Lent Blog 2021

I'm writing this sitting in the adventure playground in Hillsborough forest Park. It's a nice day. Most schools are off for Easter so the place is buzzing with small people and their adults. I'm watching toddlers attempting to run and falling over, 3 yr olds coming down slides into the arms of waiting adults, 5 yr olds being bold on wobbly rope bridges and older kids braving the high corkscrew slide. It strikes me that life is like a playground. It is designed by its creator to be fun. But it's also designed to stretch abilities, promote health and wellbeing, encourage interaction across ages, be a bit dangerous and scary and provide challenges for every age and stage of life.   The playground was designed by adults for children.  Your life was designed by God for you.  The date of your birth, the number of days you will live, the personality you have developed and the characteristics you have inherited in your genes have all been set in place by Him for your benef...

 There are a few people who come across your path as you go through life who are inspirational.  I've been blessed to have had quite a few in mine.  I had an amazing teacher in 6th form at school - Amanda Flint. She was in her twenties, spoke 7 languages fluently, had been round the world having amazing adventures and was just downright amazing to me when I was 16.  Then there was Harry Hutchinson at University.  He was supposed to be my Management Tutor but we spent hours discussing the meaning of life - he was on a quest to make sense of the world.  He was the most brilliant teacher - he managed to help me make sense of Economics and Maths enough for me to get a good degree, which was a miracle 😀  He left teaching to go into corporate finance I think.  Huge loss to education. Then there was Callum Morrison.  A friend of a friend who was the closest thing to Jesus I had, and have yet, ever met.  He just shone.  He was a simple guy...

 I've started to write this three times already and can't quite settle on what it is I want to say.  It's something about our perception of time and how it rules our lives.    Im working night shift on the day the clocks have gone forward.  So my internal clock is going to be well and truly messed up for a few days hence.    I will go to bed when everyone is waking up and sleep most of the day then try to go to bed at normal bedtime and try to sleep then too.  I will feel as though it is breakfast time at tea time and it will take two or three days for everything to work its way back to the normal diurnal routines. Found my house on Google! I've been thinking about this alongside thinking about the town in which I grew up ( School reunion talk tends to take you back there)  Oundle in Northamptonshire is an ancient market town and most of the center was built in the Tudor period.  Mary Queen of Scots stayed in the town's Talbot Hotel appa...

 Imagine being in Jerusalem on that Sunday.  Jesus was coming.  The excitement in the air was palpable. Somewhere in the crowd someone started singing and pretty soon an anthem was rising up from hundreds of people who were making their way into the city.  Then someone shouted that He was here and immediately everyone stopped moving and turned to see Him coming down the hill, sitting on a mule.  A man jumped out of the crowd and laid his coat over a deep rut which previous carts and chariots had made in the road.  Another man did the same.  Women started grabbing at branches of the trees which lined the road and before long there was a green carpet of palm leaves being laid in a carpet in front of Jesus.   Children were shouting His name and the singing and chanting got louder.  The crowd applauded as He went past and the disciples waved and smiled.   If I had been there I would definitely have been pushing my way to the front ...

 Just as I was about to admit defeat and not post a blog today someone posted this on their timeline   And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and he will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you  over your failures but he will overwhelm your failures with his generous grace. James 1:5 TPT I just love that second line. How often do we feel just plain stupid when we dont understand what God is doing, when we don't see what others seem to clearly see, when our Bible knowledge is dwarfed by that of those around us?  But all we have to say is 'help!!' and God will give us wisdom.  My 20 Yr old is massively zealous at the moment. All very black and white, right and wrong. Lots of judgement and not much mercy 😊 I remember being exactly like that in my 20s when I was not long saved. It really is a wonder that any of my friends stuck with me!  Thank goodness that despite my crack-handed, tactless, downright unbiblica...

 There's a reunion being organised at my High School to mark the 50th anniversary of it opening.  A Facebook group has been set up and lots of past pupils have been posting grainy photographs and swapping reminiscences about teenage life back in the 70s 80s and 90s.  It has been quite interesting to scroll through and pick out the very few names and faces I actually remember.  I have no desire to actually attend the event - it would be an introvert's worst nightmare .  😀  But it would be nice to find out what happened to some of the teachers who made an impact on me during my teenage years and thank them for their efforts. Thinking about reunions in the light of a recent funeral has led me to speculate on the whole ' meeting people in heaven' scenario.   I've never been particularly convinced that heaven is going to be like a massive school reunion of all the people you have known who have gone to be with Jesus.  If it is like that I think I...

 As soon as I saw the news item yesterday about the massive container ship blocking the Suez Canal I knew that God had something to say.  Every time there has been a news item involving boats in the past couple of decades I have felt the prophetic alarm bells ringing.  Im not sure why, but God seems to have stuff to say about boats. The boat in question is called the Ever Given.   That's an interesting name don't you think?  It is owned by a company called Evergreen.  There is something about eternity in those names,  the eternal gift, and eternal life.  Jesus is the eternal gift - ever given for us.   But that is just an aside.  Here is what Im thinking - and please fell free to add your own thoughts in the comments as Im absolutely sure there is much more to say about this than I have grasped thus far. This massive boat weighs 200,000 tonnes.  It is laden with 20,000 containers and is one of the biggest boats in the worl...