Wearily upward

There are some things in life that need to be perfect in order to be effective. Things like balance sheets in the financial world (although my Accounting teacher jokingly said that, if your balance sheet in an Accounting exam balances out perfectly on your first go, you probably made a mistake somewhere...), rocket science (a microscopic error in calculation may mean astronauts missing their destination by miles), and grammar/punctuation (example: "Let's eat, grandma!" vs. "Let's eat grandma!" Punctuation saves lives...). Jesus also expects perfection from His family of followers. Read Matthew 5:48. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (NIVUK) Does this mean the pressure is on to get everything right every time? Does this mean we'll be in trouble if we make mistakes? Not quite. Jesus is talking to His followers about loving their enemies. He says that everyone and anyone can love those who love them back. That...

I was on a train today. It was fairly full when I got on, but after a couple of stops a lot of people got off and I was able to get a seat. At the next stop a lady, probably in her 20's (I'm horrible at guessing age...), got on the train and, having no open seats in the carriage, grabbed a handrail in front of me. I immediately felt the urge to offer her my seat (which would have made my mum proud), and just at that moment I had a tinge of uncertainty. What if she was the type of feminist who might take offence at a man offering her a seat? What if she tells me off for being patronising (which I was not!) in front of a train carriage full of people? There was no way of knowing... Though this would probably have been the weakest type of suffering I would have faced all week, it still reminded me of something Peter wrote in his first epistle. "For it is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil." ~1 Peter 3:17~ The rest of that...

I hate hearing people chewing loudly, or smooching sloppy, wet kisses in public spaces. It's a thing. So sitting on this train a couple of years ago, having to listen to a young couple expressing their infatuation with one another in a very loud, public manner was somewhat uncomfortable, to say the least. I very nearly got off the train at one of our stops to wait for a next train. "Get a room!" was my first thought. Or get another train, please... They didn't seem to care whether people feel uncomfortable with their public display of affection at all. And, luckily, neither does Jesus. In John 17 we get a beautiful insight into Christ's prayer life. We are almost invited into the conversation Jesus has with the Father. And it is beautiful. This got me thinking. Jesus' relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit wasn't something that He kept private. He tells us what He's praying about. He tells us what the Father is doing and saying. He shares...

There is a worship song that was fairly popular a while ago. I'm sure it's still popular in some churches, but I don't like it as a worship song anymore. The reason being that it's not so much a worship song as a song that reminds me who I am in Christ. This isn't a bad thing at all! We need to be reminded of who we are in Christ. I just find it difficult to sing those lyrics with my eyes closed in worship, because I'm basically singing to myself. About myself. With my eyes closed... And that's become a thing in the world we are lucky to live in at the moment. It becomes all about me and my  experience and how I  perceive the world and what my  destiny is; often at a cost to others. It isn't only a so-called "worldly" thing either. This mentality has crept into the Church too. Many of the modern worship songs we sing seem to have evolved from God-centric (it's not a real word, but should help convey the message) to self-centredness. We...

I am a pretty sentimental person. Or I was, at least, before moving to the UK where there just isn't enough space in a London flat to keep all the cards, candy wrappers, ticket stubs, books, love letters, etc. that I promise myself to look at in fond remembrance of dates, birthdays and special events. And then never do. But at the moment of receiving the card, reading the letter, holding the ticket stub, I am fully convinced that I will always hold on to this, because it is special and without the keepsake, the memory might be lost. The danger is, though, that we assign value to our experiences according to the sentiment we do or do not feel towards that experience. More so, I think, in the presently growing culture of documenting everything we do on Instagram, taking selfies and leaving them in the recesses of storage space on our phones, or waiting for the Facebook reminders of what we posted today a year (or two, three, four...) ago. And though it's good to remember and us...

It seems that there is a restlessness in most human beings: an urge to grow, to develop, to explore, to move, to break free, to peek around the corner, to go beyond the horizon. It can take on any shape, really: learning a new language, changing careers, going on an adventure, making more money, moving house/city/country. The list can go on and on, each item as unique as the person who longs for it. Often, as Christians, we can see this urge as either a call of God or a worldly distraction, depending on what we see as Godly or worldly. And so the question arises: "Should I stay or should I go?" (where 'to stay' means to remain in the status quo, and 'to go' means to change something). And, often times in my experience, God remains oddly silent on the subject. Annoyingly so. We have come to love and appreciate the "universal short answer" or the "catchy catch phrase" that "resonates with me at the moment." It's easy to say ...

I'll be honest. I usually am when writing, but I feel the need to make this clear at the start of this blog post for reasons that will become apparent later on. I am scared. There. I said it. Even with every Afrikaner male fibre of pride and "quiet strength" in my psyche screaming not to admit it, I said it. I made myself vulnerable. And I'm admitting my fear because there may be someone else also feeling scared right now. Maybe you will find solace in what I have to say. Brexit. Global warming and climate change. Anti-vaxxers and the resurgence of various diseases that should have been dealt with long ago. Religious division (yes, even division and disunity within certain denominations of Christian churches, let alone different denominations and, dare I say it, different religions). Knife crime. Mass shootings. Corruption. War and violent conflict. Strikes. Poor leadership. Economic inequality. Gender inequality. Social injustice. Poverty. Hunger. And the list ...