Systematic

I’ve never been sure whether the skills of my friend the Systems Consultant are with administrative or computer systems.  He certainly demonstrates great facility with computers, whatever his professional engagement.  For my part, I’ve always found great satisfaction in seeing either sort of system fulfil its intended purposes smoothly and efficiently just the way it was designed.

The life of mankind is a system.  Created in purity and perfection as we read in Genesis, the system has been marred, biffed and battered down the centuries as man has exercised the freedom God provided, but it’s still a functioning system for all that.  The same is true of our individual lives: born, for the most part, in wholeness, but as the years pass, sickness or injury can take their toll on our physical efficiency, as also abuse or mental illness can impair our emotional systems.

God’s church is a system, too.  It was designed to be His body on earth, to spread the Gospel, the good news of God’s love for all mankind, and His provision for our redemption.  In that remarkable book that ends our Bible, the Revelation to John, we can find letters to seven early churches.  Though broadly similar in structure, each letter is tailored to the particular needs of the church to which it is addressed, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses in God’s service.  As we read these letters (Rev. 2:1-3:22), it is worth comparing the characteristics of those early churches to our own.

There are many parallels between the church of the first century and that of the twenty-first.  From time to time we find ourselves fighting opposition from authorities or from the community around us.  We have to test the validity of religious leaders who may be misguided in their revolutionary ideas, or may in fact be wisely challenging our own ill-founded practices.  We can see, for example, that the people of Sardis were only going through the motions of being church.  Beneath the surface they were really half asleep (Rev. 3:1-2): their system was in ‘idle mode’.  Or look at the Laodiceans, whose riches made them blind to their real needs.  Their church system was like an engine with too much lubrication: it was clogged up and, try as it might, it couldn’t run properly.

The church, though, is composed of individuals.  We can blame ‘the system’, and it’s all too easy for us to claim that any inefficiency is down to others or the fault of someone else in particular.  We have to remember, though, that we are all cogs in the same engine.  As individuals within the body of the church, we have responsibilities to each other and to the whole (Rom. 12:5).  We are part of the system: it cannot function as perfectly without us as it can with us.  Let’s pray for guidance in the use of those gifts with which we have been blessed for the good of the whole (I Peter 4:10).

Cures and Remedies

What’s your reaction when something breaks, or no longer works properly?  It might be big or small, but nothing lasts for ever, they say, and at times like that decisions have to be made.  Inevitably these will be broadly either a) ‘find the remedy/repair/ spare part and fix it: it could be as good as new in a few minutes/days/months,’ or b) ‘throw it away and get another one/start again.’

Some years ago, when my first wife told me she was seeing someone else – and why – a friend made us a very generous offer: he and his wife would look after our children while we went off for a week to his holiday home on the Suffolk coast, to spend some quality time getting to know each other properly again, and hopefully enabling us to sort out our problems.  At the time each of us felt things had gone too far for that: we decided to turn down the offer, to reject the possibility of saving our marriage.  Our decision was firmly in the ‘throw away and get a new one’ category.  Sadly her new relationship lasted only a few months, and each of us then passed through several lonely years.

I was reminded of this recently when I confronted the fact that my new mobile phone appeared not to be working properly.  I won’t bore you with the symptoms, but the upshot was that it had become unreliable.  I rang the phone company, and spoke to a technician who guided me through the necessary steps to return the phone to its original settings.  Despite my many misgivings, and the certainty that what I really needed was a replacement phone, I persevered and tried to use it normally over the next week or so, to see whether the reset had done the trick.

As the days passed, and the phone did indeed seem to be working properly, I found my misgivings diminished.  It was a slow process, however; only gradually did I learn to accept that the remedy had worked.  This experience was the opposite of the marital situation to which I had compared it.  My reflections on these ‘reject or repair’ decisions touched on the Old Testament story of Jonah.  You will recall how, after first rejecting God’s instructions, the prophet eventually went to Nineveh and was so successful in his mission that the people turned to God in shame and repentance.  Jonah couldn’t really believe this, and found it difficult to accept the result.

So, what can I – indeed all of us, now I’ve shared the matter – take from this?  Simply this: let’s resolve to turn to God in the first instance when trouble strikes, and not to leave it until other avenues have been exhausted; and secondly, having done so, we should feel secure in the knowledge that He CAN change things – even people!

The Sign of the Flowery Wellies

Between my front door and that of my neighbour’s flat opposite, is a small hallway that is normally used only by the two of us and anyone calling at either flat.  Apart from two doormats it is unfurnished ... until last winter, that is.  Ever since the last snow disappeared, a pair of flower-patterned wellington boots has taken up residence.  They first appeared in what I considered a logical position, neatly placed on the corner of my friend’s doormat, and stayed there apparently undisturbed for several weeks, until the recent visit of a decorating team repainting the common parts of the block and our front doors. 

At this point one wellie disappeared, and its fellow sat dismally alone by the wall midway between our doors.  Then I noticed that the wanderer had returned but, instead of returning to their former vantage point in the corner, they now stood together by the wall, where one had formerly stood alone, pointing to the door of their (presumed) owner.  And in their latest move, I see they are now by the edge of the doormat, pointing across the hallway, as if thinking of leaving!

So, what has the migration of my neighbour’s footwear to do with me?  And even more to the point, to the readers of this article?  Very little, of course; but as one brought up on adventure stories, I couldn’t help wondering if they could be a sign – like the lamp that smugglers are said to have put in their windows when the excise-men weren’t around and it was safe to bring the booty ashore?  If so, given the limited use of the hallway, a sign to whom?  And what’s the code?  After my recent article on Signs of Life, I have been thinking Scripture-wise about these matters.

St. Matthew refers to Jesus’ comment about weather signs (Mt 16:3), but most of the other references in the synoptic Gospels are to Jesus himself being a sign of something.  John, however, uses the word in the sense of something miraculous being done, either by Jesus, not by John, or expected (but not seen) by the Jews.  St Paul suggests to the Philippians that their stand for the Gospel is a sign both of their opponents’ destruction and of their own salvation (Phil. 1:28).  And there are signs in Revelation, with their own distinctive brand of mystery, of a woman clothed with the sun (12:1), a red dragon (12:3) and seven angels with the seven final plagues (15:1).

Amazingly, there are as many references in the Old Testament as in the New, including the blood on the doorposts and lintels of the houses at the Passover, and the fact of the Passover itself being a sign to remind the Israelites of their having been brought out of Egypt (Exodus 12:13, 13:9).

Signs, then, come in many guises.  We are reminded, of course, that we should be ever open to the possibility of God providing us with a sign.  However, we should be equally ready to test that what we think might be a sign is indeed from Him, by checking possible interpretations in His Word, by praying about whatever we think it may indicate for us and perhaps talking the whole thing over with a fellow Christian.

A Different View

Whilst enjoying my holiday based in Eastwood this year, I decided to travel to Buxton to watch Eastwood Town play their first pre-season friendly match against the club there.  Unfortunately the result was a home win.  Later in the week I watched another pre-season match, this time at Alfreton, where the result was an away win.  But, as one of the home supporters sitting near to me was overheard to say, “all goals are helpful, even the ones scored against you!”  I’m sure that each game was beneficial to both teams taking part.

Now, when I watch a match I usually position myself, if possible, somewhere near the halfway line.  This has much to do with my eyesight, for I find it difficult to determine just what is happening at one goalmouth if viewed from the other end of the ground.  Present at that Buxton-Eastwood match was one spectator who, being dressed in a business suit, stood out from the crowd.  I believe him to be a director of Eastwood Town, and I noticed that, for much of the second half, he was positioned behind the goal that Eastwood were attacking.

Presumably this was to focus on his team’s performance in that particular aspect of their game.  His purpose was different from that of a neutral spectator like me, so he deliberately secured a viewpoint that was most beneficial for him.  It’s not every day that one encounters a football director, so I hope I may be forgiven for placing undue emphasis on the experience.  But it did set me thinking about his interest in the game, and the responsibilities he holds regarding football in the town and to the club in particular.

My Bible readings that week were from the book of Job, and I related this experience to the end of that book.  After Job’s friends have each had their say about his situation, Job turns to God to justify himself, demanding to know whatever evidence there might be against him to result in all his suffering (ch.31.)   The young man Elihu then puts in his twopence worth, delaying the account of God’s response to Job (and thus reminding us that He answers us in His own good time … not ours!)  Finally comes the reply, and it’s not a point-for-point rebuttal of Job’s protestations of innocence.  For the detail, I invite you to read chapters 38 & 39 – but take a deep breath first!  In summary, The Lord makes Job aware that there is another dimension to all of this that is beyond his understanding. 

When we are baffled by something that just doesn’t make sense, we would do well to realise that there is probably a completely different way to look at the situation.  Then we may find ourselves echoing Job’s words at 42:3, “Surely I spoke of things I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”

Hang in there!

Do you remember cassette tapes?  Over a period of some thirty or more years, I accumulated a collection of over 100 of them ... and that’s after giving some away!  As technology advanced, I changed to CDs for my personal selection of recorded music that I can play to myself any time I like.  Some years ago I bought two matching sets of drawers, some fitted out for tapes and some for CDs, to house these next to my stereo.  More recently I realised that the drawers were no longer fashionable, let alone housing a currently supportable mechanism to provide a musical background to domestic life, and a year or so ago I obtained a cupboard to replace the drawers for the CDs.  

But I was still left with those tapes!  I didn’t want to lose them for, despite their low intrinsic value, many would be difficult or even impossible to replace.  So I decided that they would have to be transferred to my computer.  I bought a unit from one of those catalogues that accompany magazine deliveries, and set to work.  It was a tedious business.  Once the software had been installed, each tape had to be listened to as its contents were recorded, and the extent of each track noted.  Then each track needed to be isolated and labelled on the screen before it could be stored.  After completing only six tapes, I gave up, and the unit now lies unused at the back of a cupboard.  When I changed my computer’s hard disk, I didn’t bother about re-installing that particular program.

What I really wanted was something that would just soak up the data, rather like a scanner soaks up a photograph, and plop!  There it is on the computer’s memory with no more effort than the click of a mouse.  The other week, I saw something that looked just right, and at little more than half the cost of the now redundant unit in my cupboard.  It arrived bright, shiny and smart, and full of promise.  I set to unpacking it and setting it up beside the computer.  Then I installed the software.   Oh, no!  It’s the same program I had before!  I shall still have to go through that same painstaking process if I want to preserve those treasured recordings!

It was about then that I was reflecting about the inner city riots, the looting, the greed, and the something-for-nothing culture that seems to have motivated at least some of the young people involved.  Instant gratification has become part of normal life today, whether it is the acquisition of goods, or seeing a whole project completed in ‘the click of a mouse’.  My prayer notes directed me that morning to James’s letter:  “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming.  See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.  You too, be patient and stand firm ... As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered.  You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.  The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”  (James 5:7-8a,11.)

So, it will be worth it after all!