We walked to John o'Groats

May dragged by in some ways, as the Spanish quarantine lockdown kept being extended for more and more weeks confined to our homes. But in another sense, it seems to have gone by very fast. It was a month where I had a lot of work "online" - many meetings and classes by video-conferencing, coaching and coach evaluations also happening over the internet - as well as other work that is simply done from behind a computer.

We seem to have turned the corner here in Spain. As the summer heat begins to increase, the coronavirus statistics seem to be decreasing. Deaths, which were hovering around 900 per day at the beginning of April, have dropped to just two or three per day, and there were two days this week when we had no deaths at all.

As a result, we've begun a process of "de-escalation" where we are slowly being allowed a bit more freedom. Mask wearing is compulsory in public places, but restaurants and coffee shops are beginning to open, and we're now allowed to venture more than one kilometre from our homes.

In the second stage of relaxing the lockdown, we are allowed to go into friends' homes and meet in small groups of fewer than ten people. My church house group met in person for the first time this week, with five of us meeting face to face and four others (still stranded out of the country) joining over the internet. Church services are allowed to begin this coming Sunday, but only with one third of the usual capacity, and so people need to reserve their places in advance. As I have a lung condition that puts me in the "vulnerable"category, I've decided just to join the service over Zoom, and not to attend the church in person yet. I did go to house group this week, though. 

Our locally based leadership team of five people for the LDC also had a face to face meeting over coffee this week, and we got the good news that the hotel and apartments we planned to use as accommodation for the leadership development course will be opening their doors again from 1st July. Now we only need to wait and see if borders and airports open sufficiently for us to go ahead with the course this autumn as planned.

While most of the world has been in lockdown, with limited access to the outside world, there's been a flourishing of websites encouraging you to "virtually" walk the Camino de Santiago, the Inca Trail, or other famous hiking routes around the world. You do it by walking around your own home or garden, or within the limits that are permitted in your own town, and some kind of app counts the kilometres that you've covered.... until they announce that you've now walked the equivalent of Lands End to John o'Groats. I decided to count up our current kilometre count, and discovered that we had indeed walked from Penzance to John o'Groats, from Malaga almost to the French border, or a good chunk of the way from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

Part of the key to this success is the use of a new canine-rucksack I bought, which is worn by one of the three bigger dogs (they take turns) and means that they can carry their own bottles of water for the hike. I'd been finding that my arthritic shoulders weren't strong enough to carry water for the dogs as well as for myself, and so it's made a huge difference to have the dogs carry their own water. Still within our current "de-escalation" regulations (ie, within our town limits), we've been able to go a little further than would otherwise have been possible for me. This week, a friend and I climbed the mountain to the wolf's lookout - a spot with amazing views over the Mediterranean coastline. (That's the photo at the top of this post.) Another day, I took the dogs for a long, shady walk in a nearby forest. It's been good to get out into nature, to compensate for the many hours spent looking at a computer screen. Looking ahead, further freedoms may open up.... and other kinds of ministry involvement can begin again.

Keeping on track...

For this year, 2020, we (that's I and the dogs) have had an annual goal of walking 2020 kilometres. I calculated this week that, if we’re to keep on track with our target, we need to be averaging just over 168 km every month… 

I was pretty sure that coronavirus quarantine lockdown would have completely sabotaged our progress,  as it meant we were forbidden from doing our usual spring hikes in the mountains and limited instead to making shorter circuits much closer to home. (The photos are from February, when we were still allowed out and about.) In fact, I've been incredibly thankful for the dogs, as they represent one of the few valid reasons we've had for leaving our homes over the past seven weeks. People without dogs have not been allowed to go out, except for doing their supermarket shopping.

With our movements so severely restricted during March and April, I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged today to discover that, despite the lockdown, we’ve somehow managed to clock up (and donate to charity) more than 700 km by this last day of April. We're still on track!

What are the areas where Covid quarantine presented a danger of throwing you "off track" and preventing you from doing things you'd hoped to do? Or are you one of the people who suddenly found yourself with lots of extra time on your hands, and were actually able to get back on track with things you'd been postponing for ages?

When the apostle Paul writes to a young man called Timothy, he tells him to continue in what he has learned and knows to be true; not to let anything throw him off track. (2 Tim 3: 14)

What are the things where you need to keep on track during the weeks that lie ahead?

Are you among the courageous?

How courageous are you?

I suspect that most of us don't particularly think of ourselves as especially courageous. Somehow, the word conjures up thoughts of war heroes or people who face incredible trials and dangers.

In the Old Testament, in 2 Samuel 23 and then again in 1 Chronicles 11, we read about David's "mighty men." Some Bible translations call them King David's "warriors" while other translations refer to them as "heroes."

If you're reading in a Spanish Bible, they're referred to as the valientes - which simply means courageous: people of courage. You don't need to be a warrior to be courageous; you don't even need to be a "mighty man." You can be a woman, or a child, and still be a person of courage.

And so it's interesting to read what the Bible actually says about these heroes, these people of courage.  The accounts of their exploits are strangely different. Sure enough, some of them were brave warriors who killed vast numbers of enemy soldiers. One of them was a strong guy who pursued and killed a lion on a snowy day; another was a courageous soldier who killed an Egyptian giant.  

Yet there are others in the list whose achievements were not nearly so spectacular. One of them was called Eleazar, and all that we're told about him is that he stuck by his commander even when others had fled; that he persevered even when he felt like giving up, and that one time his hand was so tired that he didn't even have the energy to lift up his sword. 

Have you ever been in that place? Have you ever reached the point where you felt that you didn't have the energy to go on? Have you ever felt so tired or discouraged that it would have been tempting to give up and run away? If you didn't do that, if you chose instead to "stick by your commander," to persevere and stay faithful to Jesus even when others didn't, then you're just like Eleazar. You are a person of perseverance and courage.

Another of the "valientes" was called Shammah, and all that we're told about him was that he held his ground when under attack and he defended a field of lentils. Nothing very glamorous about that; saving a field of lentils doesn't sound like a particularly significant achievement. And perhaps you feel that your life is not particularly significant; that your involvement for the kingdom of God is not especially spectacular or praiseworthy. But it's not about how big or small your involvement is; it's not about whether you teach a Sunday school class of six kids or whether you lead a church of hundreds of people. It's about whether you "hold your ground" when the enemy attacks, seeking to discourage you and make you give up.  It doesn't matter how young or old you are. It's about whether you're willing to stand strong for your field of lentils.

Faithfulness and perseverance are what mark us as people of courage, no matter how large or small the territory that has been entrusted to us. Are you numbered among the courageous?

Read on below for something that was perhaps even more important about David's mighty men.

Hearing what's said in secret...

Among the various things we're told about the "mighty men" who were closest to King David, there is one story that has really impacted me personally - ever since I first noticed it, back in the 1980s. It's about three of the men in particular, and the story is told for us in 2 Samuel 23, as well as in 1 Chronicles chapter 11 vs 15 - 19.

It was during a time of warfare, when David and some of his troops had withdrawn briefly from the battle and were sheltering in a cave. The Philistines were occupying Bethlehem at the time. Bethlehem had been David's home town, and there in the cave, he just happened to say, "Oh, I wish someone could bring me a drink of that lovely fresh water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem."

It wasn't a command; he didn't call some of his soldiers and order them to go and do that for him. It was simply a desire of his heart, perhaps said with a sigh, perhaps barely spoken above a whisper as they hid there in the cave.

But those men in the story were near enough that they happened to hear what David said, even though he said it to himself and not to anyone else in particular. So great was their love for their leader that the three of them set off and broke through Philistine lines, just so that they could draw water from that Bethlehem well and bring it back for David to drink. They weren't obeying an order from their army commander; they were doing something he hadn't even asked for, just because they knew it would bring joy to his heart.

The first time I read that story, it got me wondering about my own relationship with God. Not about whether I was obedient to His instructions or not, but whether I was going a step further than that .... whether I was close enough to hear the desires of His heart; whether I knew Him well enough to understand what would bring Him great joy, even if He hadn't specifically asked me to do those things for Him.

It's like when you go shopping for a birthday present for a family member or a friend you know really well. You look around the shop and you know exactly the sort of things that person would love. It's completely different from trying to buy a gift for someone that you don't really know very well.

I don't know how many soldiers were sheltering with David in the cave that day. Perhaps there were dozens of them; perhaps even hundreds. But only three of them were close enough to hear how much he dreamed of drinking that Bethlehem water. Only three of them cared enough to risk their lives in order to get hold of some of that water for him.

And so that day, and still today, I reflect on the kind of friend I am to God. Have I grown close enough to hear those deep desires of His heart, and do I love Him enough to go the extra mile in making His deep desires come true?

Being a courageous warrior was one way that David's men could serve him and show their loyalty.  But being a close friend and hearing the desires of his heart was an expression of love on a completely different level.

A subtle shift in loyalty ?

Among the many kings of Judah (the southern kingdom after Israel split into two) we read about a man called Ahaz. In 2 Kings chapter 16, when Judah is attacked by the armies of Aram and Israel, King Ahaz is helped (for a price) by King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, and this leads to a rather interesting shift in Ahaz's loyalties.

When Ahaz meets up with Tiglath-pileser in Damascus, he notices the rather impressive altar that they have there, and decides to have a replica built back in Jerusalem for himself and the people of Judah. The new altar was designed to look exactly like their neighbours' altar that he had seen in Damascus and, from that point forward, the new altar took pride of place in the Temple and all the daily sacrifices were made there.

Ahaz didn't simply get rid of the Lord's altar, though. He kept it for "seeking guidance," but it was removed from its prominent place at the front of the Temple and moved instead to a less visible place on the north side of the new altar. It wasn't that the altar to Yahweh was REplaced, but it was very clearly DISplaced - moved away from the place that rightly belonged to it.

Like King Ahaz, it can be easy for Christians to want to be just like the people around them - to wear the same clothes, watch the same movies, embrace the same ideologies about gender or about whether all faiths lead to God. No one particularly likes to stand out as being different or controversial; it's easier to go with the flow, be like the people around us and try to fit in. 

But, in embracing the lifestyle of the society around them, Christians may be subtly "displacing the true altar." It's not that they reject God or abandon true, biblical faith; rather it's that they move biblical truth and communication with God into the background and give it a place of lesser importance. They still turn to God in an emergency, when they need help or guidance; they still do the Christian thing on a Sunday morning... But on the surface, in most areas of their lives, they look no different from the non-believers around them; they've become a replica of the secular humanists in our modern society.

Displacement leads to drift. Ahaz's actions are a sobering reminder to us to regularly evaluate our lives and make sure that God is truly being given His rightful place and hasn't been subtly shifted to a place of lesser importance.

Don't miss the harvest...

This is normally strawberry season here in Spain. I'm blessed that the weekly fruit and vegetable market is held right in my street. I can usually go out my front door, cross the road and find an amazing array of fresh produce directly from the farmers. (See photos above.) When the strawberry season reaches its peak, I can pick up a big 2-kilo box of the delicious sweet berries for only three euros.

That's not happening this year. Yes, you can still find strawberries in supermarkets, but nothing like the cheap and plentiful amount that is usually available in the open air markets. It got me wondering: Where are all those strawberries? Does coronavirus lockdown mean that they're not being harvested this year? And does that mean that they'll just spoil and go to waste?

I don't know about your country, but here in Spain, we're beginning to read in the newspapers that it's been difficult to find workers to bring in all the strawberries and also the loquats that are so common at this time of year. It really does seem that there's a danger of some of that harvest being lost to us. (If you're not familiar with loquats, you'll see a picture below. We call them níspero here.)

It reminded me of that passage in Matthew 9 vs 37 - 38, where Jesus tells His disciples that the harvest is ready, but that there are few workers to gather it in. And it made me wonder if that human harvest has a time limit on it like our strawberry harvest: if people are receptive to the gospel and ready to accept Jesus, but we don't reach out and "harvest" them in time... do they lose that readiness and is that harvest lost for the kingdom?

I really believe that this pandemic season has confronted many people with their own mortality and that hearts have become more open to hear the gospel. Ask Jesus who in your circle of family or friends is becoming open and ready for "harvesting." Don't miss out on the opportunity to share God's love with them in this very special time.

Being the church in confinement...

I don't know about you, but some of my most vivid memories of these coronavirus lockdown weeks are going to be of computer screens full of multiple faces (like this one I posted on 3rd April) as home confinement forces us to connect online instead of in person.  My work has always involved a certain amount of connecting by Skype or Zoom - for coaching and mentoring, for teaching teleclasses or for international leadership meetings - but now, suddenly, church is happening online too. Sunday morning is our online worship service; Monday evening finds me connecting with our house group; I can even join the prayer meeting of my home church in Scotland. If ever there was a time that proves that the church is not the building, the church is the people, that time is now.

Our local church here in Alhaurín de la Torre is bilingual; that's how God led us when we were planting the church more than twelve years ago now. In fact, we have around 20 different nationalities in the congregation, but we deal mainly with two languages: Spanish and English. That's not quite so challenging when we meet in person: when we gather for Sunday worship, everything happens up front in Spanish and the powerpoint slides for the worship and the preaching are in both languages. However, those who need a bit more help in understanding the message can wear headphones and hear an English translation. I am one of four people who take turns once a month to sit in the church "office" and be the person who translates for the English speakers.

But now, suddenly, we're meeting online instead of in person, and we've been on a journey of finding out how that can work for a two-language congregation. First time round, we tried having the worship leader and then the preacher translated by a spouse or other family member who was sitting next to him/her in their home. We experimented with having the translation typed into the chat window for the English speakers. Finally, this past Sunday, we had worked out how to have closed caption subtitling - with someone typing the translation, which appeared as English subtitles during the worship and prayer times. When it came to the preaching, we separated into two virtual "breakout rooms," so that half the group stayed with the guy who was preaching in Spanish, while the other half opted to "join" another room where they would hear the English translation of the message.

Yesterday's message, given by one of our elders, Sergio, was particularly good, and I share it in the post below for your encouragement. It's about how to keep being church, even when you're in confinement.