I have a confession to make.
My addiction has resurfaced. With the uni semester over, and the opportunity to read something other than text books or assignment related articles, I have started indulging.
I am addicted to fiction.
Good fiction.
Page turning, stay awake and read until your eyes will not stay open any longer fiction.
Sigh.... I am addicted and I love it!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
The boy in the suitcase
There is a sad poetry about the boy in the suitcase. As details of his death, and short life, started to emerge this week, the boy in the suitcase was given a name, and we were shown a photo, and you could sense a palpable community grief for the loss of little Dean Shillingworth.
It was a situation that had stayed in our collective consciousness as we struggled to understand how a little boy could be missing, dead, and no-one be looking for him. And perhaps it was the sad enigma of this story that meant we identified with it so strongly when we discovered who this little boy was.
Dean's death is a tragedy. That his brothers and sisters have to grieve their loss is a tragedy. That his mother has to live with what can only be the greatest regret and pain is a tragedy.
Reading the reports of his sad death, I was reminded that hurting people hurt themselves and others.
We live in a hurting world.
Our response? To weep, and to do what we can, in the lives of those around us, to bring healing and comfort. Government departments can't solve this problem alone. Caring communities, friends, and family however, can provide a powerful part of the solution. And rhe truth of God’s love has the power to heal the broken-hearted.
It was a situation that had stayed in our collective consciousness as we struggled to understand how a little boy could be missing, dead, and no-one be looking for him. And perhaps it was the sad enigma of this story that meant we identified with it so strongly when we discovered who this little boy was.
Dean's death is a tragedy. That his brothers and sisters have to grieve their loss is a tragedy. That his mother has to live with what can only be the greatest regret and pain is a tragedy.
Reading the reports of his sad death, I was reminded that hurting people hurt themselves and others.
We live in a hurting world.
Our response? To weep, and to do what we can, in the lives of those around us, to bring healing and comfort. Government departments can't solve this problem alone. Caring communities, friends, and family however, can provide a powerful part of the solution. And rhe truth of God’s love has the power to heal the broken-hearted.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Evan Almighty
Great article here about the guy who directed Bruce Almighty and the soon to be released - Evan Almighty.
Worth reading!
Worth reading!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Great food for thought
"The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose." - C.S. Lewis
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Fasting
I am sitting here working on an assignment, and snacking on - wait for it - mung beans and alfafa sprouts! What has the world come to!
And I'm excited about my dinner tomorrow night of brown rice, silverbeet and natural yoghurt. You have to laugh....
Our bodies will be so healthy by the end of this fast.
And I'm excited about my dinner tomorrow night of brown rice, silverbeet and natural yoghurt. You have to laugh....
Our bodies will be so healthy by the end of this fast.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Why the UN's relevance is teetering
This is a ridiculous joke..
Zimbabwe was voted as the head of the UN Commission on Sustainable Economic Development (CSD) last week. Considering their economy has inflation of about 1200% and their people have no electricity or running water and not a lot of food because their government policies have destroyed their agriculture and much of their country... please! Why does lunacy continue to parade as respectability?
Someone needs to point out that the Emperor has no clothes...
Zimbabwe was voted as the head of the UN Commission on Sustainable Economic Development (CSD) last week. Considering their economy has inflation of about 1200% and their people have no electricity or running water and not a lot of food because their government policies have destroyed their agriculture and much of their country... please! Why does lunacy continue to parade as respectability?
Someone needs to point out that the Emperor has no clothes...
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Beautiful teas
I went to a great place last night with some girls. Called Batavia, it is a tea and coffee place that is modelled on the style of the East Indies.
Being a lover of coffee, I surprised myself at how taken I was with a type of tea they had - I even bought the take home bag and am drinking my way through it today as I do my assignment! It is called something like - a watergarden tea, and is white tea, wrapped tightly around a flower in a ball. When you pour hot water over it, it slowly blooms - quite amazing!
Anyway, I have been deciding whether to continue this blog as my postings have slowed down considerably. I'm still deciding....
Being a lover of coffee, I surprised myself at how taken I was with a type of tea they had - I even bought the take home bag and am drinking my way through it today as I do my assignment! It is called something like - a watergarden tea, and is white tea, wrapped tightly around a flower in a ball. When you pour hot water over it, it slowly blooms - quite amazing!
Anyway, I have been deciding whether to continue this blog as my postings have slowed down considerably. I'm still deciding....
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Daily discipline
A great article - excerpt below
Laws of Lifetime Personal Growth By Dr. John C. Maxwell
....... Rarely will you find a person committed to a comprehensive personal growth plan into their 30’s, 40’s, or beyond.
As children we grew year after year, sometimes in spurts, sometimes imperceptibly, but our bodies were always growing. The growth of a leader can be similar. At times, it may feel like the wheels are spinning and no headway is being made. In other seasons, new breakthroughs and victories are clear indicators of a growth spurt. To grow consistently, the key is to manage your daily agenda. I wish I could pass along an easier solution or secret formula for leadership growth, but daily discipline makes all the difference between growth and stagnation.
Laws of Lifetime Personal Growth By Dr. John C. Maxwell
....... Rarely will you find a person committed to a comprehensive personal growth plan into their 30’s, 40’s, or beyond.
As children we grew year after year, sometimes in spurts, sometimes imperceptibly, but our bodies were always growing. The growth of a leader can be similar. At times, it may feel like the wheels are spinning and no headway is being made. In other seasons, new breakthroughs and victories are clear indicators of a growth spurt. To grow consistently, the key is to manage your daily agenda. I wish I could pass along an easier solution or secret formula for leadership growth, but daily discipline makes all the difference between growth and stagnation.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
The greatest of these....
This last week has seen some interesting correspondence develop between myself and someone I met through my writing. This other person largely disagrees with pretty much everything I believe in. As I read some of the correspondence, which basically likened me to Hitler, and reflected on it, I found myself growing in compassion for the person who wrote it, which almost surprised me.
I feel like I am growing in grace - not as quickly as I would like sometimes but it's a start! I am aware of the logical inconsistencies in their correspondence, and the fact that they have misrepresented me, yet I have been able to let go of the emotions that generates more quickly than I thought. I feel for them, and wish they knew the unconditional love of Christ. And I am aware that they will only see it reflected in people like myself. There is a time for everything under the sun.... this is a time to love.
Faith, hope and love... the greatest of these is love.
I feel like I am growing in grace - not as quickly as I would like sometimes but it's a start! I am aware of the logical inconsistencies in their correspondence, and the fact that they have misrepresented me, yet I have been able to let go of the emotions that generates more quickly than I thought. I feel for them, and wish they knew the unconditional love of Christ. And I am aware that they will only see it reflected in people like myself. There is a time for everything under the sun.... this is a time to love.
Faith, hope and love... the greatest of these is love.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Interesting times ahead perhaps...
Christian Magistrate Andrew McClintock has lost his case to have his freedom of conscience recognised when practising as a Justice of the Peace. The decision by the Sheffield Employment Tribunal means that Mr McClintock, will not be able to serve on the Family Panel, even though the Tribunal recognised his "unblemished record and the high regard in which he is held by the Department of Constitutional Affairs".
Difficulties first arose for Mr McClintock when he considered the implications of same-sex adoption on which he was forced to rule. He became concerned that a tension existed between his Christian beliefs in the Biblical model of the family and his work as a Magistrate. In March 2004, Mr McClintock raised his difficulties with the Chairman of the Family Panel at Sheffield. Mr McClintock was not asking for a change in the law, rather he was requesting that his religious conscience should be accommodated, and that he should be "screened" from cases which might require him to adopt children in to same-sex households. He also expressed his concern that children could be put at risk by the untried social experiment of same-sex adoption, in which vulnerable children were being used as "guinea pigs". The Employment Tribunal rejected Mr McClintock's claim that he had been discriminated against because of his religious beliefs.
Commenting on the judgment, Andrea Williams of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship said: "This is yet another example of the repression of Christian conscience and signals the erosion of Christian values at the expense of our children's welfare. Andrew McClintock believes that the best interests of the child are served by placing them in a situation where they would have both a mother and a father and therefore he could not agree to participate in gay adoption. This case demonstrates what will happen as greater numbers of men and women of integrity are forced to choose between applying a law which runs contrary to their fundamental Christian belief or obeying their conscience. The imposition of secular values in every aspect of our lives will force those who hold Christian beliefs out of jobs."
Andrew McClintock commented: "This ruling is going to make it harder for many conscientious people. Anyone who holds seriously to traditional morals and family values will think twice before taking on such a job. There will be more children now whom the courts remove from one kind of harm, but only to face another hazard. So, more needy children will be fuelling this experiment in social science, and suffering what the experts call mother-hunger or father-hunger."
Difficulties first arose for Mr McClintock when he considered the implications of same-sex adoption on which he was forced to rule. He became concerned that a tension existed between his Christian beliefs in the Biblical model of the family and his work as a Magistrate. In March 2004, Mr McClintock raised his difficulties with the Chairman of the Family Panel at Sheffield. Mr McClintock was not asking for a change in the law, rather he was requesting that his religious conscience should be accommodated, and that he should be "screened" from cases which might require him to adopt children in to same-sex households. He also expressed his concern that children could be put at risk by the untried social experiment of same-sex adoption, in which vulnerable children were being used as "guinea pigs". The Employment Tribunal rejected Mr McClintock's claim that he had been discriminated against because of his religious beliefs.
Commenting on the judgment, Andrea Williams of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship said: "This is yet another example of the repression of Christian conscience and signals the erosion of Christian values at the expense of our children's welfare. Andrew McClintock believes that the best interests of the child are served by placing them in a situation where they would have both a mother and a father and therefore he could not agree to participate in gay adoption. This case demonstrates what will happen as greater numbers of men and women of integrity are forced to choose between applying a law which runs contrary to their fundamental Christian belief or obeying their conscience. The imposition of secular values in every aspect of our lives will force those who hold Christian beliefs out of jobs."
Andrew McClintock commented: "This ruling is going to make it harder for many conscientious people. Anyone who holds seriously to traditional morals and family values will think twice before taking on such a job. There will be more children now whom the courts remove from one kind of harm, but only to face another hazard. So, more needy children will be fuelling this experiment in social science, and suffering what the experts call mother-hunger or father-hunger."
Friday, March 09, 2007
Doctors fight to save wrongly aborted baby's life
ITALIAN doctors are struggling to save the life of a 500g baby boy wrongly aborted after hospital tests misdiagnosed a deformity.
The child's mother aborted 22 weeks into the pregnancy after doctors from the Florentine teaching hospital, Careggi, told her two ultrasound scans showed a high risk of a defective oesophagus. But when the fetus was aborted, heart still beating, doctors realised the child had been perfectly healthy, and rushed to resuscitate him.
Weighing just half a kilogram, the baby suffered a brain haemorrhage during the abortion and doctors doubt he will survive.
Read the whole article here
The child's mother aborted 22 weeks into the pregnancy after doctors from the Florentine teaching hospital, Careggi, told her two ultrasound scans showed a high risk of a defective oesophagus. But when the fetus was aborted, heart still beating, doctors realised the child had been perfectly healthy, and rushed to resuscitate him.
Weighing just half a kilogram, the baby suffered a brain haemorrhage during the abortion and doctors doubt he will survive.
Read the whole article here
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Sad news
Australian youths are drinking themselves to death at an alarming rate and Australia's drinking problem has become a national crisis. That's according to Bill Stronach, chief executive of the Australian Drug Foundation.
Figures released by the Victorian government revealed that half of all 16- to 24-year olds binge drink at least once a month. The report found 194 young deaths were attributed to alcohol in the last four years. A further 2,135 young people were seriously injured in road accidents and 11,455 drank themselves into hospital, and that is in Victoria alone. Alcohol also fuelled more than 8,800 assaults and almost 5,000 family incidents.
The figures are contained in the Victorian Alcohol Statistics Handbook. Author Dr Anne-Marie Laslett said it was staggering that more than 300,000 young Victorians drank to excess each month. Health Minister Bronwyn Pike launched the handbook, saying it was a serious wake-up call. "Alcohol is second only to tobacco as a drug that causes high levels of disease and death," Ms Pike said. "It's terrifying to see that more than 300,000 people risk serious injury or possible death at least once a month through drinking irresponsibly."
Mr Stronach said Australia's drinking problem was getting worse and the victims younger, labelling it a national crisis. "Australia's infatuation with intoxication costs 4,000 Australian lives each year and another 70,000 people are hospitalised," he said. "We get terribly upset when illegal drug users commit violence or die but we ignore the daily mayhem that results from determined and deliberate dangerous drinking."
Source: Compiled by APN from media reports
Figures released by the Victorian government revealed that half of all 16- to 24-year olds binge drink at least once a month. The report found 194 young deaths were attributed to alcohol in the last four years. A further 2,135 young people were seriously injured in road accidents and 11,455 drank themselves into hospital, and that is in Victoria alone. Alcohol also fuelled more than 8,800 assaults and almost 5,000 family incidents.
The figures are contained in the Victorian Alcohol Statistics Handbook. Author Dr Anne-Marie Laslett said it was staggering that more than 300,000 young Victorians drank to excess each month. Health Minister Bronwyn Pike launched the handbook, saying it was a serious wake-up call. "Alcohol is second only to tobacco as a drug that causes high levels of disease and death," Ms Pike said. "It's terrifying to see that more than 300,000 people risk serious injury or possible death at least once a month through drinking irresponsibly."
Mr Stronach said Australia's drinking problem was getting worse and the victims younger, labelling it a national crisis. "Australia's infatuation with intoxication costs 4,000 Australian lives each year and another 70,000 people are hospitalised," he said. "We get terribly upset when illegal drug users commit violence or die but we ignore the daily mayhem that results from determined and deliberate dangerous drinking."
Source: Compiled by APN from media reports
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Great quote!!!
"And don't be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. " - 1 Cor. 7:17a (MSG)
Monday, January 29, 2007
A reminder of what we're missing
This is a great article - one of a series that asks "How can followers of Christ be counter-cultural for the common good?"
This is a really challenging article which has stayed with me - particularly the following section.
"It seems that for Daniel and his comrades, being a counterculture consisted of surprisingly small decisions—small acts of reorientation to remind them daily that in spite of their privileged status in the capital city of the world's most powerful empire, they belonged to another King and another kingdom."
and this section
I love that concept - small acts of reorientation.....
This is a really challenging article which has stayed with me - particularly the following section.
"It seems that for Daniel and his comrades, being a counterculture consisted of surprisingly small decisions—small acts of reorientation to remind them daily that in spite of their privileged status in the capital city of the world's most powerful empire, they belonged to another King and another kingdom."
and this section
Frederica and her family fast twice a week, a practice that goes back to the earliest Christian centuries and an ancient discipleship manual called the Didache. ....they observe this fast every Wednesday and Friday. It's not total abstinence from all food, but rather avoidance of foods that come from animals, whether meat, eggs, or dairy products... the "Daniel fast"—because it essentially replicates the diet Daniel and his friends adopted upon arrival in Babylon.
.... it is a twice-weekly reminder that we are in exile and that our use of animals for food is itself tainted with echoes of the Fall. The Daniel fast is not just a discipline to develop self-control and dependence on God; it is a reminder that the abundance we enjoy cannot, in this life, be entirely separated from the alienation we endure from God and from God's creatures. It is a small act of reorientation, a small act of exilic consciousness in the middle of every week.
I love that concept - small acts of reorientation.....
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Biggest popcorn EVER
Have you ever ordered popcorn in Gold Class?
Ridiculously biggest bowl ever!
There is no way anyone could eat it all!
Ridiculously biggest bowl ever!
There is no way anyone could eat it all!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
What's your story?
Ivan Illich was asked: What is the most radical way to change society? He said, "If you want to change society you have to tell an alternate story. Society runs upon a dominant story, what is plausible, credible, believable becomes that which we just accept as normal."
What story are you running upon?
What story are you running upon?
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
A little less lost for words
Well, I'm still trying to process the situation below so don't have lots to share yet.
I have been trying to work out why I feel uncomfortable about this...
The Enlightenment decided "Man is the measure of all things" and I think this decision was made from such a perspective.
While we need to have compassion for the parents , "their poverty does not dictate the righteousness of their cause".
A course of action is not necessarily right just because it helps avoid or alleviate suffering.
hmmm, still thinking........
I have been trying to work out why I feel uncomfortable about this...
The Enlightenment decided "Man is the measure of all things" and I think this decision was made from such a perspective.
While we need to have compassion for the parents , "their poverty does not dictate the righteousness of their cause".
A course of action is not necessarily right just because it helps avoid or alleviate suffering.
hmmm, still thinking........
Friday, January 05, 2007
Currently lost for words....
Just read this article.... it'sabout a young disabled girl who has been 'frozen in time' by her parents.
What do you think?
What do you think?
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Are you ready for a relationship?
I just found this checklist which helps you work out if you are ready for a relationship....
Very handy indeed!
Very handy indeed!
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
A well-articulated perspective
Ok - so some will agree and some won't, but I thought this quote, from a longer article here, was a very well-articulated argument, when reviewing the former President Carter's new book.
"Carter wants to do what's just. His heart's in the right place. He just can't figure out what the right is. He is, and always has been, a man of good intentions bereft of good judgment. He invariably finds himself defending tyrants and dictators at the expense of their oppressed peoples. Not because he is a bad man, but because he is a confused man.
"Carter subscribes to what I call the Always Root for the Underdog school of morality. Rather than develop any real understanding of a conflict, immediately he sides with the weaker party, however wicked or immoral.
"Israel has tanks and F-16's. The Palestinians don't. Therefore the Palestinians are being oppressed. Never mind that the Palestinians have rejected every offer to live side by side with Israel in peace and elected a government pledged to Israel's annihilation. Their poverty dictates the righteousness of their cause even if their actions speak otherwise."
That last sentence really struck me. I think it underscores so much of the way a large segment of the West makes decisions about everything. Having lost framework for determining right and wrong, it's all about a misguided 'compassion'. This applies to euthanasia, abortion etc etc etc
"Carter wants to do what's just. His heart's in the right place. He just can't figure out what the right is. He is, and always has been, a man of good intentions bereft of good judgment. He invariably finds himself defending tyrants and dictators at the expense of their oppressed peoples. Not because he is a bad man, but because he is a confused man.
"Carter subscribes to what I call the Always Root for the Underdog school of morality. Rather than develop any real understanding of a conflict, immediately he sides with the weaker party, however wicked or immoral.
"Israel has tanks and F-16's. The Palestinians don't. Therefore the Palestinians are being oppressed. Never mind that the Palestinians have rejected every offer to live side by side with Israel in peace and elected a government pledged to Israel's annihilation. Their poverty dictates the righteousness of their cause even if their actions speak otherwise."
That last sentence really struck me. I think it underscores so much of the way a large segment of the West makes decisions about everything. Having lost framework for determining right and wrong, it's all about a misguided 'compassion'. This applies to euthanasia, abortion etc etc etc
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