Stories of faith and life
If you’ll let me, I’d like a few minutes of your time to talk about George Floyd, what his death represents and what we, as Christians, should do in response. If you haven’t been watching the news recently, George was an unarmed black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes as he told them “I can’t breathe”.
One evening last year, my youngest son, ten years old at the time, ran himself a bath. He’d been in for a little while when, with his permission, I nipped in to grab something I needed from the bathroom cupboard.
I have smart things listening to me everywhere! No, really I do, and, in what might be shocking news for some for you, I don’t really mind. I quite like the idea that all I have to do is say a ‘magic word’ and a smart thing will spring to life and answer my query or make stuff happen, like switching on my lights.
What legacy are you leaving? I don’t mean money, or property, or any kind of material possession or wealth. What I’m really asking is what memory of you are you planning to leave for the generations to come?
I went shopping today. It’s not that I’ve never been shopping before. It’s just today, for the first time since the coronavirus started to take hold, I went to a larger supermarket. Although nobody was running or shrieking, there was, I’m sad to report, a palpable feeling of panic.
The world is a pretty big place. This statement shouldn't come as a shock to most people. But how much do we understand what that really means? It's not like we can put it into any kind of meaningful context. Let's try anyway: If you decided to set sail on a boat and circumnavigate the... Continue Reading →
Do you know this little ditty: “Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase. Hakuna Matata! Ain’t no passing craze. It means no worries for the rest of your days. It’s our problem-free philosophy. Hakuna Matata!” Doesn’t that sound great? All we need is to adopt a problem-free philosophy, Hakuna Matata! Don’t you feel better already?
As a church leader, I find myself getting invited to all kinds of different things: City-wide church prayer meetings, leadership gatherings, both local and city-wide, and many, many assorted types of conferences. Conferences on prayer, how to lead well, how to plant churches, apologetics, the list goes on. There are also para-church organisations that want... Continue Reading →
Nostalgia is a funny thing, isn’t it? You get to a certain age, and from seemingly nowhere, you find yourself looking back at your history through the rosiest of tinted glasses. I’m in my mid-forties, and so for the first time, there is a generation of people looking back at their childhoods and seeing the... Continue Reading →
At church last Sunday during worship, I noticed from a distance a little boy, about 2 years old, attempt to carry a stack of large jigsaw pieces from one side of the hall to the other. So large and numerous were the pieces that he needed both hands to hold them against his chest. Unfortunately,... Continue Reading →