Ian's Blog

I am, I have decided, a toad. A big, bloated toad. It's a pretty picture, isn't it?

Me - captions welcome

This of course may be news to some, maybe not to others, and has nothing to do with my diet.

When a friend asked me last week "how are you?" this is how I described myself, like a toad that has been inflated and is just about to burst. 

It is the effect that impatience has on me and, it would appear, I am impatient. Really impatient.

What about? Well, I am impatient to change the things I want to see changed, impatient to see God at work, impatient for the transformation of my town, impatient for revival, impatient for God to transform in me the grott I loathe, impatient impatent impatient.

Bill Hybels once described something called "Holy discontent" and he painted the picture of Popeye, when Bluto has kidnapped Olive Oyl and Swee'Pea and he reaches the point where he has to do something about it, and just before reaching for the spinach he cries out "I can't stands it,I can't stands it no more!" 

Bill Hybles argues that this feeling, when it is related to the Kingdom of God, is often from the Holy Spirit, and is not only a way of identifying our passion, but also a way of propelling us into action, and if you caught my talk on Pentecost Sunday one of the things I talked about was the way the Holy Spirit does that, He propels us outwards, and compels us into action.

I wonder if you know what you can't stands, can't stands no more? 

I can't stands... The injustice I see around me. I can't stands hypocracy in Christ followers (especially me). I can't stands the lack of bold and faith filled prayer, lukewarmness in our worship of the Most High God, the spirit of complaint and grumbling, the way we are so inward focussed (especially me), and the absence of Krispy Kreme donuts in church.

What can't you stands?

The toad feeling is something like that. So I guess in this instance, I am the answer to my own prayers, my own heart cries to God, because if I can't stands it, then it is probable that the Holy Spirit is saying "Well son, why don't youse change it?"

Ribbit.