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Happiness?

Last night I watched the first episode of Kevin McLoud's 'Slumming it' (reviewed here). He spends two weeks living in a Mumbai slum famous because of Slumdog Millionaire. He went there because it seems to have been suggested that they have a stronger sense of community than many Western societies in spite of the high level of poverty.

I am also reading a book called 'The church of Facebook'. The first chapter talks about how the evidence from positive psychology is that one of the main keys to happiness is 'Connectedness' - the sense of being part of something bigger and connected in meaningful ways to other people.

The research a few years ago suggested that Generation Y felt that the purpose of life was to be happy. At the time I read an amazing book by Tobias jones called 'Utopian Dreams', In it he visits a number of communities to work out what makes then tick. His conclusion was that those who have faith at their heart are more successful.

Is it any surprise that human happiness is most likely to be found when we realise that we are designed for relationships?

Remembering

It was with a sense of deja vu that I drove up the A1 on the evening of January 7. The snow made everything look very different, but just under a year ago I covered much of the same journey after an SU staff meeting. No-one could have guessed what would happen next. Within 15 minutes of being home, my wife Jackie had a brain haemorrhage. After a roller coaster ride where we were told she would not survive she is currently settled in a superb nursing home having suffered sugnificant brain damage in the days that followed.

The rest of life has been put into perspective throughout 2009, but in the midst of it all, I have learned that God can be trusted even when everything else seems uncertain. I have seen his hand at work through other people and been aware of being supported by others.

Part of that remembering has been thinking about the people who have been significant in my own faith development and giving thanks to God for them. The biggest issue that God's peoiple seemed to face was they had this amazing ability to forget! They regularly forgot
a) Who they were - God's treasured possession
b) What God had done for them? - in history through generations
c) How God had provided for them in the present

As I look ahead to 2010, I find myself wanting to be someone who remembers these three things.

Snow Day

Well I have arrived in Leamington Spa after an adventurous day in the snow. You can see from the photo that when I decided to set off from Sheffield thetre had been a bit of a snow fall. It took me 20 minutes to get out of the street and 2 hours to travel the 10 miles to the M1

I eventually arrived at the YfC conference 2 hours late at 12.30pm. At least I was not doing anything at it. It's been a good time and I am really grateful to Richard Bromley for giving me the opportunity. It seems like there is a real desire to collabarate with regard to strategy and share resources where possible. We are both very committed to building God's kingdom and need to work out how we do that most effectively

It's also been great to see people commenting about how much they benefitted from Breakthrough - the SU holiday that I am involved in helping to organise over the New Year. We now need to explore how we follow up effectively. I am exploring with a number of locations running a regular youth cafe as a way of providing a space for folk to get together. I need to add it to my to do list.

It will be a year on Friday since Jackie was taken ill and so this Saturday we are holding open house from midday until about 10.30pm. If you know us and you are in Newcastle - please call in.

New Year, New Resolve!

Well it's 2010 now and I have decided that it is time to blog more regularly. This is more of a personal blog but i will also post stuff on the SU Youth Blog, 'Gathering Crumbs' when the issue is directly related to youth & childrens work.

I have just returned from a fantastic few days on an SU holiday over New Year called Breakthrough. It was a real privilege to work with such a great team and have such a fun time seeing in the New Year with God. It was also great to see suchg a wide range of young people together. As i looked back on 2008 it was with considerable pain (check out my facebook notes if you want to know why) but also with a sense that I am not alone in this journey. God is with me and he has sent fantastic people to walk with me.

I have learnt to trust God more and my overriding lesson will be that God's plan never fails. As well as learning together we had a fab time with the hokey cokey on the beach at 1am on New Years Day and a paddle in the very cold North Sea. I had some great chats to people as well as lots of cake!

As well as sorting out equipment today I spent a great couple of hours sledging ( no thats not to do with cricket!)

The Sunday Times yesterday devoted its magazine to the question of happiness. You can read it here. I wonder if the key to happines is something to do with contentment? Paul says to Timothy that happiness with contentment is great gain and contrasts that with money. That will be my prayer for 2010 - to be content with whatever God sends to me.

Happy New Year