New Year blues?

Some people seem to get very excited about the whole New Year thing. I have to admit I don't really. After all, it's all a bit arbitrary when we start the year; we could have New Year in April if we wanted. Basically, on 1st January we'll wake up to another day that will be a lot like 31st December in lots of ways.

Or maybe I'm just being a bit grumpy about it all. I think some of it is I don't enjoy the whole "Let's look back and review" thing, and am not really disciplined enough for the serious planning for the New Year thing (as I said in an earlier post it's often the unplanned for that takes up time and energy in any case). Maybe it's a temperament thing, at least in part. My friend Johnny has a great post about planning here; guaranteed to make you feel a worm if you live in semi-chaos a lot of the time like me. And no doubt my friend Gareth will soon email round his review of 2009, with all the countries he's preached in counted and analysed...


Anyway, this is for those of us who are just trying to live a day at a time (sounds biblical enough to me!)....have a Happy Day today and tomorrow and the day after too, whatever the month or year!!

Happy Christmas...

The title says it all really. Trust everyone has a great day...

"But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman....." (Galatians 4:4)

What can you say in 2 or 3 minutes?

I've been asked to say a few words about Christmas "for 2 or 3 minutes" at several events this year. I don't think I'm long-winded (I guess others might think differently)....but I have found it a challenge! And it probably needs just as much thought-time for 2-3 minutes as it does for 20-30 as well. On the whole it's probably a good discipline and keeps things focussed. Not convinced it will dramatically affect how I speak the rest of the year, but you never know...

21st century carol

O shopping mall of Bluewater

How full we see thee lie:

In all the near-surrounding streets

The crawling cars creep by

But lo! Within thy crowded stores

Though finances are tight

The salaries of half next year are spent in thee tonight.



Any suggestions for more verses?

Tales of the Unexpected...

Thinking back over the last 12 months, it struck me just how much of what has happened would have been impossible to foresee this time last year. Here are some examples:

• That we would have ended up buying 3 computers as a family in one year...
• That I would have been seriously trying to lose weight for the last couple of months (well, seriously most of the time anyway)
• That Dartford would be top of the Ryman Premier League by such a comfortable margin and with games in hand
• That as the leadership at WCF we would had to have thought at some length about the hygiene implications of the common cup at communion
• That we would also have had to think through issues of immigration status and homelessness...
• That my car radio would now be almost permanently tuned to Capital FM (maybe with children the age of ours something like that should have been predictable, but I didn't see it coming)
• That I would finally have succumbed, and started a Facebook account and a blog!

A slightly random list admittedly; but does make me wonder what 2010 will bring.

Ideas have legs?

Strangely enough this week I've seen two "peak viewing" type thriller programmes (Flashforward and Paradox) that have featured discussions about the "many-worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics. I don't understand much about physics, but I guess the people who came up with this theory didn't do it mainly to provide plot material for sci-fi writers.

Having said that, it seems such a weird theory to me that only a story can make sense of it, even if the nuances get lost in the process. So what? Well, it seems to me that a lot of academic theology is about as far removed from the lives of most Christians as quantum mechanics is from most TV viewers. Most people simply don't get that excited about the Cappadocian Trinity, the new perspective on Paul, or the finer points of the doctrine of justification. That doesn't mean to say that it doesn't have value, of course. But it does mean that we need, among other things, to tell stories to make the relevance of theology clear; and that the risk for those who do the academic stuff is not knowing quite what it will look like when translated into ordinary life.

Perhaps even more pointedly, we need to realise that even a lot of our basic beliefs as Christians seem as far removed from your average unbeliever as the finer points of quantum mechanics too.