What’s your vision?

Guest blog with Tim Childs


When people have a vision, a goal, an aim, they seem to stand out; whatever that goal might be. And if they have enough drive they are often successful in achieving what they set out to do.  



When I say successful, I’m not necessarily talking about becoming rich and powerful, I mean ‘successful’ in the broadest sense: living successfully, holding down a job, volunteering some of your time; for the Christian, serving God each day with a whole heart is the height of success. 

But as well as this, success can mean making money, having a thriving business and pursuing a career in something you really want to do. I find that although my life is far from perfect in many respects, when I have a vision and pursue it, I feel a true sense of accomplishment. 

The majority of us have dreams that motivate us to get out of bed and we work towards these dreams almost every day. We hang on, hoping that we will see our dreams become reality, and sometimes we work day and night to see this dream get off the ground. 

Whether or not I succeed in what I do is less important than the fact that I am busy doing something. Of course, I don’t want to labour fruitlessly, but I believe it’s all in God’s hands anyway; as long as I play my part I have nothing to worry about.

When people lack vision, life can become rather selfish. Material things often become more important than spiritual conditions such as peace, happiness, contentment, joy and genuine wellbeing. 

People indulge their every whim thinking that possessions and other things will make them happy, but in my experience they don’t. To make up for the disappointment, they indulge themselves even more and end up caught in a vicious circle. 

One of the problems with Western society at the moment is that we have become spiritually bankrupt; and when people lose sight of the spiritual, of what really matters in life, they gravitate towards the material. As a result, all of our priorities get skewed: on a global, national and local level, but also on a very personal level.

When humans are greedy and selfish, they stop thinking about other people’s needs. They can become ruthless and even vicious in securing their own wellbeing, even at the expense of other people. 

We all have a selfish streak, and perhaps especially at this time of economic strife we need to stop being selfish and learn how to be practically concerned for other people; regardless of whether you run a successful business or are unemployed like so many of us are at this time.

We can all make the world a worse place, and, guess what? We can all make it a better place too. Whether we have a little or a lot, we can all play our part.

We all need a vision in life. With a vision we can overcome the most dramatic and seemingly immovable objects. Sometimes it’s just about putting one foot in front of the other, and repeating; and knowing where we want to go. 

I think if you know where you want to go, and you know what you want to be, you are half way to fulfilling your dream. I may add, the Christian has the added advantage of leaning fully on God. 

Whatever your vision is, I would encourage you to invite God into your plans. This may come as a surprise, but He might just want you to live a fulfilled, successful life too!

Read more about living a God-focused life in the next issue of Sorted magazine.

A real, living faith

Guest blog 
from
Tim Childs

Life is made up of ordinary moments and occasional magical ones; but mostly ordinary ones. 


We demand from God a faith that moves mountains, but perhaps it’s just enough that we have faith enough to get us through today, and not worry about tomorrow. We worry about where we are going in life, what’s going to happen to us, and of course – in this deeply uncertain economic and political climate – we perhaps worry most of all for our futures and how we’ll make ends meet.

Modern society and its values of modern society seem to show us that to be happy we must be rich, successful, accomplish all our dreams and to be able to sit and have lunch by our expensive swimming pools in a huge back garden attached to our expensive properties. Anything less just wouldn’t do, would it?  Who makes up all these ‘rules’? Are wealthy people happier than poor people? 

There is, of course, a greater truth that begs to be looked at, a truth that might at times be staring us in the face. Christianity is about more than wealth, more than power, more than acceptable social standing; in fact it goes beyond all these things. The greater truth is that we can be happy, content and have wellbeing without being wealthy; without scheming against or exploiting other people and find meaning and purpose to life without being ‘important’ in life.

If God has called us to serve Him, He Himself has the power to bring us true meaning and purpose in an often meaningless and purposeless world. He can bring happiness and contentment in a world that is often chaotic and disordered and filled with discontented people.

I know what it’s like to be unhappy; I have had depression on and off throughout my adult life. But this reality had little to do with money, or the lack of it. Some of the best times of my life as a kid were going on caravan holidays to Wales. My family weren’t particularly wealthy; we were poor by most standards in fact. If we’re told that to be happy we must be wealthy, is it any wonder people are so dissatisfied with their lives?

We need to find ourselves through God and through living out our faith. Faith is an adventure, a journey, as well as a destination. God will supply all our needs if we ask Him. He might not make you wealthy, and you won’t necessarily win the lottery (I haven’t yet!) but you will find hope, a purpose and find a life worth living.

Wealth, to some extent, is illusory, although most of us would rather be affluent than live in poverty. It’s illusory because it seems to offer happiness, but I don’t think it really does. It might buy friends, but what sort of friends? It can’t bring real happiness, because real happiness is more a spiritual condition not really dependent on the acquisition of material things; and although it might cushion us from certain things, it can’t stop real life from happening around us. In short, it is better to be moderately comfortable and happy, than wealthy and cut off from God.

Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not saying you have to be poor to be spiritual and neither am I a rich person telling poor people to be happy being poor, far from it. I aspire to be a success in my own life, but it isn’t just about money! 

Success for the Christian is about serving God with a whole heart first, and then focusing on other considerations after that. There’s no reason why a Christian can’t aspire to be successful or get a better job or start a business; we should even pray about this. But, in all we do, we should put God first and never unfairly exploit or harm others in an attempt to ‘better’ ourselves. Like so many things, it’s a fine balance that can only be found if we put our faith in God; a faith that is more than ritual and religion; a daily and intimate walk with our creator. 

Read more about faith in the upcoming issue of Sorted magazine. It's your last chance to take advantage of our Father's Day special offer of 50 copies for just £75!

The president and the prayer breakfast

Guest blog with Phil James

Speaking last Thursday to 3,000 people at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, President Obama explained how his Christian beliefs influence and help guide his political and personal life. Drawing heavily on the Bible, he addressed and prayed with political, business and social leaders from across the world.

In my predictions for 2012, I said that we should expect the best and worst of Christianity to be showcased through US politics, and though often the bad is more visible and perhaps more entertaining to critique than the good, that doesn’t mean the good isn’t there.

Republican senator Jeff Sessions introduced the president by thanking him “for all the ways you strive for all Americans; you give your life to that”. This would draw awkward silence on the floor of the Senate, but underlines the prayer breakfast’s position as one of the last genuinely bipartisan arenas for American politics.

From his efforts to raise taxes for the wealthiest Americans to sending troops to prevent human rights abuses in Uganda, Obama argued that his political behaviour and actions are founded in his faith:

“The Bible teaches us to ‘be doers of the word and not merely hearers’. We’re required to have a living, breathing, active faith in our own lives. And each of us is called on to give something of ourselves for the betterment of others.”

In a demonstration of his personal belief, Obama described how he prays each morning and seeks advice at times of stress. He also outlined how he’s found politics and religion to be complementary elements in his own decision making:

“I think to myself, if I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense. But for me, as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’ teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required’.”

He added, however, that his decisions are not ordained from on high:

“Our goals should not be to declare our policies as biblical. It is God who is infallible, not us. Michelle reminds me of this often.”

The National Prayer Breakfast, attended by every president since Eisenhower, is an opportunity for people of different faiths and denominations to come together and pray. It can be used as a pulpit or a platform to remind the powerful of their duty and, as demonstrated on February 2, it can help to define the role of religion in politics. It can raise the level of political debate, rather than diminishing it, and it can change the tone of political interaction.

Phil James writes for Godculture, an online magazine that showcases Christianity in modern culture. For more articles on faith, creativity, technology, justice, music and more, head to www.godculture.co.uk.