I have been thinking today about the passage that Claire read from 'The Shack' because of my current situation and I'm not sure how much I agree with the idea of not believing enough in Jesus if I look forward to the future with fear (this could bring a very big dose of guilt with it). I think it is more to do with my human-ness - I know deep down that eveything will be okay because God is with me and I trust he has put where I am but at another level often the overriding emotion is that I am anxious/fearful about what is going to happen. I do question and this might just be me but I doubt it, whether it is possible to look to the future 100% of the time without anxiety and some intrepidation. Even Jesus when he looked towards the cross asked his Father to take the cup away probably because he was fearful of what was going to happen (who wouldn't be) but he went through with it anyway because it was the Father's will. It's more like feel the fear and do it anyway. I think it can actually be dangerous to have no fear in situations, but we can still trust God to be with us when we feel the fear.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 'Don't worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today. Jesus was acknowledging the fact that we will worry about tomorrow and was giving us some guidance to concentrate on todays worries and forget about tomorrow until it's today!
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Monday, 25 August 2008
Describing our Champion
Yesterday we had the task of creating an A to Z of superlatives describing God. I have put the list from each of the groups into the Wordle software and below is the result remember the bigger the word the more people used it in their list. I leave you to comment on the outcome - does it surprise you, is it what you would expect.
If you would like a print out of this click on wordle above then gallery and type ashleyalive into the search then click the Who is God link and it will bring up the wordle that you can then print.
We also discussed personal bests so any thoughts on that please comment.
If you would like a print out of this click on wordle above then gallery and type ashleyalive into the search then click the Who is God link and it will bring up the wordle that you can then print.
We also discussed personal bests so any thoughts on that please comment.
Saturday, 23 August 2008
Psalm 23 (sort of)
As some of us return to work from holiday and those of us who have had long holidays start to turn our minds back to the work place this may help. Thanks to Gill for bringing to our attention.
Psalm 23 (For the Work Place)
The Lord is my real boss, and I shall not want.
He gives me peace, when chaos is all around me.
He gently reminds me to pray and do all things without murmuring and complaining.
He reminds me that He is my source and not my job.
He restores my sanity everyday and guides my decisions that I might honour Him in all that I do
Even though I face absurd amounts of e-mails, system crashes, unrealistic deadlines, budget cutbacks, gossiping co-workers, discriminating supervisors and an aging body that doesn't cooperate every morning, I still will not stop---
for He is with me! His presence, His peace, and His power will see me through.
He raises me up, even when they fail to promote me.
He claims me as His own, even when the company threatens to let me go.
His Faithfulness and love is better than any bonus cheque
His retirement plan beats any pension plan there is!
When it's all said and done, I'll be working for Him a whole lot longer
and for that I BLESS HIS NAME!!!!!!
Psalm 23 (For the Work Place)
The Lord is my real boss, and I shall not want.
He gives me peace, when chaos is all around me.
He gently reminds me to pray and do all things without murmuring and complaining.
He reminds me that He is my source and not my job.
He restores my sanity everyday and guides my decisions that I might honour Him in all that I do
Even though I face absurd amounts of e-mails, system crashes, unrealistic deadlines, budget cutbacks, gossiping co-workers, discriminating supervisors and an aging body that doesn't cooperate every morning, I still will not stop---
for He is with me! His presence, His peace, and His power will see me through.
He raises me up, even when they fail to promote me.
He claims me as His own, even when the company threatens to let me go.
His Faithfulness and love is better than any bonus cheque
His retirement plan beats any pension plan there is!
When it's all said and done, I'll be working for Him a whole lot longer
and for that I BLESS HIS NAME!!!!!!
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
New Blog
Have a read of the information in the sidebar (to the right of this post under 'who are we') about a new blog and let us know what you think.
Sunday, 17 August 2008
What do you say?
Our Ashley blog put into the Wordle software produces some interesting results about what the most common words we use in this blog are see below. What language do you use? What are your common words and phrases? How 'spiritual' do you think your conversations might be?
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Faith in football? The beautiful game interrogated
This may be of interest or a complete turn off but since I have been asked to be part of a Panel discussion at Greenbelt with this title next week it has really made me think. If you can’t wait for the new season to start maybe you could think along with me.
I have been reflecting on my own very strange attachment to The Beautiful Game and what it means for me spiritually. I re-visited Desmond Morris’s book ‘The Soccer Tribe’ which for me is a great book from an anthropological/sociological point of view with lots of great pictures! It is a bit dated (1981) but much of it still relevant. I found link interesting which comments on this book in looking particularly at pre-match and post-match rituals.
The strange attachment that so many have on the planet is summed up well in Morris’s Introduction:
“The human animal is an extraordinary species. Of all the events in human history, the one to attract the largest audience was not a great political occasion, nor a special celebration of some complex achievement in the arts or sciences, but a simple ball-game - a soccer match. On a June day in 1978, it is claimed that more than a thousand million people tuned in to the World Cup Final between Argentina and Holland. This means that something like one-quarter of the entire world population stopped whatever they were doing and focused their attention on a small patch of grass in South America where twenty-two brightly clad figures were kicking a ball about in a frenzy of effort and concentration.
If this occurrence was monitored by aliens on a cruising UFO, how would they explain it? What would they record in their ship's log? A sacred dance of some kind? A ritual battle? A religious ceremony, perhaps? If their curiosity was aroused and they carried out a survey of human cities around the globe, they would quickly discover that almost every major settlement boasted at least one large, hollow building with a green hole in the middle on which similar ball-kicking rituals could be observed at regular intervals. Clearly, ball-kicking has some special significance for the human species - a unique obsession not shared by any of the hundreds of thousands of other life forms visible on the planet earth.
The biggest problem for the puzzled aliens would be discovering the function of this strange activity. Why do thousands of people do it and why do millions of other people watch them doing it? What possible fulfilment can it bring? On the surface it appears to be little more than a child's playground game, a harmless pleasure gained from the realization that striking a spherical object produces a much more spectacular movement than hitting any other shape. For children, this is merely an amusing pastime, part of the business of exploring the physical properties of the environment, like skipping, jumping, rolling a hoop or spinning a top. But unlike these other juvenile actions, ball-kicking, for some strange reason persists into adulthood and acquires the trappings of a major industry. It is no longer accompanied by high-pitched laughter, but by deep groans, shouts and roars from manly throats. It is now a serious endeavour, with every move dissected and debated in earnest tones, the whole ritual elevated to the level of a dramatic social event. There must be more to it than meets the eye. Since the actions themselves are so simple, the true explanation must be that they have somehow become loaded with a symbolic significance’.
(Morris, Desmond (1981), The Soccer Tribe, p7, Jonathon Cape Ltd)
As a Chelsea supporter I spent the whole European Club Championship final in a great state of stress and nearly turned the television off during the shoot out! I keep wondering what was all that about, why I felt so strongly and why it had such an effect on me. The sadness took a couple of days to finally get over and I found myself again wondering what was going on.
I can’t say the experience was spiritual in any way that means anything to me. It does leave me often with a vague emptiness - more when we lose but even sometimes when we win.
I still have many more questions than answers. I am still not sure what football does for me in a spiritually positive way. In the main my spirituality is fairly low on liturgy, tradition and ceremony (all part of football) and I came to faith by discovering that these are not necessary for me to find a relationship with God. I can find other things I do, such as wandering in a city, talking to friends, or taking photographs much more spiritually uplifting. And yet when the first football results come in during mid-August I shall be anxiously waiting to see what Scolari can deliver!
Some of my questions are........
Does my attachment have anything to do with my childhood in London and my first match at Stamford Bridge with my dad at the age of 6?
I loved playing the game (not very well) and how much is there an appreciation of the skill and the exhilaration of doing something physical at a high standard?
What is that ecstatic feeling when the oppositions net bulges? (Morris suggests that it is like getting your prey in the hunt)
Is it therapeutic to get into football fundamentalism of ‘goodies and badies’ for 90 minutes?
Do I just like seeing something I can identify with ‘winning’?
Is it just another type of drama which touches our human condition just like theatre, films, poetry, etc? It has the same mixture of ‘playing’ with reality and fantasy and just happens to one that many can relate to and has an unpredictable end.
Why do only a few sports do the same for me?
It seems to have little to do with my faith but maybe deep down…….?
Forget all that. Is it just fun not to be taken too seriously?
Maybe talking to other Christians about the obsession of football is just like introducing oneself at an AA Meeting and divulging “I am Roy, a football supporter……………”
What do think?????
I have been reflecting on my own very strange attachment to The Beautiful Game and what it means for me spiritually. I re-visited Desmond Morris’s book ‘The Soccer Tribe’ which for me is a great book from an anthropological/sociological point of view with lots of great pictures! It is a bit dated (1981) but much of it still relevant. I found link interesting which comments on this book in looking particularly at pre-match and post-match rituals.
The strange attachment that so many have on the planet is summed up well in Morris’s Introduction:
“The human animal is an extraordinary species. Of all the events in human history, the one to attract the largest audience was not a great political occasion, nor a special celebration of some complex achievement in the arts or sciences, but a simple ball-game - a soccer match. On a June day in 1978, it is claimed that more than a thousand million people tuned in to the World Cup Final between Argentina and Holland. This means that something like one-quarter of the entire world population stopped whatever they were doing and focused their attention on a small patch of grass in South America where twenty-two brightly clad figures were kicking a ball about in a frenzy of effort and concentration.
If this occurrence was monitored by aliens on a cruising UFO, how would they explain it? What would they record in their ship's log? A sacred dance of some kind? A ritual battle? A religious ceremony, perhaps? If their curiosity was aroused and they carried out a survey of human cities around the globe, they would quickly discover that almost every major settlement boasted at least one large, hollow building with a green hole in the middle on which similar ball-kicking rituals could be observed at regular intervals. Clearly, ball-kicking has some special significance for the human species - a unique obsession not shared by any of the hundreds of thousands of other life forms visible on the planet earth.
The biggest problem for the puzzled aliens would be discovering the function of this strange activity. Why do thousands of people do it and why do millions of other people watch them doing it? What possible fulfilment can it bring? On the surface it appears to be little more than a child's playground game, a harmless pleasure gained from the realization that striking a spherical object produces a much more spectacular movement than hitting any other shape. For children, this is merely an amusing pastime, part of the business of exploring the physical properties of the environment, like skipping, jumping, rolling a hoop or spinning a top. But unlike these other juvenile actions, ball-kicking, for some strange reason persists into adulthood and acquires the trappings of a major industry. It is no longer accompanied by high-pitched laughter, but by deep groans, shouts and roars from manly throats. It is now a serious endeavour, with every move dissected and debated in earnest tones, the whole ritual elevated to the level of a dramatic social event. There must be more to it than meets the eye. Since the actions themselves are so simple, the true explanation must be that they have somehow become loaded with a symbolic significance’.
(Morris, Desmond (1981), The Soccer Tribe, p7, Jonathon Cape Ltd)
As a Chelsea supporter I spent the whole European Club Championship final in a great state of stress and nearly turned the television off during the shoot out! I keep wondering what was all that about, why I felt so strongly and why it had such an effect on me. The sadness took a couple of days to finally get over and I found myself again wondering what was going on.
I can’t say the experience was spiritual in any way that means anything to me. It does leave me often with a vague emptiness - more when we lose but even sometimes when we win.
I still have many more questions than answers. I am still not sure what football does for me in a spiritually positive way. In the main my spirituality is fairly low on liturgy, tradition and ceremony (all part of football) and I came to faith by discovering that these are not necessary for me to find a relationship with God. I can find other things I do, such as wandering in a city, talking to friends, or taking photographs much more spiritually uplifting. And yet when the first football results come in during mid-August I shall be anxiously waiting to see what Scolari can deliver!
Some of my questions are........
Does my attachment have anything to do with my childhood in London and my first match at Stamford Bridge with my dad at the age of 6?
I loved playing the game (not very well) and how much is there an appreciation of the skill and the exhilaration of doing something physical at a high standard?
What is that ecstatic feeling when the oppositions net bulges? (Morris suggests that it is like getting your prey in the hunt)
Is it therapeutic to get into football fundamentalism of ‘goodies and badies’ for 90 minutes?
Do I just like seeing something I can identify with ‘winning’?
Is it just another type of drama which touches our human condition just like theatre, films, poetry, etc? It has the same mixture of ‘playing’ with reality and fantasy and just happens to one that many can relate to and has an unpredictable end.
Why do only a few sports do the same for me?
It seems to have little to do with my faith but maybe deep down…….?
Forget all that. Is it just fun not to be taken too seriously?
Maybe talking to other Christians about the obsession of football is just like introducing oneself at an AA Meeting and divulging “I am Roy, a football supporter……………”
What do think?????
Monday, 11 August 2008
Refreshment comes in many forms
Taizé tea is something that I wouldn’t drink in England – it is very sweet and is drunk cold, mid-afternoon when the sun is really hot, and it is really refreshing. It wouldn’t suit my normal life, but it doesn’t have to.
There is something very refreshing about holidays – being somewhere else and doing things differently. Taizé has a big emphasis on prayer and being available to God, but in common with many holidays some of the refreshment is in being out of step with normal life. Spending time with different people, eating different food, praying in different ways can all lend themselves to changing and renewing our tired thoughts.
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Grace and the X Files
When you pick up a similar spiritual message twice in one day its quite hard to ignore it.
This morning Henry preached on the passage in Luke 18, where Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector at prayer, and observes that the tax collector, a sinner begging for forgiveness is closer to God than the self-righteous Pharisee, despite all his worthy acts. Henry spoke about how it demonstrates that
God's grace does not follow the rules of human 'fairness'.
Anyway, a few hours later I'm in the cinema watching the new X Files movie, 'I Want to Believe'. Quite early on in the film, Mulder and Scully have to go and talk to a former Catholic priest who's a convicted paedophile, as he has been having visions that may help them in their investigations. When they get to the hostel where he stays, they find him praying, and he says he is seeking God for the salvation of his soul. Scully's immediate reaction is to say 'Why would God listen to you after what you've done?'
I'm not going to spoil the plot for anyone, but I think its fair to just say that Scully finds her initial assessment of this man and what he has to offer challenged as the film goes on.
For my own part, whilst, yes, it was 'only a movie', I came away at the end thinking again about what I'd heard at church this morning. I guess God and his grace do indeed move in mysterious ways.
This morning Henry preached on the passage in Luke 18, where Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector at prayer, and observes that the tax collector, a sinner begging for forgiveness is closer to God than the self-righteous Pharisee, despite all his worthy acts. Henry spoke about how it demonstrates that
God's grace does not follow the rules of human 'fairness'.Anyway, a few hours later I'm in the cinema watching the new X Files movie, 'I Want to Believe'. Quite early on in the film, Mulder and Scully have to go and talk to a former Catholic priest who's a convicted paedophile, as he has been having visions that may help them in their investigations. When they get to the hostel where he stays, they find him praying, and he says he is seeking God for the salvation of his soul. Scully's immediate reaction is to say 'Why would God listen to you after what you've done?'
I'm not going to spoil the plot for anyone, but I think its fair to just say that Scully finds her initial assessment of this man and what he has to offer challenged as the film goes on.
For my own part, whilst, yes, it was 'only a movie', I came away at the end thinking again about what I'd heard at church this morning. I guess God and his grace do indeed move in mysterious ways.
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