Categories: uncategorized
Date: 16 September 2007 12:21:12
There are those who put things going wrong down to the devil and the fact as Christians we are engaged in a spiritual battle against darker forces. There are others who would say that we are all subject to sods law (i.e. if it can go wrong it will).
Me, I go for an approach somewhere in the middle of there are forces beyond us which ensure that sods law comes into full effect at certain points of life. I don't think these forces just effect Christians but I do think they exist. At times though I have to wonder if these are dark forces or God having a g-raffe with us (not in a malicious way but in a you think you're so organised and in control of your life but wake up and smell the coffee kind of way). Sometimes I even wonder if God puts sods law into operation as a kick up the backside mechanism to get us moving on stuff we wouldn't otherwise do or put us in situations we would rationally avoid at all costs.
My lastest pondering on this comes from the way life has been operating this weekend, (or infact for quite a bit of this week).
It all started last Sunday when I was asked, in one of those you would find it really difficult to say no kind of ways, if I would present my dissertation findings as the talky bit of this evenings service.
Now those of you who have been following this know I have been thinking about the possibility of putting it into some kind of talk (as suggested by JTL). However, I wasn't planning to do this until November when (i) I know the thing has passed & (ii) life is a bit calmer. So therefore, sods law definately applies when I have to put it together over the first teaching week of term and start by presenting it to a bunch of individuals I know and will have to face again if it all goes pear shaped. - As you can probably tell although I stand up infront of classes of teenagers on a daily basis the heritic in the corner hasn't been asked to do grown up talky thing in church before.
Accordingly the principle of spiritual warfare or sods law has kicked in. This weekend I wanted to be in a chilled spirtual frame of mind but instead I got reminded of the joy of having a teenager.Without going into details I ended up sleeping (eventually) on the floor in my hallway to ensure everybody stayed where they should have done - including the unexpected guest. The strength of my belief in the existence of this law increased at 6:30 when one of the young people decided to wake up and go to the loo.
The mini youth club decided to stay in my flat until gone 11:00 and so any chance of getting to this mornings service went out of the window. (Trust may be a wonderful thing, but sometimes you know when not to risk it).
Oh and prayers would be very much appreciated, as much as anything because it does spin ones head slightly to move from being the heritic in the corner to effectively doing a sermon (although nobody's calling it that thank goodness).