[Friday's Devotional] - Goodbye Loneliness, Hello Happiness (Feel So Different)

Goodbye Loneliness, Hello Happiness (Feel So Different) The observant amongst you may have noticed a running theme with the songs I've been posted. Yes they reflect my feelings on loneliness and my own personal journey, however they are all covers by Sinead O Conner. An artist who has had her own, very public, battles with many things, but loneliness seems to be the most common theme. Today's song however is an original and is my favourite song of hers. Since I heard it so many years ago, I listen to it almost once a week, sometime many times a day, I never tire of it And like with all great songs needs to be turned up all the way to 11. This song reminds me constantly that my battles with loneliness are over. They are in the past and like the song says. I feel so different now. I have had the privilege in my life to walk several people to Christ, some through Alpha and some just by talking about my own experience. And the one thing that is common amongst all of these journeys, is that each and every one of them, me included, will confess that there is definitely a before and after. A sense that things are most certainly different now with Christ on our side. Sure we face the same battles everyday as everyone else, but I always feel that I have the winning edge in my battles. I have Jesus on my side. I am not like I was before, I thought nothing would change me. I feel so different. And what a marvellous difference it is and continues to be just like Saul on the road to Damascus. Just like Moses. Just like Peter.  Just like so many others.  Just like me, I know with Jesus, I feel so different. Steve Fogo   Endnote: Loneliness kills. Talk to someone about it. Call the Samaritans in confidence on the following number 116 123 (UK) https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help-you/contact-usc   Feel So Different - Sinead O'Connor [YouTube Video - 6 mins 21 secs] Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!

[Thursday's Devotional] - The end to loneliness (Chiquitita)

The End to Loneliness (Chiquitita) I'd forgotten that Sinead O'Connor had covered this ABBA staple. I only re-discovered it a few months ago and for the first time in a long time I genuinely stopped in my tracks when I heard it. I must have heard the original over a hundred times, maybe a thousand. And never once did I listen to the lyrics. I just assumed, it was a jumpy pop song, meaningless pap. Sinead adds something to the song, slows it down and spells out the lyrics. A friend is in pain (Chiquitita) and the singer is saying we all have scars, we all heal, we all will dance again. Coming out of my depression some time back, I understood the value of speaking to people, not keeping things bottled up and allowing God to heal in his time, He knew when I was ready for the next stage. The song is a perfect realisation that life is painful, that if you get broken, the road back is long and painful, but as the chorus states, "The Sun is still in the sky and shining above" It's true, we miss the obvious because we are looking for the detail. As I said earlier this week, my greatest solitary joy is to walk with my Spaniel.  All he cares for is a ball to chase and the opportunity to go for a walk with me. He is so happy his tail swishes from side to side for the whole hour we are out. God promises the same. To walk with us through all trials and tribulations. To guide us and to comfort us, to rest in him and recover from our pain with him. And if we do, I'm sure we will be "dancing once again" Steve Fogo  Chiquitita - Sinead O'Connor [YouTube Video - 4 min 11 secs] Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!

[Wednesday's Devotional] - The Loneliness of Heartbreak (Nothing Compares 2U)

The Loneliness of Heartbreak (Nothing Compares 2U) Most of us have had our hearts torn to pieces by love.  It can be a very wounding experience and very damaging, the damage can stay with us forever. The sun never shines. When my first marriage broke down, the loneliness I felt was crippling. Looking back, I knew I was already depressed, but the ending of my relationship just pushed me deeper into myself. I have always been a person who like his own company.  Don't get me wrong, I'll have a laugh and a crack with anyone who wants to.  But given the choice between going out for a meal with lots of friends, or spending the day on my own with a mad spaniel, then the spaniel wins - more times than not. However the despair and loneliness I felt after my break up was beyond anything I had ever felt before or since. Like the song below. The utter devastation in your life makes you think nothing compares to the loss. You'll do anything to win the person back. Anything! Even change yourself.  Fun becomes a concept that is for other people and you start to distance yourself. It was during this time that I re-discovered God, or as my best friend once put it better, "Maybe God decided to come find you" Its hard to admit, because, you feel so helpless and desperate. You want to blame others and in times of extreme pain, maybe kick out and blame God! I know I did. The thing is, that God never puts us through things we can't handle. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, they say. In any struggle in life, regardless of how much I want to blame God, I think, I feel, I trust he is on my side and whatever trials I go through he is there for support. Look at the story of Job! A wealthy Man, A happy man, a righteous man, and the Devil decides he can turn him away from God. Throughout all of his struggles, Job never loses faith. Through the loneliness, the loss, the heartbreak, Job knows he will be rewarded and he will dance again. "As long as there is breath in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will utter no deceit" Job 27 3-4 [ESV]   Steve Fogo Nothing Compares 2U - Sinead O'Connor [YouTube Video - 5 mins 9 secs] Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!

[Tuesday's Devotional] - The Loneliness of Envy (Streets of London)

The Loneliness of Envy (Streets of London) Again, another song from my childhood and yes, I totally misunderstood this one as well!!  I thought it was a jolly song, about visiting London. I had an Aunt who lived in London when I was very young and visiting her was such a joyous thing to do. Filled with big buildings and flashing lights and every time I heard this song it reminded me of her. It still does. But alas, I missed the obvious point, but then I was only 6 or 7 years old.  I feel the song is more about someone who is not happy with their lot. Who wishes for more, and wants more. Material envy is a very dangerous feeling. The desire to "own" to accumulate "stuff" is powerful, we see others, daily, on TV, in our own lives, our friends and we want that they have, We covet it. Sometimes, this desire to "have" leads us down a dangerous path. One away from God and towards the "loneliness of envy" Jesus clearly talks about this in Matthew: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6: 24-27 [NIV] You cannot serve money and God. The desire for stuff can make us become lonely in our outlook. We can start to dislike our friends and what they have, clearly forgetting what we have. In the song, the singer is telling us. "So you think you have it bad" Come with me and let me show you bad on your own doorstep! Be thankful for what you have. There will always be somebody worse off than you, and in my experience, they always have lots of stuff. The happiest people I know, generally give the most and have the least.   Steve Fogo   Streets of London - Sinead O'Connor [YouTube Video - 4 min 9 secs] Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!

[Monday's Devotional] - The Loneliness of Sin (House of the Rising Sun)

The Loneliness of Sin (House of the Rising Sun) When I was a kid, I remember hearing this song [House of the Rising Sun, The Animals, 1964] and misunderstanding the lyrics. To me then, it was a place of fun, somewhere where the singer could return to time and again. It was only in my adult life that I fully grasped what he was actually singing. The song of a man, so lonely, entrapped in his sin that he can only escape from it by returning to it. He knows he is going to regret it, and there is a line in the third verse: "I've got one foot on the platform And another one on the train" For someone who battles with his own sin daily I know this feeling well. The desire to stop but the overwhelming feeling to continue. The loneliness of it is overwhelming and has been the route of most of my anxiety and depression over the years. It's a battle St Paul talks personally about in Romans: We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7: 14-20 [NIV] I think we all have a battle with sin raging within us. In fact, I'd pretty much suspect most of us don't consider it a battle, but more of a war of attrition. Whatever your own personal war, the war rages night and day. Whether it be sexual, drink, gambling, gossip, talking bad of other folk, lying, lust….the list is endless and to be honest tiresome. Whilst my own sin is personal to me, I can admit that I have struggled and continue to to this day. However, when I do, I find the passage above very helpful. I can confirm that I go through all the feelings that Paul describes in the passage above, in fact, I've almost memorised these verses. We do not know what Paul's battle is, he never alludes to it, and I for one am glad of that. Because the verse speaks to all of us who battle. Do I have an answer for conquering this? Prayer!  Mainly.  But deep down, inside me, I know the War rages on and just like the song (listen below if you have time) I know I am weak and I need all the help of God to overcome an win the war...... Steve Fogo   House of the Rising Sun - Sinead O'Connor  [YouTube video - 5 min 21 sec] Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!