Despite eating thousands of carrots over the course of my lifetime, I still cannot see in the dark. It turns out that I need some sort of light to see where I am going and where things are. My ankles, knees and furniture can attest to this truth whenever I get up in the middle…
One of the things you cannot escape these days is advertising. It’s on our TV’s newspapers, online news feeds and is even slipped into our subconscious thoughts through product placement. Most adverts follow a similar line of thought, that you are fortunate if you use this product. Or, alternatively, if you don’t use this product,…
One of the things I can tell you about myself with absolute certainty is that I am an extremely consistent fisherman. Whether it’s fly fishing on rivers and reservoirs or sea fishing from a boat, a jetty or from the beach makes no difference at all. Even fishing from the bank of a river produces…
Imagine that were two people who attended a church. Person A came every week and always attended special services. They knew the creeds and could refer you to a bible quotation for a given situation. They could recite the beatitudes and the ten commandments without error. They read about theology extensively and demonstrated a sound…
One of the perks of being a minister is being involved in the marriage of a couple. Weddings are rightly a huge celebration where a couple commit to sharing their life from this point on together. While individual vows may vary, they all contain the same essential points. Out of love for one another, they…
A lot of the great stories in the western world have at their heart the quest, a journey towards a specific goal. From the first examples of “The Iliad” and “the Odyssey” to modern day classics like “The Lord of the Rings”, a hero will be called to set out on a quest. They will…
One of the big debates in our house at Christmas is which person in the Richard Curtis film “Love Actually” has the best story? Obviously, there is a right answer, (Colin Firth), but a lot of the comedy in the film comes from what being in love makes people do. Love has this ability to…
It can be pretty easy to miss the joy of Christmas. Given the number of things to do, it can seem like a giant hassle as we try and get all the gifts, food and events sorted out among the throngs of people all trying to do the same. Or, alternatively, we can become sickened…
I write these blogs every week in the hope that someone might get something out of them. In truth, I have no idea how, or even if, they are received. And it occurs to me that using the word “hope” in these circumstances has become how we understand hope today. Someone mentions they are going…
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. As humans we have a tendency to look at our world or our lives and lament the way things were. We look back into our past with affection and wish that things today could be more like the way we remember them. Because the world has changed from…