'Diverse Excellencies'

'The lion-like Lamb calls us to take heart from his absolute authority over all reality. And He reminds us that, in all that authority, he will be with us to the end of the age. This is what we long for-a champion, an invincible leader. We mere mortals are not simple either. We are pitiful yet we have mighty passions. We are weak, yet we dream of doing wonders. We are transient, but eternity is written on our hearts. The glory of Christ shines all the brighter because the conjunction of his diverse excellencies corresponds perfectly to our complexity.'

John Piper

One for the Memoirs

I hve just had one of the most stunning evenings of my life... One of those ones that, as I expressed to Steph earlier, I want to frame, and be able to re-live it again and again. It's funny how the best moments are often born of spontanaeity, and often come on the most ordinary of days. When I began to write this, I wrote a long screed about all the little happenings of the evening, but now I've decided I think some things are best kept in the memory. So, I'll keep it short. It's just amazed me really how good God is, and I think He is showing me how much more He longs to be even better to us, if we'll let Him. I feel almost speechless after tonight, and really-in anyone else's eyes, it was nothing special, but for me it was incredible, because it was almost tailor made, right down to the little things. It's funny how a field of corn can be so amazing when you're not expecting it. Especially if there are poppies! Hehe. I'll not give anything more away, because I'm still savouring it. It's just made me realise that I want everything God has to give me, with all the details. And it makes me want to offer Him all I can offer, because there just isn't anything I can do, or say that is big enough to express His majesty. I love that little happenings can make such big thoughts.

The Source of All Personalities

"The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of 'little Christs', all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented them-as an author invents characters in a novel-all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to 'be myself' without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call 'Myself' becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. What I call 'My wishes' become merely the the desires thrown up by my physical organism or plumped into me by other men's thoughts or even suggested to me by devils... Most of what I call 'Me' can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own... There are no real personalities anywhere else. Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found among the most 'natural' men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the Saints."

C.S.Lewis

A favourite Lewisism of mine, to be found in the 'Beyond Personality' essays at the end of 'Mere Christianity' :) I love it! It is the epitomy of my thoughts of late. To immerse myself in the beauty of His character is to find my definition.

The Mystery of the Disappearing Grannies...

I was surprised this morning to hear my Dad calling up the stairs to ask me whether Granny (my mum's mum, who we have lived with for the last seven years) was in, and if so, where was she. He continued to explain to me that he had come back from doing a taxi job, to find Maryelle's car parked right across the pavement between the road and our driveway, and her nowhere near it. My sister, my Dad and I looked all around the house, garden... everywhere. We couldn't find Granny, or Maryelle anywhere. It was really bizarre, something out of 'Left Behind'. Maryelle's car was positioned exactly as if she had been halfway through pulling into our drive before being abducted, and Granny's shopping bags were in her living room, full of oranges, sugar and ginger beer... ready for an afternoon of marmalade making hehe. After about fifteen minutes, we were getting quite concerned about the abduction of these two Grannies. Bearing in mind my Granny is going on eighty seven, and getting a bit scatty in her old age, it was a bit worrying! I mean, grannies don't usually just disappear into thin air. We rang Maryelle's house, no reply. They were nowhere to be found!

Finally, something happened. An ambulance appeared outside our house. Uh oh! We found out that one of our elderly neighbours had been in difficulty, her cleaner raising the alarm and my Granny and her friend coming to their assistance. The lady concerned, who is a family friend, had been taken to hospital, but it doesn't seem to be too serious thankfully. All in all, an eventful morning. And it would seem, my Granny is a superhero!

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P.S. I would actually just like to say, I hope that one day I am like my Granny. She is an amazing Godly woman, an absolute prayer warrior and intercessor, as is her friend Maryelle. I hope that I am as faithful to Christ in my lifetime as they have been in theirs. They're awesome!