life...)

Dear Church,

I want to serve you,

indeed, I am called

to serve you,

called to somehow

inhabit the gap,

to pray and to preach

and to model

Godly love for you,

to work with you

and to encourage you

to inhabit the gap, to 

help you to model 

Godly love too,

and yes Godly love gives,

but it also creates,

it energises, and equips

but it also rests,

it takes life seriously,

but it also has fun

and springs from a place

of deep joy

and peace,

it flows from a healthy,

life-giving centre,

it is a living

breathing, feeling reality

causing streams to flow in the desert,

a way to be made

in the waste lands

a song to be sung

in the silence

and silence to be heard

above the tumultuous

demands,

and the still small voice

to be heard

even within

the rumours

of despair...

Dear Church,

we are called,

and chosen

to model a different way,

a life of centered

Holy fullness,

will you join me,

will you enter

into the

unforced rhythms

of grace?

Dear Church,

let's live 

in Spirit given fullness

offering life

to others...

come,

let's dance in him

together...

  

 

 

Growing from love, growing into love; Sermon blogging (Mark 4:26-34, 2 Corinthians 5: 6-17)

I don’t know how many of you are gardeners, Tim and I are newbie gardeners, we’ve always had gardens, but beyond pulling out weeds and cutting a bit of grass we’ve not done much until now. Then something happened, we were visiting friends for a meal, and they cooked us a lovely lamb steak on the BBQ, it was accompanied by fresh spinach, fresh new potatoes and fresh beetroot all from their garden! We tasted and we knew and we were hooked, the non gardeners became gardeners because we’d caught a glimpse of the joy of growing your own. In a sense we were converted, and all it had taken was a mouthful of fresh spinach! At that point the lamb paled into insignificance! The seed of desire for something new had been sown in us and supermarket spinach would now be a poor substitute!

 

The apostle Paul tasted something new, and changed, a much more dramatic change than a change from not gardener to gardener, he experienced a deep internal change, a transformation of heart and soul, mind and spirit, a change that opened his life to the extraordinary love of God in Christ, a love that he now describes as a compelling love….

 

What happened? Somehow Jesus had come to him in such a way that the knowledge of the love of God was firmly planted within him, and he would never be the same…

 

God’s love became his mission, his vision and his prayer; he wanted everyone to experience God’s love as rooted and growing reality in their lives, and in a lovely juxtaposition that all should know themselves planted into God’s love from where they could grow vigorously and healthily. Listen carefully to his prayer:

 

Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

 ^11-13All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!

 ^14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

 

Live in the fullness of God, full lives in the fullness of God, that is Paul’s prayer, it is the love of God that sustains and compels him, the love of God that is growing in him and from which he is growing…

God is love, his kingdom purposes are that his love should be shown and grown in his people, Jesus offers us stories, parables to illustrate the vibrancy and energy of this, reminding us it is God’s work and not ours he tells of the field planted by the farmer, the mystery and energy, the warmth and the wonder that cause the seeds he has sown to grow and sprout until the harvest is ready….

 

God is love, his kingdom purposes are that his love should be shown and grown in his people; Jesus tells us another parable, of how the smallest seed becomes the largest plant, growing and maturing until it is able to offer shade and shelter…

 

God’s love growing within, God’s love from which we grow, God’s love which when we receive it and allow ourselves to be planted in it works in and through us a wonder, a compulsion to share it for we have tasted and known ourselves to be held by something that is far better than spinach!

 

So what happens to us when we receive this love, when we begin to grow in it? Paul speaks of groaning and longing for something more, more because we realise that there is so much more, we have only put our toes in the water of the possibilities of God, our roots are baby roots, and the soil of his love is rich and deep, and every fibre of our being longs to plumb it’s depths, to receive of it’s riches….

 

Stop for a moment, ask yourself is this your experience? Do you know the love of God in this way? If not now is the time to ask him to plant you firmly into his kingdom by receiving again or maybe for the first time the love of Christ, whose love was planted and displayed so richly among us as he left heavens glories to be born in a manger, as he stretched out his arms on the cross giving his life that we might live, and mightily through the glorious power of the resurrection as he overcame death, offering his transforming possibilities to be at work within the brokenness ugliness and loveless-ness of this world. His love available for all as a free planting for our hearts….

 

That transformative work within will enable us to see the world as God sees it, to see others as he sees them, to live from a balanced centre, we have been given a fresh start, our old life is gone; a new life burgeons! A new life giving, love sharing life that offers others a taste of the love and life of God just as our friends shared with us the fruits of their garden.

 

As we grow we become a part of God’s solution in a world that is so much in need of love, of healing and transformation, and we don’t have to go far to encounter that need in our own lives, in our fellowship and families, in our communities and beyond. God’s plan is that we should grow into his fullness from his fullness.

 

Are we willing to be planted in him, are we willing for him to be planted in us?

 (Pictures by Tim)

Holy dissatisfaction....

do you groan

for something more?

do you long

for completeness

and healing?

do you yearn to shed

the burdens

of your heart

and soul?

+

do you sense

the wrong in what is,

are you compelled

to strive for the right?

is you whole being

reaching out

for transformation?

+

are you impatient

for the Spirit's breath

to blow freedom

into every fibre

of you?

+

take heart,

for this longing,  

this striving and reaching,

this groaning and yearning

are echoes

of heaven,

drawing you

to fullness,

compelling you to love...

+

use these groans

as fragrant incense

to the world around you,

to reach out,

to dare to long with those

who long for wholeness too,

and listen

for the echoes and the rhythms

of his grace...

+

you are held,

you are nurtured,

in his love...

 

 

seeds....

he walks 

gently, tenderly

surveying

his garden,

pondering

it's potential,

carefully considering

where his seeds

will thrive,

and where each

kind are needed,

in his hands

are seeds of hope,

of healing love,

of joy, of peace,

of kindness,

and perseverance,

of patience,

gentleness and

forbearance,

 seeds of strength

and self control,

he walks 

gently, tenderly

surveying

his garden,

working with the soil,

to open and receive... 

 

 

 

even the darkness ( a reflection on communion and depression)

broken open,

broken,

poured out,

poured out

and offered,

pierced

and torn apart,

I find you,

and you find me, as

in my hands

I hold

you in

these intimate

mysteries

of bread and wine,

and I stumble

over the

rawness of it,

 they 

bring me to

my knees

offering healing,

and hope,

and in the depths,

and when I have

no strength to rise,

you meet me here

and promise

to hold on to me,

for even here

the darkness

is not dark

to you..

discipleship, beyond liminality....

 

stand

at the threshold

and know

that with this

new beginning

comes 

the promise

as old as time;

"I will never

leave you"

and

"you are not

forsaken"...

stand

and breathe in

the truth of it,

then,

putting on

faith, step out

in hope,

take his yoke

and be prepared to dance

with him

in his

unfoced rhythms

of grace

wherever

the way

might go...

 

 

 

 

vulnerable...

kneeling,

naked and vulnerable,

she comes

to us with

anointing oils,

bringing healing

if only we dare

to catch her gaze,

where we 

will find ourselves

held, for all

eternity, known

and loved,

naked and vulnerable

she comes

to us with

anointing oils,

will we let her touch us,

cleanse us,

free us,

use us?

naked and

vulnerable she comes....

 

Tim's picture here is one of Mary anointing Jesus feet, but I have been pondering it today as an image of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who is tender and open, whose vulnerability is always evident because we have within us the capacity for hurting and bruising her by our rejection and indifference. Yet her vulnerability is powerful, it demands our attention for it calls us to see ourselves as we are. In her we will find healing and wholeness, she will equip us for life with inner strength and gentleness, and she will lead and guide us, anointing us with the fragrant oils of holiness and joy.