In the words of Max Bygraves, Garry wanted to tell us a story this morning! The story (found in Luke 15:11-31) shows us the difficulties in a father-son relationship. Sometimes younger sons find it hard to find their place in a family, perhaps always feeling compared to the older children; this son wanted to spend his inheritance even before his father had died! The father agreed to this request – which was at best thoughtless and rude, and in some ways was positively disrespectful and insulting – because of his powerful love for his son, understanding that love cannot be forced.

The son didn’t take long to spend the money; it’s alarming how quickly those who win lots of money can lose vast amounts! He ended up far from home, doing an awful job and being hungry and sorrowful. Only then did he consider how much he had left behind, and so he resolved to go back home – not as a son (for he had squandered that relationship), but hoping for work as a servant.

Turning back (repentance) always seems a risk to us, for we worry about the reception we will receive – will we get a long lecture? Dare we run the risk of rejection? The son was amazed to be welcomed back by his father, not grudgingly or with strings attached, but lavishly and with unstinting generosity. God gives us life in the first place as a father (see Job 33:4, Acts 17:4); we have all gone astray like sheep but are welcomed back into the family of God. We expect hard-heartedness, judgment, condemnation and rebuke; instead, we find grace, mercy, love and forgiveness. We may well return with fear and trembling, hesitating and in trepidation, but God’s love is overwhelming. We find we are greeted in a warm embrace and given a celebratory party. Let’s join the celebrations!

Dearne Stay Fit is a gentle exercise class held at GPCC on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m. Following that (11 a.m. until 12 noon), the Be Well group in Barnsley runs a ‘Choose To Lose’ class to encourage people to lose weight and eat healthily. There will be no meeting for this group on 16th and 30th August, but the Stay Fit class will be on every week.

As part of the Be Well Barnsley campaign, there is a Guiness Book of Records attempt in Locke Park, Barnsley, this afternoon!

This Wednesday (17th August) will see the ‘Bounce Into Summer’ event organised by the Goldthorpe Development Group on the Welfare Field on Furlong Road from 12 noon until 4 p.m. Lots of fun for all the family!

On Tuesday 23rd August Mistatwister is coming to Goldthorpe Library, so if you have young children, you might want to book in for this event!

There are some great events going on throughout the Barnsley area and a special mention (and thanks) must go to all those who were involved in tidying and painting the Phoenix Park underpass (which links Goldthorpe and Thurnscoe). Painting the mural to brighten up the underpass will continue all this week (15-19 August), so if you have time to spare, why not go along to help out? More details can be found here.

I’m in the midst of decorating and DIY again, jobs I loathe with a passion (but since I cannot afford others to do these things, they are jobs that must be done.) It never ceases to amaze me how much I can spend at DIY shops and how little I seem to have to show for such spending: paint that is soon used up and the tins thrown away, wood or plastic which seem to cost far more than the things for which they’re used, and so on.

Once more, I am relieved to remember that “in the Christian life, nothing, nothing at all, can be purchased at the do-it-yourself shop.” (Harry Blamires). Grace is a free gift. I don’t have to trawl the aisles at B & Q, wondering what exactly what I need is called and where it will be situated. Salvation is not found in an aisle at B & Q; grace is not found on any website for online purchase. Eternal life isn’t something I have to put together like flat-pack furniture; peace and rest aren’t things I have to cut to size. God is able to make all grace abound to me (see Rom 5:20), and that’s not just a one-off situation! (see James 4:6)

We often seem to approach life rather like we approach DIY, doing our best with imperfect tools (I still don’t see why paint tins are so difficult to open) and ‘bodging’ it when we run out of materials at crucial moments.

That’s not the way God wants us to live. Instead, Paul reminds us that ‘God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.’ (2 Cor 9:8) We’re urged to talk with God about our everyday needs (Matt 6:9-13) and trust our heavenly Father to provide for every situation. It’s a relief to know that in the situations which really matter, I’m not on my own.

One thing I love about reading through the Bible in one year, about the discipline of reading through each part methodically, is that it forces me to read the parts of the Bible I would otherwise be tempted to shun. All of us like some parts of the Bible more than others, but regular reading ensures we do not feast on favourites and seek instead a balanced diet.

Today I’ve reached the book of Ecclesiastes, a book of pessimism which, as a pessimist, I would rather avoid (I don’t need other people’s pessimism: I have enough of my own!) Ecclesiastes, one of the ‘Wisdom writings’, talks of the futility of life without God: ‘everything is meaningless’ (Eccl 1:2). I had enough of existential French writers at university to last a lifetime: what’s the point of dwelling on this?!

Life ‘under the sun’ (a phrase mentioned 28 times in the book) is often frustrating, boring, confusing and painful. Eugene Peterson calls the book ‘a John the Baptist kind of book. It functions not as a meal, but as a bath. It is not nourishment; it is cleansing. It is repentance. It is purging.’ (‘Five Smooth Pastoral Stones,’ P 155)

We are conditioned, I think, to look for the positive and to ‘chase after the wind’. (Eccl 1:17) But we live in a post-Eden world, a world which is ‘not like it was before’. (‘Ever After’, Aaron Shust) Ecclesiastes is a sharp reminder of the fallen nature of the world, where intellectualism, hedonism and materialism are exposed as lacking. Ecclesiastes scrubs us clean from illusion and sentiment; it is ‘an exposé and rejection of every pretentious and presumptuous expectation aimed at God.’ (ibid., P 155/6) It reminds us that life without God can never satisfy us long-term; the ‘yes of the gospel is not spoken under the pretence that sin is not as bad as it appears to be nor while avoiding pain nor while sidestepping suffering.’ (ibid., P 160)

Ultimately, all the negativity, pessimism and despair of Ecclesiastes has to be read ‘in the context of God’s affirmation.’ (ibid., P 165) Meaning is found, Nicky Gumbel reminds us, not ‘under the sun’, but in the Son – life in the Son indeed.

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.