There are gaps...

Everything is not alright all the time and this needs to be reflected in our church songs. We can find ourselves only addressing the joys of life and ignoring the woes. It's not very realistic is it? There are many gaps in our subject matter that need filling.

This lady is Mary B Shindler (1810-1883), one of the ladies (Mary Ann Ser­rett Bar­ber (1801-1884) being the other one) to whom the following hymn words are attributed:

Prince of Peace, control my will;
Bid the struggling heart be still;
Bid my fears and doubtings cease,
Hush my spirit into peace.

Thou has bought me with Thy Blood,
Opened wide the gate to God;
Peace I ask, but peace must be,
Lord, in being one with Thee.

May Thy will, not mine be done;
May Thy will and mine be one;
Chase these doubtings from my heart,
Now Thy perfect peace impart.

Saviour, at Thy feet I fall,
Thou my life, my God, my all;
Let Thy happy servant be
One forevermore with Thee!

I found theese words in a section entitled "Doubt" and it's all there: failure to control the will, a struggling heart, fearful and doubting, lack of peace... sounds like me! And you?

I've put these to music and you can listen here.

Each generation can easily fall into the trap of reinventing the wheel when so so many have gone before us, experiencing the same struggles and the same God.

How arrogant we can be!

Respect, Mary!!

YOU ARE AT RISK!!

Why are we so bad at assessing and dealing with risk? I feel like banging my head against the wall, no, hang on, sounds a bit dangerous that...

From the moment of conception, you are at risk, aren't you?

Check out the RoSPA website! People injure themselves in a bewildering variety of ways, take a look...

For example, accidents where the object or product involved is:
"Bus shelter" (be afraid, be very afraid...)

In 2000, 656 people,
in 2001, 696 people,
in 2002, 718 people.
(On the increase you notice??)

Huh? A bus shelter? What are they doing with 'em, throwing them at each other?? Don't believe me? Check it.

Me: OK kids, I know the big bus looks dangerous, and it is, but never forget the hidden danger of THE BUS SHELTER, AAAAAAAAARRGGHHH, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES.......
Kids: Have you had too much coffee again, Dad?


On the radio this morning I heard a lady linking phone masts, microwave cookers and cancer, all in the same breath!! Does she ever cross the road (VERY DANGEROUS - DON'T DO IT!)? Her "evidence" was almost entirely conjecture; good job they had a Boffin to speak some sense.

I'm reminded of the MMR problem, "Unless you can guarantee me that my child is at no risk whatseover from this jab, they're not having it. I'm sorry, but I have the safety of my child to consider - are you SERIOUSLY asking me to put my child in DANGER??" I despair...

From whence came the idea of a riskless society?
It's about balance of risk, isn't it?

Anyway, BAN ALL BUS SHELTERS!!

So, are you emerging?

Check out this post and see if you are!

Wisdom!

This paper by Nigel Lawson is truly excellent! It's an easy read and makes extremely good sense.

Read it and comment.

Oh, and special commendations to anyone who can decipher my cryptic image above?

proskuneō

One of my favourite definitions of "worship" so far is:
"Worship is our occupation with God himself, with the greatness of his being."

I like this because it doesn't restrict worship to any one activity of group of activities. I regularly lead "worship" in church meetings and it is one of the great pleasures of my life - what a joy and privilege! Most of us in these times are occupied with the greatness of his being, as above.

However, when I play golf I am also occupied with the greatness of his being. For me, the flight of a golf ball is a truly beautiful thing to behold (until the ball vanishes into the trees/water/ditch/rough/bunker). Let's restrict ourselves to that perfect drive all of us golfers have hit at least once:

The ball soars upwards and away, straight, splitting the fairway, you watch it in the air for what seems like minutes and it lands, bounding on, finally coming to a halt leaving just a wedge to the green. Aaaahhhhh yes! God himself came up with everything involved there. The feeling of impact, the sound, the sight, the parabolic flight modified by the spin of the ball and air resistance, the bounce, the roll... It's all from him!

I believe we can nurture in ourselves an ever increasing awareness of the greatness of his being in everything that we do. Everything that we do. If you are doing nothing more than breathing right now, well, he gave you the lungs didn't he?

The term "worship" is problematic, to my mind, in that it's become overly associated with our music. However, I can offer no better word or phrase to replace it.

I just don't want anyone thinking that their "worship" only happens in our music.

This is worth reading too, for a range of descriptions of worship.

Well, I'd never noticed that before...

This is the double rainbow that greeted the kids when they came out of school today - very , very nice.
(Click on it and you should get a larger view.)



I've seen doubles before but I've just found out by Googling "Rainbow" that the colours are reversed in the second one!

From Wikipedia:
Occasionally, a second, dimmer secondary rainbow is seen outside the primary bow. Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and appear at an angle of 50°–53°. As a result of the second reflection, the colours of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared to the primary bow, with blue on the outside and red on the inside. The dark area of unlit sky lying between the primary and secondary bows is called Alexander's band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it.

Nice one God :-)

Good job I know some science...

Phew, that was close!

It's a really nice morning here today - I took this photo about twenty minutes ago in our garden. "What a gorgeous day!", but then I thought, "Hmmm, global warmimg could mean that my children and my childrens children may not see days like this because it'll be too hot or too cold or too something to even go outside because I drove the car again today and I have to DO SOMETHING!"

So, I've just eaten some toast to offset my car journey. The black bits are carbon, right? You're ahead of me, aren't you? Anyway, the car puts it out and I've taken some in so we're quits. Nice.

There's plenty of room on board...

"The name "bandwagon fallacy" comes from the phrase "jump on the bandwagon" or "climb on the bandwagon", a bandwagon being a wagon big enough to hold a band of musicians. In past political campaigns, candidates would ride a bandwagon through town, and people would show support for the candidate by climbing aboard the wagon. The phrase has come to refer to joining a cause because of its popularity"

As I have confessed previously, I am biased, but I do think the anthropogenic argument looks like one big bandwagon. Seems to me so many people are jumping on without actually doing the research themselves.

Did you read this paper yet? I found it hard going but it makes a good case. Everyone does, that's my point, so let's not just go with a majority view simply because it's, by definition, popular.

Argumentum ad populum is worth checking out too...

What to do with the pain?

I tend to avoid physical pain as much as possible as I don't like it and I feel it does me no great good.

Emotional and spiritual pain though, I sometimes seek out. My DVD collection includes a number of films that have left me emotionally shredded by their end. I don't entirely understand why, but I feel I have gained something in the viewing. My daily life as a Homedad is fairly routine (which I like); how quickly I could become numb.

Those that spring to mind are "Dead Man Walking" , "The Pianist" , "Schindler's List", "Rabbit Proof Fence", "American Gun", "Hotel Rwanda", I could go on...

Each of these (and others) has brought the tears to my eyes and each has taught me something. Each has wounded me and brought a keener edge to my empathy. Each has hurt.

I remember hearing John Wimber speak about suffering and describing situations involving great loss and pain. I waited with baited breath for him to reveal the answer to it all, and for me he did. He said, "And we say, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God!" That was it. And to me it made sense. It still does.

We cry out to him whom we know and trust. We take it to him and it hurts. We stretch out our hand and grasp for him, for he alone can restore us. He is our certain hope and the only way we can be truly free.

Wimber's talk reminds me of Job finally getting his chance to make his case before God. Job 38 begins, "Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm and said, "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?" Can you imagine what Job's feeling now??!!

We so easily speak "words without knowledge". In Chapter 42 Job replies, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful to know".

There are many things too wonderful for me to know. Perhaps in eternity I will know, but in the meantime I try to stay soft, embrace the pain and take it to him, saying, "Oh God, oh God, oh God..."

Whoops!

So far today we've had:

sunshine...

heavy rain...

sunshine...

and sleet!


It's only 9:36am.

It's probably because I drove the kids to school...

I admit it: I am biased!

Global Warming or Climate Change?

Man made catastrophe or a natural cycle?

I am biased and I'm not convinced we're as much to blame as we're told.

When you start researching you start to see just how complicated and multi-faceted this earth's climate is, it's beyond comprehension! No one understands it. One theory is contradicted by the next. Wait long enough and the predictions change more radically than the global temperature is ever allegedly going to. We naturally try to simplify things don't we? Our brains cannot cope with more than two or three variables at a time so we're forced to ditch the (percieved) less important ones and focus on a "Single Dominant Causal Factor". There may not be one. If there is one, for argument's sake, what if it's the Sun? This article is interesting. Now, the Sun is not affected by my deoderant or my V8 is it?

Politically, simple is good (policy can be presented to the voting public for approval), complex is bad (nobody knows what you're talking about). Problem is we're asked to put our faith in simple "solutions" to impossibly complex problems. The classic "Wife beating" question is posed time and time again. There can be no "Yes" or "No" answer, however much we'd like it.

Squillions of pounds, dollars and whatever else are set to be spent on trying to fix something that may not exist or may not be fixable anyway. But governments must be seen to be doing something. Hey, that's politics, right?

Can anyone think of a better way of spending this money?
Answers on a postcard in the comments window please...

Sincere thanks!

In a previous post I lamented the effect of rain on the school run and asked that people didn't go driving for no reason just to mess up my journey.

It rained this morning; however, I can report that my request was granted!
No extra traffic and we were there in good time.

So, sincere thanks to you all for not getting in my way this morning.
Much appreciated :-)

The hardest question...

From Radio 4's website:

Swaziland has the highest rates of Aids in the world, with a staggering 4 in 10 pregnant women testing positive at antenatal clinics. The economic and social effects are incalculable - health and education services are collapsing and the country is facing the sixth consecutive year of severe drought and hunger.

I happened to hear part of "Living with Aids: Global Challenge" on the way to pick up Becky from preschool this morning. A wideheld belief in Swaziland is that if you have Aids and you have sex with a virgin you will be cured. My heart broke as I heard the timid voice of a ten year old boy who had been raped by a woman who believed just this. This little lad is now infected. He's just ten. I had tears in my eyes as I walked from the car to the school. God, oh God, oh God...

John Humphreys has been in conversation with three religious leaders, "Humphreys in Search of God", and in each case the question of suffering has been paramount. It is perhaps the question that prevents most from trusting God. There is no answer. There is a gap. The gap is bridged by faith. Faith requires a humility that says, "You are God. I am not."

Years ago it struck me: It's not so much non-belief in God that I see, it's more a dislike of God as he is understood.

"God may exist, but I don't like him. Look at what he allows. How can a loving God allow such things?"

I don't know. Neither do the three religious leaders, but Humphreys sees that this is not an impediment to their faiths. It's OK to say, "I don't know."

That little lad I've mentioned above, what's to become of him? I don't know, it breaks my heart but I don't.

Eating. Simple, eh? Nope.

Food.

If it wasn't so nice I would be a lot slimmer.

This topic will be something I blog about from time to time as I wrestle with it daily.
Well, when I say, "wrestle", I actually mean "give in to" daily.

I know that many people struggle with food issues so perhaps it'll help someone.

I won't be mentioning any particular foodstuffs as this can be unhelpful to some, but will be talking generally about my issues; you are, as always, very welcome to comment :-)
(However, "Eat less" would not be useful to me...)


I am too overweight at the present time. In the past I have been slim several times (no, really...) but haven't managed to maintain a svelt figure for very long (couple of hours tops...). I relax once I've acheived my goal and slowly but surely morph back into my current shape.

Eating my favourite foods is just soooooooooo pleasurable - I don't know WHAT happens in my brain, but it's very comforting whatever it is! There you have the vicious circle, feel big, eat for comfort, feel guilt, get bigger, eat for comfort, feel guilt, get bigger, and so on and so on...

Food for many is simple. I wish it was simple for me.

By the Bargate in town

Saw this in town the other day;

now would seem an appropriate time to post it.

(If you click on the picture you should get a larger version for reading.)

Dad's funeral

So we waited in what seemed like limbo land for a week and a half for Dad's funeral and finally Wednesday came. I see it as a door that had to be gone through. There was something in the process that took me a big step further on. The biggest step of all was seeing his body at the hospital the day he died. Very traumatic, very raw, very necessary for me. Driving to Mum's in the early hours that Friday I was expecting him still to be there when I arrived. I missed him by about fifteen minutes; seeing his body at the hospital became crucial for me.

The funeral at the crematorium went as well as it it could have, given the circumstances. The chapel was full, standing room only, the vicar was a star, and we got through it. At last. We walked through a door on Wednesday and have emerged on the other side to carry on, but now in a new season. A season without Dad.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my Dad's funeral.

Familiarity

Went to the West Quay shopping centre this morning. When it was under construction I'd glimpse the roof structure as I passed what was to become the main entrance. I was amazed by its sheer size but noticed as well it's curves; I thought it was beautiful and awe inspiring.

At the end of this is the main space; the first time I saw that I looked around in wonder - the scale of the place!

Now, I go through these places and barely look up. I'm used to it. Over time I've developed my routines as well so I pay even less attention to what's around me. Park here, use this escalator, go to this shop, that shop, same routes, same routines...


So it can be with God and his kingdom. I've taken another look at the shopping centre and it is still amazing! I rediscovered the wonder and sense of the undiscovered, the possibilities, all the things I haven't seen or even noticed yet.

So I take another look at God and his kingdom, and guess what...?