We are Londoners

I continue to be struck by the fact that the world seems to know more about the Gospel than the church to whom God entrusted custody care and control of it.   This past Bank Holiday, Hayley & I were pleased to be able to join with some friends at The Notting Hill Carnival. One of our girlfriends owns an apartment on the carnival route.  Its one of those chic West London apartments complete with its own balcony affording us the perfect vantage point to view the carnival floats.   Two things really spoke to me as we wiled away the afternoon:

1:  There was a pennant hung on one of the lamposts from the Mayor s office which read We are Londoners.  

2: The eclectic nature of the carnival parade.  So many nations we represented; from the Caribbean, to South America, to Africa, to the Far East, to Europe. It was a breadth-taking spectacle; a universal street party.

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I wonder if this thought resonates with you at all; in recent days I feel as though the Spirit has been prompting me to dare to possess that which is in my posession; that is to be the fullness of who God made me to be. 

I know that for  many, the great fear we harbour is that we may be inadequate where somehow, we might not make it.  Here, more than anywhere else, the need for good spiritual parenting is paramount.  There must be those who can say to us, I believe in you You can make it and Let me show you how this is integral to the point of the church.  At the same time, there is the equal and opposite dilemma where rather than having a fear of failure, we fear success and that fear not only blocks our freedom, worse still, it blocks others.  This is a thought captured in the inaugural speech of President Nelson Mandela in 1994

WHO AM I TO BE BRILLIANT?

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant?   Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about your shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.  We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It is not just in some of us.  It is in everyone.  And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

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As I have often said, there was a time when God would speak to the world through the church.  In more recent years, He has begun to speak to the church through the world.   The musical The Lion King [my favourite show of all time] provides us with an excellent example this.  The penultimate song, He Lives In You [Reprise] is a profound exposition of the apostle Paul s mystery Gospel [Col 1:27].

The song is sung by Rakifi, the guide to the disconsolate Simba, who is mourning the death of his father who had been killed be the usurper Scar the evil lion.  The song triggers Simba s moment of revelatory self-discovery, where purpose and destiny collide as he sees for the first time his real identity.  Have a read of the lyrics. More > I would love to hear from you if you if you can think of other examples of the mystery being proclaimed through the arts.

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' There is no failiure here sweetheart, even if you quit' - Bono (taken from a track on U2's latest CD)

The best thing I ever did FOR God was fail - crash and burnout ...I simply fell into Him and let Him do the living..

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