Priming the pump…

Posted by David Ward on 11/07/2009
Posted in: Personal thoughts. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Diesel engine
With the notable exception of computers, things technical, electrical or mechanical and I don’t mix…I say this so that none of you dead keen mechanical types feel you have to rush in and correct my all-too-obvious lack of mechanical knowledge in what follows…

I once owned a battered, white, diesel Ford Montego Estate. It had seen much better days, so when Wendy and I bought it my brother-in law (who is good with things technical etc) set about helping to make it as good as it could be.

One of the jobs he did was to flush out the diesel fuel pump. When all was clean, the pump had to be primed before it would pump the diesel into the cylinder and fire up the engine. In order to do this, a small lever, the ‘hand priming pump’ had to be pushed and pulled to suck up diesel into the pump.

My nephew, aged about 9 at the time, was given the task of pumping away for what seemed like an eternity.

Eventually he gave up…”You take over uncle Dave!”.

I took over…one more pump and…diesel in the pump.

In matters of faith and trusting God I am frequently tempted to give up one ‘pump’ short of an answer. The number of times I’ve taken pre-emptive action only to find that God’s solution was just around the corner, and heaps better than my solution are countless. Of course, it would help if my prophetic gift was as well developed as my panic gift, but I can’t use that as an excuse.

I guess I either have to believe that God cares what happens to me and the things that are of concern to me, or subscribe to some sort of “God-is-a-far-off-disinterested-observer-so-I’d- better-sort-things-out-myself” way of thinking.

Somehow, that doesn’t sound like faith, and it doesn’t square with my experiences of God on the occasions when I do wait long enough for God’s answer.

This matters very much to me at present as we face a major trust crisis about several aspects of life as we know it. I just hope I have the patience not to panic but go on pumping away until the diesel flows and the engine re-starts, if you know what I mean.

The patter of tiny feet…

Posted by David Ward on 30/06/2009
Posted in: Personal thoughts, Relationships. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Books and dog toy
Someone new has come to live at our house. We think he’s rather special, even though we’re still only at the ‘getting to know you’ stage.

It is now around 10 years since we had to give up our dogs when we lost our home and had to live with some good friends for a while. Both Shadow, our bearded collie, and Jessie, our ‘we-were-never-quite-sure-what’s-in-there’ dog, were both rescue dogs, and it really hurt to have to give them up…it felt like a sort of betrayal.

So, here we are with another rescued bearded collie, Sam by name (he was called Harvey, but…). He also has a sad story. It seems he was the much loved pet of a 12 year old boy, who had him as a pup. Clearly he was not so popular with the boy’s parents, who made the boy solely responsible for everything about him, including taking him back to the breeder when he ‘got to much for him’…I am I confess, biased, and wonder at the sort of people who fail to support a 12 year old in caring for a notoriously mischievous breed of dog, and I can really imagine how he would have felt as he took his dog back (when our dogs had to be returned I was similarly cowardly…Wendy did the deed! I remember how she felt…). I hope I said all that with some grace…see the previous post…

I am also forced to say that the unknown 12 year old did a magnificent job. Having rescued beardies before, we both marvelled at the well-behaved (relatively), calm (equally relatively) and wonderfully trained (recall needs a bit…a lot of work) dog we received.
The boy was a hero! I doubt if he’ll read this, but if he does, or if you know him, he should know how grateful we are. Our last beardie, Shadow, was re-homed with a family who had just lost their beardie to cancer, so we know he went to a home where he was needed. Our loss enriched someone else (sorry about the swimming in the neighbours pond…we did tell you how much he loved to swim).

Betrayal, it seems also has two sides. I’m glad we have the opportunity to love a dog that was loved and tragically lost to someone else. You cannot imagine just how much this particularly means to Wendy. I just hope the mystery owner has it made up to him, too.

Pertpetual adultery…do I dare?

Posted by David Ward on 26/06/2009
Posted in: Events, Personal thoughts, Relationships. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment
Slide“It’s just, because you are divorced and re-married, in my eyes you are living in a state of perpetual adultery”.

Dafydd, an elder at my church in Wales, sang and savoured the words as only the Welsh language allows. Naturally I was deeply encouraged, and was not the least bit hurt by his words…nor do I remain in the slightest bit bitter!

Do I dare to have a rant about people who show so little grace? Will I not end up being just as graceless?

Perhaps I need, after all this time (at least 12 years), to get it off my chest. One thing less ‘on my chest’ would surely not be a bad thing.

I am so sad that in the church, the place I’d most expect to see people who know that, but for God’s undeserved kindness they’d be written off, and therefore extend that same kindness to others, I so often see grace’s opposite. Why is it that Christians who are so anxious to believe all the right things so often fail miserably to live the things we believe? I guess it’s to demonstrate that even the ‘best’ of us needs grace, and to make the rest of us really thankful that grace is God’s gift, and not in the hands of the ‘holy and righteous’, for if that were the case, grace might be a nearly extinct, rare breed.

Or would it?

I so often see grace at work in the world, between unlikely people and in unlikely places. It pulls me up and surprises me with joy.

Grace is everywhere…to be seen, enjoyed, marvelled at…and shared. Thank God for grace!