So \u2013 there we were.<\/p>\n
Blokes.<\/p>\n
Blokes in a big tent.<\/p>\n
Blokes in a big tent in a windswept field.<\/p>\n
Blokes everywhere. Big blokes, little blokes, beardy blokes, shaven blokes, baldy blokes, hairy blokes, young blokes, old blokes.\u00a0It was exciting. Banter, bacon rolls, burgers, beer, and the \u2026.I\u2019ve run out of b\u2019s \u2013 but you\u2019ve got the idea.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d come from all over the UK. One guy had come from Mexico, or so it seemed. I rather think he was visiting the UK and got invited along. Surely no-one would come all the way from Mexico, just for a bit of Christian fellowship and fun?<\/p>\n
We\u2019d come together to celebrate being a man. To encourage, exhort and edifiy one another. To be church for a weekend that was just male but nonetheless just as rich, just as textured, just as nuanced as our usual experience.<\/p>\n
Men together for the Son of Man.<\/p>\n
The meeting started in an unusual way with a rolling darts competition. Any old chancer could come up to the ockey, throw two sets of three and the highest five scores over the next 36 hours would go forward to the grand final on Sunday morning. A truly effective crowd warmer. We loved it.<\/p>\n
There was an inspiring amount of blokey banter between the three wise men fronting the event, but it was never cynical, never nasty, just fun and occasionally a bit challenging as the deeper things about our bloke-ishness were exposed and examined. Healthy stuff this. We were dealing with man\u2013issues and having fun.<\/p>\n
Then the trouble started.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d been enjoying a long period of really getting to grips with this \u2018personal relationship with Jesus\u2019 thing. I\u2019d learned to take lot of time meditating on small sections of scripture. Maybe just a verse or two that I\u2019ll carry around for a week [ or more ] until I get to the time when I shut myself away, put on some quiet music and really, really think hard and pray deeply about what I\u2019m looking at. One aspect of this process is that worship becomes deep, intimate and sometimes rather intense. I love it. The worship thing can now happen almost anywhere, anytime. Beautiful.<\/p>\n
It was Kendrick\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n
As usual, Graham led us in praise. He does it beautifully, simply, powerfully. But above all he does it with a humble grace that leads you to worship. So I worshipped. All I could do was stand there with my hands by my sides and feel the tangible presence of the Spirit of God. Right there. Right then.<\/p>\n
Worship often makes me see things differently. I\u2019ve become acutely aware that God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, my spirituality is something that I can only describe as \u2018other\u2019. It\u2019s otherworldly. It\u2019s other being-ness. I just know when the otherness is opening up \u2018this\u2019 world becomes thinner. It\u2019s as though there\u2019s a veil over the spirituality until I choose to focus on the spiritual things then the veil flips and I\u2019m in the \u2018other\u2019 and I\u2019ve left \u2018this\u2019 world partly behind. See Colossians 3 : 1-3. See if it makes different sense now.<\/p>\n
I love being \u2018other\u2019. I love leaving \u2018this\u2019 behind because \u2018other\u2019 makes more sense to me than all the pressures and pursuits of \u2018this\u2019.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve understood for years that sin isn\u2019t a range of actions & attitudes that are unacceptable to Father God, rather it\u2019s the persistent choice to live and make life choices independently of Father God. It\u2019s choosing \u2018this\u2019 world rather than pursuing the \u2018other\u2019 world.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s my trouble that I\u2019m in. Thanks to CVM and Graham Kendrick I now know that otherness isn\u2019t confined to my study. Otherness is with me wherever I am. Otherness can be attained in what appears to be the least likely of circumstances and is no less potent for it.<\/p>\n
In the midst of all that fun and masculinity and banter, the teaching of John 10:10 shows us that life remains fully open, fully accessible to us all.<\/p>\n
His name is Jesus, the portal, the door to the \u2018other\u2019 way of being fully man and fully alive \u2013 forever.<\/p>\n