Getting things in perspective.

There is a danger that this post might turn into just another rant about church.  I'll try to avoid that, but I have had something of a challenging weekend.

Friday night and Saturday I was away at a meeting of the national council of an organisation I'm part of.  As with any charity, we have to be careful with the money God had given us and make sure we are using it as effectively as possible, especially in these troubled financial times.

The pain that becomes a pleasure

I read somthing today which is a great encouragement to me.  It was this comment on 2 Corinthians 6 vs 3-13: "Paul...would have us value, and find the validation of our ministry in, pain and suffering. Purity, patience and kindness stand alongside beatings, riots and sleepless nights." (WordLive 18th Sept 09).

Categories- do they really matter that much?

A friend wrote a post recently on the controversy surrounding Caster Semenya, particularly the question of how you decide whether she (and similar cases) can compete in women's sport or men's sport.  It's an interesting question.  Since, biologically, she and many others don't easily fit into either category, how do you decide how to treat them?

The Dream of the Rood

The historian in me is getting the better of me again. While looking randomly for something else, I came across this , a poem I had long wanted to read. The poem itself is interesting as one of the earliest examples of written poetry in English (sometimes I wish I could read Old English!) but what I found most interesting was what it revealed of Old English theology.

Libya and decision making

Huzzah! Someone is at last making a case which is long overdue, as far as I'm concerned, that perhaps there are better things to base political decisions on than whether it's cost effective. So much has been said recently about how we need to cut spending on this and cut spending on that but no one seems to have thought very much about what that actually means to people who will be loosing jobs or seeing services disappear.

That's all very well, but what does it mean?

Different types of people need things explained to them in different ways. In common with many people, I'm one of those who like things to be made clear in practical language, not just talked about in vague or spiritual terms. And that's why many sermons and devotional guides annoy me, or just fail to help me. Because much of the time they don't go into practical information.

What I did on my holidays.

I had a very nice bank holiday weekend. And in the spirit of what my friend is talking about hereI'm going to tell you about it.

A friend from university was getting married on the Saturday. Naturally, as he and his fiance live in Cambridge, they were marrying in St Andrews, Scotland.