Move it! Move it!

I’m moving to London in 3 weeks and with the move has come this strange sense of contemplation about my life thus far.

I’ve been trying to throw things away but inevitably start reading old journals and get totally distracted from the task at hand. Its amazing thing to see another version of yourself in the pages of the past. For the past 7 years in Cape Town I seem to have transitioned from a very dreamy person talking about all the things I’m going to do into someone who has actually done some things. There’s a confidence that comes with that. To be honest I don’t know how a simple pray of “Lord I want to be paid for my writing” has managed to become so many varied things. I know for a fact that every door that opened had the fingerprints of God on them (some only recognised in retrospect)  

On looking back aswell I am so grateful for the mistakes, for the confusion, for the pain. It’s always hard at the time to realise that my most challenging moment, biggest question, my most gruelling trial, my biggest skrew up – holds treasure that I will hold dear for the rest of my life. Wisdom for the journey.. 

The negative space – the darker it is – defines more clearly what the positive space is.

So I’ve been trying to throw things away but I realise that I don’t have to. Somehow the imprint of Cape Town and everything that has happened here is deeply etched into my character and heart. And every person brought into to my life has had an undeniable effect…I can see it. The journey I walk now is different to the one I walked before. I walk taller, a little less bewildered, a little more confident because of some very caring kind souls who took the time to get to know me and listen to all the heart ache, all the questions of faith and didn’t judge too heavily but rather encouraged the good!!

So thank you Cape Town!!! (Alanis Morisette style)

And all you lovelies in it!!

Outta the Pig Sty!

This morning I looked out the window. I do that every morning but on this particular one it felt like the world had taken a breath in. It had an unearthly quietness and through this stillness a woman was jogging – silently. Quite surreal. But somehow in that ordinary moment God breathed “I am here!”

The moment made me think of Moses and the burning bush. He had just led his flocks to a new place. It was an ordinary day, an ordinary bush and yet somehow God gets his attention. God makes the bush burn and says “Take off your shoes, you are on holy ground.”

I am sure there holy moments every day that we miss because we are just too busy.

A couple of years back I wrote this:

You’re the poetry/ You’re the words that make and move me/ You’re the innocent/ You transform for me the beauty/ Of simple things/ Like a packet in the wind…

Christian Karaoke!

When I brought my cousin to church for the first time, he found the singing thing completely weird. He told me it was like singing Christian Karaoke. When I think about it though – there is something quite odd in it really. We follow words on a screen in a happy sing-a-long. Maybe this is out of place for most people outside of campfires and Irish bars!!

The Psalms encourage us to siiiiing to God in countless places. But how do we do it in a way that doesn’t just seem like a Karaoke session? How do we make it full of meaning and intent? And how do we allow a space where someone new in the group can understand it better?

My squeak for the day!!