Giving the best

You know the saying “saving your best till last?”

Well I’m not the kind of girl to keep the my favourite part of the meal until the end, oh no not me. More the “guzzle it just as soon as possible” (in a polite manner of course)’ kind of girl. However, occasionally I have given my last Rollo away.

Recently when wandering along the shores of Lady Bower Reservoir at some early bird time in the morning, I was aware of many of my lacks and needs. The need for a bigger heart of love, more energy to do and give, more patience, the list goes on.

Surely though, God, our Heavenly Father, just wants our love? Our childlike, trusting, faith filled, delighted, grateful love?

In deciding to remain single for Jesus, to invest who I am and what I have in serving Him and His church, I realise that I have given him the cream of the milk, the best in my heart. My most intimate and secret love in my heart is wasted on Him. It may be a little strained at times, it may feel like it is falling short or not making the grade, but it is all I have.

God spoke back to me in the fullness of my heart. I know complete fulfillment and contentment deep inside. He has my best, I have His love and smile.

 

Share this:

I decided to write a little song to encourage myself and some of my celibate friends. It’s mainly taken from Hebrews 3 and Isaiah 56, with a few Holy Spirit inspired fill-ins. Hope you like it …

Click here to listen to the audio version: https://soundcloud.com/jenniferp/the-call

Therefore holy brethren who share in the call,
Fix your eyes on Jesus, the apostle of all.
He was faithful to the one who appointed Him,
Was found worthy of honour and was free from sin.

Let no Eunuch say ‘All my life has drained away’,
Or ‘I’m a dry, dry tree’ – that’s not our destiny.
There is a promised rest; where there is faith our lives are blessed,
And while we’ve got today, our hearts will hear God say …

Therefore holy brethren who share in the call,
Fix your eyes on Jesus, the apostle of all.
He was faithful to the one who appointed Him,
Was found worthy of honour and was free from sin.

Let no Eunuch say ‘All my life has drained away’,
Or ‘I’m a dry, dry tree’ – that’s not our destiny.
And when we’re found in Christ, our spirits come alive;
He’ll give an everlasting name, that always will remain.

 

All The lonely People: Celibates And Christian Community

Malcolm Lisle from Sheffield comments on the UK’s lonely society and the need for Christian community – for everyone, celibates included.

The Beatles wrote a song entitled ‘All The Lonely People’:

 

Eleanor Rigby died in the church

And was buried alone with her name

Nobody came.

 

Father McKenzie wiping the dirt

From his hands as he walks from the grave.

No one was saved.

 

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

When I was a nurse I looked after an old lady who was very distressed because she had no surviving relatives. I said that I felt sorry for her and I would certainly notice when she wasn’t there anymore. But that is as much as a nurse is allowed to feel. We shouldn’t be callous. It is acceptable to feel sadness when a patient has died but running a busy hospital has to carry on and you can’t worry about it too much or you would be unable to do the job. Just imagine what it must feel like to come to the end or your life, and your only friend is a nursing assistant who is trying not to get too emotionally involved.

There are a lot of lonely people in the world today. I was walking down the street in Leeds when a woman asked to borrow my phone to call a taxi. She was a prostitute. I began to realise that the people she was calling weren’t professional taxi drivers. They were customers, who were simply willing to give her a lift in their cars, anywhere she wanted to go. You might move a long way from your family in order to find work. A prostitute might be your only friend.

In Christian community, the members of the church household become your family. I now have lots of children, lots of brothers, lots of sisters and a grandmother, even though my natural grandparents are now dead. It’s good to be with a church family for a long time so that you can watch the children grow up. The celibate needs community, to substitute for not having their own family. But isn’t it a good idea for everybody?

 

Living life to love

A friend of mine suggested I post some words to a song I wrote recently.  The first bits that came were a few chords, a rhythm and some wo o o o o’s, but a few days later I got thinking…  Both my parents are in their 70s now and before long I’ll be hitting 40. I suddenly started to grasp just how short our life on Planet Earth is and felt so grateful for knowing God in my life.  It also made me want to give my best for the next 40 years or so, as it’s the only chance I’ve got and there’s the whole of eternity to enjoy.  So, here they are…(without the wo o o o o’s)

Flowers fade, but Your love remains; we’re growing older, but You stay the same.

Time’s passing by like the blink of an eye; want to give us my life for others God.

We’ve only got one life to live and there’s and endless stream of love to give.

When I die, my life has passed me by, I want to say that I walked with You my Lord.

Each passing day, help me to live Your way, so I’m storing some treasure up above.

We’ve only got one life to live and there’s an endless stream of love to give.

When we stand there, New Earth’s breezes in our hair, a perfect bride at Your side;

Round us there’ll be those we helped to be free.  They’ll be weaving together worship harmonies.

We’ve only got one life to live and there’s an endless stream of love to give.

So let’s give it!

 

Coincidences

I’ve noticed a lot more coincidences since I started following Jesus.

It was a secret exchange in the middle of the night, I think around 1am.

And there I was going to work as usual; yet everything had changed.

I was bursting to tell someone, but who?

I decided it had to be Ruth, my good friend and mentor of several years.  I was to see her at 6.30pm, so until then I would have to treasure the secret of my hidden vow and trust it hadn’t been a dream.

I had been testing God’s call on my life for a few years and finally I had found the quiet faith to be able to say a sure and certain YES.  I knew I would not get married or have natural kids, but that in my spiritual DNA was a life of adventuring in God’s kingdom as a celibate.  I was excited!

So there I sat at my desk, grinning, thinking it all seemed surreal.  I logged on to my PC as usual and the verse of scripture that always appeared when I logged on flashed onto my screen.  The log-on scripture was changed from time to time by some unnamed person in IT and it had been changed that morning.  The new verse was from Jeremiah 50:5 ‘They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.’

Coincidence or God’s loving and characteristically attentive and timely response?  Whatever it was, I was happy.