A sign of things to come

For most of my life IT has been a very prominent feature. Information Technology has improved exponentially during the last few years, and we can get the information we are looking for at the touch of a few buttons. But we get loads of information without pressing buttons. Just look around you – it’s everywhere! I don’t know how many signs there are in the UK. It must be a huge number. Everywhere you look there is one in front of you, probably more than one.
During World War 2, the UK Government removed all the road signs so that if the Germans invaded they would get lost – or it would at the least slow down their advance. Can you imagine the chaos that would happen if they did that now? If every sign suddenly disappeared, there would be total disaster. Think about it – all the road signs, street signs gone in an instant! It would be OK for the locals, but others would get lost in no time. There would be jams as cars go the wrong way up one-way streets, accidents as drivers go straight across without giving way. Just imagine the house numbers being removed from people’s homes – how would you find anyone?

Setting the world right

One lazy Sunday afternoon, a father was dozing on the sofa. His wee girl shook him awake, “Daddy, I’m bored!” He looked around for something to do, and noticed that the Sunday newspaper had a photo of a map of the world. He showed her the picture, then tore it into pieces, and told her to put the world back together again. Since she was too young to know where all the countries were, he thought the rest of the afternoon was his to doze in.
A few minutes later she shook him again. “I’m finished, Daddy!”
“You can’t be!”, but when he looked he saw that the world had indeed been put back together. “How did you do that? You didn’t know where all the countries are!”
“Well,” she said, “there was a picture of a person on the other side, and when I got my person back together, the world got back together too.”
We are like that. Too often our lives get ripped to bits. Our person is in pieces, and because our lives are in pieces, our world is too.

Who is in charge around here?

I have been watching the events in Egypt with astonishment. I have marvelled at the courage of the people, and there is no doubt that the world has changed dramatically. Twitter, Facebook and the internet in general gave them a “weapon” which was never before possible, and put the world in a place where revolution can take place with scarcely any bloodshed. There is no doubt that the impact which the protest had on the shaky economy also brought pressure to bear, as did the worldwide TV coverage. Thirty years of authoritarian government ended in fewer days.

Perfect sense

I have blogged before about perfection in Being Perfect and it is one area where I tend to get into disagreement with other Christians, even Pastors. Most people I talk to say that it is impossible to be perfect. Bearing in mind my own track record, I tend to agree with them. But – and it is an almighty but – we are told to be perfect by Jesus himself :
You must be perfect — just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48, TEV)
It doesn’t seem to matter what translation you use. I looked at 15 different versions, and all of them, with the sole exception of The Message, used the word “perfect”. In all of these translations, it wasn’t a request, it wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command.

Laughter might be bad for you

When my brother and I were very small I remember that we would sometimes get the giggles. I am sure that we started laughing for some valid reason, but when it got out of control we were just laughing because we were laughing. There was no stopping it, even with the threat of punishment from whatever authority was lurking near us who could not see the funny side of things.
I like to see people laughing, and I love to make people laugh. I too like a good laugh, and I would rather laugh than cry. Sometimes I go back to the old days with my brother and laugh so much that I can’t stop and laugh so much that it hurts my stomach. Sometimes I laugh so much that I cry. In the wonderful years since I met Libby and became a Christian I have laughed a lot. When you have a good life, laughter is easy.

Right, Mountain, out of the way!

A friend of mine will shortly set out on an amazing adventure – to climb Mount Kilimanjaro – to help raise funds for the charity Scottish Spina Bifida. I really admire him for that. It will take courage, strength and endurance. You can sponsor him if you would like to give him a wee bit more encouragement.
But I ask myself why he doesn’t just walk round it. After all, when we face problems in our lives, some of them look like mountains, and that’s often the easiest thing to do, isn’t it – walk round them? Sometimes we don’t even do that – we just stand there and look at them. They are huge! I’ll never get over it! Scientists say that Mount Everest is getting higher all the time. As we just stand and look at our problems, they get bigger too. Sometimes we can’t even see the top.

Making the best of the worst

Can you remember the worst thing you have ever done? What category does it fall into – embarrassing, dodgy, illegal, evil? Is it worse than anything anyone you know has ever done? Does it scream at you, or merely give you a nudge? Was it a long time ago, or fairly recent? Maybe it was a one-off, or perhaps a serial occurrence? Does it lie in wait for you, or is it in your mind all the time?
Answers on a postcard to…..

Jealousy is good!

Can you name the seven deadly sins?
I suppose it is something that isn’t on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days, and there will be a number of reasons for that. Firstly, people don’t hear about them any more. Secondly, a lot of people wouldn’t know what some of them even meant if they did hear them. Thirdly, there are so many more sins out there – the world has come a long way since the early days of the church. Technology has moved on and you can sin faster, with more people and more often than you ever could back then!
I don’t know why the church came up with the idea of limiting the “deadly” sins to any number. As far as I can see, unless the sin is forgiven by God, even the smallest, most insignificant sin is deadly.

Possessed

In this period of economic downturn there is much tightening of belts going on. There is the fear of losing a job, and the depression that comes from having lost one. People aren’t going out as much, aren’t buying as much. At a time of low interest rates, credit is very hard to get, and mortgages are only available if you have a substantial deposit and a secure salary.
Today in the UK, not having a television is one of the official measures of poverty. When I was very young, it was a mark of affluence – black and white affluence, but still affluence! Our standard of living has increased immensely in a relatively short period. We have more possessions than we ever had, and we throw them away faster than we ever did. Once they are out of fashion, they are out of the door. Once they are old tech, we are looking at the new.

Follow the instructions

I once bought a new kitchen for my house. It was a self assembly kitchen. I was never very good at woodwork and stuff like that in school, so I was really pushing out the boundary of my ability, to say the least! I asked the guy at the store if it was easy to build the units. “Oh yes!” he said, “once you’ve done the first unit, the rest is easy.”
He wasn’t joking! I think it took me three or four days to assemble the first one successfully. I did it lots of times, a different way each time – but I was always left with an extra bit at the end, and the extra bit wasn’t always the same extra bit! Finally, I understood what the instructions were trying to tell me – it wasn’t my fault, you see – they just weren’t speaking to me clearly enough. I hate instructions that mumble, don’t you?

Riches to Rags

The story of Ted Williams, which has gone viral on YouTube, is the kind that we all like. A down-and-out, begging on the street, is discovered and his voice is wonderful, just perfect for TV and radio. A film of him speaking is posted on the net, and suddenly everyone wants to listen to him, everyone wants to give him a job. He is famous, his life is turned round. He has a great future. He will make millions. A great story of rags to riches!

Fear is the lock

I have blogged a couple of times on the subject of fear (Fear is the Key and Fearful Delight) and the subject keeps coming up in my reading. It’s hardly surprising – I did a quick scan of the concordance and the word appears in well over 200 passages. That is not to mention all the similes and adjectives associated with it. It’s not just the Bible either. Fear is a big element in our society – Google the word, and you get 146 million results!