Act 17 - Propose

The idea of today being a 'free' day due to the leap year is an interesting one, because it isn't. It's still a Monday, the kids had to go to school, my husband had to work an early shift and I had to work on an assignment. The time we have is all marked out, portioned off and given away. Before we know it, it's time for bed and my head has turned towards tomorrow. Day in, day out. Time is precious.

I recently listened to a podcast which spoke about how we spend our time (it might have been a Robcast) and a very interesting point was made; time is the one commodity we have that we cannot get back, so what we choose to do with it is so important- there's no buying more or topping it up. It made me reflect upon how many years of my life I and my friends have given to training for the priesthood, and how glad I am to spend my precious time this way. It also made me ponder upon the ways I waste time. Which activities are really worth spending something so precious upon?

Gandalf, in Tolkien's Lord of The Rings (sorry- I'm a geek), tells Frodo "all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us". Wise words indeed. Today I took just a few moments of time to let a few folk who I've been praying for know they were in my thoughts. No big generous gesture, just small stuff, but small stuff matters too.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing’ (Matthew 6:3) and ‘Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you’ (Matthew 5:42 NIV).

Act 16 - Adopt

Three brilliant things about my life:
Working for the NHS
Being part of a church
Training for ministry
What all these things have in common is they've resulted in me developing deep and lasting friendships with people of all ages, experiences, cultures, genders and more. I am so lucky to have such diverse friends who enrich my life immeasurably. Their presence in my life has helped inform the person I am. The more diverse the people I spend my time with, the wider my own experiences are. Difference and diversity are to be celebrated and embraced.

Act 15 - More

Today I had many opportunities to be generous and didn't take them. There was ample chance to give more and I didn't. At the end of the day they left me feeling lousy. Some days are like that - more selfish - but all it did was leave me with a sense of disappointment at wasted opportunity and disappointment in myself.
Yet people were generous to me- it all sorts of ways; kind words, a discount at lunch, time spent listening and a really big box of M&Ms!!
Being generous works guys! It benefits others and ourselves, whilst squandering a chance to be generous helps no one and leaves us unsatisfied.

I know how to get along and live humbly [in difficult times], and I also know how to enjoy abundance and live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret [of facing life], whether well-fed or going hungry, whether having an abundance or being in need. I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfil His purpose – I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.] (Philippians 4:12–13 AMP)

Act 14 - Acknowledge

None of us got here on our own, we each have someone who's encouraged and inspired us- or maybe someone told us we couldn't do something and that spurred us on!
I'm continually inspired by people I meet - fellow health professionals, patients and religious folk. Sometimes I may wish I were more like them, but I have to remember I'm called to serve God as me. Sometimes the most important people in our lives are those who've helped us see we're ok to be ourselves.

Let each one of us make it a practice to please (make happy) his neighbour for his good and for his true welfare, to edify him (to strengthen him and build him up spiritually). (Romans 15:2 AMPC)

Act 13 - Second Fiddle

Putting someone else's needs before your own doesn't make you a doormat, it can be incredibly liberating to purposefully put your own needs on hold for a while when it's a conscious choice.
I'm a naturally selfish being, which most of us would probably relate to. My challenge is to recognise this and make a conscious effort not to give in to this part of my nature.

Love from the centre of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. (Romans 12:10 The Message)

Act 12 - #ChocolateTuesday

Short but sweet tonight- tomorrow I'm taking #ChocolateTuesday to work...but by then it'll be #ChocolateWednesday. Never mind. Still chocolate.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22–23 ESV)

Act 11 - Love

I love a lot, but like most of us I think of it more of an emotion; Jesus was pretty clear that love is an action. Today I tried to show love through my actions rather than my words and the response revealed to me that loving action is the way forward! I was thinking about the people I was with and what they needed- time spent with my children listening and doing what they needed instead of doing course work. I used my time for them. I took time off from the busy mum stuff to actually be a mum.
After the kids went to bed I had a few hours before my husband came home from work, so I prepared a little gift for him- photos of our beautiful dog who died last week printed ready for framing. Even though all I wanted was to sleep I spent time listening to him as he unwound from a long shift. All simple stuff, but I had to think about it all, acting lovingly doesn't always come naturally as our own needs and wants often dominate.

God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. (John 3:16 NCV)

Act 10 - Spur On

Bit late today due to night shifts.

Sometimes it's just much easier to be negative; sometimes it takes way more energy to see the positive. When I'm surrounded by negativity I feel really weighed down - it's so easy for morale to fall, especially when you're in an already stressful environment. It may sound twee but the power of positivity really is transformative! It can be difficult but I always try my best to bring enthusiasm and positivity to whatever situation I'm in, especially in my working life where it can at times be so hard keep spirits up.
It can also be hard to stay positive at college, where the end of our formal ordination training feels so near and yet so far. Those of us involved in church life know how it's often the negative people focus on.
The ability to push against negativity, and encourage others to do the same, is a reflection of God shining from within us- one of the many ways we display his image.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. (Proverbs 25:11 ESV)

Act 9 - Dial Up

Prayer is such an easy generous way of helping someone, and they don't even have to know. There's so many people we meet who really wouldn't appreciate it if we told them we were praying for them, some might even be angry at the mention of it...so don't tell them. Prayer need only be between us and God. A very humbling thing is to pray for complete strangers- those we pass in the street or queue next to, or even park next to in traffic. Pray for someone you're angry with! It's amazing what that does for those feelings of irritation and frustration.
Our prayers tonight were for everyone who had spared a thought or kind word for our beautiful dog, Lucy, who went to sleep today. The generosity of people to stand with us in our grief, share a kind word and send us prayers hasn't eased our sadness but has helped us see the joy that Lucy brought in her three years with us.

This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. (Acts 19:10 NIV)

Act 8 - Dirty cash

Financially the end of Feb is usually our lowest point. After Christmas we have 4 major birthdays in January, plus my nursing registration fees to pay. Even so every Lent we set up a jar in the hallway and all of us - even the kids - put in it whatever we can. The children decide what charity to give it to.
It's a very small thing in terms of stewardship but it's a start, and all things must start somewhere.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (I Timothy 6:10 NIV)

Act 7 - All Ears

I'm not a great listener. I have to concentrate really hard but because my concentration span can be really short I have to really work at it.
Nomad podcast, which I'm very fond of, recently did an interview with Terry Waite and what particularly struck me was a comment the guys made afterwards about how Terry was totally present with them in their conservation. That sort of present and generous listening is certainly something I can learn from.

‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’ (Luke 8:8 NIV)

Act 6 - Cupboard Love

Anyone who's visited knows there's a lot of clutter in our house - a problem that's got progressively worse during my training as there never seems to be time to sort anything out. The aim is to do an extreme-de-clutter once I'm (God-willing) ordained, but not just to eBay stuff or chuck it out. There's lots of useful things here, we just don't have the space or the time. Surely the best thing is to pass useful things on to people I know will find them useful?
Something which is a bit easier to sort are the children's clothes. Many were passed on to us and we try to pass them on again wherever possible. Coincidentally, today we were visiting my beautiful friend and her family. I've not seen her in months but I always pass my daughter's clothes on to her, so today we went with a big bag of goodies. There's another bag sat waiting for my brother when he visits at Easter- my son's clothes for my nephew.
With spending most of their week in school uniform my kids barely wear their clothes before they've grown out of them. I'm sure I'd do ok putting them on eBay, but it's far lovelier to pass them on to other folk with growing kids.

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers – most of which are never even seen – don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. (Matthew 6:30–33 The Message)

Act 5 - Quiche

An act of generosity can be something incredibly simple. There's five of us in our house - myself, my husband, the two kids and my mum. My mum is wonderful. She does my washing, my washing up, looks after the dog whilst I'm at work and feeds the family on the days when I'm working.
Today was a very odd day as I was only working a half shift, meaning I was home by three. Whilst my mum often feeds us we very rarely return this, so as soon as I read today’s act I texted mum and told her I would cook this evening for us all. No grand gesture but something very much appreciated, and a reminder that I should do it far more often.
The title of my blog was in part inspired by how much I love baking for people as a gesture of generosity, hospitality and love. My ordination training has meant this has very much been neglected. I feel it's time to get my bake-on once more......

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ (Matthew 26:26 NIV)

Act 4 - 999

There wasn't much time today for reaching out to folk outside of our little family, but the act did give us chance to think about who we can help and how we can help them. We don't have much time - working and studying sees to that - and we have very little spare money. How do we help people without time or money?
For me it's all about trying to be as open and gentle as I can be to those I meet throughout my day, receptive to their needs and what their struggles might be. A very busy work environment like mine can be unforgiving to someone having an off day, but we all have them. Each person we meet throughout our day has their own unseen or unknown struggles. Be gentle with people.

‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ (John 13:34–35 NIV)

Act 3 - Roots

It's day 3 and I'm wondering if I'll ever make it past a green act! It's a work day today - I work 12 hour shifts - so even more challenging.
I do most of my shopping in Aldi, who seem to be pretty good at customer service training. The guys on the till always ask me how I am, so I fire it back at them- how are they? We can be so busy in our tasks each day (and I'm particularly time and task focused) that we forget to actually connect with the folk we're interacting with.
Whilst we shop at Aldi we also support local shops. It's the small, independent shops and cafes that give our town it's character; the corner shop, the tea room, the second hand vinyl store, the craft cafe, the book shop. As popping to any of these before or after my shift wasn't doable we supported our local Indian takeaway instead! Sid has had a shop around the corner from us for over 20 years, since I was a teenager, and over the years he's become a friend.
As a quick aside, at work I park behind the new magnificent research building on Wilmslow Road. This morning the Barbakan delivery van was outside the building delivering something magnificent. Barbakan is a splendid deli and bakery in Chorlton- fantastic to see my employers using local businesses too!

"Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely."

(1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT)

Act 2 - No Scrubs

The word 'Steward' always brings to my mind the Stewards of Gondor in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings; Denethor is entrusted to care for the city until a time when the kings return. He buggers it up.
We bugger it up too- we have this amazing gift of a world but we're messing it up, because it's easier and because of what we can gain.
Today's task is designed to take a small step towards taking responsibility over the places we find ourselves. I went out armed with my black bag and a pair of gloves to pick up whatever litter I found whilst out and about today.
To return to Denethor, he may have messed up but his son, Faramir, turned out to be (in the book) the least corruptible human in Middle Earth. We don't have to keep making the mistakes of those who've gone before us.

"The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." (Genesis 2:15 NIV)

Act 1 - Circles

It feels like I've only had a moment to catch my breath since finishing the Advent/Christmas blogathon and now Lent has arrived. This year that means not only countdown to Easter but the countdown to Easter school (a big chunk of my final few months of formal ordination training), which begins the day before Palm Sunday. Between now and then there's quite a bit of work to do.

This year for Lent, after three years of Love Life Live Lent, it felt like time for a new challenge so I've signed up for 40 Acts: "40 days of giving back, doing good and living generously"

Every day a new act pops into my in-box with a short, medium and longer suggestion of something to do. Today was all about thinking about the circles of people you belong to, their interconnectedness, praying for them and thinking how your generosity could benefit them in Lent - I made a doodle as you can see!

I took part in the Ash Wednesday service at St Michael's this evening. It's a quiet, penitential service, which some folk might hate the idea of, but we're all broken, imperfect beings and sometimes we mess up. It's good sometimes to reflect back on some of the not-so-great things we've done and said, or things about ourselves or in our lives that may be harmful to us or others. Lent should be about flipping that stuff around and 40 Acts helps by giving us ways to make the world a bit lovelier.

Faith, my daughter blew me away when I got home from church. As part of today's act she's made a WhatsApp group of her best friends and will be telling them each day's act, letting them know what she's doing and encouraging them to join her. It's prompted her friends to ask questions about what Lent is and why we do stuff. I appear to have a little evangelist!

“He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” 

 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”  

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:27-29)