A New Way of Thinking

A classical music society that I have known for many years (and was indeed a member of in my late teens/early 20s) is discovering that to progress in this modern world, they need to engage much more with social media. Of course, the problem with longstanding groups and societies such as this is that not so many of its members are social media savvy. In fact, even email is a challenge for some.

International Celebrations

Ah the joys of Thanksgiving! I know it's not a British thing, but I do think we can learn something from the holiday in it's purest form. How often do we spend time remembering all the things we are thankful for? Not nearly enough, I'm willing to wager. The truth is, whether we choose to see it or not, we ALL have things we can point to in our lives where we can say we are grateful to God. It's just an exercise we choose not to perform very much, if at all.

Bowing to the Inevitable

I was writing the other day about how I had bowed to the inevitable and bought a Kindle last year. Now I know I was one of those people who vowed that he would never give in to the power of electronics, especially where books are concerned. The reasons for that are reasons I still agree with; that you can never replace the feel of holding a physical book, especially of the coffee-table variety. E-books will never even get close to that experience.

Wherever It Takes Us

Wow, it's been a long time, hasn't it?! June actually. I really envy some people who can just do these things each and every day, AND still be interesting and compelling. Sadly I am not like that. As those who know me closest will attest, I don't really like talking about personal stuff to anyone but those absolutely closest to me, and that's not going to change any time soon.

Cherish

Funny. I was going to blog about how there's nothing I wanted to say right now. I had a whole spiel written out on here, mentioning a few things I COULD talk about, but didn't want to. I mentioned some inner struggles I'm having that all Christians experience. I mentioned my rediscovered passion for the music of The Eagles and of Joe Walsh, and I mentioned my late father as today is Father's Day....and that stopped me in my tracks. I realized I DID have something to say today. I guess it's been sort of going through my mind all day so far.

The Best Night of the Year

Anyone who knows me is well aware that Eurovision is pretty much the best night of the year. A night of car crash costumes, oblique and often meaningless lyrics, and inane music. Except it USED to be like that. These days it's actually pretty good, which is slightly disappointing. Mind you, even if the music is a lot better there days, there's still enough wacky costumes, bizarre lyrics and extreme political incorrectness to go around.

Faith & Doubt

The last few months have been both exhilarating and difficult. The enemy has a habit of knowing those things with which we struggle most, and he sure knows my weak areas. This has made for a highly frustrating time lately, as I realize I cannot extricate myself from the traps without God's help. Big time. 

I'm Just an Armchair Sports Fan

I am just finishing a fascinating book on the history of the ESPN empire, and had several observations arising from the interviews within. To be honest, the thoughts that have come out are little more than memory-joggers which in most cases have found me

The New Persecution

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey has hit the headlines today for his "astonishing attack" on Prime Minister David Cameron in which he accused the PM of "betraying Christians".

Except, of course, Carey never said that. Never once used the word

Checking Motives

One of the things I have to check most in myself - day in, day out - is the question of why I do what I do. What are my motives? Do I have a hidden agenda in any way?

The Bible is very clear about the need to act with pure motives and a lack of pride. Among many verses, Proverbs 29:23 says: "One's pride will

12 Months Back..

Exactly a year ago today, I boarded an Icelandair Boeing 757 at SeaTac International Airport, taking me away from my United States adventure for the final time, after 5 years in the country. Touching down the next day in an unseasonably warm London (let's say no more in the light of the current permafrost!) with no idea what to do or where to go, apart from

Twitter Watch

As I draw towards the end of the enormously challenging but quite riveting Phil Cooke book "The Last TV Evangelist" (review on the way before too long, I promise), I have already started to implement changes in my radio show based on some of the things I have been thinking about as a result of the book.

One thing that has been on my mind for the last several months is that I need to make sure that my prep (material used in the show other than what is a constituent part of it) is going to help, stretch or challenge the listener in some way.

Simplistic Joy

After several years of resistance, I finally caved and got myself a Kindle for Christmas, reasoning that I would be saving on space if all my books were stored on it.

So far I have downloaded just one book - this is only for budget reasons, and I have to say I found the whole process was very convenient. The Kindle is obviously less bulky than a book and it also remembers where you have got to in reading it!

Pilgrim's Progress, Part 2

I recently completed J John's modern re-telling of Pilgrim's Progress (simply titled "Pilgrim") and one of the passages that leaped out at me was Gaius' discourse on the role of women in the Bible.
Given the ongoing controversy in today's church about where women sit (or stand) in the story, I thought it might be interesting to reproduce the passage from John Bunyan's original text. I find it very illuminating.

Name Change; I guess you could call it "rebranding".

It's okay. It's still me, but since I haven't posted since September last year I thought it might well be time to ring some changes. I think the title of the blog reflected a certain caustic attitude to life which has eased now, and I think the new title takes into account the unfinished nature of me, and all I know who are Christians, not to mention the world we live in. So it seems apt on several levels.