Hitching to London

Its been a while since my last hitching adventure, so decided to try my luck when I realised that I had 3 spare days last week. I've never hitched in a dog collar, so I supposed that would make an interesting experiment. I got a lift with a friend down to the services beyond Sheffield, then waited in the rain, thumb out, 'London' written on cardboard.

the First lift was a lovely man called Michael - a truck driver who was happy to talk about God, and who occasionally went to church. He was a kindly soul, used to picking up hitchers, whilst transporting recyclable materials round the country.

Second lift was a guy who worked picking up the pieces from motorway accidents. He'd seen the dog collar, and asked me to pray for his two sons, both serving in Afghanistan.

My final lift out of Leicester services was from two top blokes 'Christophe' a film director and Jimmy, his architect friend. Wonderful conversations about Christophe's work with Homeless people in Soho, showing them art house films, then getting them to record their lives. Jimmy and I swapped our best buildings of Europe stories. A real pleasure.

The lift back from London was far less pleasant, a nutter who thought it amusing to tell tales of threatening to eat hitchers brains, and of burning down churches. I was very relieved to get home in one piece!

On the whole, despite the occasional nutter - I love hitching. You are totally at the mercy of God, and how God works through the 'other'. Hitching is pure meditation, and very self revealing. Also, it saves an £89 train fare!

Mark 6 v 30-34 - Take a break!

The discussion at our church today focused on discipleship, and the need to 'take a break'. It comes after the apostles have just been on a mission, and after the ominous tale of John's beheading. It is Jesus who realises that they need to go to a deserted place - that they need to rest for a while.

The 'busyness' of our lives and the furious pace at which we live needs to be countered. After all, why do we think that everything will collapse if we don't rush to solve things. In the discussion someone paraphrased Ecclesiastes - 'There is a time to work, and a time to rest'. If we do not pay attention to the fact that we need to rest, recuperate and reflect, then we will be less able to do God's will.

All easier said than done, most Christians I know work too hard. And I'm as guilty as the next one. I'm taking the evening off - and I'm gonna play with those pesky kids of mine - then I'm going to read a book! Thank you Jesus for reminding us to take a break!

Life in the city

I love my city, but life in the centre of it can be tough. last week, Sunday morning, I was awakened by the noise of workmen outside. It was unusually early - i looked over an it was 5.30am. I went to the window and watched as a white van drove the wrong way down the one way system at Ashgrove. It was only later in the morning that my wife realised that the van was full of the cap stones from our front wall!

A week earlier we had to deal with a smashed ground floor window, and it all felt a little fragile. Expecting them to come back for the rest of the flagstones, I was jumpy all week, waking at the slightest sound. On Street Angeling duty last night, our patrol witnessed quite mindless violence. One young lad getting smashed in the face. It would have been so much worse had we not been around to calm it all down a bit.

So life is tough in the city, and I'm ready to try and get my family out of it, out to somewhere hopefully safer, with a bit of green. In the meantime, we have to do what we can.

Filling a raised bed with manure from the city farm is the only act of resistance to the violence of the city that I know. Watching Cat (my wife) filling it with herbs and plants for the fairtrade cafe fills me with hope anew. Preparing for a street Lunch as part of the Eden Projects 'The Big Lunch' is an arduous task - but we must build up the communities that others would knock down. This is our fundamental Christian task, to do what we can while we can, because we know that God cares intimately for each person, each street, each town, each city.