{"id":1475,"date":"2011-04-27T14:38:22","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T14:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvmen.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1475"},"modified":"2015-02-16T10:33:54","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:33:54","slug":"habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/habit\/","title":{"rendered":"Habit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI figured you\u2019d ask me where I\u2019m at with God stuff so I spent a few hours last night thinking about the answer to that question.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t expect Matt to come out with that. I didn\u2019t realise I was so predictable.<\/p>\n<p>We only had an hour or so for a mug of tea outside Euston and a quick catch-up after probably a good six months apart. Naturally we hit our headlines: family, work, holiday plans&#8230; and of course I asked all the relationship questions us girls like to know (got to make sure you guys are treating your ladies right!) But I have never been in a situation where my friend has asked themselves \u201cthe God question\u201d first. It was quite refreshing really, but it did take me by surprise.<\/p>\n<p>I appeared to have created a habit in my friendship with Matt that meant every time we caught up, I\u2019d ask him where he was at with God and what he was thinking about church. Except this time, he was so expecting the faith challenge, he beat me to it! Away he goes with what\u2019s in his head: his struggles with church, how he reckons the Bible should be taught and the over-arching message of love he believes we often miss with God.<\/p>\n<p>He wouldn\u2019t call himself a follower of Jesus, but he also won\u2019t write it off. He genuinely had spent hours thinking through where he stands with Jesus the evening before, in order to discuss it with predictable old me over a cuppa. The habit of our God-chats actually enabled Matt to give it some head space and reassess where he is.<\/p>\n<p>In Colossians 4 it says \u201cmake the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What are we seasoning our conversations with? What flavour do the lads around you sense? Would you risk salting your chats so that blokes can taste the difference?<\/p>\n<p>As much as I don\u2019t like being thought of as predictable, I\u2019ve decided to embrace my apparent tradition of routinely asking my friends about where they are with God. Anyone else feel like joining me in acquiring this habit?<\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/habit\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI figured you\u2019d ask me where I\u2019m at with God stuff so I spent a few hours last night thinking about the answer to that question.\u201d I didn\u2019t expect Matt to come out with that. I didn\u2019t realise I was so predictable. We only had an hour or so for a mug of tea outside [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23,74,79,110,113,125,142,192,287],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/friends-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7PoLK-habit","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7622,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/the-10-most-important-things-you-need-to-know-in-life-pt-510\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":0},"title":"The 10 Most Important Things You Need To Know In Life (Pt 5\/10)","date":"11 July 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"6. The Right Questions The next essential bit of need to know information from Aseem\u2019s top ten is this: \u2018Ask the right questions'. I like this one because it plays right into a sense of self-reliance and independence. What? Well, I used to make it a bit of a habit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/6-needs.jpg?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8000,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/ask-for-help\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":1},"title":"Ask for help","date":"8 May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It was fairly early on in my Royal Naval career, my first complement job as a Petty Officer, Weapons Engineer. I was on a type 42 Destroyer, and I was the maintainer for the main computer system that drove the Weapons system and the Operations Room. It was 1983 and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/help.jpg?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5117,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/demolition-squad\/why-doesnt-god-do-incredible-miracles-today-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":2},"title":"Why Doesn&#8217;t God Do Incredible Miracles Today? &#8211; Part I","date":"4 April 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I once asked a non-Christian friend of mine what it would take for him to believe in God. He replied that he would need to see undeniable evidence of his existence through an amazing miracle. I\u2019ve often heard this question asked, and when pressed as to what this miracle might\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Demolition Squad&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/miracles-part-one.jpg?fit=560%2C340&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2002,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/uncategorized\/hope-in-the-bigger-picture\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":3},"title":"Hope in the Bigger Picture","date":"16 December 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Being an Internet Movie Database addict,\u00a0Star Wars geek and owner of many movie themed t-shirts,\u00a0I often watch 'Inside the Actor's Studio' on one of those (mostly) pointless sky channels.\u00a0It features a Hollywood star being interviewed and always ends with them being asked the same six or seven quirky and often\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bible\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9294,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/loops-and-whirls\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":4},"title":"Loops and whirls.","date":"11 March 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"My daughter sent me a picture of her new British passport. Whilst it looked nice and shiny it didn\u2019t look \u2018new\u2019, dark blue with a lovely gold crest it reminded me of the old style British passport that I was issued with when I first made a passport application. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/george-prentzas-SRFG7iwktDk-unsplash.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9463,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/its-not-how-you-start-its-how-you-finish\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":5},"title":"It\u2019s not how you start \u2013 it\u2019s how you finish!","date":"28 June 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cI want to enter heaven breathlessly. I want to break the tape with a shout of \u2018I did it!\u2019\u201d That was the heart\u2019s desire of my first spiritual director, Alex Buchanon. I remember hearing him share this over 20 years ago and feeling so inspired and challenged to finish well\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/start-BLOG.jpg?fit=610%2C291&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1475"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1788,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions\/1788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}