Wearily upward

As we get closer to Easter the regular Easter songs and Easter readings start popping up at church a bit more frequently. Almost like Carols, Isaiah 9 and Michael Bublé come out of hibernation in the run-up to Christmas. One of these Easter readings is the prophecy of Christ's crucifixion from Isaiah 53. It's a fairly well-known passage quoted in many songs and sermons, but the bit that stood out for me this morning was right at the start of the chapter in verses two and three: "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem." It got me thinking about how I judge and value people at a glance most of the time. I had to ask myself these questions: Would I have held Jesus in low esteem if I met Him back in Biblical times? Would I have missed ou...

My mother-in-law and I had a brief but awkwardly interesting conversation about protective gear for male cricketers recently. She and my father-in-law are visiting us from Namibia, so I appreciated the rare chance to have face-to-face awkward conversations. I was watching an IPL match when a batter adjusted his er... abdominal guard* while on screen. This prompted the question from my mother-in-law about whether wearing protective gear is very uncomfortable and limits mobility significantly. She had no experience in wearing any protective kit like that at all. I replied that it can be uncomfortable at times, but that everything in its design is intended to make the guard as effective against hits, yet as agreeable to wear as possible. The choice is either to wear something slightly uncomfortable that limits movement to a very small degree, or risking immeasurable pain and discomfort if a hard leather ball moving terribly fast uses parts of one's anatomy as a punching bag. It really...