Gonzales on Athanasius - Something for all of us

I have been reading "The Story of Christianity: Volume One" by Justo Gonzales from my reading list. Last week I read a chapter on Athanasius, a hero of fourth century Christianity. (Find him in Wikipedia here!) He was truly a great man of his time and God used him mightily for the Kingdom.

But have a look at how Gonzales describes this man early on in the chapter. (Please note, the following quote is one complete paragraph in the book. I have divided it up and the italics are mine, just so that you can see clearly what is going on here.)

Of all the opponents of Arianism, Athanasius was the most to be feared. The reasons for this were not to be found in subtlety of logical argument, nor in elegance of style, nor even in political perspicacity. In all these areas, Athanasius could be bested by his opponents.

His strong suit was in his close ties to the people among whom he lived,

and in living out his faith without the subtleties of the Arians or the the pomp of so many bishops of other important sees. His monastic discipline,

his roots among the people, his fiery spirit, and his profound and unshakable conviction

made him invincible.

I was SO encouraged to read this. Although his great learning, capacity as an orator and ability to lead were important (he had a big job to do so he needed a certain skill set!) what helped him to cross the line, in Gonzales view, was how he lived.

We may not be in a position to do significant theological study, we may not be good at public speaking and we may not find ourselves in a position of leadership such that we find ourselves with a great sphere of influence.

But we can all live well.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope - the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11-13

Garden Update # 1

Having presented the garden baseline here, the time has come to move forward on this little project. Thankyou to those who offered helpful suggestions, both in the comments section and also in person.

My first question is to ask about composting. We anticipate being here a good long while so getting some composting happening to keep boosting up the soil (as well as doing something more environmentally friendly with the carrot and potato peelings than just throwing them into the bin) seems a great idea. We have no composting infrastructure and I am after low cost solutions. What do I need to do to get started?

Received some great ideas about this long stretch here.


We have indeed used it as a cricket pitch and expect to have many more backyard games of cricket here. One of R's little friends suggested a swimming pool. And the mother of that friend suggested a lap pool. Both very good ideas but I don't think the owners of the house will come at that! So it will remain a cricket pitch/general running around and playing sort of space - and since winter arrived and the rain started, it has been greening up nicely. I am toying with the idea of a passionfruit vine or two along the fence and maybe a fruit tree or two tucked into a corner but these ideas are a long way down the track. And we may well be getting a friend's surplus-to-requirements swing set which will go somewhere along here too.

The more pressing issue is this patch.


When I first saw this space I immediately thought of a vegie patch. In the eighteen months since this patch became ours to fill, my ideas have moved from vegie patch to flower bed to a mix of the both, a children's garden with interesting little plants and stepping stones and even, in several moments of I-can't-be-bothered-ness, more brick paving...just do away with the problem altogether!

Well, to cut a long story short, I have decided on a garden of tough flowers, but keeping the little angled section to the left free to maybe do some basic vegies (ie. tomatoes and perhaps lettuce in the summer and spuds in the winter) for the boys to have the vegie growing experience.

As I said, I am no gardener! Well, not yet. And I don't have loads of time to give to the garden. I need plants that I know will thrive on neglect and that are low cost to acquire. But at the bottom line I want some flowers because this patch provides the view from the kitchen window.

So I've decided on rosemary, lavender, daisies and geraniums - and I may add a few other items down the track. A friend's mum is potting up some lavender and rosemary for me. And here is the stash from the nursery.

Yes, that is a marigold in there. I have other plans for that!

And because I love using herbs in my cooking and spend a small fortune on fresh herbs in the supermarket...and because I have all those empty pots to fill...here is the herb stash.

Sage, basil, coriander, thyme, parsley and mint. And rosemary will round that out well.
Stay tuned.

Prayer - (2) Quantity

I always feel it well to put a few words of prayer between everything I do.
So said Charles Spurgeon. And CJ Mahaney quoted him here as he wrote about punctuating his day with prayer, humbling himself before God in each new event rather than relying on his own self-sufficiency.

As I make my way from meeting to meeting, decision to decision, and phone call to phone call, I find the counsel of Charles Spurgeon very helpful. “I always feel it well,” he wrote, “to put a few words of prayer between everything I do.” Throughout his busy days, Spurgeon scattered words of prayer between each activity, a model I have sought to emulate over the years.
I really, really, really like this idea.

It's not a substitute for periods of extended, focussed prayer. But it's about coming to God at frequent intervals during the day – making sure that we are relying on Him in all that we do, that we are serving Him in all that we do, giving the mundane activity some purpose and doing such tasks with a cheerful, thankful heart - and keeping the things of God as our main priority throughout the day.

Since reading this I have been thinking about how this practice of pausing to pray before each new thing might apply in the life of a stay at home mum. Because the life of a stay at home mum is not divided into neat hourly blocks. I seem to move to something new every three minutes or so...from hanging out the washing to assisting in locating that critical piece of Lego to sweeping the leaves off the trampoline to dinner preparation and oh yes, back to hanging out that load of washing that was interrupted by the Lego! The days can pass by in a bit of a blur of unfinished activity. Which is fine. This is the nature of life with smalls.

But how might Spurgeon's model apply when life lacks a bit of structure?

1. Use cues in the environment. A friend of mine gave me some really groovy clothes pegs at one stage. At the time she was in great need of prayer and so I got into the habit of praying for her every time I put out the washing. That habit remains – she gets a lot of prayer because I do a lot of washing! This is one example of many.

2. I have the prayer diary of the main mission society we support and also our church's directory on my recipe rack in the kitchen. I seem to be in the kitchen a lot – doing things that don't take a lot of concentration so I use the time to pray through those lists of people. You can cover quite a lot of territory in a day this way!

3. The thing that punctuates my day is people - the people I meet at school drop off and pick up times, the people I might visit or who visit me, the people I speak to and do business with at the shops. I have decided, spurred on by Spurgeon (and CJ Mahaney!) to use people rather than appointments as markers in my day. So I am trying to stop (actually stop) and pray before I go to school, on my way to see someone, on my way to answering the door when someone calls by at our house – praying for those I will meet, praying for a valuable and encouraging interaction, praying that I will be like this.

4. Pray with our children. When something happens or someone comes to mind and prayer is required – or in any of the above three categories – I am just starting to try to form the habit of praying about it with our children. It is one thing to be praying often and silently (which is fine) but I have also become aware that our children need to see this habit of praying frequently throughout the day modelled too so that they learn to "pray without ceasing" and realise that prayer doesn't just happen when saying grace or goodnight prayers. And by teaching them this habit maybe they might even remind me to pray about something one day. That would be a joy.

I'm not too bad at the first two ideas. The second two are new habits that I am trying to form.

I always feel it well to put a few words of prayer between everything I do.
Well, between EVERYTHING may not be practical, but frequently has got to be a good alternative. Any other ideas?

Prayer - (1) Quality

As I was praying for my family a few weeks ago I noticed something about my prayers that absolutely horrified me.

There are various things that I pray for repetitively. I pray that my husband will have an effective and productive work day and that any meetings he has will of value. I pray that the gospel will sink deep into my boys' hearts.

And there are other things that I pray about repetitively. I pray that gospel seeds will be sown in the hearts of the children in my scripture classes and to that end, I often pray that they will simply behave during our lesson together so that they can engage with the lesson.

I pray that the children at our Sunday School will love coming to church, that they will make real relationships with each other and the grown-ups who are trying to connect with them and that they will learn something wonderful about God in their time together.

On these and other subjects I pray the same things over and over and over and over.

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with repetitive prayers. Nothing at all. Except when you catch yourself thinking, before you pray one of your repetitve prayers, "Well, I suppose I ought to pray for such and such now..."

I suppose I ought to pray for my husband and his day ahead because I am his wife. I suppose I ought to pray for our boys because I am their mother. I suppose I ought to pray for my scripture classes because I am their scripture teacher...

It is wrong to pray repetitively if those daily prayers become empty words mouthed out of a sense of duty.

That horrible (and wonderful) morning I realised that I was praying my way through a list in order to tick the box of duty served and not because I actually believed God would answer those prayers. Autopilot meets unbelief.

It was horrible to realise that this was what I was doing. A weight lifted off me as I repented of my wretchedness. And a certain joy and fresh enthusiasm for prayer replaced it as the quality of my prayers changed - as I actually began to pray in belief that God is listening and will answer.

Yes, I still pray my repetitive prayers for my husband, my boys, my scripture classes, the Sunday School children and for a whole lot more besides - but now I try to start those prayers asking God to help me to pray with concentration, with genuine love and concern for those I am praying for and for a sincere and deep belief that God will hear those prayers and answer them. Again and again.

"I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief." Mark 9:24

Fellowship with Vitality

Last week at Bible study we were looking at Hebrews 10:24-25 which reads,

And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together , as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

In discussing this we were talking about the importance of continuing to meet together as Christians and more over, the importance of making those times vital, valuable and worthwhile.

Which reminded me of a quote from Mother Teresa I heard on the radio recently - my Words of Encouragement for June.

Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbour…Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness - kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.

I think I have often considered the Hebrews passage quantitatively. But it has been very encouraging to think about not just the quantity of my fellowship with others but also the quality. And this is going to become a subject of much prayer for me. Because both are important.

The Year of the Garden

Mary, Mary quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

Just before the beginning of the year I had dinner with a friend currently living and working in England and we designated 2009 The Year of Optimism.

In other quarters however I had already declared 2009 to be The Year of the Garden. We moved into our home here at the beginning of 2008. It is in a really beautiful setting but the actual garden is, well...

"Garden" is probably a bit generous. "Yard" would be better.

I just couldn't get to it last year. So I decided this year would be the year. Rather rashly (or maybe for reasons of accountability/motivation to actually do something about it) I announced far and wide that I would get working on garden this year. (And I REALLY need to do something about it now that I have mentioned it here! Not that I going to be bullied by my own blog!!)

So here is the baseline.

The yard is an "L" shape. This is the base of the "L" - with the washing line in the corner.


Then, standing halfway along the upright of the "L", looking back down to the corner where the washing line is you have the boys' trampoline.


Turn the other way and you get a wonderful paved area, which currently features, among other things, a stack of empty pots that moved with us from our last house.

I need to confess at this point that I am no gardener. We brought empty pots with us because all the plants that had once been in them were dead...and there was no point shifting dead plants to our new home! You will start to get a picture of the challenges that lay ahead.

And then for the grand finale, the empty patch, just crying out for a garden.


Now there are three major challenges for me. One is to overcome my gardening ineptitude. The second is that I will be working on a tight budget. The third and biggest challenge is that there are lots of gum trees all around the perimeter of the yard and although you can't see it, there is one just to the right of this empty patch. And I would be reasonably confident that there are certain things that will not grow under a gum tree.

So that is the baseline. This is The Year of the Garden. And it is only the end of May. I haven't even missed Spring for 2009. Where there is still Spring to come there is hope.

I'll keep you posted...and no doubt I'll be asking for some advice along the way.

Oh, by the way, the United Nations has actually designated2009 the International Year of Astronomy.

Joy in Job

Yesterday I got up to Job* in my Bible reading plan. In many respects this is a heavy going book of the Bible.

At the very beginning Job is described as, "blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil." God allows Satan to test Job's righteousness. And so Job loses all his vast livestock and his servants, his ten children are killed and he is covered from head to toe in painful sores. That is, Job loses his livelihood, the trappings of his wealth, his family and his health - all things we may be tempted to place our security in, rather than in God. That's just the first two chapters!!

But the rub for me is in the following 35 chapters. Job has three friends who come along and try to comfort and help him. This long section of the book records the conversation between the four of them. There is double edged sword for me in these 35 chapters. At one level (from hazy memory - and I may need to retract the next phrase in a week's time when I have finished reading Job) there is a certain degree of whinging - and if you have read other parts of this blog, you will know the extent of my patience with whinging. And then there is the discomfort of having to read what the three friends had to say in trying to comfort Job - words that were not at all comforting or helpful - and wondering if I have spoken similarly unhelpful words that were of no comfort to friends in need. Wondering that must necessarily lead to apology and repentance.

I almost thought of skipping over Job this time around because I didn't think I was up to it. But Job is the Word of God. So I prayed hard before commencing my reading of this section of God's Word that I would learn from it. And how grateful I am that God gave me good courage to read on and not put Job aside for another time - because look what I found only four verses in...

His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of fasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, 'Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.' This was Job's regular custom.

Oh, that in our family we would have this level of concern for the spiritual welfare of our children. And oh, that our boys would grow up blessed by the fruit of our concern, prayer and actions on behalf of their spiritual welfare, just as Job's children clearly did. This is a breathtaking testimony of what it is to be a godly parent.

If the rest of my time in Job is difficult, it will not matter for I have been given a precious reminder and rich encouragement to focus on the one thing that is most important for our two boys - that they be brought up to be blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.

Thankyou heavenly Father for the book of Job.

* The word "Job" rhymes with "robe."

Daylight Saving

Today 1.3 million adults in Western Australia will vote YES or NO to daylight saving between the end of October and the end of March each year.

I took R (who is six) and N (who is approaching four) with me to cast my vote - a good chance for them to see what the election process looks like when the ballot paper isn't too difficult to complete - ie. I could vote and supervise at the same time! On the way we discussed the issue.

M: So R, what do you think of daylight saving? Should I vote yes or no?

R: Vote no. I don't like it.

M: Why?

R: Because it is boring.

OK...moving onto the next boy...

M: So N, what do YOU think of daylight saving?

N: (with joy) I love light sabers Mummy.

Don't think we have fully grasped the issues in our household!

Take Hold and Rejoice!

Recently I did a Bible study on prayer with some friends and the text for the study was dear Philippians 4:4-7. Now, I thought I had pondered and thought over every letter of these verses but something new and wonderful came to light as we studied this passage together.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again: Rejoice!

Let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near.

Do not be anxious about anything,

but in everything,

by prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving,

present your requests to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding...

All good up to there.

But I realised that I think I've never taken in what happens after that. Sure I have read it. Probably hundreds of times. But I think my eyes have just run over the top of the next words, happily distracted (the word "reverie" comes to mind) by the prospect of experiencing the peace of God which transcends all understanding. After all, that sounds wonderful.

So if I rejoice in the Lord - because no matter what else is happening in my life I have cause to rejoice in the hope of eternal life with God through Jesus - and then be gentle, living in expectation of the Lord being near and rather than being anxious about the circumstances of my life, pray about them with thanksgiving - thankful that God is sovereign and He hears my prayers - then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding...

What?

What of that peace of God which transcends all understanding?

Well, it isn't given to me to make me feel all warm and comfortable and cosy. Strangely I think this has been my distracted thought while my eyes have read over the next bit with my brain disengaged. But the next bit actually says, when you stop to read it...

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The peace of God actually guards my heart and my mind - that is, my feelings and my thoughts. The peace of God reminds me that I am safe in Jesus, no matter what else may be happening. And if my feelings and my thoughts are under control and even more so, focussed on Jesus, then that should guard my actions - which will hopefully mean responding to any given situation in a way that honours and glorifies God. No wonder God wants us to pray always.

It is important to note in this particular passage that God doesn't take away the circumstance that would otherwise be causing us anxiety. He blesses us with a cool head and a steady heart to persevere. This is echoed beautifully in the first chapter of 2 Thessalonians when Paul prays for the Thessalonians who are clearly being persecuted and are in all sorts of bother. Paul prays not that they would be delivered from their circumstances but that they would be faithful and honour God through them.

Which is not to say that we shouldn't ask God to deliver us from difficult circumstances. Often He will. But at other times God won't because He knows what is best for us. And this is where we need to be observant to His answers to our prayers. Maybe God's answer is to give us a clear head and a steady heart to press on and ultimately to grow in our trust, dependence, knowledge and love of Him.

So, be encouraged. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Humility

I wish I was sufficiently well versed to know that this hymn comes from the pen of Horatio Bonar (1808 -1889). But as it turns out, I have become familiar with these words because of a Colin Buchanan CD. So thanks Colin and thanks Horatio. This is true humility – completely trusting God's sovereign plan for one's life – and a beautiful encouragement.

Thy way, not mine, O Lord, however dark it be,
Lead me by Thine own hand, choose out the path for me.

Smooth let it be or rough, it will still be the best.
Winding or straight, it leads right onward to thy rest.

I dare not choose my lot. I would not if I might,
Choose Thou for me, My God, so I shall walk aright.

The Kingdom that I seek is Thine, so let the way,
That leads to it be Thine, else I must surely stray.

Take Thou my cup, and it with joy or sorrow fill,
As best to Thee may seem, choose Thou my good and ill.

Choose Thou for me my friends, my sickness or my health,
Choose Thou my cares for me, my poverty or wealth.

Not mine, not mine the choice in things all great or small.
Be Thou my Guide, my Strength, my Wisdom and my All.

Another Compelling Case for Reading a Book!

A while ago I stumbled upon the article Is Google Making us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr. It starts like this:

Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets’reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link.

The bottom line? The internet is a wonderful tool however we move around it quickly. We can find what we need with great speed. And if we start reading something and it doesn't meet our need or hold our interest then there is always another website to visit - and off we go! Cage looks at the long term effect of this style of reading/operating and while it is anecdotal at present (there is no hard research on the effect of the constant use of the internet on brain function but wow! - there are a few PhDs there!!) he suggests that at best it is changing the way we think and at worst it is flattening our capacity to think and certainly to concentrate.

Now I know my capacity to concentrate has been seriously deteriorating over the last few years. First there were the pregnancy hormones (although I am not entirely convinced of this as an excuse at least for myself) and then there was the baby fog (that was real!). But in truth a good part of my loss of brain function is simply because I haven't exercised it and it has just become very unfit.

This is one of many reasons why I started this blog - to do something new, to stretch myself, to connect a few new synapses in my brain and reconnect a few that became disconnected along the way.

So now I am going to start reading again. I will start small with a modest reading list both in quantity and content because I know that if I am over ambitious (when it comes to matters of fitness, be that of brain or body) then failure will surely follow. And I will build up slowly. The trick as always will be to approach this in a godly fashion, to set suitable boundaries and to work on not adding more to the agenda to the detriment of the core stuff that needs to be maintained and done well. I will keep you posted!

And the great irony of the "Is Google Making us Stupid?" article? For an article on the internet it was extremely long and took considerable concentration to read. I'd be certain the irony was not lost on Nicholas Carr.

Head and Heart

Earlier this year Jean (her blog "in all honesty" is always worth reading) inspired me to start reading again - something more substantial than parenting and recipe books. I got off to a great start but my good resolve fizzled out.

There are lots of reasons why it all fizzled out:

* not wishing to encroach upon my precious time for reading the Bible,
* a reading list that was too ambitious in length which then overwhelmed me,
* reading choices that were too ambitious in content that overwhelmed my unfit brain,
* being too busy (or is that not enough discipline to make the time to do it??) to fit it in,
* not doing it for 21 days in a row (because apparently it takes 21 uninterrupted days to form a habit).

The centrepiece of my list of excuses includes the admission of an unfit brain. (I have carefully kept it that way to match my unfit body!!) And I am going to think about brain fitness next time (if I can concentrate for long enough!!!)

But on the 23rd March Dr John Piper had this to say on his Desiring God blog:

This is a plea that all of you would build into your lives both personal devotions and purposeful study of God’s word.

Both: Daily prayerful meditation seeking personal application of God’s word to your own heart and life.

And: Regular study in a class or with a book where the (living or dead) teacher has seen more than you have and can give you insight in 30 minutes that might otherwise take you ten years to see.

The reason I plead for both is that without a book or a class about what some part of the Bible means and a teacher who is ahead of you, your devotions will probably flatten out at a low level of insight.

Year after year you will go over the same biblical ground and find it as perplexing as before. There will be little advance in understanding. This will tend to take the heart out of devotional reading, because the lack of growth cannot sustain the joy.

Seek out preaching, books, and classes which take you further in grasping what various books and texts in the Bible mean.

Well, I am encouraged to have another go at doing both - devotional Bible reading and also serious reading about the Bible - which means making a plan to do the purposeful study. Most of the books that were on the previous over ambitious list were about the purposeful study of the Bible. So I think I just need to choose more carefully and keep the list short to begin with.

And there is more encouragement to be had for those who need an extra push. Here are some encouraging ways to get into devotional reading and here is another piece of inspiration to pursue serious reading in a SMALL way - which I was VERY pleased to read - which will ease an unfit brain into tackling print matter again. Because reading IS a joy and I am not actually doing this to punish myself.

Truly Remarkable

How would you spend this evening if you knew it was going to be your last?

Yesterday I had the privilege of teaching 60 children in my scripture classes about the beautiful episode of Jesus washing his disciples' feet on the Thursday night before the events of the Easter weekend started to unfold. To commence the lesson I asked the children this very question of how they would spend the evening if they knew it was their last. Some of the responses included

* Order pizza and play Nintendo DS all night.
* Jump off my roof and see if I actually can fly after all
* Go to McDonalds for one last happy meal
* Finish my homework (oh yeah!!) and spend time with my family
* Get all my friends over for a party

On Jesus' last night before he faced crucifixion he had dinner with his twelve best friends but he didn't spend the evening pleasing himself, seeking out love and comfort or doing that last crazy thing.

Jesus did something remarkable. He washed their feet. This was an enormous gift of love and sacrifice.

Why remarkable?

Because the feet of the disciples would not have looked nice and clean like the ones in this photo. The 24 feet in question would have sweated through the heat of the day, walked along the dusty roads and would not have been "refreshed" before coming to dinner. (It was quite good fun to go into a bit of detail at this point!!!)

Because in those days the task of foot washing would have been relegated to the lowest slave of the household and so for Jesus, their Lord and Teacher, to do this would have been culturally surprising to say the least.

Because this was his last night before he faced crucifixion and instead of focussing on what he was about to face, he looked outward and gave his friends a simple but powerful act of love in the gift of cleansing of their feet. (Now there is more going on here than simple foot washing – but the children are young and I only had 25 minutes!)

Because he then used it, selflessly, to teach his friends one final lesson while they were together.

"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you."John 13:14,15

He was not suggesting that they literally wash every foot with which they came into contact there after. He was suggesting that they love one another sacrificially, selflessly, taking on acts of service that lack glamour but demonstrate extravagant love - that they show love in a remarkable way.

Maybe remarkable is not the best word to describe what Jesus did because it is entirely in character that Jesus – who came not to be served but to serve – spent his last night with his friends in this way.

But it does paint a remarkable example to us to love one another abundantly, quietly, humbly, sacrificially, selflessly, beautifully.

And the best bit for me yesterday? I think all 60 kids got it. Not necessarily that they need to love one another sacrificially - wouldn't that be nice?? But they did get that Jesus did something truly remarkable the night before He died on the cross. And I praise God for that.