Bill Cahusac's Blog

what if....

I made a choice that with my life I was going to write a noble, passion filled, integrity soaked story. 

I determined that I would make the most of every opportunity to be a blessing to whoever I could,to serve with selflessness, to give and not count the cost, to love as if my life depended on it. 

I surrendered my desire for personal glory and instead elevated others. 

I spoke words of life that encouraged and built up.

I saw in others what God saw and loved them accordingly.

I acknowledged that it is only by His grace that I receive and am able to accept His invitation.

I reached for him as a flower does to the sun.

I longed for him as the desert does for rain.

I prayed as if it was the oxygen my soul needed to breathe.

I fed on the word as if it was the very voice of The Living One.

I went out as He came, singing His song to a lost generation with the courage of a lion and the tenderness of a lamb.

I wrote His story in the life I lived, the words I whispered and the song I sung.

 

In my life

Perhaps it's that I'm getting older and that the time past and distance travelled begins to create mirages in my mind. Maybe it's because I want to reconnect with a younger me. It may well be that upon reflection the grey was greater than the balck and white. It may be pure self indulgence and selfishness on my part.

Whatever it is, I found myself wanting to know how some of them were.

People from the past. Colleagues, friends, girlfriends, students, teachers, classmates.

It may be that I have romanticised much of the past, or at the very least re-edited it in my mind. EIther way, I began to wonder what I would say to any number of them. It's not that I'm dying and need to get stuff off my chest or anything like that, but sorry was a word that came to mind for some. For others it was thank you. There were still others where I'm not sure what I would want to say much, except perhaps either to hear how they are and appreciate them again.

The fact of the matter is that I just miss some of them.

Friends who have meant so much who over the course of time have become distant -still treasured but less familiar. Some of this is down to the stages of life we find ourselves in. Part of it is down to the immediacy of location other times it is lazyness. For many of them it isn't that at some moment there was a decision to stop being friends, it's more that a week became a month, became a year, became.....

Teachers who informed my thinking, helped shape my values, who invested in me and believed in me even when I didn't. Some of them were giants in my life- and I am more thankful for them than I could ever put into words.

Thinking back over romantic relationships that I had in the past I suppose age anables me to see things differently. To gain perspective. Maybe I was more to blame than they were. In some cases no-one was really to blame it just didn't work out-  they were really nice people and somehow that got forgotten.

Remembering former students who still hold a treasured place in my heart- who made me laugh, who made me proud, and wondering how their journey has continued once they took their place in the yearbook as a member of the class of....

This is all beginning to sound rather morose, but if you are out there, and you happen to read this- thank you.

Thank you for being a part of my life. Thank you for the part of yourelf that you brought and thank you for the part of you you left with me.

I am all the richer becasue of you.

Advent Conspiracy

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This is what we do...

People often ask us what we do in Tollington. Part of the answer is that we do what we can, when we can, with who we can. 

We are desperate to help the young people in particular write a story that is different from the one we so often read or see in the news. 

Here's a little of what we do.

Here's the video we made for our family Christingle service yesterday. Enjoy....

Indiana Jones and The Last Christingle from Bill Cahusac on Vimeo.

To see it in all it's HD glory click here

I've had a number of conversations recently with church folk who are concerned about the fact that young people today really know very little about Christianity.
I have to confess that I was a little confused. There was a concern that they didn't understand christian values, but there wasn't much mention of Jesus or young people's knowledge of him.

While I do think that at some point children in school in the UK (where religious education is mandatory) should know what baptism is and means, and what Christians think about a whole range of moral issues, as well as the person of Jesus Christ, and how deeply concerned they were that this was leading people to be biblically illiterate.

I used to have concerns much like this myself but am increasingly coming to the view that this can actually be a huge advantage when it comes to mission.

A number of the young people I have worked with who would have fallen into the biblically illiterate bracket have actually come to faith much more quicky as a result because essentially Jesus was a mystery to them. This has meant that rather than having to try to undo years of misunderstanding and/ or misconceptions about him we have been able to start our conversations with what has essentially been a blank canvas.

It goes without saying that the same has also been the case with attitudes towards church as a missional community of faith opposed to the various less helpful alternatives.

What has developed has been both deeply moving and hugely exciting.

Partly it is about changing our mindset so that we see oportunity instead of challenge.

Indiana Jones And The Last Christingle

Here's the video we made for our family Christingle service yesterday. Enjoy....

Indiana Jones and The Last Christingle from Bill Cahusac on Vimeo.

To see it in all it's HD glory click here

It's all about perspective

I've had a number of conversations recently with church folk who are concerned about the fact that young people today really know very little about Christianity.
I have to confess that I was a little confused. There was a concern that they didn't understand christian values, but there wasn't much mention of Jesus or young people's knowledge of him.

While I do think that at some point children in school in the UK (where religious education is mandatory) should know what baptism is and means, and what Christians think about a whole range of moral issues, as well as the person of Jesus Christ, and how deeply concerned they were that this was leading people to be biblically illiterate.

I used to have concerns much like this myself but am increasingly coming to the view that this can actually be a huge advantage when it comes to mission.

A number of the young people I have worked with who would have fallen into the biblically illiterate bracket have actually come to faith much more quicky as a result because essentially Jesus was a mystery to them. This has meant that rather than having to try to undo years of misunderstanding and/ or misconceptions about him we have been able to start our conversations with what has essentially been a blank canvas.

It goes without saying that the same has also been the case with attitudes towards church as a missional community of faith opposed to the various less helpful alternatives.

What has developed has been both deeply moving and hugely exciting.

Partly it is about changing our mindset so that we see oportunity instead of challenge.