Spiritual Hunger Pangs

There are enduring expressions of hunger and longing almost an unshakeable quest for wholeness across our Western Society. If for example we listen carefully to the songs of the age such as Adele singing ‘never mind I’ll find someone like you’, expressed about a boyfriend but also longing for completion. We also find it in Steve Jobs the founder of Apple in an interview with Walter Isaacson before he died said

Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50-50 maybe. But ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about it more. And I find myself believing a bit more. I kind of – maybe it’s cause I want to believe in an afterlife. That when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated. Somehow it lives on

Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church

Dopamine and the Gambler

The gambler is after the dopamine hit which gives a temporary state of elation and excitement. It helps the gambler escape from suffering or pain. Dopamine is an incentive vitamin and excitement molecule, without it we are listless bored disinterested.  But dopamine receptors are significantly diminished if there is stress around, so people then need to find a way to get more dopameine and gamblig gives them that possibility. Investigate the stress in someone’s life, find of what they are afraid and Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ who said fear not and his church

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Anxietivity

Anxiety goes with creativity so let’s create a new combined word ‘anxietivity’ because you can’t separate the two. Sometimes the limb breaks when you go out on a limb, failure is part of the process and we need to use the energy of anxiety as well as we can, Kelly Mcgonigal says in the her book ‘the upside of stress’, if you want to see how much meaning in people’s lives ask them how much stress they have, stress is essential if you want to flourish, it is a condition of the game. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church.

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Life and Death

Life goes through cycles of death and rebirth. The Sun sets in the west, death comes to the day but it will rise again in the east. You can’t have eternal sunshine. We need to embrace this in our lives. What do you have in your life that you are holding onto? Just let go, for as we face different challenges we have opportunities to grow. Forests only grow from the death of other plants for that’s what’s nourishes the canopy. We have cycles of death and rebirth so let go of the old so we can give birth to the new. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ who died and rose again.

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Making Waves

Stress is the stimulus to growth and comes in waves, but we must build in a rest phase as we face stress waves in life for it is in recovery that growth actually occurs. It is not that we work too hard, it is that we have inadequate recovery. On an ECG you see the heart making waves the only time it is flatlined is when you are dead! We don’t want to be in a chronic state of stress but we don’t want to be in a chronic state of recovery. Jesus withdrew a number of times to pray within his ministry Let’s follow his example and make sure that we have a recovery plan. Make sure we sleep, have a quiet time, prioritise recovery which brings a deep sense of restoration. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church.

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Interaction

Physicists have found that the Universe is an interaction, with particles either attracting or repelling. Science faith Communicator Andy Fletcher says ‘We can’t understand a particle by itself.  Another word for interaction is relationship. The highest form of relationship is love, the highest form of love is sacrifice, and that brings us to Jesus.’ Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church.

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A Deceitful Heart

We can be so egotistical about our thought processes. We think we are the smartest things in the Universe, and when our thinking is challenged we can say ‘don’t tell me I am wrong, that I don’t know what I am talking about. We would at times rather have our thinking be right even if it is going to ruin our lives, than to have to say to ourselves I am wrong, it is a peculiarity of human nature. The prophet Jeremiah says The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church.

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