So What?...
That's the question, isn't it? Yesterday, literally so. My incisive and wonderful wife asked, having had a such a fabulous time with God over the Romania trip and at New Wine, what was going to come from it? What was I going to do or be different?
Some of what God was going to do with me happened very early on. Driving in to Hunedoara from Cluj on the coach we saw a lot of poverty, alongside staggering wealth. There were so many people clearly not getting what they needed; their clothes and houses were not fit for purpose; their country had failed them.
I felt so much pity for them, my heart really broke. That was all me. What I felt God do was pull me up short, step in and give me some perspective. I had to stop judging them by my comfortable standards. The biggest issue in life isn't material poverty, but spiritual poverty, and there's just no way to see that from a bus. How dare I assume that these people were any worse off than the people around me in Leeds. God took that opportunity to break my heart again for those around me in Leeds who don't have the wonderful freedom in Christ that I have found. It crystallised when I saw a friend's t-shirt which read 'Friends don't let friends go to Hell.' I felt quite convicted of a lack of action on my part. Going to Romania was, first and foremost, hopefully going to radically change my approach to life in Leeds.
Let me be clear, I'm not about to start bashing my chums with bibles or shouting at people in Briggate, that's just not useful. I'd surely and swiftly end up with no friends at all, and that's not helping them or me. I don't think I've been shy about sharing my faith, either. I just remember this from a sermon years ago; before you talk to your friends about God, talk to God about your friends. My prayers for my friends and family have been sporadic and have lacked real faith. We happily sing that 'Our God Saves' but I'm not sure that I really believed that any of my friends would ever find God. I have to find a way to have more faith. After all, the wonderful God I worship found a way to reach me, and a not long after found a way to reach my wife, and our very relationship had been founded on a deeply shared antipathy to God and the church. I am praying now for my friends, and for more faith that God will find a way to reach them and hopefully use me in reaching them. My sermon in Romania talked about the two greatest commandments being to love God and love our neighbour. If we are to truly love our neighbour, what more could we wish for them than a fulfilled life in relationship with their creator.
What else then? What other changes has Romania brought about in me? Well, my Mom summed up a lot of it when I got back. She asked what I'd been up to. I told here we'd been cleaning the city and picking up litter in the morning and running bible classes and summer school for kids in the afternoon. She quickly and accurately pointed out that, as admirable as that all was, you didn't have to go to Romania to do that. There are plenty of opportunities to get stuck in over here. One such really simple and easy way to make a difference is St Georges' community week. This runs a few times a year, always during school holidays and always has lots of opportunities to help out in the local area around the church; doing up peoples' gardens, cleaning flats, decorating etc. There's always a kids' club during the week. There is always a team who wander the neighbourhood and ask people if there's anything we can pray about for them. Not evangelistic door knocking, just asking and serving. I realised that I'd always been too hesitant to get involved in community week. I am a busy guy, my holiday is precious to me. Work is hard, I need my rest. I do my bit for the church already, surely I do enough? Can someone explain to me what exactly 'doing enough for God is?' I have been just a bit too selfish in that area, and I resolved in Romania to put much more effort into Community week whenever it happens.
Oh, there are tons of other things too, too many to get into in real depth now. I really enjoyed preaching; lots of people told me how much what I said connected with them. I have generally managed to be too proud about that and give God the glory, but I did enjoy doing it and will look for further opportunities to preach where I can. It was great to step out in faith and feel God catch me when I landed. I really noticed how close I felt to God, and it can't be a coincidence that that happened when I was getting quality time in with him every day. Fellowship with a room-full of men had a wonderful dynamic and I should invest a bit more of myself in the men's stuff at church. Volleyball is an underrated and underplayed sport. The list of lessons goes on. Enough. Farewell, and I'll write again soon. Perhaps I could aim for monthly.
