Colourful Dreamer

Is Humility just taking the lowest place? Or is it much more? I wonder if it is knowing that my identity is really only found in God and God alone, and not in my roles, or knowledge, or title, or my position or wealth. My identity is also not found in how much I am affirmed by others, or how much I am stroked or loved. It is simply found in God. The danger in taking the lowest place is that secretly I desperately need someone to invite me further up the table. To be humble simply means being happy wherever I am placed at the table, knowing it does not matter where I am. And so for me, I have to hold on to that, to know that it does not matter where I am (when deep in my heart it matters a lot) or what I do, because where ever or whatever that is, my sense of who I am needs to be based on God's profound life giving love. To be humble is to let go of all else, and to simply trust in that love. Only then will I know perfect joy. That is humility.

Yesterday at our synod we talked about alcohol reform. The synod was clear that alcohol abuse, excess drinking is not a youth problem, but a New Zealand problem.the fun began when speakers asked us to look at our own drinking. Some suggested that we need not drink that night after synod finished. Yeah right! was the response, which was fair enough. But then a young woman suggested that we confine ourselves to four drinks that night, in line with the work of Doug Selman and the alcohol reform lobby group, that the limit be 14 drinks per week, and 4 drinks per day. We passed that. While people supported it in principle, it led to a whole lot of comments that night at the drinks before dinner and during dinner. Some of the young people present were appalled really. We are so much more happy to point at others, and call into question their drinking. But we are much less happy to look at our own drinking, and the modelling we offer, especially at church events. Which is really sad. This i...