Poured Out

Monday we were scheduled to go to Bristol to visit my parents.  We decided not to because of the weather.  Good decision.  Our neighbour took 4.5 hours to drive 6 miles home from work!  So we went Wednesday instead.  Had a good time, left at about 6:30pm to come home.  Our car overheated about an hour from home.  We stopped on the side of the motorway, let it cool, topped it up and tried again.  We only got a few minutes down the road, but did make it to a junction.  Stopped again, checked satnav on my phone (GPS) and found there was a petrol station less than a mile away.  We gently drove there and called out the RAC.  Their busiest day of the year . . . but eventually we got through and they sent a patrol.  Water pump gone.  He couldn’t get it fixed or get the water to circulate properly.  So after almost an hour of trying, he left us to wait for the recovery vehicle.  The problem was having 8 people to transport since most of the transporters only hold six at a real squeeze.  So our good friends joined the adventure by driving out to us in the church minibus, took seven home and left me to wait for the recovery vehicle.  Now with less people to transport they were able to get to me much quicker and so I arrived home with the car just minutes after everyone else.  3am to bed and a lazy start to today.  Hopefully the car can be fixed in the next week . . . but we’re super thankful for friends helping and offering to help, for that providentially placed petrol station that was open 24 hours (not too many of those around), for great attitudes in the car, for the RAC (good thing I have stayed loyal to my old employer!), and for the fact that the car might not be ready for scrap just yet!

We’re enjoying Christmas today and Melanie’s parents fly home tomorrow.  Hope you have a great Christmas!

Melanie’s parents arrived earlier this week and we have been enjoying the snow here (very unusual this close to Christmas).  This weekend has been all about Christmas plays, productions and carol services.  Yesterday we all drove along the slippery roads to Crawley where the homeschool group meet on Tuesdays (Melanie enjoys taking the children to this group most weeks).  The children all took part in a Christmas play, performing well, before it was time for the family slots.  Our family performed a sanctified version of Jingle Bells with two guitars, one ukelele (Joel . . . so more show than music at this point), and female voices.  Then Melanie performed The 12 Days of Homeschool (she did great!)  Today we had the church production.  Joel and Aliyah were shepherds (she graciously switched over from the angelic chorus to keep him company (and under control).  Mariah was an angel, constantly going on her tiptoes to sing into the microphone that was really there for all of their voices.  Hannah was one of the children asking questions of the narrator to drive the story along.  She then performed in the youth choir later on.  It was a fun morning with plenty to be amused at!  This evening was a more sensible Christmas carols by candlelight service.  Melanie took her Mom and the older two girls.  They had a good time.  Now it’s time to sleep before a quick trip to Bristol tomorrow to meet up with my parents.  Hopefully the roads won’t be too bad!

I preached yesterday at Oakhall Church.  It is encouraging to think about what Joseph didn’t know, and yet what he did know enabled him to press on into the challenging times ahead with faith – I for one was encouraged by taking a closer look at Joseph in Matthew 1.  Now I have one “preach” left before a break for the rest of the month.  The break will involve family time and Christmas, but it will also allow me to make progress on some other projects too.  On Saturday I had a couple of hours with Ron, my colleague in the Cor Deo venture.  That was encouraging and I have some projects to press ahead on that front in these next days.  It is exciting to see God bringing details together for this.  I have meetings with people most days this week, some about Cor Deo.  Hopefully we’ll all be able to get into some sort of December rhythm – it can easily become an overwhelming month, but hopefully not this year.

Today I drove to North London to speak to a group of future leaders about servant-leadership.  It’s not one option among many.  It’s not a contemporary model (although popular in contemporary leadership writing), it’s not a contemporary model that can be chosen when appropriate and set aside when another model is more expedient.  I think there is too much leadership teaching based on expediency rather than theology.  We spent the majority of our time soaking in four biblical passages . . . the sum of which turned our view of leadership upside-down and drove us deeper into servant-leadership as the only appropriate way to lead for any that are captivated by Christ.  He didn’t demonstrate servant-leadership to offer an example of how to sometimes lead.  He lived out servant-leadership, with all the other-centeredness and the total lack of self-regard, and the spurning of any self-glorification, and the overwhelming sacrifice, and with the cross as the goal . . . He lived out servant-leadership because that is what God is like!  When we are captured by the character of God, servant-leadership drives so much deeper than a model to use for its expediency.  And if we find ourselves leading in another way: seeking our own glory, holding back from sacrifice, well, then probably our view of God is skewed.  Leadership, like everything else in the Christian life, begins with seeing what God is really like.  Our God . . . serves.  Wow.