Wearily upward

Christmas carols are probably the most telling sign of the times (of year, that is). Apart from, maybe, the highly anticipated annual John Lewis & Partners Christmas advert. I love carols as much as anyone; partly because it's a massive chunk of my job (especially at this time of year) and partly because of the history behind each carol. I find it fascinating to hear how different cultures and countries celebrated and communicated the Christmas message through music and song over the ages. However, there are also others who walk among us... The Purists. The Historians. The Historically Correct. The Historically Correct Purist Historians (for lack of a better name...) who notice the discrepancies between what we sing, what we assume about the Christmas message, and what actually happened at the time of Christ's birth. And with great self-control they bite their tongues rather than ruin some carols (and therefore Christmas) for those enjoying them... for the most part at le...

Every once in a while an artist grabs my attention away from whatever I'm doing and simply inspires me. Sometimes it's looking at a stunningingly beautiful painting. Sometimes it's noticing an exceptionally brilliant performance in a play or movie. Sometimes it's reading an extraordinarily well written poem or composition. In this instance it was listening to a recently released album by a band I love. The album is a live recording of a band called NEEDTOBREATHE. There is one particular song that caught me completely off guard in the way that it moved me. It's a song off one of their earlier albums called Washed By The Water  and I've known it for a long time. On this album, however, for some reason, it just moved me to tears. Listening to it, hearing it, allowing the melodies and lyrics flow over my soul, I was reminded that I had dreams and ambitions once. I was also reminded that many of those dreams and ambitions have never become reality. That is often ...

A funny thing happened a while ago.  I booked our car in for a service and dropped it off at 8 am.  Not knowing exactly how long it would take to be done I took my laptop to a coffee shop to do some writing.  It turns out that a major car service takes longer than a couple of hours, so, eventually, I got bored.  Scrolling through my Facebook feed (where I seem to get a lot of inspiration for this blog) I came across a friend's post that looked interesting, exciting, truth-filled and super spiritual.  All in a single sentence.  Amazing. Having the time to pause and reflect on said statement (while still waiting for the call from the garage to come pick up the car) I found myself wondering whether I'm fully understanding the post.  The more I thought about it, the less it seemed like the truth-filled, super spiritual, powerful, situationally relevant statement I read before.  Oops. Can it be that we are becoming (or have become) a people who wan...

I'm in Christmas mode.  No, I don't have a Christmas jumper yet.  I'm not drinking mulled wine and eating mince pies yet either.  I don't think I ever will, though, because I don't like anything with raisins, but that's beside the point.  I'm in Christmas mode because we're planning and preparing for all the Christmas events at church.  Publicity needs to be done well in advance of the first events and services.  Themes, readings and choir rehearsals need to be coordinated.  Carols need to be chosen and arranged, even though every now and then I come across Facebook posts about how annoyed people are that Sainsbury's AND  Waitrose have their Christmas aisle ALREADY !!!  Shocking, I know.  It's as if Psalm 23 should be rewritten for such occasions: "Yea, though I walk through the Christmas aisle at Tesco, I will fear no mince pies and Advent chocolates, for You are with me..." In the midst of all this chaos and contrasting views ...

A funny thing happened to me recently.  I have always wondered about my IQ and how I measure up with the rest of humanity intelligence-wise.  So I took an accredited IQ test a couple of months ago.  It was surprisingly difficult.  Thinking about it, I don't know why it surprised me that an accredited IQ test was hard.  I can tell you that it wasn't because I thought I was smart enough to ace an IQ-test.  I do remember, however, coming away from that test feeling like the most dim-witted person alive.  True story. Fortunately I read Luke 10:21 soon after: " At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said,  ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do." (NIVUK) The word translated as 'wise' is sophon, which is where the word 'sophisticated' comes from.   {Sidenote: ...

This is an odd, unusual time for me.  It's a time of change. A lot of change.  It seems like the culmination of everything that happened in the past year. My wife gave birth to our son at the end of September, 2017.  Ten days later my boss, our vicar, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.  Dealing with that has been difficult, to say the least.  It was a strange mixture of happiness about the birth of our son and the death of a dear friend and mentor; a father-figure since my dad passed away in 2014.  It was especially tough around Christmas. The whole church was hurting.  And yet we kept on doing what we were doing as best we could.  By the grace of God. Some months later I went on a selection panel for possible ordination training in the CofE.  I wasn't accepted.  In fact, I missed the mark by not meeting 5 of 9 criteria.  This hurt a lot more than I would like to admit for two reasons: 1) It was the final step in a two and...

It was the day after a very successful Carol Service and I was sweeping up glitter from angels' wings and minced pie crumbs off the floor, so I started thinking about life and stuff.  As you do, of course... I share these thoughts with you now. I was thinking about the rest of the Christmas period and what was still to come.  There was still quite a bit of the floor to be swept, but I had the rest of the day, so I wasn't in a hurry.  Thinking about the time I had and what needed to be done, a question rose up from the depths like a methane bubble trapped in ice for centuries:  How much is expected of me and how much am I willing to do? I was really satisfied with myself for being so humble and willing to sweep the floor when I realised that I wasn't particularly willing to do much more than that.  What if the vicar came in, looked around and said: "Thanks!  Can you also clean the chairs, wipe down the windows, clear the bins in the kitchen, carry the ...

For those who read this and do not yet know, the Western Cape, South Africa, is going through a terrible drought at the moment.  Cape Town is especially vulnerable as "Day Zero" (the day when water levels are so low that water supply to suburban areas will be cut off) is less than two months away.  It really is a crisis influencing many.  People are scared, panicked. So yesterday I read an interesting headline to an article that a friend posted on Facebook.  It's about the famous farmer and evangelist, Angus Buchan, who apparently said that God is angry with the people of Cape Town and that it will rain when they repent.  Harsh.  My knee-jerk reaction was, of course, anger at these remarks.  How can a merciful God be angry with Cape Town?  How can a well-known and respected Christian evangelist make such claims?  Isn't it irresponsible of him to make statements like that?  Surely this isn't God's character at all!  Jesus said that...