Making friends with Felix

Friends who've gone away for the weekend asked me if I'd mind popping into their house today, to check that their cat was doing okay. He's called Felix, because he looks just like the cat on the cat food package. I agreed to go to their home and spend some time working there on my computer, so that Felix would have some company and I could top up his food and water. Well, it took him a long time to decide whether he actually wanted the company of a stranger, and for three hours he remained hidden under a throw on the couch, before finally venturing out to accept a treat and get a drink of water. But, since then, he keeps coming and hovering near the table where I'm working, so perhaps that a sign that we're "making friends" now.
When I move into my new season (see previous post), I suppose I'll be the one asking a friend to check on the cats if I'm gone for the weekend.... at least until I find a new housemate (preferably one who likes cats!)

MOVING... into a new season!

I lived in the same house for most of my growing up years. From the age of six months until the day that I left home, I had the same room in the same house on the same street. So, when I talk to people who tell me that they moved house six times during their childhood, or that they went to eight different schools, I wonder what it must have been like to pack your stuff into boxes and move to a new place so often.  

I lived in three different houses during my first eighteen months here in Spain, and I remember that it gave me the feeling of "camping," rather than settling into a new nation.  I took great comfort in a verse at the beginning of Psalm 90, which says, "Lord, you have always been our home." Spain began to feel like home once I moved to a more permanent place and could finally unpack all those suitcases, instead of keeping half my stuff under the bed!

On the other hand, the people who tell you of all the times they moved house are usually speaking about moving within the same nation. Just like my early Malaga experience, you pack all your stuff into boxes and suitcases, and you make several trips in the car; or you load your furniture into a removal van and you drive a few hours to another part of the country. The few times in my life that I've had a major move, it's involved leaving everything behind and moving to a completely new nation or continent.

I thought of 1990, when a serious lung illness prompted me to move back to Scotland from Austria, leaving behind all the bedroom furniture that I'd recently bought for my flat in Vienna. Then, after several years of living in Paisley, it was time for another big move, as I packed my first suitcase and headed down to South Africa. Nearly fifteen years in Cape Town was long enough for me to gather new belongings, build a house, get my first car, buy new furniture, get a dog...
But you can't pack more than fourteen years of your life into a twenty kilo suitcase, and so relocating back to Europe in 2007 meant once again that I left all my furniture and other belongings behind.

In 2008, when I made the decision to move to Spain, I remember that feeling of having to "start all over again." Of course, all of our things are "God's stuff," anyway. He provided them, and so they basically belong to Him. If we have to leave things behind when we move in obedience to His prompting, we can have confidence that He will once again provide all that we'll need in our new location. Just before my move to Alhaurín, when I was contemplating the prospect of having to start getting furniture, kitchen utensils and other household things again, God spoke to me through a promise in Deuteronomy 6:11 - the part where He tells the Israelites that they are going to "live in houses filled with good things that you did not provide for yourself."

And that is exactly what has happened during these few years that I've lived in Spain. If you've followed this blog for a long time, you might remember the first time it happened (see this post from 2008) when my English flatmate, Sue, decided to bring all her furniture and other stuff from the UK. I actually wrote that post about God's provision when I was praying about my need for a vehicle... and only six or seven months later, I was able to buy my little blue car which has served me so well over the past four years.

When Sue returned to England, I moved in with Ada and Gabriela in their little flat, and once again found myself living in a home full of furniture that I hadn't had to provide for myself. Then we moved together to the house that we've been living in for the past three years and - although we officially rent it "unfurnished" - the owner had left behind some tables and chairs that were very useful to us... and even an office chair which has been wonderful for me during the seasons of the year when I spend long hours working on the computer in preparation for different ministry projects.

Now yet another new season lies ahead. After three and a half years of sharing accommodation with me, Ada and her (now teenage) daughter will be moving to a flat of their own at the end of this month. This may mean that she will be able to get housing benefits as a single parent - something that wasn't really possible when I was sharing the house and was unable to prove a regular monthly income.

If at all possible, I'd like to stay in this house - instead of having to pack up my stuff (and my cats) and move yet again to a smaller place. However, in order to do that, I'm trusting for God's provision in different ways for the new season. First of all, I'm trusting for wisdom - that I would know God's solution for my housing needs in the months and years ahead.  If that solution is that I continue to stay in this house, I will be trusting for another friend or colleague to share the accommodation and the rental with me. (I wouldn't be able to pay the monthly rent on my own.) And thirdly, as Ada takes her furniture with her to their new place, I'll be entering a season where I'm no longer living in a house filled with someone else's furniture. Perhaps this will be the season where I will need to see provision of some furniture of my own again.

So I'm moving.... and even though I hope I won't be moving geographically, I know that I'm moving into a different season of God's provision for my life and ministry here in Spain. Thanks so much for your prayers during this transition time.

It's amazing the difference that 3 minutes can make!

This post is a reply to "Anonymous" who saw Sunday's video of Teddi's high five trick and asked how long we practise every day. It's actually not very long at all. Because I don't want Teddi to get fat at the same time as getting clever (!) I need to limit his daily treat intake. So we probably spend about three minutes a day, learning a new trick or reviewing an old one. Maybe five minutes at the most, if it's taking him longer to catch on to a new trick. Now, that I think back over the past few weeks since beginning trick training, it's actually amazing how much you can achieve if you're consistent with just 3 - 5 minutes a day! Makes you wonder what else we could achieve in life if we committed just three to five minutes a day to it.

What if we were to take just 3 - 5 minutes a day for some exercise, instead of sitting down all the time?  How many new words would I learn in a month if I spent 3 - 5 minutes a day learning some Spanish vocabulary? What difference would it make if we were to spend just 3 - 5 minutes a day praying for a family member or for a challenging situation that we face? How many people would be encouraged if we took 3 - 5 minutes a day to make a phone call, send an encouraging email or write a note to someone we appreciate?

Hmmm.... If a cat can make progress with just three minutes a day, how much difference could we make by giving just a few minutes a day to things that are really important?

Lifelong misconceptions.... How sad!

Since I posted Teddi's first trick video, exactly a month ago (click here to read and see) some of you have got in touch by email to ask whether he's learned any other tricks since then, or whether my cat training efforts were just a flash in the pan! Especially for those readers, Teddi's newest trick (High Five - which he's learned over the past couple of days) is showcased in a short video at the end of this blog post.

I have to confess that Teddi's progress, even though he's only beginning his trick training at the ripe old age of four years old, has caused me to reflect on the fact that it's possible to believe something your whole life long, without ever realising that you're believing something untrue.

I've had a few dogs in my lifetime: a couple of Border Collie types, and a couple of Irish Setters. Apart from the first one, who was the family dog before I was born, I got my other dogs when they were six-week-old puppies, and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them all the dog obedience basics, as well as a few other things for fun. It continually fascinated me that a puppy of two or three months old could already understand so many words and commands. I've had a couple of cats in my lifetime too.... but people always told me that cats were different. "Cats are more independent than dogs," I was told. "There's no point trying to teach them anything, because they'll just do their own thing anyway."

Well, I've seen cats do clever stuff in movies, so I guess I imagined that some kind of training was possible.... but I thought that it was probably the domain of those animal training experts in Hollywood. My experience with my own cats (except for a short season when Tibo was tiny and played fetch because she probably thought she was a border collie like the others) has generally confirmed the impression that they like to sleep, eat and be brushed, and aren't particularly interested in stretching their brains and learning to do clever stuff on command. How wrong can we be! I have to smile whenever I ask Teddi, "Shall we practise some tricks?" and he leaps up all enthusiastic, and comes purring at the thought of earning some treats.

Sadly, there are more serious areas of life where it's possible to live with lifelong misconceptions. There are people out there who don't believe that God is real or that it's possible to know Him in a personal way in the 21st century. And so these people spend their whole lives believing a lie, and never taking the step of inviting God to be at the centre of their lives.

Perhaps even more sad than that is the fact that there are Christians who have taken the step of inviting God into their lives, and yet they continue to live with lifelong misconceptions about what He is like: perhaps they doubt His justice or His faithfulness; maybe they don't really believe that He loves them or wants to provide for them; perhaps they imagine that it's not possible to hear His voice or to experience His presence on a daily basis. And so they miss out! Their doubts and wrong beliefs mean that they don't pray, they don't trust, they don't involve God in their lives in any meaningful kind of way from day to day.

My misconceptions about the motivations and abilities of cats didn't majorly affect the course of my life. But misconceptions about who God is and how He wants to relate to us can have a huge impact on how we experience life - both now in the present, and also for the rest of eternity. How sad!

The interesting thing about misconceptions and misbeliefs is that, no matter how sincerely you believe them, no matter how convinced you are that they're right, your sincerity can never change the fact that you're believing something untrue. That may not be all that important if your wrong belief is about cats.... but if your wrong belief is about God, or about yourself, or about other people... that's a pretty big deal, and it can make a really big difference in your life.

No wonder the Bible speaks so much about truth. Jesus called Himself "the Truth," and said that the Holy Spirit would lead us into "all truth." He also said (John 8:32) that when we know the truth, that truth will set us free.

Let's ask God to show us if there are any areas where we have been living with lifelong misconceptions. He's the only One that can help us know what is really true.

So, in conclusion, here's the clip you've been asking for : further evidence of my lifelong misconception about the training potential of cats. Enjoy the show!

Double delight

Our "Pathways" retreat has been going well and the participants have shared encouraging feedback about the way it is enriching their relationship with God. One activity earlier in the week involved making a sort of "timeline" of the past few years of your life, so that you could chart the times when you felt close to God or the times when your relationship didn't seem to be going so well, and get an idea of how different situations and circumstances in your life had perhaps influenced the way you connected with God. 

Another activity involved considering nine different "pathways" to experiencing God. Some people find it easiest to connect with God during a corporate worship time; some feel closest to God when they're spending time alone with Him in prayer; still others have the strongest sense of God's presence when they're reading or studying the Bible; and yet others are most conscious of God when they're out in nature and seeing His handiwork in the beauty of creation. And so it was a special treat for this last category of person when the sunshine gave way to a sudden rain shower yesterday and, as we sat down to eat dinner together, we could look out the window and see not just one rainbow, but a huge double rainbow stretching across the valley in front of the house. What a beautiful sight it was against the dark and cloudy sky!

A special time with God...

People have come to the Retreat Centre this week from Norway, Estonia, the Netherlands, the Ukraine and the UK... all for the purpose of exploring different ways, different "pathways" to enriching our relationship with God.  For the next five days, we'll be offering a programme of worship, creative meditation, prayer, Bible reading, journalling and much more....

It's an opportunity to enjoy community and communion together, but above all a time when each individual can reconnect with God in renewed and refreshing ways.

First ice cream of 2013!

Perhaps you're wondering why the ice cream spoon seems to be as big as our heads. It's not easy for two people to take a photo, when they're balancing two ice creams and an iPad in their hands! But Gabriela and I enjoyed our first ice cream of this year... and especially enjoyed the fact that it was a warmish sunny day. The weather forecast had threatened rain all week, but so far it's poured all night long and then been sunny and windy during the day. Today I did my annual "dismantle and wash" of the vacuum cleaner - which means I'm taking the risk of assuming that I'm not going to be vacuuming ashes out of the fireplace for the next seven months or so. Before you know it, I'll be sleeping with only one duvet instead of two :-)