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You may have heard the expression “Do not be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthy use”. I.e, if we become too spiritual, we will stop being practical. But I would argue the expression should in fact be “Be so heavenly minded, you cannot help but be of earthly use”. After all, Jesus himself was totally God focused, yet people flocked to him for spiritual and physical healing.
The Bible tells us to focus on Jesus and to live like runners racing to win the prize (Hebrews 12v1-3). And in Phillipians 3v18-20 Paul talks about those who face destruction, whose minds are on earthly things, “But our citizenship is in heaven”. The Lord’s prayer says “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven” – we are to see God’s Kingdom come to the Earth. But the Lord’s prayer still starts with “Our Father who art in Heaven“.
If we focus on heaven, we won’t be able to do anything else but serve those around us. Our love for God leads us to love others, it will flow out of us without even realising it. The more we focus on heaven, the more we will want to see heaven-like qualities on earth. If we don’t focus on how awesome the world could be then how will be motivated to make it better? And if we don’t focus on Jesus then how can be have the energy and spirit to help those around us?
Therefore it is clear we are called to be “heavenly minded”, so where does the expression about not being come from?
As Christians we need to be careful not to falling into “super-spiritualism”, where we just sit and talk philosophy or finer points of doctrine, over and over until it becomes meaningless. All for no reason other than to just talk about spiritual stuff. Yet we still need our focus to be on God at all times, to always be heavenly minded. So how do we find balance?
I believe the trouble resides in, well, where we reside. We are called to be citizens of heaven, but for now we are confined to this planet Earth, so we must make our temporary home someplace here. If we hide away in Churches to pray, praise and seek God, make that our home, how can the world see our light? We hide it almost as much if we pretended to not be Christians at all! Jesus prayed and praised as he went out into the town, he was in constant communication with God. He made His home amongst the unbelievers, with the sick who needed a doctor. If we go to those who need us, make our home there, our focus will turn to the areas of the spiritual that benefit those around us.
Now there are times we need to meet together with Christians, after all Jesus went away to quiet places to pray, alone or with other believers. We time to be fed, and spend time without pressures, yet it seems likely (judging by how the Gospels are written) those quiet times for Jesus were the exception not the rule. Jesus heard from God as part of His ministry.
So let’s go outside, walk around and pray. Maybe God will show us someone we can help. Go out with friends and in gaps in conversation pray for them, ask God how to share the Gospel. Watch TV or read a book with heaven in mind and maybe find God is using it to speak to us. Let’s not replace that valuable Church time, but rather make more use of the time away from Church. Be heavenly minded, all the time, in every place, and you will find your earthly use. You won’t be able to help it!
Sorry for the incredibly long delay in posts, Dan and I have been dealing with scary end of year stuff, we find out our results in less than a week. We’re already looking at jobs, which is even scarier. There will be more updates soon :)
A while ago Dan and I were walking around Canterbury Cathedral. We had seen round the bits we could get to, and we were musing we had thought it was much larger. Just as we were meandering one last time around, Dan saw The Door. It was a big door. With one of those large metal ring pull handles and lots of blackened metal studs. It looked important.
I hadn’t really paid the door much attention, assuming it was locked and just part of the building. Dan however disagreed. He wanted to open The Door. I said not to try, it wouldn’t be allowed, or it would be locked, but he was already at The Door, opening it.
Turns out that was the way into the rest of the grounds, and we spent another half hour having fun exploring. That was the day he and I started going out (well it was early the next morning, but near enough). We started going out in part due to me feeling more comfortable with him after this little date. But what a difference The Door made. Gave us more time together, showed me his spirit and his courage. Maybe things would be different without it.
Two things struck me after this encounter, the first was that I needed to be braver. There had been no “Stay Out on pain of flogging” sign on the door, or even a “Keep Out”, the worst that would’ve happened would have been it was locked. I should try things more, go out of my way a bit more, it opens up a whole host of opportunities.
The other thing I realised was I needed other people to see what I don’t see. For me sometimes it’s my friends spotting someone waving hello (I’m notoriously unobservant), sometimes its a relevant sermon, sometimes its God, throwing messages my way. Whoever it is, noticing whatever it is, I’m better off with people. I need to see through someone else’s eyes, so I can see the unopened door, so I may know what lies behind it.
It’s done. it’s in. It’s over! Our final year group project has been submitted. That was the last piece of university coursework. We’re now free, well besides the exams in a few weeks. Thing is over the last couple of weeks we’ve been thinking about what we actually want to do after uni and with our lives in fact. To this end we started writing down goals and ideas. One of them was to start a useful review on where to eat in Canterbury (and Whitstable). So while we were at the Weavers restaurant we decided that would be a good place to begin, especially since we struggled to find a bad word to say against it. So soon there’ll be a whole page on the site for these reviews!
Hey everyone, I just wanted to tell you all about my favourite blog ever, Wes Draws. Wes Molebash wrote one of my all time favourite webcomics, ‘You’ll Have That” and now has an epic blog. It’s no secret I hope to eventually illustrate my posts with my own drawings (two are in the pipe-line) but this guy puts me to shame. Short life wisdom posts, and awesome comic style drawings, gentle discussions about faith, Ghostbusters, what more can you ask for in a blog?
I’ve just finished watching the film “Wanted”, which, despite being an 18, is a good film. The parting line before the credits is “What the **** have you done recently?” Avoiding the swearing, I thought it an interesting question. What have I done recently?
I have worked towards my degree, filled out forms, tried to help friends, earned money, solved problems and generally done productive stuff. Things that were worthwhile even, so I’m not going to do down the traditional route of, to quote the song, “What have you done today, to make you feel proud?”. I have spent time with friends, I have prayed, I have done things that I hope will last. But I still feel I could’ve done more.
You see, above all recently, I’ve worried. I’ve fretted and been neurotic over all the tiny decisions I’ve had to make. Worrying I sounded too bossy being project manager, or not enough. Worrying about if I checked the right boxes on my tax return. Worrying about whether I’ve outstayed my at welcome places. The thing is, in a months time, will I even remember these decisions? Everything I’ve done, had to be done, that’s part of life, but it doesn’t need to take up so much room in my head.
The Bibles says In Matthew 6 v25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” So if we aren’t to worry, we should just do the best we can before God, with His spirit and move on. If I spent as much time praying as I did worrying I would have done a lot more recently, and probably a lot more of worth.
That tag line “What the **** have you done recently?” Just made me realise, despite all I’ve achieved, I don’t feel a sense of satisfaction, as I could’ve done better, and more, simply by wasting less time worrying. Yes, I still need to care about other people’s feelings and not hurting them, but I also want to be effective. Neuroticism does not make one effective, or feel effective even if you have been. Time to accept what’s gone and move forward. To do something, not worry about something.
As you may’ve noticed we haven’t been exactly on time with these posts. This is mostly because we are both rather ill at the moment, Kezzy is baring the brunt of it, poor thing. Now I know what you’re thinking, how can you be so ill to not be able to type on a laptop? The answer is quite easily apparently, especially when you have 101 other things to do that are more important and far less fun. In fact Kezzy is tallying up a comprehensive “to do” list next to me, it’s daunting.
However there is a silver lining on the horizon, soon we’ll graduate and be free from tedium of study and our church is going through a change that’ll take a load off of us. I guess thats the up side of deadlines, once they’ve passed you don’t have to worry about it anymore. Also since this site is a continuing venture and no ones gonna notice if it doesn’t get done, it regrettably gets cut out of a busy days schedule.
So I have a request, to all those out there reading this, pester us! Email us and poke us, the more people we know are reading this the more motivated we’l be to post and update. Also while you’re wielding the nagging hammer why not mention things you’d like us to talk about, we have a whole list of stuff we could and will eventually get round to talking about, but it’d be nice to know what interests you.
