If you take your eyes off the ball you lose the game. If you take your eyes off Jesus you lose life’s battles. In order to play well you have to concentrate on the ball and take into account all the factors at play – the personalities you are playing, the environment you are playing in and your own strengths. In life when we fix our eyes on Jesus it helps us rationalise and act in a way that is appropriate to each situation. The question is what do you and I fix our eyes on? Is it our bank balance? Is it our position? Is it people we know? Is it our material possessions? Is it our education? Is it our hobbies or sports? None of these is wrong but let us put Jesus in the centre of all these things. When we focus on him these things do not consume us but bless us and others.

I had a picture when I was praying recently of a whirlwind and in the whirlwind were people and houses. The whirlwind was fast and destructive but in the centre of the whirlwind in the place I identified as prayer there was peace and sanctuary from the storm even as it continued. Then I saw that as people prayed other people in the whirlwind also came into a place of peace and refuge and they were built into a tower a place of safety.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people, who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land” (NIV).

As Christians we have not always spoken up for the oppressed or supported the poor. As a nation we have consumed and now we are being consumed by debt, addiction, suspicion and fear, and as we have pursued the material others have pursued us. I feel like I have been asleep and am waking up to a reality that I could have challenged and spoken up earlier as I have been part of the problem and I need God to help me be part of the solution. Father have mercy for I have sinned. The sin of ommision is indeed great. You gave me gifts and I have not spoken. I have been quiet. I have hidden my light under a bushel for fear of rejection. I have chosen the road of comfort and not rocking the boat. I have chosen to remain silent rather than speak up for what I believe in even when this is ridiculed and challenged. I have been challenged to get out of my religious ghetto and serve people in my community as the opportunity arises. To move amongst the crowd not in fear but in love. To listen to their stories as well as sharing my own. New beginnings but trusting God and leaning not on my own understanding, acknowledging him for it is him that directs my path.

In the last year my household has experienced redundancy, illness and other shakings. Yet God has helped us and is helping us through this storm. The Lord is indeed a strong tower. The righteous run in and they are safe.

When I wander around an art gallery I can observe works of art held in their frames kept in a building on a wall to be viewed as and when I decide for as long as I want. Sometimes I can treat God like this when I come into his presence and focus on him whilst I am in the church building for the time of the church service or in a house group or prayer meeting. But… there is so much more….If I believe he is at work everywhere in the everyday ordinary and extraordinary there is so much more to discover about life, about God, about others and the dynamic of being a christian in the world in service for him. Help me Lord get the picture. Help me live and move in you fixing my eyes on you each day.