Tell me what you see

Yul Brenner:  “I see PRIDE!”
Junior Bevill:  “PRIDE!”
Yul Brenner:  “I see POWER!”
Junior Bevill:  “POWER!”
Yul Brenner:  “I see a bad-ass mother who won't take no CRAP off of no-body!”

This is a quote from one of my favourite movies of all times – Cool Runnings. If you haven’t seen it, you should but I’ll summarise here for you.

It’s the story of 4 Jamaican men who form a bobsled team to race in the Calgary Winter Olympic Games. They have no money, no real bobsled and they come from Jamaica where there is no snow.

The quote above comes from a part of the movie where Yul and Junior (two of the main characters) are in the bathroom. Junior has just been ordered home by his rich father who considers bobsledding to be beneath his son and an embarrassment to the family. Yul and Junior have never gotten on since Yul blames Junior for tripping him in a race that would have seen Yul represent Jamaica in the Summer Olympics.

Yul is asking Junior what he sees when he looks in the mirror. Junior replies that he just sees Junior. Yul tells him he sees pride, power, someone strong who is not to be messed with.

What do you see when you look in the mirror? What do you see in your friends, your family? Your class mates or your workmates?

Do you see people of value, of worth? In a world that bombards us with the “perfect” woman, man, child, life, job, house, school, it’s easy to forget that we more than just what we see. We wish for longer legs, a slimmer body, different sense of humour, something or anything different from what is staring back at us.

We forget that we are created, we are loved, we are gifted with awesome individual talents and personalities. We forget to see ourselves through His eyes, we allow the world to tell us everything we’re not.  We focus on what we perceive to be ‘wrong’ with us instead of seeing the good and beautiful in us.



Sometimes we just need to be reminded of what makes us special. Sometimes we need to be told what others see in us - they can often see us more clearly than we see ourselves. Sometimes we need to be the ones doing the reminding, telling those in our lives what we see in them.



Junior Bevill: “You really see all that?”
Yul Brenner” Yah mon. But it’s not about what I see. It’s about what you see. Now look in this mirror and tell me what you see”

New Years Resolutions

It's February 4th. Which means that we're already into the second month of 2013 and that it's already been over a month since the end of the last year. The end of a year often inspires people to make resolutions, to change things in the new year, try new things, make their lives better. Did you know that the number one resolution is to join the gym and lose weight?

What (if anything) did you resolve for this year? How are you doing with that?

Here's a couple of things I wanted to do this year...

1) Find a new church. There was nothing wrong with my old one, but I also felt a pull to try something new
2) Try and help a good friend of mine. She's been having a rough time lately so I'm going to try and help her through. And if I can't make it any better, I can still be there for her
3) Go overseas (again!) I'm going to Fiji soon!
4) Actually make use of the many delicious recipes I have in my many cookbooks, try new things! And get yummies along the way :-) 
5) Be more grateful for the people in my life, the things that I have and the life that I am given


So far, so good.

Resolutions are not something that have to be restricted to New Years.  God doesn't restrict change to a small window each year. Yet another one of the many awesome things about Him. Of the five things I've listed above, three are things I don't think I can do without God. The other two are probably opportunities (I'm not entirely sure how, but we'll wait and see!)

If you want to try something, change something, meet new people then don't wait. Life is an adventure and you have the best travelling companion one could hope for. Who knows, you might just change your life and someone elses

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
Anne Frank

Success

They're playing dress-ups. That's my first thought as I look down the row at my friends who are immaculately dressed, having just come from work. Their clothes are perfectly pressed and their shoes look like a pair of Mum's old ones that made their way into our dress-ups box, only these ones aren't scuffed and worn and they look a whole lot more expensive. I push this thought aside and try to tune in to their conversation. It's noisy, and I only pick up snippets.

“If they offer me a position in Auckland I'll have to be there in three weeks.”

“My new position is a huge step up from what I've been doing, and has a significant salary increase.”

“After a year or so it's time to start moving up.”

Surely this is just a game of pretend, of make-believe. It's no different to the way we'd play house when we were younger. We'd spend a couple of hours dressing up in so called work clothes pretending to be Very Important People. Soon enough we'd get bored and pack up, preferring to play some other game. Maybe we'd be superheroes this time.

I look down at my own work clothes, jeans and chucks, and I'm hit once again with the realisation that this isn't a game anymore. This is the real world that my friends live in now, but I don't feel like I belong here. Everyone seems to have jumped onto the bottom rung of a corporate ladder and fixed their eyes firmly on the top. They've got a career and life mapped out, while I still don't have a clue. I like my job and I have plenty of other things to keep me busy, but I have more and more moments when all I can think is crap, I'm gonna die, what am I doing – nothing – crap.

Maybe God just hasn't noticed that I've been left behind. I set about making smoke signals, sending out an SOS. He meets me, and I swear I can hear Him laugh. Not in a mean way, but in the way a parent laughs when a small child unwittingly does something funny. 'I don't see a problem here.'

'I want what they have!' I gesture wildly. 'The well mapped plans! Security, certainty, success!'

'What would you do with a plan if I gave it to you?' He asks.

I blink. 'Follow it, of course.'

'Ah. Good. Keep at it then.'

'I will,' I counter, 'just as soon as you give me the plan.'

'I've already given it to you', He says, adding kindly 'but perhaps you've misplaced it. Maybe this will help you remember.' Then he hands me a picture. I look at it, and see that it's a photo I took on a recent trip to Farewell Spit.

'Oh, I remember this!'

'I should hope so. It's only been a month.'

'Man, what a time that was! Crossing from one beach to the other was kind of scary. Those DOC guys have odd ideas about what a 'marked trail' is. Going from marker to marker is tricky when you can't even see them. I was especially worried when there was that huge swamp in the way, but it turned out okay.'

'You know', He tells me, 'I actually think DOC's trail marking is rather good. You could almost say that they've modelled it on the way I mark a trail.'

'Why's that?' I ask.

'I've got a destination in mind', he tells me mysteriously, 'but I prefer to show it to you piece by piece. It's too much to cope with otherwise. If I showed you all my plans you'd be too overwhelmed to do anything about them. They'd seem too big, too unbelieveable, and they may not make any logical sense. And then where would we be? But if I show you small pieces you can generally work out how to get there. Just trust me that I know the rest of the way.

'Why am I stuck at a marker then, when everyone else goes on ahead? I've done the school thing, the uni thing, but got stuck after the finding a job thing.'

'You're not stuck at a marker if you're following me. But you think that to be successful you go to school, go to uni, get a job, then move up the ladder at a speed directly related to how many years you spent at uni and the number of certificates you collected while doing so, right?'

It sounds a bit silly when He spells it out, so I try to change the subject. 'Something like that, and hey – you know how you're really powerful and that – couldn't you have directed me to choose a different study area? Something that would be a little more applicable to the current job market than Art History and medieval languages?'

He's doing that my child is being unintentionally hilarious laugh again. 'I don't really work like that. Let me ask you something. Did you enjoy what you studied?'

'Absolutely.'

'And would you have enjoyed studying law or commerce?'

'Absolutely not.'

'Or IT?'

'I wouldn't have a clue where to start.'

'Exactly. You see, I give people different gifts.'

'Oh, true, I've read that somewhere.'

'I should hope so. It's in that best-selling book I wrote. Anyway, the thing is, I love to give my children gifts. And I get great pleasure from seeing them use them as best they can. If you use the gifts and opportunities that I give you to the best of your ability, then you're succesful. For some people that does mean climbing a corporate ladder, for others it doesn't. I'm more concerned with whether you're serving me.'

The treasures in heaven verse comes to mind. 'Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust desroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up or yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.'

It's about kingdom building, and working for God – doing things that will make a forever difference, whatever that looks like and whether it seems quite ordinary or crazy and nonsensical.

God holds out his hand, a father to a child. 'I'm off to change the world. Are you coming with me?'




- Isabel
(Views expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent those of GBNZ)

When your best isn't good enough

This morning Valerie Adams stepped out into the Olympic Stadium in London, half a world away from home. In front of a crowd of thousands, she put her heart, body and soul on the line, knowing millions of Kiwi’s were cheering her on.

She won a silver medal. A silver Olympic medal.

That is no small achievement and is something that most of us can only ever dream of achieving.

She didn’t think it was her best, she was disappointed that she hadn’t won the gold, sad that she thought she had let down her country.

And New Zealand’s media agreed with her. On the radio this afternoon instead of celebrating Valerie’s achievement the radio presenter announced her result as “Valerie lost the gold medal in the shot put this morning.”

Pardon?

Valerie didn’t lose the gold, it wasn’t hers to begin with. Yes, she won a gold medal in the Beijing games and I’m sure she really would have liked to have won it again.

But beating her down, when she’s already beating herself up? No. We should be celebrating the fact that she is number two in the world, and not far behind the world number one.

What she achieved is awesome. The time, the dedication, the blood, sweat and tears that it takes to get to an international level is huge. To qualify for the Olympics is something to be proud of by itself. To have won a medal - fantastically, awesomely wonderful. And Valerie did.

Let’s celebrate!!

Brr! It's cold out there!!

If your town or city is anything like mine, the last couple of days have been pretty chilly.

Winter, it seems, has arrived with a cold, icy, snowy vengeance. If you have photos of snow – send them in!! We’d love to see them :-)

But despite the cold there are many reasons to rejoice that winter is here…

• You have a legitimate excuse to wear onesies. ALL DAY.
• You can finally use your ugg boots, hot water bottle and electric blanket at the same time!
• It snows which makes everything look pretty.
• You can throw things, namely snowballs, at people.
• The skifields will open which means you can snowboard, whoohoo!! Or ski, if that is your preference.
• Hot chocolate becomes the drink of choice which means you can drink marshmallows.
• Snow forts, snow men and ice sculptures are all worthy construction efforts.
• Snow days mean you don’t have to go to work or school.
• Fashion becomes less about how good you look and more about how warm you can stay.
• Your pets will want more cuddles because they want to steal your body warmth.
• If you have a fire, you can roast marshmallows.
• The other side of the world gets to have summer.
• The further through winter we get, the closer to summer we are.
• If you’re Jamaican, your bobsled team can practice!

So what are your favourite things about winter? How do you like to stay warm?

That's not exactly what I asked for...

Think about the last time you asked God for something. How did God answer you? Just as you had asked or not exactly how you thought he would?

A few weeks ago I was lying in bed late at night and I started to hear strange noises coming from within my bedroom. What was worse was that I could hear something moving! Eeekkkk!

My first thought was that it was a mouse. Now I realise that mice are God’s creatures, just as I am. That does not mean I have to like them! I did not want a mouse in my house. *shudder*

So I prayed. I prayed that the noises would go away. I prayed that the noises were not a mouse. I prayed that if it was a mouse that God would make the mouse leave! Really quite a trivial thing to pray about, but I really do not like mice. Or rats while we’re talking about small rodents.

I eventually went to sleep, continuing to ignore the strange noises. BUT as soon as I got up the next morning, the noises started again! I decided to be brave and track down the source of the noises. They seemed to be coming from the shelves by my window. So I opened the curtain to get a bit more light in my bedroom and sitting on my windowsill was a cat.

Now this is odd for two reasons. One - the cat was sitting INSIDE my bedroom. Two - I don’t OWN a cat!

I had to laugh. It seemed that God had answered my prayers! It definitely wasn’t a mouse! Sometimes God may not answer our prayers with exactly what we want, but he will answer.

My (almost) cat!

Welcome back 4th Tawa

At the start of the year the hard decision was made to put 4th Tawa into recess for a term. But the start of Term 2 saw the 4th Tawa Company back with a brand new leadership team, 3 young leaders and 8 girls, including one new girl.

The girls made scones, iced biscuits and played games before their parents joined them for supper.

The Minister of their church is very keen for the company to continue and is rallying the church behind them. As Fay from Wellington Area put it “It was super to see them all getting on so well and having such a fun night.”

Check out these photos of 4th Tawa.