Wednesday

I don't like being forced to be reflective and make lists and whatnot because of the date. It's just Wednesday. Every year the date sounds more science-fictional, but here we are still without flying cars and with paper money. Also, 2014 was not award-winning in the History of Me, so I'm keen to press on to the year 2015. Imagine me poised, crouched with tennis racket in hand, ready for it to come flying over the net. Plus, I have not been shot, forced to leave my country or deprived of food or shelter, and may I never take these facts for granted.
So this is the extent of my reflection. No lists either. I'm a little poorly today so my only list is of TV shows I plan to watch and immune-boosting foods and drinks I plan to consume. I got new paints for Christmas so perhaps if I feel particularly energetic I'll crack those open.
I want more colour in 2015. Lots of random acts of creativity and lots of gratitude and hope. 'Gratitude and hope' has been my mantra this year and I'm taking it with me into the next. Speaking of colour, I was thinking recently about this image after being asked to think about what 'mission' means.

This was popular a while back, especially among keen young Christians. The small white fish was supposed to represent a Christian swimming against the flow of nasty secular culture. A friend of mine mentioned it recently and said he had it has a poster on his wall as a teenager until he looked at it one day and realized that all the colour and fun was going the other way. A fair point.
I thought about it again today when I saw a list of 'top Christians' of 2014 (a bizarre concept in itself). A large chunk of the people nominated were praised for being inclusive while another chunk were praised for precisely the opposite, for keeping out Those People.
And so I thought that this image needed re-imagining. We Christians who do our best to go with inclusive, generous and hospitable are a mishmash of misshapenly beautiful and colourful people trying to go WITH the underlying flow of God's deep love, trying to swim with the source of sustaining love that is immeasurably stronger and richer than the pull of bland secular western culture or the impossible constrictions of judgemental religious self-satisfaction. Imagine what would be different if Christians were (and were seen as) that kind of countercultural. That's a school I'd like to swim in.

And now back to the painkillers, Gilmore Girls on Netflix and tea. A peaceful and hopeful new year to you all.