Wednesday, 24 February 2010

I dreamed a dream - horrible title, great day (part 2 of 2 apparently)

So then part 2.

well my friend came over and spoke into my life, don't know if i can (or should) break down the full detail of this word, but suffice it to say that it spoke to me about the identity crisis I'd been having for a few years now as to who I was when I wasn't begin geeky guy, husband, father, server in church etc. etc., and although he couldn't give me the answer as to how he saw the answer as being putting who I am in Christ front and centre, now just time to find out what that means.

all of this in itself would have been massive, then came sermon 2 on the power of faith and obedience and the need to listen more for God's voice and understanding that God is always talking to us we just rarely listen as well as talk of the difference between our strength and God's strength

by this time my head was mashed, we had lunch and i was noticeably different, i enjoyed talking to my friends over lunch including some that i hadn't talked to for a while and i could see that something had changed.

So time for sermon 3, which was David Campbell again this time talking about gifts of the spirit, i think i'm thankful for the fact that either because i'd heard a lot of this before or because my brain was mashed nothing more struck me round the head with a baseball bat from this sermon.

Then came the prayer time, and bless the heart of my friend HJDX who was forced by God it seems to pray for me the entire time while i was wrestling with God, holding onto him for all i was worth saying that i would not let go until he blessed me, it was only after some people had given some prophetic words to me that i actually started listening to God and could hear him say, 'i never leave you nor forsake you so why exactly are you holding onto me when i'm trying to give you a gift, if you let go you can take the gift.'

Eventually (after debating with myself whether it was a trick) i let go and while it seems like nothing huge happened from the outside but I was told that God had stuck a tap in my back and was slowly going to empty the cauldron of anger that had been built up inside me but it did have to be done slowly because it was so toxic, which was a really timely word as this is something I'd been concerned about for a few weeks now.

I then went to be prayed for by David Campbell (a crazy step as in 3 chats with him he's turned my life upside down 3 times but i love him for it) and he told me that now was a make or break moment for me and that i had to choose to take a stand.

and you know what he was right and i chose to stand there and then, i was able to tell a friend that i forgave him (and mean it) and realised that i had forgiven all of these people and am looking forward to telling them (which may be very amusing as some of them may not realise that they had annoyed me)

but more than all this i think i had shaken off the victim mentality which i had taken up, all that seemed to matter to me was me and the Lord and my relationship with him all else was important but secondary and that was hugely freeing.

so Sunday morning i woke up went to Church and it was amazing i talked to people, worshipped God, loved the sermon, talked to more people, took communion, realised that there are some hugely faithful people in the church that never stop praying for me and in the end only left because it seemed like there was practically no people left in church (just like old times)

So am i back to who i was, I hope not and i don't think so, don't misunderstand me i hope and pray that this change will last but believe that I am different to who i was that i now know the limits of my own strength and can see how immeasurably greater God's is.

and what's next. No idea,  but am looking forward to finding out.

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Monday, 22 February 2010

I dreamed a dream - horrible title, great day (part 1 of who knows)

#what a difference a day makes, 24 little hours#

Saturday morning, nothing had changed, I still didn't want to go to IDAD (can't be bothered typing the full name out again) but thankfully I'm very stubborn.

As soon as i got there it was like i expected it, i couldn't make eye contact even with my friends, small talk was painful (with a capital pain) and all i wanted to do was run out of the building,

then the first service started and after a little worship Dave Campbell got up to speak

before he started sermonizing properly he decided to step out a little and said that there were 2 or 3 men, that felt like life was passing them by (he equated it to rowing while a screen played life in the background) this spoke to me a lot and so some people prayed for me.

and Wow in his first sermon (all the sermons can be found here http://emmanuel.org.uk/resources.php) he somehow managed to explain to me what I'd been trying to understand for so long, namely how i could dislike/despise/ignore God with my head and my heart and yet still be sure that God hadn't finished with me and still be sure that i would come back to Him,

I'd forgotten about my spirit, a lot of things clicked into place and my questions about how can i sing songs like blessed be your name in the desert place when my mouth, head and heart had not blessed Him became clear. 

It is my spirit that worshipped God and my spirit had never stopped taking joy in God even though my body had.

This was a revelation to me and enabled me to say where my spirit goes i will make my head and heart follow.

I've always been a lover of the saying faith not feelings but don't think i had an understanding of what faith was, I think now i might have to change it to 'Faith not thoughts or feelings' (oh for thoughts to begin with an F for proper 3 point sermon material)

Then it was time for coffee, but a friend had other ideas and came to share a picture God had given him for me while they were praying for me earlier. and having tried to summarise that word to be short and pithy I think I'd do it a disservice, so maybe another post is required.

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Sunday, 21 February 2010

Just call me Marvin aka censored post number 1

Well here goes. as a preface this is now part 1 of a multi part story

6 weeks ago i finally gave up the ghost and went on anti-depressants.
the last 18 months had finally caught up with me, my defenses were
gone, my patience was gone, my capacious storehouse for anger was
apparently full and the anger was getting harder to rein in.

All this may seem ungrateful when you consider i've got a loving wife,
gorgeous boy, cute dog, good job and some good friends and it probably
is but that didn't stop it being the way i felt.

Maybe as they say sometimes the hardest part of any journey is the
first step as it seemed like as soon as i'd gone to the doctors that i
seemed to get better almost instantly despite the fact the pills
'couldn't work' in less than 2 weeks.

the anger was still there and i needed to get it out, to figure out a
way, but it was more controllable. i was calmer, more stable and felt
a little more like a me i recognized.

One book i had been reading suggested that to get it out the answer
was writing letters to the people who i believed had wronged me and
that was my plan but God had something else in mind it seems.

So how to explain this, i'm still taking the pills and the next post
(which is so long i will have to split it) will explain a lot more
about my state of mind at this current moment in time, but i wanted
not to miss out this post, i wanted to be honest and say that if
you've seen me acting like Marvin the paranoid android ("here i am
brain the size of a planet and they ask me to pick up a piece of
paper") i apologise and hopefully you'll see a change in me and i
wanted to say that as amazing as this may sound getting help can be
helpful.

who knew?

stay tuned this week for the beast that is the multi part post "I
dreamed a dream - horrible title, great day"

:

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Friday, 19 February 2010

I want to dream a dream.

Well tomorrow day my Church is hosting an event called I dreamed a dream, (leaving aside all jokes about Les Miserables songs and technicolour dreamcoats). This event is described as 

"An away day at The Durham Centre led by David Campbell focusing on re-engaging us with our dreams from years ago, and empowering us to see them fulfilled."

I've signed up for this event and now I'm really nervous, why? well two days after i signed up i was feeling brave and prayed the God show up and do something and not only that but i gave him free rein to do what he wanted. 

So that all sounds good and positive so why am I nervous?

Because what if he doesn't show or does remarkable things in everyone and ignores me.

It's almost enough to make me want to skip it then I can believe He would have shown up if I had.

Guess we'll see what happens one way or another tomorrow.

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Wednesday, 3 February 2010

99 Balloons

Given my story of the last couple of years this was one of the hardest videos i've ever watched but thought more people needed to see it.

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Tuesday, 12 January 2010

Interesting self censorship.

Hmmm,

A new experience has appeared on the horizon to beat me round the head.

A few times over the past week I've considered or actually started writing a blog post only to think what would this person or that person think if they saw that.

Now as some of you reading this will know, this is not like me, I'm a huge believer in being honest and blogging the truth as it is, not sanitized for public consumption but still don't seem to be clicking on send.

Maybe I'll have to take a leaf out of HJDX's book and start putting all but the most benign post under password lock and key.

I just don't know.


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