I went on a mission grip to Turkey a few years ago where I noticed many of the men sitting playing backgammon. I noticed similar trends in other countries on previous travels and had always wondered how to play the game. When I got back to the UK I decided I was going to learn, so I downloaded the game to my iPhone and taught myself to play.
I like the fact that it’s a game of both chance and skill and that the result is fairly unpredictable. Often times I think I’m going to win only to get beaten right at the end. Other times I’m convinced that the way things are going I’m going to lose and debate with myself whether to forfeit the game only to win before I concluded the argument.
I won’t try to teach you the rules and strategies here but the lessons learned are worth airing. You see, I see a parallel to life. Getting a good or a bad start in life doesn’t necessarily dictate the way your life will end up. Sure the circumstances of our birth and early life have an impact on the rest of our lives – more usually on our material circumstances. But perseverance, hard work and the choices we make affect us much more.
I’d like to end up being rich and happy but if I had a choice between the two I’d choose happiness. Now that I’m older I can see clearly that it isn’t the house you live in, the car you drive or the holidays you take that make for happiness. I know plenty of discontent people who score highly on these stakes. What really counts is contentment, relationships and integrity.
The way we live, the choices we make and the ability to persevere through the difficult times are things that make us who we are. It applies to the spiritual realm too. There are loads of verses about this in the Bible. Here’s just one – “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:3-5
When I feel like giving up, running away or just opting out, I remember my games of backgammon.
Every blessing
Marten Holmes
National Director, OAC Ministries

I was reminded the other day of that moment when you are sitting just outside the breaking surf and look out to sea and see an enormous set of waves heading your way.
There’s a mixture of emotions. On one hand that’s what you’re there for – the perfect wave; but on the other hand there is fear as you contemplate what the wave might do to you.
Your choices are threefold – you can turn towards the beach and start paddling in the hope that you get the ride of your life and live to tell the tale; you can paddle frantically towards the wave in the hope that you can go over the top before it breaks; or you can just sit there, duck dive it and hope everything will be okay (it never is!)
It reminded me of the Christian walk. Sometimes you seem to just sit around in calm water waiting and hoping that something will happen. You’re there, ready for action but with little to do. At other times there’s lots happening but it’s all under control – you may be working hard but it’s nothing you can’t handle. Then there’s the times when you see a great wall of power sweeping towards you and you realise that things are outside of your control.
You’re faced with the same choices – go with it and hope you can ride it, sit there like a sitting duck or move in the opposite direction.
The worst thing you can do is just sit on your surfboard and hope everything is going to be okay – it won’t. You’ll get trashed. Sometimes fear takes over and you just want to be safe and live to see another day. That can be the right choice sometimes when faced with a wall of water. Even though it leaves you feeling disappointed with yourself it’s good to know your own limitations. The very best scenario is when you go for it, it all works out and you get the ride of your life.
The great thing about the Christian life is that God knows our limitations and we can trust Him for the ride of our lives knowing that what He calls us to, He equips for.

I was thinking about the lives of John Lennon and Vladimir Lenin recently when I came across a trivia quiz where you have to decide if a given quote was said by Lennon or Lenin.
Here’s a couple of examples:

“God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”
“There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
“Can a nation be free if it oppresses another nations?”
“A lie told often enough becomes truth.”

You can take the test and find the answers here.
The quote that started my thought process was Lennon’s assumption in 1966 that “Christianity was in decline and the Beatles had become more popular than Jesus Christ.”
Lenin, writing on Socialism and Religion, agreed with Marx that ”Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man.”
Here we are 90 years after the death of Lenin and 34 years since Lennon was murdered and Communism hasn’t crushed religion and, certainly worldwide, Christianity goes from strength to strength.
I’m reminded of the words of Jesus when He told Peter that, “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.”

“Time is on my side,” said Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones in 1964. I wonder if at age 70 Jagger is still singing it?
As young men we all think time is on our side, not just in relationships but in life itself. Life is there before us full of opportunities. “The world is our oyster,” we are invincible, we can do anything.
I don’t think I ever thought I’d get this far. I always thought I’d die young in some romantic, heroic adventure that would leave the world in mourning. And even when I did get this far and entered my 50’s I still thought that time was on my side. I’ve always said that if the support for the evangelistic mission I work with dried up, I’d go out and get a secular job – it was only the other day that I realised that at my age no one would employ me!
The real dawning of reality though happened three and a half years ago when I developed an irregular heart rhythm (AF). One day I was training to cycle from John O’Groat’s to Land’s End and the next a flight of stairs presented a challenge. It’s not a life-threatening condition but it is life-changing.
Suddenly I had to live life one day at a time. Of course that is all any of us ever do. We’re warned in James 4;13-17 not to be presumptuous in our planning. It is a learning process and a change of attitude and it’s one we’d all benefit from.
We’re often encouraged to count our blessings and obviously it’s a good thing to do. It makes for a nice discipline at homegroup or whilst on retreat – but it takes time. In my new situation I did have, in sense anyway, time on my side.  I wasn’t spending half a day on my bike several times a week for instance.
I confess I spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself in the beginning but eventually began to wrestle with the fact that if my Christian faith meant anything then it must sustain me through the difficult times as well as the good.
I began counting my blessings and concentrating on what I could do rather than what I couldn’t. Almost at the same time Mel Read began writing a column in the Times Magazine about her experiences after falling from a horse and breaking her neck. How could I feel sorry for myself compared to what she was experiencing?
Counting your blessings is a spiritual exercise when life is going well. It is an act of the will when life seems to be going badly, but doing so is immensely profitable at all times. We don’t know how much time is allotted to us, we don’t know what’s around the corner. This is the day the Lord has made, so let’s rejoice in it.
I never did cycle from ‘end to end’ but  chose to concentrate on what I could do. I bought a motorcycle and rode around the four corners of Britain instead. You can read about that at – http://fourcornersbikeride.wordpress.com/about/
 

“When I was young, so much younger than today, 
I never needed anybody’s help in any way. 
But now these days are gone, 
I’m not so self-assured. 
Now I find, I’ve changed my mind. 
And I’ve opened up the door.”   help! – Beatles

It’s only now as 64 looms on the, not so distant, horizon that I look back and wonder as to The Beatles insightfulness when writing songs like ‘When I’m 64’ and ‘Help’ is surprising as they were young, living in an age of optimism and wildly successful.
When I was young I couldn’t imagine (no pun intended) that I would get older, let alone have any insight into what it might be like. I was also invincible; I could do anything I wanted to if I tried hard enough. I couldn’t imagine having need of help from anyone or being dependant on others.
However, as time ticks by I see things more clearly. I watch old people clinging to independence when they desperately need help. I look at handrails and pull up bars in bathrooms with the knowledge that I might need them one day.
But of course it’s not only the very old and frail that need help. Illness or injury can transform the strong and independent into the weak and needy. Life can change in an instant. No, it’s not only the “needy” that need help – we all do.
In the Bible God tells us that,

” cursed is the one who trusts man, who depends on flesh for his strength …. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” (Jer 17)

Success, strength and youth are all fleeting. Only with God is there hope, help and a lasting future.

 
When I took up skiing the instructors mantra was “you’ll go where you’re looking”. I already knew this from my mountain biking days – it was a lesson learnt at a much earlier age when learning seemed somewhat easier.
Flying down a mountain trail it doesn’t pay to concentrate on the obstacles in your path, if you look at the big rock in the middle of the trail then you will hit it. If you look at the trail you want to ride then you’ll (usually) miss it. Obviously you want to be aware of obstacles and pitfalls otherwise you could end up a sticky mess at the bottom of a ravine. It’s all a question of focus and having in mind where you want to go.
Learning to ski in my early 40′s I had to relearn this principle all over again. The cognitive part of my brain already knew it but my instinct, my body and the wretched skis refused to comply with either the cognitive brain or my ski instructor. Of course I did eventually learn to ski at a competent level and my consciousness and experience came together.
I recently bought a motorbike after many, many years of absence and was dismayed to find that I had to relearn the lesson all over again – to look where I’m going otherwise I’ll go where I’m looking. The same principle applies in my Christian walk.
My focus needs to remain on him and his word. Just like the apostle Peter when he walked on water; when his focus was on Jesus he walked across the top of the waves, but when he looked around at the raging storm he began to sink. There are problems and difficulties in life but if I focus on them they seem to grow, whereas if I focus on Jesus I can usually get round them.
In my spiritual life I need to act on what I believe, trust in his word and remember his faithfulness. It does get easier the farther down the path I travel as I bring past experience alongside cognitive knowledge, but there are still problems and obstacle to face and sometimes I forget to look where I want to go and instead look at the very problem looming up in front of me.