Archives: July 2009

Editorial...

Come rain or shine

Us British people just love talking about the weather. Ok, so maybe we don’t love it, but we do it a fair bit. It’s part of our heritage or one of our customs, like drinking tea, the Queen or going on about the world cup win of 1966. It’s who we are.

In the Soul Survivor office we’ve been getting very British and talking about the weather a lot. Mainly cos we reckon it’s about time we had a nice and sunny August as the past few years have been insanely wet and pretty much drowned out anyone who came along to one of the Soul Survivor summer events. If that was you, sorry about that, it wasn’t our fault.

This year is a bit different though. Weather reporters are talking about heatwaves and record breaking sunny summer holidays. So, with the prospect of beautiful weather, we’re hoping Soul Survivor and Momentum are going to be some amazing times to hang out and get a bit of much needed sunshine!

But we’re not holding our breath. Why? Partly because history and experience dictate that it rains (and rains a lot in August). However, we’re not letting it dampen our spirits. Cos whatever the weather, God is God. He’s about the same stuff come rain or shine. And we’ve learnt that no matter how wet, windy and just un-seasonal it’s been over the past few years, history and experience dictate that God does the same stuff year in year out, day in day out. He frees, forgives, heals, equips, meets with and reveals himself to his people. And that, not the weather, is worth remembering, focusing on and talking about.

Whatever you’re going through, and whether you’re coming along to the events or not, God is about the same stuff. It’s important we get that. Like the weather we can go up and down, get frustrated, excited, bored, fed up or go round in circles wondering what the point of our lives are, but God is still doing the same things. He’s constant when we can be all over the place. And sometimes it’s good to remember that. ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever’ wrote the chap who penned Hebrews and the Psalmist in the midst of his distress cries:

“ I will remember the deeds of the LORD;  yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.”
Psalm 77v11

It’s a good thing to remember. Sometimes it’s easier to remember how rubbish the weather was, or how hard that time in our lives was, and forget how God brought us through. So the challenge we’re facing head on is that we will remember our constant God. Come rain or shine, we’re trying to focus on who he is, knowing that what he has done in the past, he will do again in the future.

That’s enough of the weather… on to the other articles we have this month. We have a great Momentum talk from Joyce Rees, a reflection on being part of the crowd (Reality), some stuff on forgiveness (Bible Study), a chunk on prayer (Aware) and a bit from Mike too.

We hope you have fun

Dan
editor@soulsurvivor.com