I have just had a letter with 10 Questions.
I thought I would Blog the responses/who has answers?
I can't type. It is a real effort one finger at a time BUT
here goes.
1 When did you become an adult?
When I was around about 40.
I was working with young humans who would
spit in your face
set fire to your hair.
Never speak/respond.
They were locked in a lifestyle
of crime/violence/deprivation.
At the same time I felt ugly.
I had carried that for most of my life.
At 21 I became a Christian from Nothingness.
I believed, from then on, that God loved me
but never could myself -
never could believe that I was beautiful.
God loved me with her perfectness/but me NO.
I was pretty battered - resilience-less.
I was doing a talk one night
In a little London City Mission Hall.
It was as beat up as me.
Bricks were thrown through the window
and and then a group of unknown kids walked in the back.
My talk started to talk to them too.
An unusual sermon!
One thing I said to them was
"you are a beautiful human person".
So often young humans are told they are 'no good'.
Bad. Trouble. Worthless.
I did not want to say that
communicate that.
Demonstrate that.
I loved them
and I know God loved them.
It was around that time that I started to accept myself.
With all the ignorant/uneducated/loudmouthness/egocentric self.
I started to accept my self right now
like God did/does.
That started my use of words
affirmative
Love filled
'You are a beautiful human'
and started to live differently.
That is when I became an adult.
I feel quite emotional now - having recalled all this.
Lord have mercy ..................
"It is said that we only ever truly love five people in our lives.
Can you consider that one of them could be you?"
2 Whew
Was there ever a point in your life when you lost faith in a better life?
I had no faith until I was 21.
I just lived like everyone else.
Isn't that what we do - be the same as everyone around you?
Faith in God gave me faith in life.
One of the big shifts
was to decide to give up
not to strive to gain.
I decided that to be in touch with my poverty,
an interior thing/a journey into the unknown self.
My faith has stumbled like 1 above.
Funny is I find the stumbling times are the
learning times/growing times/change times.
A big change was when I stopped being me/me
and became me/we.
My charismatic upfront leadership had to crumble
I could not cope in the work with gangs and violence and loving
so I turned into a team worker - WE became the strategy
and in t - we all grow.
I have never lost faith since being 21.
I mess up
i wrong wrong wrong and stumble
bu I feel accepted - in the mess that I am.
"SHIFT happens"
3
to be continued ..................
Pip Wilson
www.pipwilson.com
