'Why do you still have faith?' 2

I started my fireside story with the occasion when Jesus was taking 'time out' with his inner circle and enquired... 'who do people say that I?....'who do you say that I am?' I talked about having grown up in the church and always feeling the connection of a relationship with God but being confronted by this question in Year 9 confirmation... having to answer this question in a worship setting... and I was able to speak about what I believed.

I spoke about how I did spend some time away in Year 11/12 and returned to regional activities and friendship groups in 1981 after 'the HSC and a girl' imploded...

This was period of being called on as a leader, discerning a call to full time Youth Worker ministry in a surfing conversation at Forster in about 1984...

At that time I began to be exposed to lots of social justice focus and a vision for a world 'lived according to the values of God' and my place in that... including a significant shaping experience with regular visits to my Bar Beach flat from 'Peter this n That' a rough sleeper who turned up one day to wash windows [we bought hamburgers for breakfast instead] and Peter spend hours at my place watching DVDs while I worked etc etc... through to the sobering day after a clean out that he turned up wearing my clothes out of the bin he'd been sleeping in...

I shared about the challenge to make the 'God' choice and to be Jesus to Peter in the way the transformative stories of Zack, Drew and others play out in the NT... I randomly met Peter this n that in Lambton some years later... clear eyed, in a relationship, living locally and having taken the final option to sort himself out... the army!! Amazing lessons in who Jesus is and calls me to be...

I rounded off by talking about being called to leadership, using my skills, dealing with esteem issues and staying on an even keel and how my contextual gifts, love for music and creativity helped me find evidence of Jesus action in the world and that when I found myself part of that action I saw change and understood that I can still answer the question...

I finished by talking about a picture I have of Bernard Fanning behins an old fashioned queenslander smoked glass window looking in with hands out and that this is an image I draw whenever asked for my picture of 'God'... It's a picture of invitation, of watching, of looking at different parts of life and showing presence... Bernard Fanning is not JC, he just sang about him once or twice...

I ran out of time to add a final punctuation... who do I say Jesus is? as I answer the question of why I still have faith....

Friend, example, transformer, bringer of hope and inspired listener and carer offering unconditional acceptance despite our flaws!! Calling me/us to engage in God's mission of bringing hope/grace and transformation to a world [or my corner of it] in need!! God's Spirit...the 'dangerous and liberating memory and presence of Jesus' is visble to me in people, places, the arts and life everyday... because I choose to look and see and know and feel...