Yes it’s my birthday and I’ve had a busy old day! I started out at 8:30am with a Year 9 assembly that got promptly cancelled when a tree fell onto the learning support block! The hall needed to be used to house the students and we had to clear out before I started.
I then had two primary assemblies back to back in another school followed by an hour lesson on ‘What Christians believe about The Bible’. All that was quite fun as the kids were great at listening and I got them acting out stories from the Bible. David and Goliath has never been so succinct!
After a inter-church lunch meeting about an upcoming youth event, I went to Wickbourne for the official ‘Lights On’ event that the BBC were filming for the Politics Show this coming Sunday (they’re interested in a resurgence of Christianity and the role the church is playing in the community). While there I helped do a variety of craft activities for the kids and had the choir sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me!
This was all followed by an amazing dinner cooked by one of the young people, and then the youth group debate about Abortion! By no means a lighthearted event.
I’ve just got home and put the kettle on waiting for Kirsty to get in. Rumour has it that she’s bought me a present! I just want to say thanks to all the people who’ve posted best wishes through cards, email, Facebook and text - it’s good to know you’re all there. Thank you.
I love long weekends! It’s Kirsty’s birthday tomorrow and we’re heading into London later today to spend the weekend doing touristy things. We’ve booked to go see the new Antony Gormley exhibition at the hayward which I’m really excited about. I’ll try to take some pictures and post them to flickr while we’re there. We’re also planning to go to London Zoo and catch a show too, so it’ll be a lot of fun!
It’ll be the third time I’m in London this week after the Strategic Schools Work Conference at LICC, and an excellent visit to XLP on Wednesday. I had a great time hanging out with the team, heading into a school and playing football with some kids after school. Thanks to Michelle and Tim in particular for showing me around!
A few weeks ago, I forgot my mum’s birthday. Well, I say forgot. I actually remembered it was her birthday and bought a card. What I failed to do was to call her up, wish her happy birthday, or even post the card to her. This is even more unforgivable when you know that I live about a mile away from her. When I finally caught up with her a week later, I felt pretty bad about myself and was really embarrassed that as her son I could treat her that way.
But that shame got me thinking about my role as a son and quite what that means. I have to admit that it is very rare that I view myself in the context of a son. As a youth worker, I am used to seeing myself more as an adult, a leader, perhaps even a father figure as I go about organising programmes, enforcing boundaries and (hopefully) encouraging young people. The son thing rarely comes into it.
My wife Kirsty tells me that through her Psychology studies she learnt about far eastern cultures and how they view themselves in the context of their relationship to others. For example, the Japanese have no concept of ‘I’ as an isolated individual. If you ask who they are, all their answers are given in relation to their roles in society; I am a father, I am a brother, I am a co-worker.
Looking at myself in this way, I wonder what I can learn about who I am now and who I’m created to be. I may be doing OK as a ‘father’, but I’m certainly failing as a son. How do I measure up to my heavenly father? Am I far too busy being a grown-up to enjoy and appreciate the special relationship that comes from being a child of the King?
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