2009 was a bit of a horrible year, with one lovely little discovery around halfway through.
It went something like: work, work, buy U2 tickets, work, work, meet girl, work, see U2 shows, work, work, work, work, Uganda, see girl lots, work, work, work, girl, work, work, work, girl, collapse.
Don’t you just hate it when someone does something with your idea?
My friend David and I have spent many long hours – usually accompanied with beer, whisky and cigars – pondering on how we could make our fortune. This pastime was a little more common when we were students (poor and idle) than we are now (less poor and very busy), but we did occasionally strike on the odd good idea. I seem to recall coming up with the idea of a mobile internet device for downloading music at one point. David was the engineer, could actually build stuff; whereas I would be in charge of marketing, sales, finance, that kind of stuff. Millions would surely start rolling in.
The abiding feeling I always had after these conversations was that (a) we would never get around it; and (b) someone else is likely to have had the same idea and will take all our money. I would suspect both of these things are true, but I’m in the middle of experiencing a similar feeling about a few of the things God has given me vision for over the year.
Example: I remember sitting with the man who can only be known as “Crazy Pete” at a party once and talking about the idea of having some big Christian music event in Scotland. Get all the churches behind it; have loads of people worshipping; change the city/nation/world. That kind of thing. We even came up with a rough budget (£750,000 if you must know) and promptly didn’t do a single thing about it.
Then the boys in Dunfermline came up with the whole Frenzy idea. A brilliant event that brings so many people together. It introduced to the awesomeness that is David Crowder and I’ve had some cracking worship and Jesus experiences there. The guys had the vision and acted on it. My emotions went something like:
Brilliant
I want to go
Didn’t I have that idea?
How dare they steal it!
I’m still going.
Why can’t I act on vision?
Or does God have a better one?
Tonight, I’ve been reading some of the blogs about the Passion event in Kampala and getting a similar run of emotions. Even any casual reader probably knows I’ve got a bit of a thing about Uganda, something I strongly believe that God gave me back in 1997 and shows no sign of going away. I was already feeling a bit sensitive about this, as some folks from church are just back from a shortish trip to the awesome Soroti and my mind had started turning to planning a trip next year.
One of my strong passions for the church in Uganda is to trip and help unlock the awesome worship that is stored in these people. Through adversity, they still have the most glorious faith and it continues to be a real challenge to me, who will find struggle in the most insignificant travail. From time to time, I’ve wondered about the idea of getting some of the great songwriters of our time to maybe pop out with me. There was an unwritten email to Martin Smith of Delirious after a piece he wrote about a trip to Rwanda. Several thought about comments on David Crowder’s blog. Those kind of things. I wasn’t thinking of like a huge event or anything, just a way to further encourage that spirit of worship.
Then the Passion folks just went and did it. OK, so they might have had a hand – I understand that Kampala Pentecostal Church, the largest church in Uganda, was involved in the organisation – but the fact remains that they answered God’s call. I kind of pottered along, waiting for things to fall into place for my vision, rather than actually doing something about it.
The moral of this story, or at least one version of it? When God gives you a vision for something, get on with it, or He’ll find someone else to do it instead. The alternate ending to the tale involves Him providing a bigger/tougher vision, after being inspired by what others have done in faith, but I’m not sure anyone should be relying on that. Do you?
So, it’s now 2008. An appropriate moment, I’m sure you’ll agree, to reflect on 2007.
From the first few hours boogying at Ardeonaig to the last minutes at, erm, Ardeonaig again, it flew past. Did someone speed up time when I wasn’t watching?
A year of great success (and not a little stress) at work but also when I realised I am now on the downhill slope towards oldfartdom. For example, I no longer have any idea what is in the “popular” music charts. OK, maybe I’ve heard that Umbrella song, but that’s about it. I know what I like and I like what I know, or some such other boring cliche.
In no particular order, highlights of the year included:
However, there were some things I really wished hadn’t happened:
Given that last of these is still rampant, I don’t have time to think about what 2008 may hold. That will follow.
So far so good. I remembered to update the blog today.
Well, when I say update, I’ve changed the picture along the top to one of my own from the recent Uganda/Kenya trip. Its of the firepit at the Nile Safari Lodge in Murchison Falls NP, north-west Uganda. Simon and I were enjoying a well-earned brandy after everyone else had called it a night. Photo was taken using a long shutter speed to create the nice effect. I think its nice anyway.
Back to work today, in the full swing of post-trip depression. I got a txt msg from the office on Friday, when I was in Kampala getting ready to come home, telling me where I had to be first thing today. It was depressing. Didn’t do much else other than catch up on email and find out in rough terms what had happened in my absence. Nothing of any great excitement it seems. Oh well, maybe I should go away again until something enthralling does happen.
