Mission Week in The Western Dales; Christianity for Today.

I’ve been thinking about the nature of faith these past few weeks

That thinking has been shaped by the slightly overwhelming completion of my candidating portfolio.

For the past year, this portfolio has been, as a minimum, a presence in the background of my life. It's been nudging me, reminding me I needed to get on with it. I haven’t procrastinated, but I might had spent a bit too much time pondering.

I have planned, drafted, emailed myself, journaled, scribbled notes, prayed about it, held conversations, taken feedback.

Seven large, reflective, deeply personal pieces of writing or creating and each one needed prayer, reading, real thought, 

And of course there was the testimony video, and that wonderful learning curve with lighting, framing, settings, editing required to meet my own silly standard, only made steeper by the fact that, spiritually, emotionally, the whole thing asks me to really look at myself.

I have had several rounds of this:

I read this recently, I’m not quite sure where…so I’m paraphrasing:

When you board a plane, you place your life entirely in the hands of a pilot you will never meet.

You trust that they can navigate turbulence you’ll never see, storms you’ll never know about, airspace you’ll never understand.

Before the trust comes the choices, there are wilful decisions we make: 

We choose to book the ticket, we choose get to the airport, we choose to stand in the queue, take our shoes off at security, to get on the plane, to sit in the seat, etc. etc. They’re all choices.  At any point we can stop. 

And even though we don’t know what lies ahead; the turbulence, the clouds, the rising and falling, the chatter taking place over air traffic control we choose to believe the journey is worth it.

Those acts, the decisions we make, are faithful ones.

That’s what the portfolio demanded, active decision making and will.

I had to choose to do it, choose to commit the time, choose to reflect honestly, choose to press record again after the tenth failed attempt accompanied by some very un-methodist like language.

I chose to trust that God would shape something meaningful from my very human contribution.

Mission Week in The Western Dales is a series of decisions

Christianity for Today — Western Dales Mission Community

Western Dales Mission Community0

Mission Week isn’t simply a schedule of events; it’s a set of invitations.

A set of moments where we’re asked to choose.

Will I go? Will I join in? Will I bring someone along? Will I listen, or learn, or ask a question? Will I allow something unexpected to be stirred inside me?

I don’t know exactly what will happen at a Mission Week event, who I’ll meet, what I’ll hear, but the act of will, the decision to show up, is faith in itself.

Mission Week is the opportunity to step onto the plane, I'm really looking forward it.