20 – Wander or Wonder

I have only just this minute realised that it is exactly 7 months ago today that I first went to the doctor at the start of a journey that has taken me through the deepest valleys and the steepest mountains of my life. During these months, I have been told I am close to death…

6 – Yesterday’s Tomorrow

I spent a lot of time thinking about the title of today’s episode – Tears for Fears, Yesterday, Perfect Day, Tomorrow Never Comes, All Our Yesterdays – and a couple of dozen others that I can’t remember for the life of me. Maybe I can’t remember the others because of all my yesterdays. I did…

5 – Waiting Still

I have a special friend who has a dog. Angus isn’t just any dog. Angus is a springer spaniel. Those of you who have ever been in contact with a springer spaniel will know that Angus is different. Angus is a nutter. Until my health took a turn, I used to take Angus out for…

4 – Where is God when you need him?

Look at the image above. What do you see? Probably a black spot. It’s a small spot, but you don’t really notice all the white around it. That small spot is in fact actually only 0.2% of the whole image. But it’s a big small spot, isn’t it? It’s also a powerful small spot -…

1 – Timing

I keep a personal journal. I don’t write in it every day, and sometimes I won’t write in it for weeks. When I do write, it is generally a thought that I’ve had after reading something in the Bible. It’s a useful thought, one that should change me and how I think and how I…

If it’s broke, don’t fix it?

Last week at Celebrate Recovery, one of the guys said something which was interesting, alarming and funny, all at the one time, but I think “alarming” is the right description.

For the sake of confidentiality, I shall call him Dave, but his real name is Steve. No it’s not, that was a joke – his real name is Charlie. No it’s not!

We are getting to the stage in the programme where we start making a moral inventory. We look at the things in our lives that have had a major impact on us: things that we have done, things that have been done to us. They are the stuff that have built our hurts, hang-ups and habits. As we deal with them one at a time, we reduce the influence they have or have had in our lives. As we reduce their influence, we reduce their impact on us and their control over us.

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.

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!

It’s all in the name

Sometimes I feel that we Christians say some things because we say them. I am not saying that we don’t understand what we are saying, or don’t mean what we say. I mean that we say them so often that we lose track of the meaning, or the power of the words becomes detached from them. At its worst, the words become a conversation filler.

I am an addict

The first time I ever saw a drug addict was at a Rolling Stones concert in Hyde Park – a long time ago. There were actually two of them, and I remember how awful they looked, but I also remember thinking “Nutters!” As years passed, I saw many more and I have to admit that I felt total disdain for them – they were nothings, and were not to be trusted as they would rob and steal. Time went by, though, and I started to see them in the chemists waiting disconsolately for their methadone. My heart started to change.

What brought me here

There is a belief or custom in many societies that age brings wisdom. This gave rise to the role of Elder, where the older members of the family or society are in a position of leadership, and this has been incorporated into church life, though here spiritual maturity is normally the qualifying factor rather than physical age. Note that I have said the age brings wisdom, not intelligence or knowledge. I am sure that we have all met someone who is incredibly clever, but who shouldn’t really be allowed out on their own!