latest goings on =)

Hey everyone. Laptop's kinda screwed over right now, getting sorted, so I haven't been updating too much.

Just now I'm up at Sheffield for a couple study days. Did a presentation this morning on pioneering this morning, which was fun.

Tomorrow I head up to Bangor to meet a mate, ditto for Monday and Tuesday, speaking a big youth event a week this sunday night (fun! [I dunno maybe I'm a nerd, still worth checking out though]).

Couple weeks ago I did a talk at Warwick Gates which was pretty fun (used my own quirky mix of apologetics, weird humour and heart stuff). Gave out bread to people in the community on Tuesday, then went to the pub with a south african mate. Helped put on a science/faith night on Monday and bought 24 season 7 (best yet!).

Yeah life's pretty cool atm (as, I think, the new blog layout is). Guess that's the end of my random thoughts....

Thought for the day?
A guy recently asked if having free will or not affects having purpose in life or not. Gut-response? If we say purpose is defined by ourselves and our choices, yes. If purpose is bigger than us and ourselves there's no problem.

For a Christian meaning and purpose aren't defined by our aspirations, achievements, job, salary, facebook page, grades, reputation, taste in music, films or art. These things are good, but our dignity, worth and value are derived from something, or someone, bigger.

It's interesting to see how often phrases like 'the truth is out there' and 'live life to the full' crop up on tv, in adverts, in music, or films. Tracking the phrases back a historian might say they first came from the lips of Jesus (who said that truth sets us free and that he came to bring life to the full - John 8:32, 10:10).

Whichever way you cut it I'm convinced there is purpose and meaning in life and that what Jesus' got to say on the subject's as relevant as ever. The book Vintage Jesus and website rejesus.co.uk are 2 ways I'm currently enjoying doing that.

Anyways I'm about to go get some dinner. Hmm....... kebab? Pizza? Pasta? Burger? Something veggie? Choices, choices, choices. Place your vote (on the right panel) and lemme know what you like.

Well howdy =) this last week I've been up at Sheffield having a good time learning, growing, chilling and catching up with good friends - lovin' it!

Had a fun experience at a bar with the lads on Thursday night. Three of us - Craig, Matt and myself - were out in Sheffield heading towards a local club/bar, Revolution, and got chatting with the bouncers.

After a bit of general banter they asked what we did, Craig told them 'we're 3 trainee ministers'

The bouncers responded by putting their arms around us and saying 'well that makes 5 of us!'

It was kind of a fun moment because they just didn't believe us, maybe we were too cool or something..... =)

So yeah that was fun, but I've never been that good on my humour delivery so I'll forgive you if that doesn't seem so funny online. I'm psyched for a fun week this week, probs'll get some posts up about it.

Well I just had a great time up North celebrating my gran's 90th birthday celebration. Always nice to see cousins, uncles and relatives =¬) After all the speechs and toasts my dad did a small celebration piece which - embarassingly's - been put up on youtube (dads!).

A longer one (hopefully helpful =P)

Hi everyone! I’ve probably mentioned that I was planning at some point to write an honest post looking at the issue of pain & suffering. I just came back from giving a talk on that subject.

The perceptive will note that this question has 2 dimensions: intellectual and emotional. I thought the occasion called for looking primarily into the latter, that’s where this focuses (I expect I’ll write about the intellectual side before too long as well).

I spoke out of Matt 15:21-28 (link here)

My talk:

Alright, well whatever we think about that story, I think we can all agree on one thing – that woman was in a really hard situation.

In her own words, ‘my daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession’ (v.22). Life sucks for this woman.

There’s a scene in the 2nd Lord of the Rings film where a father has to bury his own son. He looks up from the grave with grief-stricken eyes to the wise wizard, Gandalf, and says ‘no parent should have to bury their child’. We know something’s keenly wrong when we have to watch those we love suffering or dying.

The woman would have immediately felt immense pain. Coupled with that, she’d have been clueless about what to do about it – there’d’ve been some confusion there too. When Jesus met this woman it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why she said ‘have mercy on me!’ (v.22) – not only was her daughter suffering – she was too.

I think this story, as much as anything else, can teach us how God, in Jesus, treats us when we’re at our lowest. Today we’re thinking about the question, ‘what does the kingdom look like for those in pain?’

One of the best thing about a summer, for me, are family holidays. My family normally makes a point of all getting together to go away for a week to somewhere beautiful where we can just forget about everything and enjoy each other. It doesn’t exactly matter where we go, it just needs the classic 3 things – beauty, adventure and quality time together. Who doesn’t like a good holiday?

So summer last year we all went off with our mum somewhere. As per usual we’d eat a little more food than usual, swim in the pool a little more than usual and watch some films together. One night we all sat round to watch the Disney film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. With a 7 year old little sister it can’t be all Batman and 24!

The film basically follows the story of a young man, Quasimodo, who’s seen as so ugly that he’s shut away from the outside world, never allowed out. His only dream is to spend a day in the real world, free!

When the opportunity comes he seizes it. Disguised he sneaks out onto the streets. Tragically he gets seized and people start to throw tomatoes and bananas. His dream didn’t work. Let’s watch

[I showed a film clip available here – from 3:43 to 6:01]

Quasimodo is rescued by the mysterious and daring Esmeralda. She she knows and relates to how he feels, she steps up and says ‘this wasn’t supposed to happen’ and she fights to save him.

The same thing happened with the woman of our story. When things really sucked Jesus feels for her, tells her ‘you have great faith’ and changes the situation – ‘her daughter was healed’.

In our lives today, in our situations, Jesus doesn’t stand by on the sidelines, simply cheering us on but leaving us to deal with things on our own. He steps up, as the hero of the story, and changes either the situation or how we see the situation – He changes everything.

Now I’ve never had a kid, you might notice I'm not a woman, and I don’t look like Quasimodo (or, at least, I don’t think I do!), but those who know me know I’ve had my share of pain in other ways.

I think I’ll share one particular story, not for the sake of gleaning pity, but so we can see what it looks like to walk with God when we’re in pain.

Summer ’08 was pretty great, summer ’06 wasn’t so good. Halfway through July my parents called my brothers, sisters and I through announced some ‘news’. They were getting separated.

Us guys can have a way of bottling things up and for half a year I followed the stereotype. While I did chat with friends about the situation I never really dealt with the situation. Each time something came up I just suppress it and shove it into that bottle.

As with most bottles you can only fit so much in before they break. By Christmas my parents were living in separate houses and I was beginning to fray at the edges a bit. It was more than I could handle and I didn’t know what to do.

On my last limbs I got myself to church and got myself prayed for. It had a dramatic, and lasting, effect. It was almost as if God literally grabbed the weight that had been on my shoulders and took it off, leaving me feeling totally free. God didn’t change the situation – He changed me, and that changed everything.

Now obviously since then there’s been more stuff happening with that whole situation and sometimes I’m good at dealing with, sometimes it’s really hard and sometimes I’m just an idiot.

Walking in pain I reckon there’s some really practical stuff we can do to help with the weight lifting.

1. Be honest: sometimes I get the impression that to be a ‘real man’ I have to be able to face the world alone so I don’t admit life sometimes hurts. Other people do it for other reasons. In the end that’s a joke of a defence mechanism and we need to be honest enough with ourselves and each other to admit life sucks and decide to do something about it. Be honest with yourself and God

2. Chat: there’s a lot clichés that go round, half of them need to just be killed off but one I do like is ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ It’s totally true. One of the most helpful things to do with our issues is chat to good friends about them. Go chat with the people you trust, go chat with your small group (and if you’re not in a small group get in one!). Go chat with those you trust.

3. Go to Jesus: even with little things we need to have the courage and faith to be honest, above all, with Jesus about what’s going on. He himself had a fair share of pain and can bring freedom. Read the Bible and cling to the hope there, chat with Him in prayer – stick to Him and let Him do what only He can do. Go to Jesus.

Now obviously that’s no formula for pain-free living, but hopefully it’ll be some really practical keys for walking with God in when life’s tough that you can either use or pass onto a friend in need.

You might be wondering how it ended for Quasimodo? Well, in the end he did get his dream and it didn’t go wrong. Let’s watch

[I showed another clip, available here – from 7:13 to 9:04]

So that was my talk, hope it helps answer some questions, deal with some issues. As per usual any feedback’s most welcome =)

New Zealand

It takes no genius to figure out life has its ups and downs.

Today I said goodbye to a good friend. He ran the gap year I did a year ago, helped me grow as a person and had a great effect on my life. Tomorrow he flies out to take the helm of Church Army New Zealand.

Guess I just wanna thank Phil for everything he's done and the love he puts into all he does. Thank God for you, Phil! Farewell, enjoy New Zealand, may it be all you could hope for, you'll be missed.

Fun & fickle-idityishness (my new word!)

Well I'm back. Soul Survivor was awesome and I'm psyched for year 2 up here, I don't want to hold anything back!

I've also been thrilled to keep hearing people mention they've read my blog - hi everyone!!!! If you have any feedback/issues or subjects you want my thoughts on feel free to mention over facebook any time.

Had an interesting chat with someone the other day. They said they thought that everything that exists must be able to be seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelt - sensed.

My response 'Is that what you think? Could you show me that thought so I could see it, hear it, taste it, touch it or smell it?' Sometimes we believe fickle things!

Back soon

I'm been out for a while. This week I'm off to Soul Survivor, helping take a group from here, should be awesome. Be back here soon.....