This is an assembly I wrote and recorded, intending to censor it for an older teen audience, but I chickened out (the right decision I think!). They'd asked for something on "Prayer", and I wanted to be honest.
I was just going to leave it on my hard drive and have it as a reminder for me, but then there was another school shooting in the US last night, and I'm angry. The extent of my prayer was "WTF!?" And that's ok. There don't always have to be articulate words when we pray. There do have to be emotions and feelings though, and sometimes the only words that can be found are the ones we often deem inappropriate. If you're prepared to be disappointed in me, my language, and potentially my theology, then click "Read More" to see the 8 minute assembly that never got delivered. If you're offended by profanity and don't believe God can cope with the "F" word (amongst others), then feel free to move on somewhere else. I wonder when you’ve been hurt? It might not have been something big, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important. I wonder when you’ve hurt others? It might not have been something big, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important. I wonder if you can pinpoint the times when one of those things has been the result of the other, and you’ve hurt someone because you’ve been hurt? That might be the person who hurt you, or it might be someone else who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was asked to speak about Ephesians 4:32 : “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” But I needed a little bit more context, so want to add in the verse before it as well. Ephesians 4:31-32 (New International Version) The Bible talks a lot about forgiveness, and suggests emphatically that it’s a good thing.
It talks about forgiveness being a sign of love, of being a way of restoration, a way of beginning to rebuild relationships, but mostly as a way of re-discovering Shalom... I enjoyed my first foray into spoken word with my "Culpable Disturbance of Shalom" piece that I thought I'd try again. Compassion was a theme for an assembly, and this time I had the image, and the words came, and then the music followed suit... |
MARCRemarcable is one man blogging about Youth Work, Theology, Family, Life and those other random things that come to mind. Archives
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