Waiting for Christ's return

The gap between the Old Testament scriptures and New Testament scriptures is one that has often been commented on. The silence of God. Four hundred years where there were no prophetic words, no mighty men of God, no David's nor Abraham's, and the jewish people were just left to wait.
And wait.
Their expectations were mounting, their patience trying, and their image of what their Saviour would look like were being moulded. Their people were being subdued, and their frustrations were simply ever-growing.
Then in steps Jesus. And along with Him He brings salvation to all people, and freedom from sin and death and the start of a new Kingdom, and there is an almost collective sigh of frustration from the leaders and rabbis of the jewish nation. Their sights were firmly set on an establishment of an earthly kingdom with them at the realms! They had been dreaming about this for years! They had had meetings about it, and had been encouraging each other with this idea. Their cell groups included this theme repeatedly. This simply could not be the Messiah! Jesus is rejected, because He didn't do what they expected Him to do.
Cue 2000 years of Jesus falling short of people's earthly expectations of Him and all the rejection He faces because we are looking to our own desires and at Him to fulfil them.
It is a common theme in life, isn't it? That gap where you are able to build expectations based on your own desires and understanding of the world? That holiday period in the summer, where you plan on how your new season at work is going to guarantee a promotion, as well as the best quality work the world has yet to see. That time away from the one person you've had your eye on, where you plan every last detail of the glorious moment you're going to sweep them off their feet in a moment of unrivalled romance. The moments before the match starts and you can almost feel the reactions of everyone around you as you single-handedly demolish the opponents.
Then reality hits you square in the motivational panel, oh so much faster than you'd wanted, and suddenly everything deflates like the Hindenburg, seemingly equal in disaster, too. Your boss hands back your first assignment with all-new levels of mistakes. You fail the first test of the year. Rejection is handed down on a silver platter by that special (not anymore) one. What is your first response? "Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis enough."? Yeah, me neither. I pretty much concede defeat and relinquish all desire to try again.
However, living in a slum and working with people who's very upbringing is programmed for disappointment demands a very different response. I can't be like the Jewish nation who reject the truth laid out before them. I can't be like my old self in my offices and slip into non-responsiveness. I need to rise up and meet the challenge and show that in the face of disappointment I will choose to continue loving with fervor.
A kid who, just last year, took an entire week of reflection before he'd decided to give his life to God is now selling drugs. Another who, just three months, ago told me how he avoids bad influences because of how it is a sure path to destruction now hangs out with drug dealers and night crawlers. Another who had brought so many of his friends to church for the first time in their lives now wants nothing to do with Christians at all because he's found drugs.
My response? Run! Run as far as you can, because these guys are lost. They're past hope. You've tried, Gav, and there's nothing more you can do.
God's response? Love. Love as much as you can, because these guys are mine. I am their hope. You'll try, Gav, and that's all I'm asking you to do.
Maybe all these disappointments are so crushing in defeats because of our attitudes towards them. We see them through our world view, and we don't stop to consider what God is doing. If the whole Jewish nation saw the world the way that God did, then Jesus's arrival wouldn't have been disappointing. It would have made sense. A change in perspective could have saved their lives. Maybe we should be looking at everything going wrong in our lives, and think, "what does this failure look like from God's angle?" In the end, He's in control, and He's working every moment here on earth for a global, eternal purpose. He will use today to get someone's attention, and doing that may require a path on which you face disappointment. So let's continue with love.

Drought in São Paulo

My wife lived in the top level of a three story divided house in our favela with a corrugated iron roof. The heat was almost unbearable at times. With the outside temperature regularly exceeding 36°C, the inside temperature would often be even higher than this because of the effective heating mechanism of her roof. Not ideal in the least.
Needless to say, when we got married and moved into the same house I was excited to get this air con installed in our new house, and so it was finished within two weeks of our return to Brazil. I started a conversation with the guy installing it about his work. He remarked that the need for aircons was new in São Paulo. Three or four years ago it was much cooler, and only people in Rio would get aircons for their hot weather. This weather was not normal to him.
Of course, to me, this is how São Paulo is, since I've only been here for two years. But apparently the heat has just increased dramatically in the last half a decade. Couple that with an unusual decrease in rainfall, especially over the water sources, and you have the recipe for drought in São Paulo that is going to put at risk many of the 20 million residents at risk of no water access. In fact, the pending plan that has been suggested to avoid a complete collapse of the system is to supply water for just 2 days every week.
That is going to be interesting.
We've already had our taps turned off for 10 hours at a time, leaving the toilets & basins full, and us waiting desperately to have a shower to rinse off the sweat from the 35°C weather outside.
The drought gave many signs over the last year or two, but public education was withheld with hopes that the rains would return and save the government from red faces. That has not happened, and so water rationing is increasing weekly. That public education could have helped and reduced the Brazilian custom of cleaning an entire house using a hosepipe in place of a broom, for one example.
All that's left now is to keep a few bottles of water around the house in hope that they will be sufficient for when the taps don't turn on anymore. But even that is looking a little bleak.
To make life a little more complicated a large part of electricity in São Paulo is hydro-electrically produced.
So if you don't hear from me for a while, pray for rain for São Paulo.