Losing…My Mind

Otra victima del sistema by *faboarts

I’ve hit a world record for losing things. Let me explain.
In the past month I have lost the following:

My winter coat (which would have come in handy in the next few months)
My iPod (on the way to uni)
My computer dongle
My scarf (at uni)
My provisional license (thankfully, a lady behind me yelled at me forcefully to get my attention so I could retrieve it)
My hot water bottle’s outer cover. It’s gotta be in my room somewhere…
My guitar capo (also in my room somewhere)

I’m forgetful at times, granted. I’m a ditz very often, too (Sam can testify). And at least once a week I’ll utter the words, “It’s today? You’re joking!” or “Oh no, I totally forgot about that!” or, very simply, “Ooops…Uh, <insertnamehere>, you know that thing you asked me to do…?” (The second one being the most common).

However, losing stuff has not been my weakest point, until now. And I am gutted. That scarf? Yeah, I’ve had it for over 6 years. And I’d just washed it. (Wasted my precious Ariel tablets for nothing…)

But good things: One, I only have to leave my house a maximum of 5 times a week (Thursday and Friday being days off), so the lost coat and scarf isn’t too problematic, especially with the nice weather.

Mandy’s got a spare iPod now, so I no longer have to commute in silence (or, worse, lost in my own thoughts – they’re not very interesting; it makes me wish I could dislocate my brain from whatever part of me contributes to my powers of general awareness). Adjusting from a (semi-unused) 80GB iPod to 6GB has also streched my decision-making skills immensely.

My hot water bottle cover decreases the thermal effectiveness of said hot water bottle. And with nights as cold as they are and gas as expensive as it is, every little helps. Muchly.

I’m not having to play guitar in any public capacity this week, so the capo is not a necessity. (Until I realised Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah in the key of C is very much low male range-oriented. And does not sound as good in E – but then the third verse freaked me out and I decided I’d find other things to sing. Like Lenka’s ‘The Show’.)

Mandy also has a little-used computer dongle. Problem solved.

And as much as I wish I had all my original stuff with me, I realise they’re not that important.

Though I WILL check eBay to see if my iPod is on there, darnit!

Post-MEC Round-up

So, I promised before MEC to let you know how it all went and what kind of coolness came up out of it.

Well, as you might know, I was part of the committee team and one-third responsible for the worship. Leading up to the conference this largely meant assigning people to be in charge of worship for the various talk sessions, planning my worship set for Monday’s combined session and helping to write an MEC theme song.

During the conference, I was mostly delegating. I had so many willing hands and it was awesome how everyone I asked was more than happy to set up the projector, or carry a laptop from one room to another, or whatever. In fact, I don’t really feel like I did anything much at all, except hang out, chat with people and click through slides. Fantastic. I really enjoyed talking with people I’d never met before, and especially loved my small group. River rules!

But I wasn’t just there to enjoy myself or work – I also wanted to see what God had set out for me to learn as well, and wanted to be sure I wasn’t distracted when I should be listening out for it – so one of the many good things about being a small group ‘leader’ (I felt more like a discussion-invigilator) was that I had to take notes so we could discuss the talk.

In the last talk I was highly unprepared and had left my handbook up in my room, so I was taking notes on the back of one of my chord sheets. Writing them up in the handbook after the conference, I really felt God hammering home the main points that I had written down:

How to Live a Life of Legacy:

Be faithful – know God’s promises, and live by them.

- To accomplish this, I decided to set myself the task of memorising verses where God has promised us something. The next day, my devotionals led me to this one:

Fear of men will prove to be a snare, but whoever
trusts in God will be kept safe.
Psalm 29:25

That was an awesome reminder to always show God’s love, regardless of how ‘weird’ I might come across. For me, that’s normal. Haha.

Be obedient – when rebuked, change; when sent, go.

- Here I decided that I would be kept accountable by a friend when God says I’m messing up somewhere, so that I can be sure to change. It also meant that when I felt the small tug to talk to someone, to do it – again, by being faithful and leaning on promises like Psalm 29:25.

Be available - Actively go where people have a need, and invest time, energy and resources.

- For me, this came down to making sure I don’t avoid opportunities to talk with people, because sometimes I’d rather not have to have the hassle of making conversation with people. It also meant giving the little I have even if I’ll never be ‘repaid’.

I also added a fourth one for myself:

Be disciplined – To seek God and run the race regardless of the weather.

This, I suppose, is a mixture of the first three, but also a reminder to myself that I’ll always need to depend on something outside of myself – and not my own resources or emotions or ability – to obey God.

So far, I haven’t been in Birmingham to ‘test’ my new knowledge yet, but I’ve been at home in London where I’ve more than enough opportunities to help out and bless my family. So yeah! Awesome