Dying flowers and life in its fullness

The other week a kid was shot dead in a shop down the road from where I live. It's a shop I walk past pretty much every day on my way to work and on my way to church. As you've probably seen on the news, kids killing eachother is nothing new in this area and so this one hardly sticks out much - there's been others since then. It's made slightly more poignant by the fact that the kids who shot him were aiming for someone else and this guy was nothing to do with any gang or anything, he was in the shop with his parents queueing to pay. But even that has hardly turned any heads - nobody seems bothered by the tragic scenes that are being played out daily.

I went to the place the day after he was shot and there were flowers and cards outside, mourning the death of another young person. But going past there again recently got me thinking...the flowers were starting to die, the bits of paper had got wet in the rain and were smudged and coming off the wall and it was all beginning to look a bit sad. It made me realise - in a couple of days this shooting will be completely forgotten, along with all of the others. Who's Ryan Bravo? 25 young people have been killed in London so far this year - who can remember any of their names? Guys in gangs who think it's cool to die...what did their death achieve? Last week I saw a gang of 180 young people all together, who were later stopped by police and 151 were arrested for possession of weapons. Then in separate incidents on saturday night (I'm involved with an organisation called Street Pastors who hit the streets of Peckham on friday and saturday nights, 10pm-2am) I had encounters with people who unashamedly carry guns and are prepared to use them. Here life means nothing. People mean nothing.

Is this what the writer of Genesis means when he says "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27)

Is this what Jesus meant when He said "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (Luke 12:4-7)

Each year there's a big push for the Alpha course, where they put adverts in cinema's and on the backs of buses all over London and in taxis and on TV etc. The theme of the adverts this year is asking people "If God did exist, what question would you ask him?" One of the responses currently making its way all over London on the back of the 176 bus is "Is this it?"

I think creation is searching for more. Those flowers outside the shop show that people are trying to engage with the bigger questions of the purpose of life and yet they don't know how - they just know that what is happening shouldn't be...that we're made for something more than merciless killings.

"The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." (Romans 8:19-22)

Check out the first line of that passage...creation is waiting to see something different, some glimmer of hope...and it's us that needs to show it! God has given me such a strong passion to live out hope and build community in this place and my prayer is that wherever God's people step out, others would see in them how life is meant to be. My girlfriend and I have made a choice to get to know the people we see who live on the estates - and already we can see fruit from that. It really doesn't take much, just allow people to see the Kingdom of God lived out in our lives. Paul writes "in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1Peter 3:15). And they will ask, believe me, because creation is waiting!

Jesus said "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Be the one to show people what that means!

My passion is to see the people of Peckham and the surrounding areas see that in Jesus there is life, there is forgiveness, there is acceptance, there is belonging, there is family, there is hope, there is joy, there is responsibility and there is a whole lot of excitement and adventure thrown in there too. It strikes me that those things are what people are killing eachother for, they're looking for those things but in the wrong places. JESUS DIED, YOU DON'T HAVE TO!!

I'm reminded that we're in a battle, but I get so much hope from Revelation 17:14 "They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers." COME ON!!