SOUL SURMISE

SURMISING THE ARSON ATTACK ON ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH...

I am deeply saddened by the news this morning that St. Patrick’s Church on Donegall Street had had an arson attack. 

As a society seeking a way out of our sectarian past it is vital that we condemn in the strongest terms such attacks whether on Catholic Churches, Protestant Churches, Jewish synagogues or indeed Orange Halls. 

I am concerned that for many reasons there is now a lack of respect for religion and therefore religious buildings. However, when a religious building is attacked by those believing that they are somehow standing up for another religion, we need to speak out in the strongest terms. We must declare that this is not being done in our name.

St. Patrick’s Church being attacked is particularly poignant to me. It is the first Catholic Church that I ever took part in a service ein. In 1998 the Jesus In the City Conference was held in Belfast. My friend Doug Gay was involved in the closing act of worship and asked if I would pray.

I decided that I would write a prayer for the entire city. I therefore imagined standing at City Hall and looking out… north, south, east and west. I was uneasy praying in a Catholic Church that evening, but actually it was a helpful event in shifting my heart, that was hardened by peer pressure to never pray or read or preach in Catholic Churches. That evening in St. Patrick’s was a significant moment in my journey of faith.

I used that prayer occasionally over the years but when Fr Martin Magill asked me to pray at a In Joyful Hope service in his then Church St Oliver Plunkett’s in Lenadoon I pulled it out. The prayer was very well received and just a short time later when Fr Martin and I came up with the idea of a festival to get people across their corners of Belfast, Martin suggested that we called it after the prayer. So the 4 Corners Festival was born.

In the first four years of the Festival we have held events in St. Patrick’s twice. Last year we used it for Captured By A Vision, when Rev Dr Ken Newell came to read from his memoir of that name. On this occasion we chose the venue carefully. In his book Ken speaks of being sectarian in his early life and that it was during an Orange Lodge march that stopped outside St Patrick’s that was one of the moments that started to change his mind. He glanced into the Church as he walked past and saw Catholics in prayer. It sparked thoughts within his soul.

So, this morning I am surmising on a sectarian attack in a place that has helped deal with the sectarianism in Ken Newell and my life. It is not lost on me that the attack happened just days before the 2017 4 Corners Festival. During this years Festival we will be doing events across denominations, seeking that many will cross new Church thresholds for the first time and have their own prejudices provoked! 

Surely, the future and well being of the city, that Jeremiah calls us to pray for, will be improved by events like the 4 Corners Festival rather than futile attack that happened last night.

http://4cornersfestival.com

COURAGE; DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED? - BBC RADIO 2 PAUSE FOR THOUGHT, 31.1.17

Yes, Vanessa. Courage had me thinking big and butch and strong acts of rescue… knights in shining armour… but then I thought again…

There’s a Deacon Blue song called Is There No Way Back To You? that has the lines: ”How do you carry this sorrow, How do you know when to let go.” For me this is where courage kicks in. How do we know when to let go?

Jesus asked an invalid man a similar question, that I always found bizarre. “Do you want to get healed?” What! Is that not a daft question. Surely the man is bound to want healing.

The longer I have been a pastor the more I understand Jesus question. It is a courageous thing to ask for healing. This man has been an invalid for so long that it has become part of his identity. If Jesus heals him, his ability to beg is over. What will he do then? A whole new life. How will he fair? To be healed is going to take courage. Jesus was asking if he was brave enough.

Sadly, as a Church pastor, I am too often in the presence of those who have not the courage. I am talking about the courage of vulnerability, weakness, confessing the need for help, and then being prepared to construct a new identity, from the one that they have been living.

As I share with you this morning I can see the girl who as a teenager had anorexia and who is now a mother, living a creative and full life. I remember the courageous struggle she had to admit she needed help, going for help and following through on that help. 

I am thinking of the man who was an alcoholic who now courageously lives through physical pain but refuses to use drink to ease that pain. The emotional, mental and spiritual health has become too important. 

I am thinking of a friend who is bound to a wheel chair as a result Northern Ireland Troubles. He took the courageous decision to not hold animosity and when he would have had every right to wallow in the identity of a victim now works for peace and reconciliation.

These three friends knew when to let go of their sorrow. They are heroes for me. When asked, “Do you want to get healed?” they answered with honesty and vulnerability - yes, please help me, I want my life to be different. That is courage.

STEPHEN FEARING - EVERY SOUL'S A SAILOR

I have been a Stephen Fearing fan since Janice and my first gig date. It was August 1989. We went to see Gregson & Collister at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at The Royal Festival Hall in London. When this young guitarist from Canada who had lived in Ireland played an instrumental of Be Thou My Vision we decided to have it at our wedding and did, 7 years later! A few of his own songs and a Joni Mitchell cover we were taken and taking home his debut album.

A few years later I got the opportunity to sit beside Fearing in an RTE radio studio for a late night live session. I was with Iain Archer who had just shared a bill with Fearing in Dublin. Archer, co writer of Hold Back The River (James Bay), Lightning Bolt (Jake Bugg) and Run (Snow Patrol), is a very gifted guitarist but as we left the studio that evening Iain was feeling that he wasn’t good enough to string Fearing’s Lowden guitar!

In the twenty five years years since, Fearing has worked with Canadian collaborative Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, another Belfast man Andy White and produced albums for Canadian songwriters Suzie Vinnick and another friend of mine Eric Angus Whyte.

Through it all, in my opinion, Fearing has simply got better and better. His guitar playing acoustic or electric is imaginative, versatile and exquisite. His songwriting is of the highest quality. He has a voice that is warm and draws you in. Once drawn in, he has a rare ability to touch on the soul nerves with pointed truths of love and life.

Take the opening track Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is with a smooth band arrangement and a guitar sound that Mark Knopfler would die for -

 

“You’ve got to find love and compassion, like an old friend, every day

For when love falls out of fashion, and the world is old and grey …”

 

Red Lights In The Rain is a yearning ache of loneliness -

 

Nothing says I’m hungry like a baby

No one says I’m lonely like a train

 

Oh the insightfulness of Gone But Not Forgotten, and its profound insight on love and a cracking literary couplet to tell it: -

 

“Love is the pearl you leave behind

Shining like a secret hidden in between the lines.”

 

Blowhard Nation is the protest of Donald Trump as President around election time -

 

“Well they all line up

For Christ almighty

But there ain’t no spine in the words When they talk the resurrection

They’re thinking the election

It’s the saddest thing I ever heard.”

 

The closing title track Every Soul’s a Sailor sounds like a closing hymn in the Church of Fearing gigs for years to come -

 

“Born into creation

Drawn towards the light

With blind imagination we go swimming in the night

And the guiding star of fate shines for our mortality

Every soul’s a sailor

Rolling on the sea”

 

There will few collections of songs released this year as consistently strong, across the record, as Every Soul’s A Sailor. There is a spiritual pearl to Fearing’s songs, hidden secrets, indeed, between the lines. His songs have a soul nurturing quality that is lacking among his peers.

NEW DOGS PLEASE! - GREAT DANES, ROTTWEILERS, CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS

(This is a Guest post by Jim Deeds, one of our 4 Corners Festival Board who has been organising Saturday's Wonderful Wander event. I found it wonderfully insightful...)

New Dogs Please!

I met a man this morning whilst walking my three dogs. He was walking his dog and as we spoke our four dogs sniffed each other and pattered about happily. We had a nice conversation and then we moved on.

As I was walking away I remembered that our meetings had not always gone so well in the past. Let me explain.

A few years ago, we both had different dogs. He had a Rottweiler and I had my big Great Dane, Madadh (pronounced Mah-doo, it's an Irish word that means dog!). Now his Rottweiler was an angry, snappy dog. He didn’t like people or dogs to come near to him and his owner. When we would approach, the Rottweiler would rear up and bark loudly. His owner found it difficult to contain the anger of this big dog who was straining on the leash. If he had have broken free, he’d have done real damage. 

For our part, Madadh was a very nervous dog- had been since a wee pup. He didn’t like to see the Rottweiler coming. He got nervous and barked and also strained on the leash. Given that he was 10 stone in weight I often found it difficult to contain him too. 

So, when we would meet on the road our conversation was usually a short one shouted from opposite sides of the street- a quick hello, but no real meeting.

Even though we were neighbours (he lived just round the corner from my house) and had both grown up in this neighbourhood, I have to admit that I began to dread seeing him coming. I even found myself resenting and avoiding him. He might have felt similar. 

But time marched on and, sadly, within a couple of weeks of each other both our dogs died. I remember the first real conversation I had with him was actually soon after the dogs had died. We spoke of the loss of our four legged friends and lamented their passing even with all of their problems.

Doggy people love dogs and, in time, we both got new dogs. I got Charley the pug cross and Mac the Dane. He got Nero, a black terrier. And of course I still have Jenny the black Labrador cross. Our dogs now have no such issues as the previous two. The anger and nervous distrust of the past have died along with our dogs. What has taken their place? Well, the anger and fear have been replaced with a genuine curiosity about the others and an eagerness to meet up. They have been replaced with lightness and an ease of meeting. For the other owner and I the days of avoidance and resentment are gone. We can meet each other, say hello, discuss the goings on in the world and then move on ready to meet again. We live together in peace.

Anger, fear, distrust, resentment, avoidance. These old dogs live within our hearts at times. They live in our families and in our politics and communities. And where they live, they bring division, war and ending of relationships. 

Here in Northern Ireland we are facing into an election (again). We see the old dogs of fear and anger alive and well I think. Can we allow these old dogs to die? Can we let them go? Can we allow them to be replaced with curiosity, eagerness to meet and reconciliation?

Next Saturday, 4th Feb, as part of the 4 Corners Festival, I’ll be leading a ‘Wonderful Wander’ down the Falls Road and up the Shankill Road. Often times in the past people from these roads would not have met and would have avoided each other. There are stories of wounds all along these two roads. But there are stories of wonderful things as well. On the walk we will be stopping off to meet some folks who will tell us of their wounded and wonderful lives. People like John Mallon and Glen Bradley for example- two men with incredibly inspiring stories to tell. We’ll also hear from a woman called Nirmal- a Muslim woman living and studying in Belfast. With visits to Clonard Monastery and the Shankill Garden of Remembrance this is sure to be a fantastic opportunity to hear about those old dogs I wrote about above and to walk in a different way- no fear or anger, just eagerness to come together and a curiosity about each other’s wounded and wonderful lives.

New dogs please!

Interested in going to the Wonderful Wander? We meet at 2 pm on Saturday 4th Feb in the car park of Clonard Monastery, 1 Clonard Gardens, Belfast, BT13 2RL. The event is free and will involve walking at a gentle pace for 2-3 hours. 

http://4cornersfestival.com

 

 

THE HEALING HAS BEGUN - 4 CORNERS FESTIVAL 2017 FINAL EVENT

THE HEALING HAS BEGUN

Sunday Feb 12th 7:00pm

Skainos Centre 241 Newtonards Road BT4

 

Eamonn Mallie’s blog entitled Grace has been the talk of the town for some weeks. Written in the heat of the RHI Scandal breaking and the possible breakdown of the institutions, Mallie sought grace, hope and humanity from our politicians. 

It was a powerful piece of writing, I love particularly the idea of grace working its way into politics, Eamonn yearned for  “the principle of ‘Noblesse Oblige’ hit the Hill.” He defined ‘Noblesse Oblige’ As the “responsibilities of the rich, famous and powerful, notably to provide good examples of behaviour or to exceed minimal standards of decency. It has also been used to describe a person taking the blame for something in order to solve an issue or save someone else.” In our current malaise how good would acts like that be?

Those of us organising the 4 Corners Festival were delighted when Eamonn agreed to join an already strong bill of speakers for the final event of the Festival. he is going to give us some background on the article and maybe something on the repose that it has had.

Other speakers that evening are Pádraig Ó Tuama, author, poet and Leader of the Corrymeela Community; Maria Garvey, founder member of L’Ache in Belfast and now leader of Kridydom; and David Campton, minister of South Belfast Methodist and member of the 4 Corners Festival Board.

The idea is that with twelve minutes each, these speakers will take us out of the festival with some inspirational hopefulness.

Also on the bill are young Belfast songwriters Andy Patterson and Jonny Fitch with songs of hopefulness and healing.

http://4cornersfestival.com

COLIN DAVIDSON IN CONVERSATION WITH BRIAN ROWAN - SAFE SPACES TOWARDS HEALING

SAFE SPACES TOWARDS HEALING:

COLIN DAVIDSON IN CONVERSATION WITH BRIAN ROWAN

Friday 10th Feb 7:30pm.

Agape Centre 238 Lisburn Road BT9

(FREE but donations appreciated)

 

I cannot tell you how excited we, 4 Corners organisers, are that we are having Colin Davidson and Brian Rowan take part in our Festival. 

My first awareness of Colin Davidson was when his portrait of Glen Hansard was the cover of Hansard’s Rhythm and Repose album. Then I noticed these amazing portraits on the wall of Belfast’s Lyric Theatre - Gary Lightbody, Neil Hannon and Duke Special. 

Since then Davidson has become a portrait painter on a world stage. He has recently painted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and, with a lot more publicity here in Northern Ireland, Queen Elizabeth II.

With this year’s 4 Corners Festival theme of Our Wonderful and Wounded City, Colin’s Silent Testimony exhibition hits deep. The exhibition's 18 portraits representing those touched by the worst horrors of the conflict years are not just a reaction on the past but tell the stories of continued suffering - unhealed hurts that are the wounds of the present. Almost everyone that I know who saw Silent Testimony spoke of being drawn and effected by the eyes. In the end 80,000 people viewed that exhibition in the Ulster Museum.

The portrait artist has a unique way into the lives of his subjects. He or she doesn’t only get an opportunity to look long into the eyes of the person but also gets to spend time in both casual and serious conversation. In Silent Testimony, Colin’s time with 18 hurting human souls must have had a huge impact. Perhaps it was also a catharsis for the hurting. 

In conversation with renowned journalist and writer Brian Rowan, Davidson will reflect on the Silent Testimony exhibition - not painting what people should think but, instead, creating a safe space that allows those who view the portraits to think for themselves.

Knowing Brian and Colin I imagine we will also find creative and imaginative ideas in their chat that might inspire clues as to how we move from our troubled past into a more hopeful future. 

http://4cornersfestival.com

TOMORROW IN FITZROY - 29.1.17

Last week in Fitzroy we were looking at repentance and following Jesus in our current Northern Irish crisis. People joined Twitter as a response... go figure! Or listen to the sermon (all Fitzroy sermons can be listened to here) 

Tomorrow (11am) we will go into a short series on the Sermon on The Mount, starting with the Beatitudes. No better way to ask what repentance is and following Jesus is than a spiritual soak in some of Jesus best poetry. Add the other Lectionary Reading from Micah 6 and verse 8 in particular, "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" and we are soaking in tender but explosive waters!

My title comes from one of my favourite singers Bruce Cockburn. Hear how he sang the Beatitudes to an audience of just me. He didn't realise. I couldn't believe my blessing. The song he sang gives the sermon its title - Shipwrecked At The Stable Door. I steal it from Cockburn who stole it from Brennan Manning. I love the juxtaposition, in the song, of beatitudes and the stable. The nativity is a pictorial image of the poetry. 

The question will be... are we shipwrecked at the door... what does it mean to live the stable.

(and I know that the stable is not in the Bible... Manning, Cockburn and I are using it with poetic license!)

In the evening (7pm) we have the final part of our series Faith On The Frontline. This has been an insightful series, hearing the stories of those putting their faith into practice at work, or through struggle or whatever their frontline is. Tomorrow night Rachel Fullerton and Roz Stirling will be sharing about those situations when your dreams start to unravel and how that often times is the anvil on which faith and charter are formed - a mysterious grace indeed!

SURMISING OUR APPEARANCE ON BBC NI THE VIEW... WHAT I'D LIKE TO HAVE SAID!

So, Fr Martin Magill and I had our six minute of fame on The View, on BBCNI, last night. How was that? Well, The View is the one political show that I watch every week and almost fan-like I enjoyed being a fly on the wall and watching it happen. 

Was I happy with our contribution and what would I have said had I had an input into the questions we were asked?

Let me answer both those questions in what follows. I think there are three different audiences that Fr Martin and I were trying to reach last night.

THE JOURNALISTS

Mark Carruthers suggested that we were on The View as a follow up to Ian Paisley Jr’s warm tribute to Martin McGuinness, on the previous week’s programme, and his comment that the public were further down the road than the politicians.

I think that we can stop right there to get a clue as to how to change the political landscape in Northern Ireland. One short interview was so strange, or so imaginatively alternative, that we are still talking about it a week later. Mark confirmed that it was the most viewers The View ever got. Somebody do the analysis. People want something different. People respond to grace and warmth.

Grace is the name of the article that journalist Eamonn Mallie wrote that has been talked about in the same sentence as Paisley’s interview. Mallie’s piece has had immense traction on social media and I have heard it quoted in lectures, sermons, press articles and everyday conversation.

To me, friends in journalism - you have the power to change the conversation. The choosing of the right voices can contribute to a sea change. Ben Okri has written “To poison a nation, poison its stories. A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself. Beware of the storytellers who are not fully conscious of the importance of their gifts, and who are irresponsible in the application of their art.” I believe that journalists, like our storytellers, could learn from Okri. We all need to heed him!

When Mark Carruthers moved across the table to Deirdre Heenan and Newton Emerson, after our contribution, the cynicism was palpable. Deirdre looked a little sorry for us in our naivety. Newton called it “wishy washy” because it didn’t criticise Unionism. 

Well, first Newton, none of the questions asked us a question that would have caused such a response and therefore second, and maybe more important, you seem to have judged us before we even spoke.

There is nothing wishy washy about seeking to mobilise the 45% who didn’t vote last time. There is nothing wishy washy about optimism. There is something debilitating with cynicism, whether it is cynicism of what a politician says when it is not the default or what Christian leaders have to say… bless our wee prayerful souls!

Journalists. Please see the power you have for change.

THE POLITICIANS

Ian Paisley Jr’s good wishes towards Martin McGuinness and suggestion that politicians need to move on has been welcomed by the public. Oh conspiracy theories abound because we actually cannot accept what we most like to see - grace - but whatever his motivation it is the talk of the town.

Is there a lesson to our politicians that we want more of such interruptions of the norm. Grace is an interrupter. Against the run of play. That is where grace has its tender but robust punch! It breaks into how it is with how it could be.

Politicians we need more of it. The public will waken up to such a difference. There are 45% of voters out there to be tapped. Reach out to them by giving yourselves the respect so that you might win the respect of the public instead of the disrespect they have for you right now. You work hard enough to deserve a better press! 

Be brave! Show humility, vulnerability, grace, humanity and hope!

THE VOTERS

The voter is where the power lies but it does not lie in not voting. Being disillusioned with politics has a harmful effect on our society. Not voting is not a constructive choice. We have watched the surprising impact of the votes of 2016. No one expected Brexit. Nor Trump. Such seismic change could happen in our Local Assembly Elections… if in my opinion in a more positive way!

As I said last night, I no longer believe that reconciliation is going to drip down from the hill at Stormont. The power for change will have to creep up from the ground. 

When Mark Carruthers talked last night about politicians going to the public with their policies I think he got it wrong. Most parties will bypass the public and go straight to their limited, but voting, support groups; the same old, same old who always vote for them.

The power to change lies with the wider public, the voter who does not usually vote or is not in a hard line camp. If the politicians in rooms this week, trying to work out how to get the vote, thought that 45% of voters would get off the sofa to vote if they put reconciliation higher up their manifesto or spoke more civil to each other on The View then change might be forced upon them. At the moment they can rely and hope that 45% stay at home. It makes their job easier and our future more of the same.

There has been some serious mistakes or even scandals at Stormont. That needs sorted for sure. There are some hard line attitudes that need melting too.  

However, I have a high regard for many of our politicians. They do a tough job. They work hard. The public does not see what they do in the offices and committee rooms at Stormont or out in their constituencies day in and day out. They have given themselves a bad press by what they say to the press. However, I honestly believe that if the voting public gave them the groundswell of support to make a change they would be less fearful to do the courageous things. 

There will be enough time for cynicism after March 2nd. Let us be hopeful and positive until then… and indeed even in response to whatever happens then. Let us take Eamonn Mallie’s grace and Ian Paisley Jr’s belief that we have moved on and ask more of our politicians. Let us dream… and ask… and vote for a better future…

I can just see Newton’s patronising wee smirk…

Fr Martin and my contribution to the civic conversation is best seen through the 4 Corners Festival (Feb 3rd-12th) which got good coverage last night on The View. Thank you to The View team for the invitation and welcome... and the make up!

http://4cornersfestival.com

STORIES OF HEALING FROM THE WOUNDS OF THE PAST - 4 CORNERS FESTIVAL

STORIES OF HEALING FROM THE WOUNDS OF THE PAST

Wednesday Feb 8th 7:30pm 

Holy Family Parish Church, 226 Limestone Road, BT15

Free BUT donations encouraged

It only takes a few minutes in any TV documentary about The Troubles to have me, once again, disbelieving the inhumanity to humans that was shown in Northern Ireland over a considerable chunk of my life. Blowing people up, shooting people in front of their children, innocent people people caught in the crossfire, mistake in identity or even shot just because you were there and the wrong religion.

The grief, the trauma, the pain, the injuries… the wounds. We are a country full of people with wounds. As Jenna Silverman Wilson put in the poem she wrote for the final night of the Festival last year, they are not scars, they are open wounds.

This year’s 4 Corners Festival theme is Our Wonderful and Wounded City. It was stolen and tweaked from phrase used at a Festival event by Rev Heather Morris. Implicit in the title is our desire to seek how we can heal from the wounds.

The Stories of Healing… event will give us an opportunity to hear about how some people have attempted that journey of healing. Where do you begin when you lose a father before you are born, husband, a Grandfather or the power of your legs? How does that journey go? Is there healing? Can you forgive? Have you any desire for reconciliation?

John Martin’s father, Brian, was killed on the 4th of November 1983 studying at the then Polytechnic college in Jordanstown. He was survived by his wife Iris and sister Sara-Louise (13months at the time). Iris was pregnant with John when Brian was killed. John believes that forgiveness is not something that you do once, but something that has to be done over and over. John and his family have found healing in their faith, and being reconciled to God through Christ, and believe therefore that we must be reconcilers. Although John admits he is still working this out.

Paul Gallagher was seriously injured in a sectarian gun attack by the UFF in 1994. He is currently involved in issues relating to Victims and Survivors as well as peacebuilding. Paul is undertaking a Masters (Con ict Transformation and Social Justice) at Queen’s University Belfast.

Joe McKeown’s Grandfather, Francis McKeown was killed by the British Army in July 1972, seven years before he was born but was undoubtedly impacted and some would call this intergenerational trauma.  e ripple e ects of this tragic event have led to su ering and pain for the McKeown family but they have also led Joe on a journey of reconciliation and hope. Moving from a negative cycle of bitterness and anger to the search for Justice, Truth and Mercy has led Joe towards transformation and healing.

Mary Moreland was widowed in December 1988 when her husband John was murdered by the IRA. Both John and Mary served as part time soldiers with the Ulster Defence Regiment. Despite the trauma of John’s murder and with two small children to bring up it was Mary’s aspiration to ensure life for their children would continue in as normal a manner as possible. She returned to work in the Northern Ireland Civil Service and went on successfully to complete a degree in Business Studies and a Masters in Counselling and  Therapeutic Communication.

The statistics of our Troubles is one thing. Remembering those killed is another. Living with the consequences of the inhumanity is something that these four people, and their families, live with every day of their lives. 

It seems to me that as we seek healing for our community in general, the individual stories of the four speakers at this event can only shed light and grace on our journey towards God’s shalom.

Songwriter Dave Thompson will punctuate the evening with songs of healing. The songs on Dave’s album Newsprint Sky touch on the wonder and wounds of Belfast.

Chair for the evening is Jude Hill from UTV

DRIVE IT, LIKE YOU STOLE IT - The Pause For Thought That Got Censored!

Last Saturday I was travelling to our Fitzroy Session Day Retreat and on the way, listened to the Sing Street movie soundtrack. I actually only listened to the original songs written for the film, mainly by Gary Clark and one on the end that Glen Hansard had a hand in.

As I was listening I was aware that these were songs of adolescence and then realised that no they were songs for all of life. The film is about songs for resistance, the listening, the writing and the performing of songs that help us deal with what is up against us as we attempt to find our place in the world, the loved one to commit to, the cause to be passionate about, the vocation to make your imprint in the world around you.

So, I made these songs my songs, at 55 years of age, still travelling with a desire to kick the darkness, punch a hole in the night, change the world!

This week’s theme for my Radio 2 Pause For Thought was Theme Tune for Life and I immediately went for a Sing Street song. Sadly, its slight reference to joy riding was never going to get past the BBC censor, so we give it a miss and replaced it with U2’s I  Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. A predictable substitute but one that was also true, just the same!

Here’s my original idea. And to note… I am not endorsing joy riding!!!!!

 

Giving me theme like Theme Tune For Life fried my head. I have thousands of CDs and records in shelves all over the house. Songs to soundtrack my life? I could compile a box set!

My life’s motto is 10:10. Our Church has it as its mission statement too. It is my birthday. October 10. I love seeing our youth running around wearing sweatshirts with my birthday all over it. 10:10. Last summer in Uganda I had an entire school shouting 10:10 every single day. 

You see, it is not just my birthday. In the New Testament, in the Gospel According To John, Jesus says that he has come to bring life and life in all its fulness. John 10 verse 10! As a teenager I took hold of that idea. I wanted that life in all its fulness. I grabbed hold of Jesus offer. 

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I watched the movie Sing Street. Its set in Dublin in the 80s and tracks the life of a teenager whose parents are breaking up, who has had to change school, who was being bullied by fellow pupils and even a teacher. And of course there was a girl… 

Anyway, the way the young man deals with his situation is to use music as his resistance. He forms a band and writes songs. Written by Scottish songwriter Gary Clark, the songs are brilliant.

One of those songs is called Drive It, Like You Stole It. Interesting title suggesting that dangerous crime of joyriding which is not being endorsed in the movie or on the Vanessa Show! See it as poetic licence. Drive It, Like You Stole It is a song of an adolescence seeking life in its fulness…

“This is your life

You can go anywhere

You gotta grab the wheel and own it

And drive it like you stole it

Roll it

This is your life

You can be anything

You gotta learn to rock and roll it

You gotta put the pedal down

And drive it like you stole it”

It’s that desire for 10:10… life in its fulness. And I am not confining that to my adolescence. I’m going to grab the wheel and own it and drive it like I stole it every day. We gotta Rock n roll it Vanessa!