I may I encourage those looking for humor maybe not to bother reading the rest of this blog as I want convey a more serious side of being a Christian.
About a month has passed since I got the letter from "The big Cheeses" giving me the go ahead to begin my formal training for Ordination, and after the total joy and relief the realization that the future for myself and my family is now moving pretty quickly in a whole new direction.
Some years ago as a "infant" Christian the Vicar and my good friend Richard, preached on being a disciple of Christ, and he talked about, to be serious about ones faith you had to be prepared to be serious about being a Christian. Your commitment to Christ shouldn't be just on a Sunday, it should be every minute, every hour and every day for the rest of your life. At this point I can almost feel the readers who stayed with the blog to think, Bloody hell there is no way I can do that!
When he said that in the church, I thought to myself, Bloody hell there is no way I can do that! There was no way I could give up my way of life to live the new life of a Christian. But 3 or 4 years down the line, here I am living my life as a Christian. My personality hasn't changed, my lifestyle hasn't changed, so what's different?
I have spent a lot of my adult life, trying to fit in, even whilst exploring vocation, I spent far too much time, trying to be the stereotypical clergy person, only to discover that if I was trying to be that clergy stereotype, I would be failing the Lord drastically in what I believe, is a true calling from God.
I read a "God Book" and after many months of self discovery, it read, God calls you, "To sing your song, your message and demonstrate your acts of love". And that message will live with me forever.
As I watch the world and Gods people go about there daily lives (and boy do I like to watch) I can't help feeling as though I,m sometimes listening to people in percentages of who they really are and only occasionally do I get the 100% of a person. What do I mean by this?
I have always been a person of honesty, but as a child at school I really struggled to find a platform to be truly myself, I was never going to be a great academic, I wanted to talk, make people smile, have a fun but the teacher would always, shut me up or discipline me with a detention for really just being myself. Have you ever felt that supresion yourself, maybe from a loved one, or a colleague, or whatever?
And then of course when your not being who you truly are, you then become a charicature of yourself.
If your perceived as moody, you be moody, if your perceived to be as tough as nails, then you play up to that tag and then you more frequently become the person people expect you to be rather than be the person that God really made you to be.
What I have truly discovered, is that being a disciple of Christ is that I can truly be myself, and I think that is what God wants me to do, i,m not saying I,m a complete, perfect specimin of mankind (have you seen me naked?) but I can honestly tell you that individually as a person I,m as contented with myself as I have ever been, and that includes all the trials and tribulations life throws at me.
Back to the percentages again, My Faith in Christ is pretty high as you would probably expect, on a percentage scale I would say well into the nineties which compared to the 17% I once scored in a Maths exam, is more a measure of how strong my faith is as apposed to my academic ability!
Let me ask you a question on a percentage scale how high is your faith? 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5,4,3,2,1, ?
And back to Richards point how much of your life are you prepared to give to Christ?
90, 80, 70, 60,50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5,4,3,2,1 ?
And let me also ask this, How much are you today, truly the person you want to be,
90,80,70,60,50,40,30,20,10,5,4,3,2,1 ?
In the Bible is a story, you may know it, It is the story of the Mustard Seed.
The Mustard Seed is one of the smallest seeds in all of creation, but when it grows, it gets massive, and becomes a tree. Now I,m not saying you can all become trees, well actually I am, you can all become trees. if you want to!
One of the things that feeds my faith, is that for those of you in the 60, 70,80, 90s God is pleased with you, but what really inspires me is that if you are struggling to be a 1,2,3,4,5, percenter, then God is still totally with you, if your faith is a small as a mustard seed, in Gods eyes that is okay, he will not turn his back on you,we may fall short as christians, or agnostics but the opportunity to "grow your percentage" will never be removed by God. We can turn our backs away from God yet God will never turn his back on us. He offers us the potential if we want it, at any points in our lives the opportunity to grow and grow and reach our full maturity and enter his Kingdom.
I conclude with this, My life is now fully committed to God, I have found a contentment I have never discovered before, to be myself, not play up, not pretend, is a comfortable feeling.
The first step is massive, but the steps get smaller, and the burden easier.Please consider your own relationship with God and remember that It is never too late to explore and grow in your faith and discipleship.
I leave you with a very short You Tube clip.
God Bless,
Alextheanglican
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