1 Life Remaining.....

Okay, so who has ever played The Sims?

I have. In fact, I used to love that game.

For those of you who are totally un-cultured, The Sims is a simulation game (hence "sims") where the player controls an individual and family throughout their lives; building houses, buying furniture, going to work, meeting and socialising, using the toilet, sleeping, making dinner etc etc etc (you get the general gist)

The original game- bought out in 2000- is the best-selling PC game of all time. The Sims 2- its sequel arriving in 2004- is number 2. The Sims 3- a more recent version- is also near the top of the list.

The world loves The Sims.

It is a PC game which can eat away hours upon hours upon hours. But what is the aim of the game? What is it all for?

Hmmmmmm.

Have you, like me, reached the point (countless times!) where you realise that your sim- although physically designed to your own standards of attractiveness, although rich beyond your wildest dream, although sporting over 20 "Friends" and 100 "Acquaintances" (Which in Sim terms is pretty amazing!) and although living the 'American Dream' with a huge house and great job- actually has no purpose whatsoever?

After spending hours building up your sim's social life, work and investments, you discover that actually there is nothing left to aim for. Even if the sim was a real human being his life would still have no point or purpose. It is all futile.

Ultimately there are no objectives, no secondary objectives, no missions to complete, no leader boards to reach.

Hmmmmmmm.

However, it would seem that millions upon millions, countless peoples live in a virtual 'Sim world'. They try to build up their homes, they beautify their faces, they stack up their 'simoleons' (sim money!) and work their way up the corporate ladder.

They are totally 100% engrossed in a game. Except this game is real.

But why?

Will a dream home really satisfy us or are we made
for something better?

In The Sims there is no mission to be completed, no 'level-up' to reach, no 'checkpoint' or 'save game here'. Is it true that in real life as well there is no Final Score? No Scoreboard to climb?

By default we are all living in our own sim worlds.

Conversely the Lord God- who lives outside of time and, so to speak, outside of the game- entered the game. He became 'sim' and walked onto our PC screens.

Perhaps I am taking this metaphor too far, and I don't want to sound irreverent, but God truly did something as astounding as this. He loves us so much that he came into this world to transform us and to give us a purpose.

He gave his life so that we can have his. The Bible says that whoever keeps his life will lose it but whoever loses his life will gain it. Sound confusing?

Well, Jesus is asking you this: Why hang on to your boring, pointless 'sim life' when you can have life everlasting in him?

Are we living simply to keep our
diamonds green and happy?
Or is there a greater purpose?

None of us deserve eternal life. In fact, we all deserve punishment and eternal death for what we have done. We have rebelled against God- rather than taking the life he offers us we have turned up our noses and decided that we can do better on our own. We have rejected God's plan and design and have constructed our own 'sim city' (otherwise known as 'sin city').

Through Jeremiah, God put it like this:

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters,

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water.

We deserve God's punishment for our rebellion. But God, loving us so so much, sent his son to die for us. Jesus Christ bore the punishment that we rightly deserve. He died so that we might live. If  we confess our sin- our rejection and rebellion against God- and ask his forgiveness then he will forgive us and give us true life: a life worth living!!

So, are you going to give up your pointless, unsatisfying and pixelated "life" and receive true God-given life or are you going to continue playing the game?

Spoiler Alert: Life without God is not life at all. It gets boring and repetitive and dull. Its tough: there's no easy mode to play.

And, crucially..... there are no cheats in real life!

PAID- Payment in Full

"You be quiet or I'll stamp your forehead with this "PAID" stamp!"

  Those were the harsh words I was cruelly subjected to a few weeks ago!

  To be fair, I probably deserved it.

  When I see my name next to the "Office" section in our work rosta I let out a small chuckle. I tend to cause a bit of chaos when let lose amongst our office staff. My humour, comments and little anecdotes tend to get one of two reactions.

   This was the worser of the two.

"You be quiet or I'll stamp your forehead with this "PAID" stamp!"

                                        (I think they were joking!)


    At first I was taken aback. I didn't want a massive red "PAID" insignia on my forehead! I like my forehead as it is, thank you very much!

    And what on earth would people think! Would they think that I was a slave? Or maybe I had owed money to a bailiff? Perhaps it was punishment for a crime- like the 'P' mark for Pirates. (Actually I wouldn't really mind if they thought I was a pirate!)

   But then, as the office atmosphere started to cool down, I pondered more. Perhaps I should have a paid mark on my forehead. After all, its true....

   To borrow some words from a popular Christian song: I owed a debt I could not pay, he paid a debt he did not owe, I needed someone to wash my sins away.

   Check my records. Please do. According to scripture:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?... Who can bring any charge against God's elect?

   My debt is paid. My records are clean. My ransom, my debts, my sins: they are all paid for! In letters ten feet high: PAID!

   The King of Glory descended to earth and lived as a man. He suffered and died, being separated from His Eternal Father.  He did all of this to pay the price for my sins. My clean slate was achieved through the shedding of God's blood. Truly my paid stamp is stained red.

   Perhaps I should walk around stamped "PAID". Because my debts are gone. They have been paid. My slavery is over. The ransom is paid. I am truly free from sin, through Christ. And I should want to tell others. How can I but proclaim and declare what a great God I have?

   Yes, Lord, stamp me PAID

The Greatest Story

   I just heard these lyrics over a speaker system:

Everybody wants love, Thats why you are in this club.

   Hmmm. I had been under the impression that I was in a Brantano store and that I'd been trying to buy some shoes. Apparently I was wrong.

   Isn't it true though? Everybody is searching out for something.

   U2 searched long and hard and had this to say:

I have climbed highest mountains, I have run through the fields...I have scaled these city walls..... but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

   Love seems like a worthy candidate of the great human hunt. Love must fulfil us and fill that gaping hole....surely?

  In many of its films Disney tells of a beautiful princess, locked away, who is freed by the brave and mighty acts of a handsome prince. They fall in love- naturally- and marry. They then reign over a kingdom and it all ends happily ever after.

  20 years ago, that was the dream. That was what the human race was seeking for: a happy ever after with a beautiful/handsome princess/prince [delete as appropriate].

  But Disney, faced with a downspiralling demand, has stopped producing fairytale stories. Divorces are higher than ever. Families are split. The human race has given up on love.

   As Christians, we have found what we were looking for. And yes, it is love. The love of Jesus for sinners like you and I. He died so that we can live. He is the Prince and the Church is His Bride. We are part of the greatest love story ever told.

   We have the answer to life. We have life itself. Lets not keep it to ourselves. Lets proclaim the good news! Freedom from the dungeon! Release from our captors! And a great Prince!

How's my driving?

   Driving towards Milton Keynes last Saturday I saw a sign similar to the one above. My mind, not distracted by music or chatter, was free to muse upon the implications of such a sign.

   What does it mean? 

   Is it telling me that speed cameras exist? Because I already am fully aware of the existence of speed cameras.  (What road user isn't?!) I have read the articles, seen the stats, heard the arguments. I know that they exist alright.

   So, if it isn't purely informing me of the existence of said cameras then what is its purpose?

   Is it showing me what I could expect a camera to look like? Is the "Speed Cameras" meant as a caption for the above image. Well if it that is the case then Buckinghamshire Council have utterly failed. I have never seen a speed camera that looks remotely like the one in the picture. They could have at least used colour!

   Maybe its meant as modern art?

   If its purpose is to inform me of a speed camera[s] in the area then it is lying. I have travelled along that particular road many-a-time and have yet to see a camera (or the flash!).

   Hmmm. Then maybe it is suggesting that there is a theoretical possibility that a speed camera may or may not be present and that I should either (a) drive at a precautionary slow speed or (b) play the percentages and gamble that either there is no camera on the road or that, if there is, it has no film.

   Is that how I view God?

   Yes, I know he exists: I've seen the signs. I know that he has an absolute standard (and there is no 10% leeway with the Almighty.). I know that he has me on record. I know that he has the authority to convict. I know that I fall under his jurisdiction....

....But he might not be around this particular corner. I haven't bumped into him yet. Maybe, if it gets that far, I can plead exonerating circumstances. Anyway, its only 3 points and its only for 2 years- I have 9 more to play with.

   Surely God doesn't mind me living a few miles over the limit? Surely I can push the boundaries 1 mph at a time? He won't nab me at 38 in a 40. He won't nab me at 39 in a 40. He won't nab me at 40 in a 40. He won't nab me at 41 in a 40...... will he?

   Are you driving towards God? Or are you taking the by-pass around Him? 

   You can't run from God..... ask Jonah.

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 

P.S. Jesus loves you

I flicked on the TV last night at 9ish and watched the first 10 minutes of a film being rerun. About 80 minutes later I turned the TV on again and, faced with nothing else of any interest, watched the last 20 minutes or so of the same film.

I think I got the gist of the story. A young American lady who had married at 19 is faced with the death of her "charming" Irish husband. Already it sounds quite a deep film, however to add some more drama to the proceedings, her husband, Jerry, left a series of letters with family members for her.

I caught the opening of the last two letters, and was intrigued to see how the story might pan out.

If you haven't guessed which film this was then a big clue is in the ending of each letter: P.S. I love you.


When I picked up the story, the lady was faced with trying to discover some meaning or purpose in her life after the death of Jerry. Whatever she did seemed empty. Nothing felt right. Her friendship with a man named Daniel (I joined the film late and have no idea where this feller came from) just lacked something: he wasn't Jerry.

After reading a letter Jerry had left with his mother, we learn- through a flashback- of how they first met. She, a young naive American tourist, was lost in deepest Ireland. Jerry finds her on a roadside. She, full of the youthful vigour of an art student, tells him that as we must pour out all of our creativity into our life (or words to that effect).

Back in the present day, she attempts to rekindle that creativity by designing shoes. Unsurprisingly it doesn't take her long to discover that shoes, on their own, do not hold much meaning or purpose.

Eventually, one year (and one more letter) on, she finds some slight purpose in her creative work and in her friendship with her mother. Jerry is gone but she feels that she can, one day, love again.

The credits roll.

I found this ending very honest; alarmingly honest in fact. Although my sleep-deprived brain failed to pinpoint my worry, I felt that it was too honest. She may have come to terms with her loss of Jerry and her lack of ultimate purpose, but I hadn't. This morning, over breakfast, I managed to realise what it was that I had felt: truthfully, how much meaning can one find in a life without God? All credit to the film producer and script writer- they hadn't tried to insert some pointless meaning in her life. Why? Because they, presumably, couldn't find anything that would work.

Perhaps the one meaning or purpose they had found was in the love between Jerry and the lady (who's name eludes me). Throughout the film she kept looking back and pining after the love they shared.

However I couldn't help but observe- perhaps because I missed the middle of the film- that the beginning of the story disagreed. It had started with a row between the couple. He wanted kids, she wasn't ready just yet. The fight led to Jerry demanding what it was that she really wanted in life. She had no answer. He stormed out.

P.S. I love you has actually managed to highlight the real issue in life. There is no meaning without God. The highest form of purpose mankind has found (without God) is love. But love- if left long enough- appears to end and fail and crumble and decompose.

Could it be that the love idealised by society is actually not love as it is meant to be?  The Bible says that God is love. Therefore Godless love is, at best, an empty carcass- a shell of the real thing.

Solomon, thousands of years ago, tried to find a purpose in life without God. He tried work, pleasure, power, entertainment, religion and love. In fact Solomon wrote the book on love! Song of Solomon is the world's greatest love song! However, although he acknowledged that all of these things have their time and place, ultimately none of them give us meaning or purpose without God.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

  a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

  a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

  a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

  a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

  a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

  a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

  The book of Ecclesiasties, writen by Solomon, starts with these words: Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity, says the preacher. Life without God is vanity.

At the end of his book Solomon came to this conclusion: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.


I don't know about you, but to me that sounds pretty painful. The 'whole duty of man' is to fear God? To keep his rules? Well Jesus tells us that actually there is nothing better to do!

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The Bible has no footnote: P.S. I love you. You want to know why? The whole book says it! God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not die but have eternal love! When we realise this and trust in God and love him with all our hearts, souls and minds then we experience love as it truly is. We finally find the truth and purpose in this life.

Solomon found it eventually.

I can't help but wonder if we shall see a sequel...

P.S. Jesus loves you

A Tale of Two Toys

The majority of the last two working days I have spent alone, in an upstairs unit of a warehouse,   taking photographs of vintage toys which will feature in our upcoming auction at work (work, for me is auctioneering).

The subjects of my photography vary from dolls to stuffed animals, lead soldiers to dinky cars. Prams, toy trains, castles and monopoly have surrounded me.

I managed to work at a rate of 50pph. (For the uninitiated in the "Matt's System of Counting", that is 50 [finished] pictures per hour)
Now that sounds a reasonable rate of photographing, but I had 480 lots to get through! Each photo required meticulous composition, preparation and lighting (I hope my boss is reading this!) It was a time consuming task.

Being seperated from human life by several corridors, doorways, a car-park and a road, led me to become slightly jumpy and my mind began to wander. As the clock ticked on and my stomach started to grumble the bears and dolls took on a whole new slant.

What had, at first, been a sweet doll with an adorable 'puppy dog' expression had turned into a nasty monster with an evil leer. As my eyes panned over the array of creatures my mind played tricks on me; Paddington Bear seemed to be glaring right at me, a stuffed whale was eagerly licking its..... lips? awaiting the moment my back was turned and it could devour me into its foamy insides.

My photo studio had turned into a nightmare. What happened, I wondered, when the lights went out and I left for the night? Did the toys come alive? My imaginative mind began to piece together scenes from Toy Story and Night in the Museum, but with much, much gruesomer plot lines.

I pictured the wars for dominance that doubtless took place each night. The thousands of lead soldiers- mercenaries, crusaders, knights, archers, pikemen, musketeers- all coming alive and commandeering Corby and Matchbox cars in order to blitzkrieg the unsuspecting Barbies, who themselves were reclining in their plastic kitchen with Ken. Did the Star Wars space ship jump into action and bombard the Thomas and Friends Fat Controller who had began to order (as per his job) the myriads of Hornby train sets to ensure that no accidents occurred during his watch.

Did they meet secretly together, plotting how to overthrow their human masters who had enslaved them in this warehouse?

I started to panic.

The doll with the rotating head was looking in my direction (but then he was looking in every direction!)

Wait!

That Action Man was definitely closer than before!


I decided it was time for a lunch break!


Strange isn't it- the tricks your mind plays on you.

It made me think though....

What right do the toys have to command their destinies? What right to "human rights" do they have? If, as I highly suspect, they are planning a coup against their human overlords, what sense of 'justice' or 'right' are can they possible appeal to? They were designed and created for the pleasure of children. Their very purpose in life is to bring joy and happiness to kids. How can they possibly think that they have a 'right' to disagree?

If evolution is true- If I am a monkey gone mad- then an Action Man actually has more of a purpose than I do.

Max Lucado uses the imagery of a cricket (the bug not the game) in his book In the Grip of Grace (which I highly recommend reading). One day during communion at his church, he spotted a cricket wandering around. This led him to ask- can a cricket comprehend communion?

...as far as the cricket is concerned, his entire universe is an auditorium. I can envision him taking his son out of the wall at night and telling him to look up at the rafters. He wraps his clickers around the boy's back and sighs, "It's a mighty sky we live under, son." Does he know he sees only a fraction?.....

Perhaps the best question is, who does a cricket worship? Does he acknowledge that there was a hand behind the building? Or does he choose to worship the building itself? Or perhaps a place in the building? Does he assume that since he has never seen the builder there was no builder?   The hedonist does. Since he has never seen the hand who made the universe he assumes there is not life beyond the here and now.....

Is that what my toys assume? Do they think that the warehouse and its racking and conveyor belt and industrial flooring had a builder? Or do they believe in a Big Bang which bought their home into existence?

Assume that these crickets are quite advanced and often engage in the philosophical question, "Is there life beyond the rafters?" Some crickets believe there is. There must be a creator of this place. How else would the lights come on? How else could music fill the room? But other crickets disagree. Upon study they find the lights come on because of electricity... and music is the result of stereos and speakers. "There is no life beyond this room", they declare. 

   You see Max's point? Do the toys believe in a maker of the room, or someone who made them for that matter? Or did the Buzz Lightyears simply evolve from a fluffy bear, who in turn evolved from a stress ball?  What about Woody? Did he also come from the same stress ball? Or did they both in fact have a designer who made them?

Hmmm. When we have a lower view of ourselves and a larger view of the universe we rapidly discover that a designer is the obvious conclusion!

Just one lesson that I learnt today.... from working amongst toys!

Wednesday's Whispers

A few Wednesday thoughts:


Chicken Crossing

Our chickens recently had a shock. They emerged from their coop to discover that the garden had been split into two. A large new wire fence spanning from the workshop to the shed. The bark, soil and arid back end is all theirs, while the luscious and exotic lawn and flower beds are off limits.

What would you do- if you were a chicken I mean? stay inside your area, or break out?
Ethel and Hilda rove backwards and forwards along the 'demarcation line', occasionally, when they have plucked up enough courage, thrusting their beaks through the holes in the wire into 'the other side'.
Once or twice they have even managed to fly/leap over the boundary and have enjoyed a few brief moments on the lawn.

The Bible gives Christians some clear no-go zones. A line has been drawn in the sand. The Lord has graciously established boundaries in our lives. He told the newly-freed Israelites "I have bought you out of Egypt- out of slavery- therefore have no other gods." As Christians, we are free. We are free from the slavery of sin in our lives. I think it was Jason Robinson who said "I used to have no choice but to say "yes". Now I have a choice: I can say "no"."

The Lord Jesus Christ has freed us from sin. So why is it that we try to get as close to sin as we can? We cautiously, while casting glances around us, sidle up to that metaphorical fence, reach out and touch it.... and then scurry away.

If we love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and minds, then why are we tempting him? Why are trying to live as close to sin as we can get?

Our chickens are so desperate to enjoy the magical, wonderful lands on the other side of the fence that they spend no time enjoying the ground they do have! I think one day we will find that Heaven- and living as Christians on earth- is so so so much greater than the pleasures of sin.

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

....[Moses choose] rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.  

1 and 2 Kings

Elijah.... what was his problem?


I've been reading 1/2 Samuel and 1/2 Kings recently, and the prophet Elijah has really leapt out at me. What was his problem?! Just when things are going right- when the bad prophets of Baal have been beaten and destroyed and rain has returned to the dry and barren land- Elijah hears that Queen Jezebel (who closely resembles the wicked white witch, Queen of Narnia in C.S. Lewis' novels) has been told by her sniveling wretch of a husband about his contest with the prophets of Baal. She isn't a happy camper.

Elijah is scared. 450 prophets of Baal have just been defeated by Elijah's God who worked wonders by sending fire on Mount Carmal, and yet Elijah is so scared of Jezebel that he runs all the way to Beersheba in the south, 120 miles.

Arriving in southern Judah, Elijah pleads with God to kill him. When the word of the Lord comes to him all he can say is:

 “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

He is positively dripping with self-pity. So, the Lord shows Elijah his power through wind and an earthquake and fire. And then the Lord speaks to Elijah in a small still whisper. Has Elijah now seen sense? Does he now appreciate the might of his God? Well this is his reply:


“I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Hmmm. Nothing changed then. But God doesn't give up on this wreck of a self-pitying worm. Rather he replies that he is going to totally eradicate the line of Ahab and Jezebel. He will purge the monarchy. And you know what? Elijah is going to appoint the new Kings of Israel and Syria. And you know what's more? Elijah is not the only one left. There are 7,000 Israelites who have refused to bow down to Baal.

You know what? We are like Elijah. Faced with God's power and mercy and grace we cower, scared of the apparent might of the world. We are afraid to proclaim Jesus and we are scared to trust the Lord.
You know what else? God will continue to work in us- vessels of clay- and will continue to make us more like Jesus every day, despite our weakness and fear. Isn't that wonderful? I think so.