I hope that God exists, I hope I pray

Still looking at hope in BCLC. I am struggling a bit with getting into the subject and I had so much else to do yesterday that I couldn’t get into the activity either. Roll on January.

So I will have to tell you about something else that I saw that made me think a lot this weekend. I watched Russell Brand on the Road, a film about him and his mate retracing a journey made by Jack Kerouac 50 years before and immortalised in his book On the Road. I didn’t watch it all, I do intend to but it was on too late. I do find Brand to be quite an interesting character though, he has been through a lot in his years and speaks informatively (and wittily) on a number of subjects.

In the film he mentioned something about someone being on a quest for God. I presumed he meant a quest to find God as oppose to a quest on God’s behalf. This made me ponder whether we are all on some sort of ‘quest for God’ but we are all looking in different places.

Ultimately, i would say that most mot people are seeking some sort of fulfillment to their lives, some sort of happiness. They look for this in any number of places - work, home, sport, friendships - and believe they have found it in a number of ways - recognition and money, comfort, achievement - all very positive things. Other people believe they are completed in more negative ways, through drugs, drink or exerting power over those they perceive to be weaker than they are.

Christians, traditionally, profess to find themselves in their worship and service. I am not convinced. Yes there can be something of an uplifting, a spritual if you like, experience that can be had in some of the elements of an act of worship (very few and far between in my experience) and would not admit to finding something of that in their everyday lives.

I am now starting to think that God can only truly be found in the everyday things of life. The joy an fulfillment of having ones life in balance must be, to me, ‘finding God’.

The ‘worship’, certainly that which we practice at BCLC, enables us to find that balance. To put our lives into context and perspective and establish who we are and where we belong. As I have discussed before, our identity is in the balance of our activities and our relationships, I am no more a ‘christian’ than I am a ‘father’ or a ‘friend’ or a ‘youth worker’ or a ‘tennis player’ - all those things, and more make me me and the balance of them all is the key to fulfillment and happiness.

Is that not where we find God?

Little Old Wine Drinker Me…

I was going to call this ‘lip up fatty’ but I did’t want to risk offending any of my larger readers. The thing about alcoholics is that they can’t always tell when you are having a go (that was a joke btw).

The reason for this is of course the ‘news’ on the radio this morning that if we overeat or drink too much or smoke, then we are mor likely to get cancer. Steps back in amazement. None of these things give you cancer of course, we still don’t know what causes it, but you are more likely to get it.

What they are saying is that if you live a relatively healthy, balanced lifestyle and don’t overindulge in things then your body is less likely to rebel and none of those little cells will rebel and flip over to the dark side taking any number of its mates with it.

Hasn’t western science come a long way! We have nearly caught up with eastern scientific thinking of about 3000 (?) years ago. The Chinese have long been espousing the yin and yan of life, the striking a balance, maintaining an equilibrium. What’s more they have developed tools and techniques to assist them in this. Of course our modern scientists have condemned things like acupuncture and homeopathy, claiming that there is no scientific reason why they should work like they are claimed to, so therefore they mustn’t work.

One of the key strains to much of what we do and much of what we dicuss in BCLC is about maintaining balance in life. This is no coincidence. We all know the feeling of over doing it a bit on whatever is out favoured vice, but we also know the pleasure that can bring as well and as long as we strive to get the balance right then, I believe, we have more chance of a fuller and (hopefully) longer lasting life.