Five stories: three museums: one statement :Conclusion

I remember as a young zealous guy an occasion when two Jehovah’s witnesses came to the door, now I sincerely believe that the followers of William Russell are wrong, I believe it is a dangerous cult to be involved in however most JW’s I have met have been sincere in their beliefs. These two young guys were no exception; I delighted in locking swards with them. Most of the guys who come out on the doors are extremely confident and knowledgeable concerning their beliefs, they are trained in how to answer people of other faiths, I saw this as a challenge, I knew my stuff and they left defeated after nearly losing their cool with me. I closed the door feeling pretty pleased with myself, I had gone toe to toe and had won, I was the kiddie, I was the man, who the man ? I the man.

Then

I realised

I had won the battle and lost the war

D’oh

They left more or less the same way they had come; they were no closer to Jesus.

A few years later I had the chance at work top befriend a guy who happened to be a JW, this time I was a little more mature and considerably wiser, I treated him with respect while not compromising my witness. We played squash together, we had some great talks. I heard from him the other day on Facebook, I don’t think he is a JW anymore but I don’t think he is a Christian either. I hope one day he will be, I hope the Holy Spirit works on him and some of the stuff or witness that I gave comes back to his remembrance.

Sometimes we forget that we are just signposts, we point the way to Jesus, it is the work of God that convicts and works on the heart of man, sometimes we try to do God’s work for him and we mess it up and get in the way.

Sometimes we forget that we are to love people and we get it wrong, we end up burning books or turning a blind eye to wrong or getting all judgemental.

I know that sometimes Jesus got angry and overturned things but more often than not his anger and hard words were directed not to the lost but the hypocritical, judgmental religious types.

We are called to be salt and light; we are called to use the resources we are given for good. In Matthew 25 we hear the story of the guy who plays safe with the resource he was given, he buries it, it stays safe but makes no return, it does not affect anyone else’s story positively.

So there it is, the end of an experiment in blogging and for the conclusion of the conclusion, well I guess everyone is expecting me to finish with that statement, you know the one, I am not, you have probably heard it enough already. As for me what these two days taught me is that I am still very much a work in progress looking to navigate and serve!

Now anyone up for some pie and mash, luvverly

Five stories: three museums: one statement Part: FIVE: back to Mozambique

Most of my two days in London I was solo going around the museums as my wife was entertained in her Dental Therapists conference, a strange thing to be entertained by but as she recently commented to me “I love drilling teeth” you begin to get a glimpse into her weird and quite frankly disturbing mind, The conference drew to a close Saturday afternoon and we had a few hours to kill before our train back to Stoke on Trent.

After all my enthusing about the British Museum Debs decided she would like to see it as well so off we trotted (I lie we took the tube, by now my feet were killing me) I showed her all the sites we had seen before then we went down into my favourite bit, the Africa Galleries and looked again at the artwork made from Guns. The tree made of guns was called the ‘tree of life’ there was a video that went with it and explained how it had come about. A local Bishop had started a project called ‘tools for guns’ villagers who had hidden their guns out of fear and mistrust were given a opportunity to hand in their guns and get something in return, one guy on the video told how he swapped over three guns and got some roofing and a hoe in return. On village pooled all their guns and got a tractor. The guns are cut up into small pieces and are used to create fantastic artworks of which the tree was commissioned by the British Museum to represent Africa.

The Bishop spoke with passion about how he is removing the guns from Mozambique one village at a time. He realises that his actions affect the stories of others.