Some years ago my family had a holiday near the Swiss border and spent a day at the Labyrinth Maze at Evionnaz:

Apparently, this is the world’s largest natural labyrinth, being over three kilometres in length and lined by 18,000 trees; it was certainly intricate and interesting, and the hot summer’s day was helped by water jets positioned in the maze which would unexpectedly cool you down! Closer to home, the Maize Maze at Cawthorne offers fun for all the family from July through to the beginning of September.

One of the most famous mazes is at Hampton Court, planted in the late 17th century for William III:

Personally, I don’t really like mazes very much. This is probably due to my poor sense of direction and general impatience; I also don’t like the feelings of helplessness and loss of control which mazes engender. I often think that the mind is rather like a maze. Sometimes, our thoughts become fixed on a certain path and it can be very difficult to re-direct them, even when we realise that our thoughts are not helping us.

It’s easy to become lost in a maze and to end up travelling down the same paths, ending at the same dead ends. Similarly, we can often end up thinking the same negative thoughts or wandering down hypothetical trains of thought which are devoid of grace (because they’re not real situations!) It requires commitment, perseverance, imagination and sheer doggedness to keep going in a maze, and so often, we have to be prepared to allow our thought life to be controlled by God rather than walking down the same neural pathways, allowing the same situations/ people/ ideas to trigger the same reactions in us. Two Scriptures I return to constantly in training my thoughts are:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom 12:2)

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor 10:5)

Transformation starts with a renewed mind, taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Instead of pursuing the same path and battering at the same dead ends, we have to turn around (repent) and try different routes, asking God by His Spirit to guide and direct our thoughts and refusing to allow wrong thinking to find a nesting place in our hearts. Every loose thought and emotion and impulse has to be fitted into the structure of life shaped by Christ. (The Message)

Usually, at the centre of a maze, there is something to be discovered; there are often prizes for reaching the centre! The reward for right thinking is knowing God’s good, pleasing and perfect will and a deeper knowledge of God. It’s worth persisting in this mind maze, learning to think according to God’s Spirit rather than allowing our sinful natures to control the way we think, and therefore ultimately, act.

Rend Collective, the Northern Irish band whose worship songs inspire and encourage many, have just released a short video documentary about their latest tour ‘As Family We Go’ (see here.)

I’m always encouraged by ‘backstage’ stories. The ‘front stage’ stories are obvious; I’ve attended two Rend Collective concerts now and sung my heart out, along with ‘worship orbs’ (beach balls by any other name!) and confetti, and have always been blessed by the zaniess, exuberance and sheer joy of these people. But I’m well aware that the couple of hours on stage is just a fraction of a person’s life. What happens the rest of the time? What is it like to effectively live on a bus for months on end? As an introvert, I’m not sure I could stand the close proximity of even my family and best friends in that environment! (see Patrick’s article for an introvert’s perspective on that!) How do you bring freshness and joy to work that, however great, is always going to have its repetitive moments? How do you sing joyfully when your heart is breaking over a miscarriage, as happened to Ali & Gareth Gilkeson, or how do you cope with needing the toilet because you’re eight months pregnant and you need to be on stage for two hours, as happened recently?!

The short documentary gives a brief glimpse into the ordinariness of what often seems to outsiders a very glamorous life (I’m personally convinced there is nothing glamorous about brushing one’s teeth in a morning watched by eleven other people…!) I think most of us look at other people’s lives and think they are more glamorous than our own, if I’m honest. We romanticise life because life can be very difficult: caring for an elderly parent who no longer even recognises you or knows your name, changing the bedding yet again for an incontinent child, mopping up vomit for the nth time, inputting data for hours on end at a computer screen, washing dishes which will only need washing again in a few hours’ time. Life is so often monotonous, mundane, repetitive and tiresome. We get bogged down in the minutiae of it all; there’s nothing glamorous about being ‘on hold’ for an hour as you try to resolve a problem or wrestle with bureaucracy which doesn’t even recognise your existence!

But God is there in the ‘tedium of dailiness’, to borrow Eugene Peterson’s phrase. Joy is available even in the repetitive and unglamorous. I love Matt Redman’s song ‘Your Grace Finds Me’, because it highlights the ubiquity of grace. Yes, grace is there in the baby’s newborn cry, as we wonder at the marvel of life. But grace is also there in the endless nappy-changing and interminable crying of that baby as it grows. Grace is available on the mountain-top, when we experience the highs of life, but it’s not only available in the depths of despair and distress; it’s there ‘in the everyday and the mundane.’

Our calling is to find grace, wherever we are. Backstage, frontstage, in the footlights, wherever we are. ‘Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.‘ (Col 3:17) The Jesus who healed the sick and raised the dead also ate ordinary meals, travelled on dusty roads, got tired out and slept in such exhaustion even a storm couldn’t wake him. When we take off our rose-coloured spectacles and remove our envy of others, grace is there waiting for us – rich and poor alike, saint and sinner alike. It’s all about grace.

Mark’s epilogue to the family serivce reminded us that life is about more than simply turning up to church on Sundays; it’s important that as Christians, we find our place in the Son, understanding that fulness of life comes when we fulfil our purpose in God.

Col 2:9-10 reminds us that all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ and we have been given fulness in Him. If we are to live fulfilling lives, we need to be rooted and established in Christ, understanding that we are chosen people, God’s special possession (1 Pet 2:9) so that we can declare the praises of God who has called us from darkness into light and life. Eph 2:10 makes it clear that God has prepared good works in advance for us to do, and fulfilment comes as we find out the things we are uniquely equipped to do in Christ. We all have places to which God calls us to go (our workplaces, our neighbourhoods, our social contacts), but we are also called to work together in church, each of us fulfilling our potential and knowing our calling. God uses all shapes and sizes; we need to find our place in the Son.

‘Feels like I’m
Looking for a reason
Roamin’ through the night to find
My place in this world
My place in this world
Not a lot to lean on
I need your light to help me find
My place in this world.’ (‘Place In This World’, Michael W. Smith)

We also had three birthdays to celebrate (although only two were willing to be photographed!)

As usual, we had a quiz about places in the sun:

Perhaps not surprisingly, the quiz was won by a team made up of Steve Davies and his two sons, who have done quite a bit of travelling in their lives! (They are recently returned from Mozambique, where Steve has been teaching at the Bible college in Maputo, and he has previously worked in Ecuador, Egypt and Swaziland, though the family is now in Scotland and looking for pastoral work as they consider the boys’ secondary education for the next few years.)

We also had a song with a decided Caribbean flavour, reminding us:

‘We’ve been waiting now for quite a while

And at last the time has come

No more working for a week or two

We’ve got a lovely place in the sun

But when it’s over and it’s time for home

There’s some faces looking glum

They are wishing that they could have

A longer time in the sun

It might seem like a paradise

But there’s a promise for each one

God offers us so much more

An endless life in His Son

So enjoy your holiday

And remember when it’s done

God’s promise of a brand new life

Is an endless time in the Son.’ (‘A Place In The Son’, Garry Turner)

The theme of our family service last night was ‘a place in the Son.’

Most people look forward to an annual holiday in the sun:

Suntans and fine weather are often seen as prerequisites to a good holiday, and certainly, the sun is essential to life, though we often take this for granted. Mal 4:2 says ‘the sun of righteousness will dawn on those who honour my name, healing radiating from its wings.’ Ultimately, we know that Jesus, the Son of God, is the light of the world (Jn 8:12) and we see two crucial functions of light.

1. Light dispels darkness
2. Light brings security

Jesus helps us to see things as they really are, bearing witness to the truth. Often, people are cynical about truth (like Pilate!), with lying and deception forming the basis of people’s dealings with each other. Such things destroy relationships; we need Jesus’ anchor of truth if we are to know light and life.

Darkness not only deceives us; it makes us anxious and fearful, for we cannot see dangers (or shapes become distorted, causing fear in our hearts.) When light floods in, it brings security and guards us from hurting ourselves. As we live in the light, we receive God’s energy and can ‘leap like calves released from their stalls.’ (Mal 4:2)

Ps 133 closes with the promise that where unity is present, ‘there the Lord bestows His blessing, even life evermore.’ (Ps 133:3)

Orchestras have to tune up before a concert, a sound that’s rarely pleasant!

Once the instruments are in tune with each other, however, the music they create sounds amazing! We sing, ‘Tune my heart to sing Thy grace’ (‘Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing’) so that we can work together in unity and therefore be in a position to receive God’s blessing (see Jn 13:35), a blessing that ‘makes rich, without painful toil for it.’ (Prov 10:22) Each one of us has a distinctive ‘sound’ to make, a role to play, a service to perform, but the overall effect of this is to bring praise to God (see Matt 5:16).

God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. (Eph 1:3) We are not just in ‘survival mode’, ‘scraping by’: we are people who can have abundant life (Jn 10:10), people who are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17), people who cannot be separated from God’s love (Rom 8:37-39). God has great plans to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ (Eph 1:10). He starts this plan by bringing unity to His church, through the oil of His Spirit and the dew of new life.