Steve Parsons blog-a-log

Room To Breath

I played golf a few days ago. Just me, alone. And it wasn’t the golf that had drawn me to my local course. No. It was the blue sky, early spring sunshine, fresh air, soothing green grass, stunning Cheshire views and above all, some solitude.

It’s so easy to find ourselves on the treadmill of life, churning out another project, another answer, another meal, another idea, another conversation - and the unending motion is killing us. We are too stretched to live as whole human beings.

So it was that on the 13th tee (the highest part of the course, with the grandest views) that I just sat on a bench and watched. I breathed, listened, worshipped and prayed. I spent some beautiful time with Jesus.

May we all learn to find room to breath.

ON LEARNING

On Sunday I was at a church, speaking at both their morning and evening services. I enjoyed it. Preaching is essentially talking about what you have learned/are learning. “Here’s what I’ve learned; here’s what the scriptures say; here’s what I’ve learned about what the scriptures say.” And so to preach you have to learn. In fact, to lead in any capacity you have to keep learning.

So early Monday morning I left my hosts house and headed down the motorway to a gathering of songwriters. We spent two days together learning how to become better, deeper, broader, wiser songwriters. It was an enriching and stretching couple of days. The kind of days where you fall into bed at night time exhausted and happy.

Over those two days I spent time with songwriters with reputations for consistently delivering great songs that are literally sung around the world. I listened to the deep and insightful thoughts of an international missions director. I heard from one of the most highly regarded worship leaders of the last decade. I listened intently to a producer who challenged our song-writing mind-sets. I watched a video interview of a man who charges business leaders thousands of pounds for his wisdom and insight. I sat in a room with 4 other guys I didn’t know and wrote a song with them in 40 minutes. I filled page after page of my journal with notes and quotes.

It worries me when people stop learning. Or at least when people become less actively engaged in learning. Of course there are the life lessons that we all learn; don’t overload your credit card, whisper in the elevator, drive carefully. But most of these lessons are passively learned. “I was educated at the University of Life” the saying goes. And we do all learn a multitude of things in a passive way. These are the ideas and lessons that are caught rather than taught.

The problem with only learning passively, is that you can start to draw the wrong conclusions about life and your engagement with the world around you. For example, the woman who has been hurt by a series of bad relationships who then draws the conclusion that she should never trust anyone again. She’s passively learned that relationships are difficult and that men can hurt her. But instead of withdrawing from all relationships, she needs to actively learn how to choose a more suitable partner and then actively learn how to make that relationship work.

Putting yourself in a place of active learning isn’t about becoming an academic. Rather it’s about becoming better at living life, better at leading, writing, driving, preaching, listening, speaking, cooking, engaging in your chosen pursuit.

After my two songwriter learning days, I returned home and the next day spoke to a group of young people. Back to leading again – and so the cycle continues. Learn, lead, learn, lead, learn, lead is the rhythm that brings forward momentum. And so get yourself a journal. Take notes. Jot down quotes. Read some books. Talk to some people. Attend some seminars. Learn, learn, learn.

The Beauty of Fellowship

Tonight some friends came over to our house and hung out for a couple of hours. We drank some tea and chewed up a plate of biscuits. But mostly we just talked, opened our hearts, shared our dreams and hurts and frustrations and joys.  We prayed for each other.

And I’m deeply grateful.

Life is tough enough without trying to handle it on your own. Isolation isn’t clever. Isolation is a symptom of the dysfunctional nature of our society. Me myself and I sounds heroic but in reality it’s a cover up of our deepest fear. 

I need fellowship. Deep, honest, true fellowship.

I recommend it.

Go find some.

The inexhaustible love of God

I am loved.

This is a fact.

An incredible, beautiful, wonderful and undeniable fact.

It is a fact not limited by distance, time, feelings or failings. My love that reaches upward to my Maker is like the breaking of the waves on the shoreline. It comes and goes. It gushes and retreats, back and forth. 

But His love for me is like a never ending waterfall that constantly and consistently pours toward me. It can never be extinguished. It can never be held back. His love is undeniable and inexhaustible. 

It can never be defeated. It is limited only by my willingness to believe it.

And what am I to make of it? 

I surrender.

I love.

But I wasn’t the first.

He was.

God is Love.