So, another full weekend has passed. And my diet has taken a battering (not a ‘diet’ diet, just my regular, everyday consumption of sufficient healthy calories to get me through the day). It went like this:

Friday morning, we got sidetracked from our intended leisurely breakfast, and ended up at McDonald’s, followed by a sandwich lunch and a late burger at the 1100 event at the cathedral. Saturday saw a bacon breakfast, another burger for lunch (on cathedral green), followed by several more burgers for tea (at a barbeque).  Sunday was the healthy highlight of the week (which isn’t saying much), with weetabix for breakfast, followed by another barbeque lunch and a KFC for tea. Not good.

Thing is, it was a great weekend; I saw lots of friends (and a lot of Colette) and had plenty of time hanging out and doing very little. But I’ve ended up feeling a little bit sluggish all the same. Why? Because I’ve filled up on a whole bunch of quick-fix junk food, and not a lot else!

Unfortunately, life can mirror this haphazard culinary experience in many ways – my particular interest here is the spiritual. I can think of times when I’ve felt low spiritually, tired in my Christian walk, if you like, and when I look at what I’ve been putting into me, it’s the equivalent of that pile of burgers and bread rolls – kinda nice in the moment, but not much good long term.

I’ve recently changed my bible reading pattern – I’d got into the habit of reading notes over breakfast (now, I’m not knocking this as a general principle – regular time with God is vital, and the start of the day is a good place to meet with him), but I noticed that I was simply reading the verse of the day, skimming the accompanying notes, and moving on to the next thing. It had become a quick fix, junk food. So now I’m finding more time in the evening, and I’m taking in chapters of the bible at a time. For me, it been like going from snacks to a full meal.

Of course, bible reading on its own is not the whole picture, but the same things apply to our time in church, our prayer lives, even our relationships. As with our food, we need a measure of variety as well as consistency, and a snack every now and then won’t cause harm as long as the diet itself is sound. But if we slip back into living on snacks, fast food and junk, then we should expect to feel ourselves losing energy and slowing down.

Remember, the Christian life (and life in general) is a long distance trek, not a half-mile dash, and those of us who plan to make it to the finish in good shape should make sure they fill themselves with the right stuff.

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This week has been a good week. Busy, but good. It’s been built around a group from Manchester called MJK, or Make Jesus Known, and in the space of the last seven days, they’ve been at Life on the Beach, two churches, three schools and the FNX youth event. Like I said, busy week.

But there’s been a whole bunch of highlights: at a rough estimate, the team (MJK, Riverside’s schools team, Exmouth ICE and youth workers from across the city) reached around 2000 students this week, talking directly with them about Jesus, the Christian faith, and what it means to lead a God-centred life; there were two lunchtime gigs that saw hundreds of young people bouncing, clapping and joining in (and spending the remainder of the week muttering “I’m repping, repping Jesus” up and down the corridors); the summer FNX event at West Exe saw some 300 young people from schools across the city enjoying a free outdoor performance complete with inflatables; and most excitingly, 25 people made responses to Tim’s message, some of which were first time commitments to build a relationship with Jesus!

Over all that, what’s impressed me most is the attitude and approach of the people involved. Everyone, from MJK to Heads of RE and the youth workers offering their time, has given so much in order to help people find out more about Jesus. There’s been no egos, no self-promotion, no rigid desire to stick to a particular way of working. Instead, it’s been an absolutely awesome experience to see experienced schoolsworkers turning to each other and saying ‘What can I do to help you here?’ ‘What will best fit with the work you’re doing?’ or ‘Is there anything you need?’. With such a God-honouring attitude, it’s no wonder that this has been such an incredible week.

If you’d like to find out more about MJK and what they do, you can check out their website at www.makejesusknown.com

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One of my favourite stories is that of Alice, with her adventures in Wonderland and her journey Through the Looking Glass. Over the years I’ve read the books, seen the films, even directed the stage play, and I’ve developed quite a liking for the character of Humpty Dumpty – his chapter in the second book is full of word-play, literalism and riddles, and in the midst of all that, he produces one of my favourite lines in the whole thing; “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it mean – neither more nor less”.

Of course, Alice challenges this, and if I’d been there, I would too – we have very little control over what our words mean, because they’re always read by other people (just as you’re reading this right now) who will have their own understanding, their own interpretation of the meaning of what they are reading. That’s not a bad thing, but it does mean that what I write and what you read are not always the same thing.

The danger for us is that media like email, facebook and blogs rely on written words, and what we intend as a light-hearted joke can easily be read as cutting put-down. And once it’s out on the net, you can’t get it back. I’ve come across (and sometimes been involved in) totally unnecessary feuds that grew out of a single badly thought-out email or facebook comment that caused offence, which led to an equally thoughtless reply, and then spiralled into a mess of insults, put-downs and general nastiness, all from a remark that was never intended to cause offence in the first place.

The book of James reminds us that a whole forest can be set on fire by a single spark, and that our tongues are like that spark. Sadly, a tiny thing, a single word, can cause massive destruction. With such a powerful tool at our disposal, let’s make sure we use it wisely, not carelessly.

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Last night was our annual Chip Challenge – the whole group take to the local high street amd eat enought chips to determine which chip shop deserves the accolade of ‘winner’. This year (our third), the honour returned to the first-ever holder of the title, after a year at their rivals over the road. It wasn’t even close – the champions won by a landslide, and last year’s best just weren’t what we were looking for.

The same is true of our youth work – what was great last year may not be the right thing for this year. The first time we ran this event we had just a few leaders and 20 or so young people wandering round en masse.   By last night, we had more than twice as many young people, split into four separate teams, each with a planned route to avoid overloading the chip shops all at once, and a suitably big team of leaders to accompany them. Both nights were successful, but both were planned around the group we had – if we’d gone out yesterday with a single block of 50 young people and leaders, it would have been a nightmare, and no fun for anyone.  

Let’s not get trapped in old ways of thinking. Change is not a criticism of what went before – it’s a recognition that everything moves on. As a child gets older, we provide new shoes, different clothes and fashions; there’s no point in handing a teenager a pair of dungarees and saying ‘But you looked so cute in these when you were 5′  Instead, let’s embrace the challenge of constantly renewing and rebuilding what we do.  

(And if you live near Cowick Street, Kong’s Fish Bar comes highly recommended…)

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