Thoughts on addictions

Who is Nat?

My name is Natalie Husk, although most people call me Nat (except my parents!). I was born and raised in Cornwall and am proud of it! I have always been involved in the church, whether going to my local village chapel in Common Moor, joining with bus loads from Cornwall at MAYC events, helping at the District Children’s Holiday or even attending Synod a few times! I am very thankful to the Cornwall District, the Liskeard & Looe Circuit and of course Common Moor chapel for being such valuable parts in my journey of faith.

Today I live in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where I work as a youth worker for the Methodist Church. I run after school clubs, youth clubs, a youth fellowship, do outreach work and organise trips away. Not long ago I was asked by a youth group, to give them a weekly topic for reflection, an email containing something to focus them on God for the week. So every week I sit at my computer and write down my thoughts! It started quite small, with just the young people receiving them, and now lots of people of all ages find my thoughts in their email inbox!

It is a huge privilege for me to find that people enjoy and are challenged by what I have written, especially that I can now share what God has done for me with those who walked with me at the beginning of my journey. Ultimately these reflections are aimed at the young people I now work with, but if God can speak to others through them, how great is that!!

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December
Advice
I Love You

November
38. Bald is beautiful
37. Fire
36 Sleep
35 Music

October 2006
34. Stupidity
33. Painting
32. mmm Pasties
31. Built to last
30. Phlegm

September 2006
29. Meetings
28. Crime thoughts
27. Colours
26. Unwanted guests

August 2006
25. Comparison
24. Waterproof Mascara
23. Tasty MSG
22. Helplessness

July 2006
21. Attraction
20. Hair
19. Hero
18. Laughter
17. Factoids

June 2006
16. Voiceless
15. Bruises (ouch)
14. Sunburn
13. Mistakes

May 2006
12. Arms
11. Willow Tree
10. Eurovision
9. Chicken
8. Addictions

April 2006
7. Age
6. Celebrities
5. Language

March 2006
4. Commonwealth Games
3. Decisions
2. Drizzle
1. Trelawney

Music

What music do you listen to? What is on your ipod or blasting out of your stereo? A little death metal? A symphony or two? Classic pop or a country bop? What music rocks your soul? Or perhaps you are music-less. My parents are not really the musicy types and so never have any on, yet I need to have music playing all the time – while I’m cooking and cleaning (yes it happens occasionally!), while I’m driving, while I’m doing paperwork and preparation, while I’m doing pretty much everything. The first thing I do is choose the tunes needed for the job.

I have a reasonably large music collection, including a varied mix of genres and styles from Abba to Athlete, Robbie to Razorlight, from Coldplay to the Cardigans, from Scissor Sisters to S Club (I have the album but don’t really listen to it!) and everything in between! The trouble can be deciding what to listen to. So when I set off driving the other day, I turned off the radio, put away the cd’s and turned on my MP3 player, which holds most of my music collection. I put on the random selection, thus removing the need to select the specific songs. As tunes comes on I find myself singing along, thanking God for no-one else being able to hear me! A significant chunk of my music is Christian music – either worship songs or contemporary Christian stuff, again a real mix. So there I am driving happily and singing badly when in amongst the secular music a few Christian tunes start to play. They are sporadically positioned alongside the chart music and come as a welcome interruption to the music of the everyday, and it got me thinking.

A friend of mine, who is a Christian, only listens to Christian music. All their cd’s are from Christian musicians in varying styles, and they would have no idea who the Kaiser Chiefs, Killers or Magic Numbers are (can you guess my predominant music preference?). Another friend, who is also a Christian, owns only secular music, with the likes of Tim Hughes, Delirious and OneHundred Hours being foreign to them. Now I’m not judging them in any way – they have every right to listen to the music they like (although those who listen to say country music, should have their cd’s vetted!) be it of the secular or Christian variety. But it makes me wonder….

….where is Jesus in our lives? Is He in everything we do? Is everything in our lives about Him and the church and the Christian culture? Are we therefore out of touch with the world, and people, outside the church walls? Or are we the other way inclined with everything we do being in the world outside with Jesus barely registering on our radar? Are we so immersed in the secular culture that we’ve lost the impact of the risen Lord? We are called, as Christians, to be in the world but not of the world – the difficult balance between living for Jesus in the secular world. So where does your balance lie? Where does my balance lie? I would like to think that like my MP3 player, Jesus is amongst the ordinary, non-church stuff of my life, that He is in my thoughts and actions throughout the day rather than just a set time slot during the week. I hope that He appreciates the times of specific worship but also enjoys chilling out to Snow Patrol! I know that I will get this balance wrong at times, with periods of little or no worship from me to Him, or where my life is fully consumed by my Christian duty. But maybe that is all part of life here on earth when, as U2 so poetically put it, we still haven’t found what we’re looking for – the perfect balance of Jesus.