Last week at Transform I decided to branch out from the usual paint on a big sheet of paper stuff; and the result was this stop motion piece. I photographed everyone's shoes before Transform really started, then used my supergirl speed skills to put this together by the end of Jamie's talk. Youtube kinda ate the quality when I uploaded it but you get the idea. I think the concept is pretty straight forward.
Walking like Jesus, with Jesus, toward Jesus has been a huge theme for me this year. It all started at the end of last October when one ordinary evening at church as we were worshipping I felt my (spiritual) self just stand up, straighten, stretch and look up. And then I just started running (again spiritually, I have yet to run about during a church service, but you never know, one day...)
I hadn't ever realised it, but since having a strong encounter with God and truly becoming a Christian when I was 13 (by that I mean, stepping out into my own faith rather than cruising on my families) I think somewhere through the years I had come to a halt on my journey with him. I wouldn't say I had turned my back, or walked away, just come to a standstill. I think perhaps I would have turned away had it not been for an invitation from Trevor which led to me starting at a new church. Trevor literally got me just in time, and I will be forever grateful to him for that.
So on that night I just felt myself get up and just go. And sometimes the path I'm on is wonderfully brilliant, and sometimes it cuts like a knife. Sometimes I skip and dance, and sometimes I crawl. But I am moving, and I know where I'm heading.
The books that have fallen into my lap this year have predominantly been to do with journeying towards God and his purpose for you. The first, which I read through twice at the beginning of the year, was a modern telling of Pilgrims' Progress, by John Bunyan. This is an old, old story, but much of it is still relevant. Another, which I actually read with my parents in a child version years and years ago, was Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard (we share initials!) It's a beautiful allegorical novel which I could relate to every page of. I highly recommend this one for Christians and non-Christians alike; you'll fall in love with the main character Much Afraid, and absolutely ache for her to reach her goal. The sequel Mountains of Spices is possibly even better, as it has so many dimensions of human characters.
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14
Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan and Jim Thornton (Jim is a personal friend of my parents.)
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