Queensland - the state of islands

Around Dalby and around the state there are currently many islands. Houses and properties are isolated by water, making them into inland islands after unprecedented amounts of water flooding large parts of the state.

Our hearts go out to those affected by devastating and life-taking waters washing through places like Toowoomba. To imagine a city on top of a range have flash flooding of such magnitude to be likened to an inland tsunami is shocking and breathtaking.

What happens out here is nothing by comparison, no matter how frustrated and sick of flooding we're becoming. Here we're experiencing our 2nd major flood (and 3 minor floods) in two weeks. The Myall Creek peaked just under 3.8m last night, higher than the 3.5m 2 weeks ago. Levels are staying steady, but with more rains last night and upstream Creeks rising, I wouldn't be surprised if we reach higher levels later today. Talking to members (whose houses are raised off the ground), once we reach about 4m, many more houses will be inundated with water. To the left are some more photos taken yesterday.

I keep thinking how water can harm, soil, flood, damage, and kill, but God also uses water at baptism to clean, purify, and bring the hope of salvation. No matter how hard this continues to affect people, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Lord, have mercy!

Water, water everywhere...!

I've been meaning to post for a while now but Blogger hasn't fixed it's bugs. Thankfully I've finally found a way around it!

For those who have been following the news lately, Dalby has experienced major flooding. Thankfully our family are safe and well, but it has been an eventful few days! We had a pool of water in the backyard about 20cm deep at one stage, but we were never under threat.

The Myall Creek rose to over 3.5m, cutting the town in half and isolating us from other townships (the above photo shows our main bridge - they were allowing high 4WD's through). While some houses have been inundated with water, most homes are off the ground and 'only' experienced water beneath or around them. While inconvenient and annoying, the clean up will take quite a while.

To make matters worse, the town's water treatment plant was flooded and we only have water left for a few days. The plant may not get back on line for about a week. We're using water sparingly, and thankfully have a full tank (5,000l) of rainwater.

While many people have been affected to varying extents, I'm thankful it wasn't any worse. I've been contacting members who may have been affected and most are ok. I believe everyone now has a story to tell!

As I talk to people I find the questions aren't 'what did you get for Christmas?', but 'what happened to you? Are you ok? Can we help? How is so-and-so? Are they ok?' The care and concern people have for each other is heart warming and encouraging.

We continue to pray for those isolated or evacuated from their homes and who are facing a massive clean up.

The illogic of selling public assets

Ok, so the above title doesn't make gramatical sense, but neither does selling public assets.

Here in Queensland the government is apparently almost broke (although that hasn't stopped it from promising big money for projects and Commonwealth Games bids), so it has decided to sell public assets such as Queensland Rail.

Now, there are good reasons to sell public assests (although I can't think of many just now), but I fail to see the logic in it.

Let's think...if an asset is making money, why sell it? It guarantees an income (which is necessary to pay off debts). On the other hand, if it's not making money, how are you supposed to convince a community (which is largely opposed to the sale anyway) to invest into a company which doesn't make money?

Hmmm, me thinks something's not thinked through very good. Me also thinks many in the community will be duped by flashy adverts.

Yet as I say these things, I continue to pray for our leaders, even if I disagree with them. May God give them wisdom, and help them to serve with honesty and integrity, always seeking peace and justice for all.

Fantasy Books

Continuing the theme of fantasy...

I've been reading a couple of authors who concentrate on the Fantasy theme.

Firstly I read Terry Brooks, including his Sword of Shannara series. Whether he intended it or not, I found many themes analogous with Christianity. For example, I loved the imagery of a sword of truth. This sword proves to be a magical weapon against evil, since most evil is based on lies and deception. Once the sword comes into contact with evil, the evil faces the truth and can't bear it, with the resulting destruction of evil. However, not only those who come into contact with the blade, but also the bearer of the sword must face their own truth. This can be quite confronting as the hero of the story must face his own lies and deception. Once he accepts the truth, he can then wield the sword.

As Christians, we know Jesus to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He exposes the truth about sin and salvation. Only those who are prepared to face their own truth about sin will see the need, and accept the need, for salvation given through faith in Jesus Christ. For those who are given the awesome honour of preaching the truth to others, must also face the truth about themselves.

I really enjoyed the imagination of the author and his gift in story telling, coming up with some fascinating characters. Some of his reflections on people battling with 'inner demons' were insightful. What I found especially different to other fantasy books is that instead of creating a whole new world, he actually bases it in our own world, but after a cataclysmic event. One of my favourites was 'Angel Fire East', which describes a battle between good and evil within our own world. For those with teen age children, I can say there's no sexual scenes and the battles, while descriptive, aren't gruesome.

I'm now reading Terry Goodkind. Again, a sword of truth is pivotal for the story telling, but this time, instead of a wielder of truth, is a seeker of truth.

Again, he has some wonderful insights to human nature and comes up with some surprising ways to deal with evil. One thing I find interesting is what he refers to as the wizard's first and second rules.

The first rule (if I can remember it rightly) says something like: 'people will believe what they want to believe'. Therefore, people will believe a lie if that's what they want to believe. In our post-modern society (if we're even still in this post-modern society), truth is often relative. Truth is what you want it to be. For many, a lie will be their truth. This makes preaching the Truth problematic at the least.

The second rule says something like: 'the greatest harm can come from the best intentions'. Again this is insightful and often true.

While the books written by Terry Brooks could be read by teenagers, I consider Terry Goodkind's books to be more adult and, while not explicit, does include sexual themes. He also refers to the spirits of the dead, the Creator and the Keeper, and their followers, perhaps representing various religious establishments in our own life.

I like good stories, good characters, and themes which can help us reflect on our own lives and faith. Whether these authors are Christian or not, I'm enjoying their gifted talents.

Shalom

Fantasy Sport

Ok, as I've mentioned before, I confess my addiction to fantasy sports. If anyone's interested, I'll share my results in a few of the games.

For the Football World Cup earlier in the year, I entered a predictor game (picking the scoring results of each game) and a fantasy game (where I picked my own team from among the nations playing).

In the predictor game, I finished 23,558th out of 495,483 competitors world wide (734th out of 6,699 Australians). Not bad for my first attempt!

In the Fantasy Dream Team game, I finished 120,232nd out of 907,406 competitors world wide (5,750th out of 34,093 Australians). Again, I was quite pleased with my first attempt and not knowing much about the players.

The AFL Dream Team has recently finished and I improved my position slightly over previous years:

2008: 40,125 pts = 14,138th out of 203,220 competitors (within top 7.0%)
2009: 41,612 pts = 21,784th out of 293,940 competitors (within top 7.5%)
2010: 44,163 pts = 21,537th out of 323,963 competitors (within top 6.7%)

While I started off much better than previous years, I made a few disappointing trades during the year that didn't pay off. Still, I'm happy to improve. 2011 will be interesting with the Gold Coast Suns entering the competition and having to juggle byes.

I've just started playing Fantasy sports for the A-League and the English Premier League. Again, I don't know much about the players (except I did play the A-League competition last year), but I still enjoy the challenge.

And, admitting my addiction, I'm working on limiting computer time. That's perhaps a greater challenge than the actual games!

Shalom

The penance of changing history

Although I'm an AFL (Australian Football League) fan, I couldn't help notice the upsetting announcement by the NRL (National Rugby League) of Melbourne Storm's salary cap cheating and the subsequent penalty. Among those penalties is the removal of their victories at the grand finals in 2007 and 2009.

Now, I believe the penalties need to be harsh so that each team has equal opportunities to win given a set of circumstances (including salary caps) - even though I wouldn't be surprised if most clubs, including some in the AFL are also guilty of the same crime - but how on earth do you change history?

Sure, you can take away their trophies and attempt to change the official records, yet there have already been many articles, books, DVD's and so on made of their victories. Cheats or not, they won and that can't be easily taken away. That's what makes people so sick of the incident. That's what makes this penance so hard to do.

In a similar way, there are many crimes committed that can't be changed. You can't undo a victory (even if they cheated to achieve that victory). You can't undo a murder. You can't undo sexual abuse. You can't undo angry words that struck the heart.

While a confession has been made to the investigators and the NRL leadership, it may also be appropriate a confession is made to the players, the supporters, and the general public. Then let the public vent their anger. Let them have the opportunity to explain their pain and frustration. This may then deter other clubs from the same cheating actions, because, it's not the NRL leadership they fear most, but their supporters. They're the ones they need to answer to.

Perhaps this natural justice system would be appropriate for other crimes. Let them hear of the pain and heartache they've caused. Then genuine repentance may follow, rather than an imposed repentance. In time forgiveness may follow, but should never be forced.

In the end, no matter what penalties the NRL set, it's the players, supporters and general public who will decide whether they will forgive and whether the penalties are appropriate.

Thankfully we have a gracious God who forgives our crimes against heart, mind, body and soul, and amazingly, he CAN and DOES change the history books of heaven.

The past is always present

I recently watched 'Beautiful Kate', a well made Australian Film. I enjoyed some great acting by formidable actors, and an intriguing storyline.

Among the opening credits was a line 'The past is always present', and the film then showed how this is true as a fractured family try to deal with the past. No matter how they've tried to deal with the past previously, the past is still very much present for them. Despite their previous attempts to run away from or deny the past, it's only properly dealt with through confession and forgiveness.

As I work with and among people, this tag line keeps echoing around in my head. I see how for so many, the past is still very much present. As I'm listening to them and their pains and heartaches, their bitterness and their anger, I'm learning to seek what might have happened to them in their past. The reason is pastoral. I often find that some event in a person's past produced a reaction for safety or survival emotionally. This same reaction will be used over and over again every time they feel the same emotions of fear, loss, anger, or helplessness. Once a past event is identified, I've find one of the most powerful and helpful tools to break the chains of the past is confession and forgiveness.

As we soon celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter, I'm reminded of the most powerful event in human history, where Christ prayed for his heavenly Father to forgive us our sins, and then died to free us from the chains of our past crimes to give us a future filled with hope and peace. Yet this one-off event still has power for today. The past event of Jesus' life, death and resurrection is still very much present in the church today.

No matter how powerful the events in a person's life can be (which are still present for them), we need to keep going back to an even more powerful event (which is still present in the church). We run to the Cross of Christ, confess our sins (even out loud - it's amazing how much verbalising our sins can free us from our crippling bondage), and see the blood of Jesus wash our sins away. Through the power of forgiveness, we can make a new start and no longer have to have the past affect us so much.

Yes, the past is always present. The past events of our lives can still be present and affect us in so many ways, but the past victory of Jesus over sin, death and the devil is more powerful, and very much present.

God's blessings to you this Easter.