Grateful For … (16)

Good starts. I take good starts for granted. I was even saying to a colleague today that I prefer bad starts and good finishes to good starts and bad finishes. Yet today was a notable exception. My alarm goes off at 0500 and it’s not unusual that it will take me the best part of […]

The Love Letter of John: 1 – Light Walkers

Let me be honest with you. I haven’t always been honest. Sometimes I’ve been downright devious and duplicitous. (Great word to use for something not great at all.) One thing I can say about such moments is that it feels heavy. It feels like for whatever ‘gain’ I get from it is overwhelmed with a […]

Keeping Calm

One of the things I admire my Dad for is his ability to keep calm about things. It was not a secret to him. The wisdom of it all was fairly straightforward for him and amounted to this. If he could do something about it, he would. If he couldn’t do anything about it, he […]

See What More

There’s more to it than that. It is amazing how easy it is to fall into the thinking that this is all there is. By that I mean the life that you live, in your particular context with the aid of your experiences and cultural backing. The explosion of information through various forms of media gives the […]

Grateful For … (15)

37. To be honest I never paid attention to the number. As an age it’s no big deal. It’s not 10 or 16 or 18 or 21 or 25 or 30. It’s not a milestone by any stretch of the imagination. As is my style, though, I sought a degree of importance in the number. It […]

The Word In John: 21 – You Must Follow Me

There’s nothing like a good epilogue. I enjoy watching the end of the episode of a long saga where apparently all the loose ends have been tied up. Only to see afterwards a mini-episode with something else for us to consider. Something that helps us consider the fact that the story is not yet over. […]

Grateful For … (14)

Home – Part Two. There’s a song that the Beatles released back in the day called In My Life. It’s a great song to put on to get all nostalgic about the people and places that make the story of your life. It was a fitting tune to hear today as I visited Wellingborough for the first […]

The Word In John: 20 – So That You Will Believe

Christianity is not about a system of how to be good. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31) The gospel of John evidently could have been written with other material and other stories, […]

Grateful For … (13)

Home – Part One. There was a time when home was a place of familiarity for me. Then I left that home and spent the next few years appreciating the fact that home was more about key people providing the familiar in the strength of their character and the relational ties we had. Home then […]

The Word In John: 19 – The King Crucified, The Job Finished

It used to be with a very heavy heart that I used to read this chapter. Of late, however, I read it with intrigue. In chapter 1 when Nathaniel received proof of the claims of Jesus, he reverently acknowledged Him as the King of Israel. In this chapter Pilate recognises more about the status of […]