Sewing

I have surprised myself recently with a new-found talent for sewing.  I have been hand-stitching cushion covers, bunting and fabric gifts, and have been thoroughly enjoying myself.

The project that I have been working on for the longest is a large patchwork cushion cover.  I have only got two rows left to go and I am excited about seeing what it will look like when it is all finished.  It is not the neatest thing ever (especially if you take a look at the back), but I am proud of it, especially as I never thought that I would be very good at anything involving a needle.  It is a jumble of odds and ends of different fabrics: some 'vintage' fabrics from Mum's old sewing basket, some off-cuts from previous sewing endeavours and some beautiful Cath Kidston squares.  They have different patterns and colours, but they all work together to create an overall cushion cover.

In the same way, the Bible describes us (as a church, both locally and globally) being sewn together in a tapestry that reflects God and His love:

"I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God.  Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God's great mystery."

[Colossians 2:2 MSG]

My patchwork cushion would be rather dull if it was all made from the same fabric.  It is the different patterns and colours of each of the pieces which make it beautiful.  Individually, they are pretty fabrics but, together, they look even prettier; each square draws out the different colours of the surrounding squares.  Similarly, the church would look rather dull if we were all identical.  It is our differences which best reflect the different aspects of our diverse God.

Rather than feeling that we all ought to be the same, we should embrace and celebrate our differences.  One of my favourite verses expresses this beautifully -

"Since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvellously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't."

[Romans 12:6 MSG]

Whilst I continue to sew, I hope that this verse weaves its way into my heart, so that I can celebrate my own gifts and those of others.  So that I can 'draw out' the aspects of God that I see in those around me and so that, together, we can weave a tapestry of love that reflects who God is. 

Remind Me Who I Am

Today I overheard someone say to their friend, "Just be who you usually are.  Be yourself."

How often do we need to hear those words ourselves?

It is so tempting to change or alter or refine or disguise ourselves in different circumstances.  When we are with different friends, when we are with colleagues, when we meet someone for the first time, when we chat to our family, when we talk to our boss, when we are at an interview, when we are on a date, when we are with confident people, when we are with quiet people, when we are with intelligent people, when we are with fashionable people, when we are at church, when we are at the pub, when we are at the supermarket, when we are in a club, when we are by ourselves.

We can have so many different versions of ourselves that sometimes we forget who the original is, we forget how to "just be who you usually are."  Sometimes we get so caught up  in looking for ourselves in different ways and in different places, that we forget what it means to really be ourselves. 

We forget who we are.

But the Bible says that we are uniquely created and designed by God, we are His masterpieces [Ephesians 2:10].

So instead of adapting ourselves in different circumstances and with different people, let's work on finding out who we really are and celebrating and embracing that.  Discovering our true identity in Christ and not comparing ourselves to anyone else.

"So since we find ourselves fashioned into all of these excellently formed and marvellously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't."

[Romans 12:6, MSG]

These are the words of one of my favourite songs - Jason Gray "Remind Me Who I Am".  Beautiful and so profound.

When I lose my way,
And I forget my name,
Remind me who I am.
In the mirror all I see,
Is who I don't wanna be,
Remind me who I am.
In the loneliest places,
When I can't remember what grace is.

Tell me once again who I am to You,
Who I am to You.
Tell me lest I forget who I am to You,
That I belong to You.
To You.

When my heart is like a stone,
And I'm running far from home,
Remind me who I am.
When I can't receive Your love,
Afraid I'll never be enough,
Remind me who I am.
If I'm Your beloved,
Can You help me believe it.

Tell me once again who I am to You,
Who I am to You, whoa.
Tell me lest I forget who I am to You.
That I belong to You.
To You.

I'm the one you love,
I'm the one you love,
That will be enough,
I'm the one you love.

Tell me once again who I am to You.
Who I am to You.
Tell me lest I forget who I am to You,
That I belong to You, oh.

And this is a brilliant website about who the Bible says we are in Christ- http://www.joycemeyer.org/articles/ea.aspx?article=knowing_who_i_am_in_christ

Good Enough for Grace

Everyone knows that the one question any good Santa should ask a child is whether they have been "good" over the past year.  And if the answer is yes, the result is presents.  Lots of presents.  The unspoken understanding is that the child deserves presents for their good behaviour.  The silent equation is goodness = gifts.

But how often do we apply the same mentality to God and His grace as well?

I realised recently that my understanding of grace was limited: I have always known and believed that grace is a gift, and by definition, not something that I could 'purchase'/acquire myself.  However, a line in a song by Tenth Avenue North stopped me in my tracks the other day and got me thinking.

"Why are you striving these days?
Why are you trying to earn grace?"

I noticed the Father Christmas mentality I sometimes adopt when it comes to grace: grace is a gift given to those who are trying to be good.  We would be fooling ourselves to think that any of us were really "good", but God is more interested in our efforts and honours those who try to do good.

Now, don't get me wrong, God does delight in our efforts to please Him and to follow His word by loving Him and loving others.  But this has nothing to do with grace.  Grace has nothing to do with me or with anything that I do or don't do.  My efforts at 'religion' or 'Christianity', my church attendance, my enjoyment of church, my Bible-reading habits, my prayer life, my thought life etc. have no effect on grace.

 "For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything."

 [Galatians 5:4, MSG]

Grace is God's undeserved and unearned forgiveness and love, which He has given to us freely through Jesus.

But this seems too good to be true and doubt creeps in.  Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden we ask: "Did God really say..."   Did God really say His grace was enough?  Did He really say His grace would cover anything?  Even that?

So we doubt, and we set to work establishing a back-up plan, just in case God changes His mind.  We work at being good, just in case we find ourselves faced with the question "Have you been good this year?"

We put limits on grace and restrictions on God's power. We believe that we aren't good enough for grace. And that is precisely the point: we are not, and never will be, 'good enough' for grace. To be good enough at once cancels out the need for grace.  And our efforts to add anything to it eliminate the possibility of grace. It is either grace or it is works. It cannot be both.

"If by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace."

[Romans 11:6, NIV]

There are no limits or restrictions or standards or prerequisites for grace.  There is nothing too "bad" or "sinful" that it cannot be covered by God's grace.

 "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more."

[Romans 5:20, NIV]

You can't outdo grace.

Grace finds me when I'm in the pig-sty, filthy and covered in mud.  Grace finds me when I'm far from home and I've forgotten where I belong.  Grace finds me and beckons me when I have nothing to offer.  And when I return, grace flings its arms around me and welcomes me home.


Because in the end, it's all about grace.

'Godliness' and 'Humanness'

Where do we get the idea that ‘godliness’ and ‘humanness’are at opposite ends of a spectrum?  We seem to have a common misconception that to be a 'Christian', or to be 'godly', we must strip away anything 'worldly' about us.  And so we go to church and leave our sense of humour at home; we leave our anger and our resentment and our bitterness behind (for an hour or two).  We talk to each other and we are all "Fine, thanks!"  We put on masks of joy and peace and love and hope no one peaks beneath the surface.  When we are 'godly' we don't swear, we don't drink and we certainly don't talk about s-e-x.

 And so we divide our lives into sections: the 'godly' and the 'human'.  The golden and the grey.

But Jesus went to parties and drank wine.  He hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors.  In fact, the only people that he criticised were those who thought themselves to be too 'godly' to mix with 'regular' humans.

It is in Jesus that we see the fullness of who we were made to be:

“He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.”

[Romans 8:29-30, The Message]

In these verses, we see Jesus as the forerunner of who we were made to be: a full human, who didn't hide or disguise Himself, but embraced and integrated His 'godliness' and 'humanness'. 

Rather than seeing our 'godliness' and our 'humanness' as opposite points on a spectrum, we need to see these two aspects of our lives as overlapping circles on a Venn Diagram: they are unavoidably and intrinsically linked. 

And our aim as we grow in faith and become more like Jesus will be for the two circles to grow closer together.  Our aim will be to live in the overlap, to be like Him.