Be Ever Graceful
As I continue down the path that will eventually lead to ordination, or so God tells me, I learn and …
Category Archives: self worth
Looking on the Inside
I was in a hurry to prepare breakfast as I had to get my son to school for a Saturday …
Facedown
I can be a little deluded about myself and my giftings. I like to think it’s charming but I’m probably …
If it makes you happy…
Once in youth group I asked the young people what they thought God wanted for their lives. There was a …
Broken
“BANG, SMASH” You look around and your heart sinks as you see the jar that was previously standing proudly on …
Jesus Clones
I really struggle with impossible goals. I am not talking about aiming high, but genuinely impossible targets. At secondary school …
Different
All my life I have tried to not to be different, although an early school report stated that I was …
Special Need
It is important to realise and understand how special we are to God. Failure to do so limits and constrains us, and may restrict God’s ability to achieve His plans for us.
Chaplain see?
His life had become a daily grind of serving seafarers, helping them make phone calls home, taking new paperback books onto the ships, etc. The excuse for resigning? “I’m nothing more than a telephonist and a librarian.”
It’s only words
I mean obviously I say stuff all the time, but is it worthwhile? Is it possible, in this modern age, to say anything new? Am I just contributing to a mass of information that is out there but doesn’t change anything?
Indescribable, Unnerfable
I nerf myself frequently. Through false modesty and insecurity. When I don’t dwell in Christ and let Him dwell in me, I nerf my God given gifts and abilities and their effectiveness. I lose my edge. When I could be the wielder of a double edged sword I more frequently choose a spoon.
Erasing God
Nice quote eh? I even thought to myself ‘I might use that in a sermon!’ Sometime later I remembered that thought and looked up the quote on the internet and this is what I found:
Climbing the back fence
The other night I worked a late shift at my other job. I got home at something like 1am. Now we have one of these PVC doors, which means that if you try and open it when there are keys in the other side you are not going to be met with the warmth of your home, and the sweet taste of unlocking success. That is exactly what happened on this early morn. I slid the key in but it would not budge. I contemplated falling to my knees, hands held aloft to the heavens, screaming ‘Anna why have you forsaken me’ but decided that, on this occasion, that would be overly dramatic.
Safety in Labelling
Before we judge we have to ask are we any different? What is it about the unknown that sparks a panic in our brains? When we can’t fit what we see in the boxes or descriptions we are happy with we try to force it into the closest fit. It’s simply not the done thing to have a label marked ‘misc’ that you can hand out willy nilly.
Refinement
Our society sees refinement as an end or a product or something to be consumed. But refinement is not just an end. It is not just a product. Refinement is also a process. And hardly ever a fun one.
Please & Why?
To be honest I didn’t and I don’t want to know why, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life trying to come up with reasons why this may have happened, as I fear it is risking insanity. Also I cannot ignore how God responded to Job when he asked why after grief far greater than mine. So I don’t ask why, but I do feel the temptation to sink.
A glimpse
At the same stage in my life I was more focused on my career and saving the money I needed to get married and purchase a home.
Tyred & Irritable
In that moment I was a mix of anger and despair. Anger because despite following the instructions it still didn’t work, and despair at being reminded that here was another simple task I could not perform. While my friend, God bless him, who has just moved in down the road is building shelves from old drawers, painting the house from top to bottom, working shifts and looking after two kids under three, I was struggling to patch a hole the size of a pinprick. And if I couldn’t do that, in what other arenas would I fail to live up to my designation as a man? I have already failed to provide my wife with a child, she is the main breadwinner, my lack of DIY nous means I am relegated to performing even simpler chores such as hovering, ironing and emptying the dishwasher.
Enough is not Enough
It seemed that they would rather keep me in the comfortable category of religious than make a new one for this troublesome little God botherer. Or maybe I am again assuming that when they say I’m religious what they are actually saying is that expect me to put on some tin foil armour, mount a horse and start a second but more brutally effect crusade. Whatever the reason I assume that they think religious is bad, so I try to avoid being labeled it.
Road Closure
A week or so ago I was involved in closing a road. It was in the pedestrian precinct and was …
5aside Fury
You want to see me angry? Come and watch me play 5aside. It might not happen every week but come …
Snow Bikinis
I thought women had fought to be strong so that they were no longer subservient to men, but were equal. Somewhere, someone has managed to take and twist this so women now use their ‘power’ to draw all men unto themselves through their irresistible sexual allure. Somehow I don’t think that’s what was intended when women were fighting for equality. To me it looks more like the women are the men’s play things. And yet, girls and women everywhere seem to be conforming to this.
Ebs and Flows... 