Wow... what a year. In retrospect, which is the only way to write about anything at the cusp of a new year, this year has been amazing. Sure it's had it's ups and downs and most certainly didn't turn out the way I expected it but, wow, I can't be happier with where I find myself standing at the end of it.
Starting the year in the middle of a compulsory time of being off team to allow for recovery from a number of issues wasn't really where I wanted to start from. At least it allowed me to focus on work and actually being in church for a while. I guess that this was the start of the year of consolidation in many areas of life. My relationships with people, relationship with God, my commitment to work, my commitment to my church as well as a rebuilding of my self esteem and value.
If anything while 2007 was a year of consolidation it was also a year of discovery through distillation. Bringing things to the boil so that the crap was boiled off and the good oil remained. It saw me through the journey of having stepped down as technical director for Kings and finding my place in the team again. Most of the year was spent serving as a camera operator and photographer under the most esteemed Richard Griffiths and filling holes as needed on the sound team. While I enjoyed the time and the leadership and my talents weren't wasted the pull back to doing my "first love", mixing sound proved to be inexorable and by November I found myself back in the middle of production and December finds me more pumped than ever before to make sound, lighting and staging more excellent than ever before.
2007 also saw me through a time where the church I'm planted in was called into question. Not so much that the church itself was questionable but that within me I reached a point where I was unsure if my roots were as planted as they should be. After much talking through with friends (thanks Dave, Daniel, Roz & Sarah) and family (again, thanks Tim, Naath, Mum and Dad!) I decided that Kings is my home. Sure sometimes I may not have the most amount of fun there and I might go through some rough stuff, but that'll happen anywhere. So my roots are down regardless of how I feel and I now have a foundation and a place that I can go out from.
January started the journey toward medicine and a career as a naval (or air force) officer with my application to sit the GAMSAT exam in March. After not enough study and a wing and a prayer I sat the exam and left the process in God's hands as I waited for the results. In May I was rewarded with a score of 63 putting me in the top 20% of all candidates who sat the exam and then proceeded to put together my application for medical school. Along side this my application with the military was churning along with various interviews, information sessions and medical scrutinies to be undertaken. After applying in June the painful three month wait for med school interview offers began. I received an invitation for interview and submitted myself to the process and submitted the process to God again, praying that he would have his will every step of the way and started to wait again.
The military application progressed to the point of the medical and interviews in Brisbane at the beginning of November while I had no offer for uni yet. I took the day off work, went down to brisbane and started the day with the psych evaluation questionnaire and then a fifteen minute essay. The process finished earlier than expected. I was then advised that because I did not have a place I was not eligible for the position and therefore could not continue with the interview process. Various people apologised profusely before advising me to be in touch and sending me on my way. The good point there being that I didn't have to go through the medical before being sent packing.
I still haven't received an offer or letter of non-offer (I don't think they're allowed to reject you these days) but it's reached the point of being comfortable with where I'm at, that God's will was for me to stay where I am, to keep doing what I'm doing and let him take care of the rest. It's by God's grace and peace that I can keep running and not have a problem with not getting into uni and the military after all the effort, time and money that went into the process. God is Great, to Him be the Glory!
Career Highlights at APN would have to include moving to the Sunshine Coast Daily in a site support role after a year and a half on the Service Desk. I may regret making that public but there's still people there who have absolutely no idea who I am (I'd like it to stay that way but that just aint gonna happen). The installation of ITSM in New Zealand and the project setting up ITSM so that Australia and NZ can share the same system was an amazing project to be a part of. Sure we're still working through issues and tuning the system to do what we need it to but it's been amazing to be a part of. Three trips to NZ in the month of September was pretty intense, going from never going out of the country to trench hopper in one giant leap.
The consolidation has been key at work too. The process of going through the application to the military and uni as well as having job offers come my way recently has really forced me to look at what I'm doing and why I'm doing it and realise that I'm not finished where I'm at and that I'll be around for a while yet.
2007 has been an important year and while most of it has been making up ground again and building my foundations under me again it's been a successful year. It's been a fruitful year and most importantly it's been a year where God's will has been done on earth as it is in heaven. Can't ask for much more than that.
Now I've just got to remember what I prayed at the start of 2007 so I can pray it again now at this the beginning of 2008. Can't wait to see what this one is going to bring!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
The world belongs to...
Credit goes to Nathan, my brother, for reminding me of this quote from a book called "The Truth" by a very talented man, dare I say genius, by the name of Terry Pratchett. The book is all about the first newspaper in Ankh-Morpork. I'm not going to go more into the background of the book except for that it's one of the later books in a series of over 30 and that I'm only starting to scratch the surface of the world that Mr Pratchett has created.
Anyways, the quote.
Methinks it's time that we changed the way that we look at things, stop being content with what we're presented at face value and getting stuck into life!
Anyways, the quote.
There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!
Methinks it's time that we changed the way that we look at things, stop being content with what we're presented at face value and getting stuck into life!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Discoveries
Most times I blog on the discoveries I make as I trip down the road of life, thoughts and concepts that have clicked into place revealing an ever increasing wonder at what is going on around me and for the plan that my Master has. It's amazing.
This time around it's discoveries of a musical nature. I've found three bands recently that I really wanted to let people know about and couldn't think of a better place to get the word out except through my blog. I want to let my friends know about discoveries that I've made simply because I believe that there's a whole lot of good solid christian music going un-listened to in Australia because no-one knows who the bands are, or how to find the music. And we're not talking obscure backblock garage bands here, I'm talking good quality, well produced, grammy nominated, award winning music.
My "discoveries" as such are the following bands
Before I sign off on this one some of the ways that I go about finding new music to listen to is simply listening to the radio. 96.5 is an awesome radio station who do keep up with the new music thats coming out , although sometimes you do need to listen at odd hours, like after 10:30pm on wednesday nights for late night praise and worship. They also have a tool on their website which lets you put in an approximate time you thought you heard the song and pull up a list of songs that played around that time. Very neat for finding out exactly who that band is.
Get out to music festivals to hear stuff that's outside of your cd collection too. You never know when you're going to stumble across a band that you get into during their concert. Most of the time if they're good live then they'll be pretty good in the studio. Unfortunately it doesn't always translate back the other way. Coming up in less than four months time is Easterfest (formerly AGMF) where there will be an absolute shedload of awesome bands and musos getting out there for your musical enjoyment, not to mention the gospel brought to you in a fresh way. Their standards are high so the music will be good,
To hear more of the artist that you've just found google them. Find their myspace page, because every self respecting band has one, and have a listen to the other tracks on there. You'll get four or five of the best which will give you a pretty good idea of whether or not a band is actually going to be playing stuff that you'll like.
Getting hold of the music to listen to is pretty simple too. the iTunes store is pretty up to date with christian music as the christian artists are almost at the mainstream level in the states. In some cases they are mainstream, for example Switchfoot. Koorong is another great place to get hold of cds and if you're thinking of doing some of the songs in church the sheet music. If there isn't a storefront near you then you can order online or via fax and have it mailed to you. Very prompt service too.
If I come across more music that I think people should go check out, I'll post links here to the bands website and myspace page.
Enjoy
Mick
This time around it's discoveries of a musical nature. I've found three bands recently that I really wanted to let people know about and couldn't think of a better place to get the word out except through my blog. I want to let my friends know about discoveries that I've made simply because I believe that there's a whole lot of good solid christian music going un-listened to in Australia because no-one knows who the bands are, or how to find the music. And we're not talking obscure backblock garage bands here, I'm talking good quality, well produced, grammy nominated, award winning music.
My "discoveries" as such are the following bands
Decemberadio
website - www.decemberadio.com
myspace - www.myspace.com/decemberadio
This Beautiful Republic
website - www.thisbeautifulrepublic.com
myspace - www.myspace.com/thisbeautifulrepublic
The Robbie Seay Band
website - www.robbieseayband.com
myspace - www.myspace.com/robbieseayband
Before I sign off on this one some of the ways that I go about finding new music to listen to is simply listening to the radio. 96.5 is an awesome radio station who do keep up with the new music thats coming out , although sometimes you do need to listen at odd hours, like after 10:30pm on wednesday nights for late night praise and worship. They also have a tool on their website which lets you put in an approximate time you thought you heard the song and pull up a list of songs that played around that time. Very neat for finding out exactly who that band is.
Get out to music festivals to hear stuff that's outside of your cd collection too. You never know when you're going to stumble across a band that you get into during their concert. Most of the time if they're good live then they'll be pretty good in the studio. Unfortunately it doesn't always translate back the other way. Coming up in less than four months time is Easterfest (formerly AGMF) where there will be an absolute shedload of awesome bands and musos getting out there for your musical enjoyment, not to mention the gospel brought to you in a fresh way. Their standards are high so the music will be good,
To hear more of the artist that you've just found google them. Find their myspace page, because every self respecting band has one, and have a listen to the other tracks on there. You'll get four or five of the best which will give you a pretty good idea of whether or not a band is actually going to be playing stuff that you'll like.
Getting hold of the music to listen to is pretty simple too. the iTunes store is pretty up to date with christian music as the christian artists are almost at the mainstream level in the states. In some cases they are mainstream, for example Switchfoot. Koorong is another great place to get hold of cds and if you're thinking of doing some of the songs in church the sheet music. If there isn't a storefront near you then you can order online or via fax and have it mailed to you. Very prompt service too.
If I come across more music that I think people should go check out, I'll post links here to the bands website and myspace page.
Enjoy
Mick
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Free Will & God's Will
This one is something that’s come up in conversation a few times with friends. How does Gods will fit in with the fact that He’s given us free will and won’t cross that line to make us do something or accept him. The conversation that really got me thinking about this was a recent one with a friend who was talking to me about her brother and about him turning away from God. My advice at the time was to trust God and keep praying. The response was that it’s not about trusting God, because her brother had made the decision and God won’t mess with free will. Which is partially correct, we need to trust God, but he won’t mess with free will.
Yep, thats right. God will not reach down, stick a finger inside our heads and twiddle away at the neurons until the right one fires and a decision is made that I need to become a christian and love God. It might seem that way sometimes but free will is an institution that God invested in man right back at the start and it’s not something that He’s going to violate because he is integrity. And there are no levels to the free will thing. It’s not like he’s given us the scope to choose what we’re going to wear today or how much sugar we put in our coffee or which insurance company we’re going to go with; and not the big life changing things. No, He’s given us the ability to make the choices in the trivial and the important.
So how does this work with scriptures like that in Luke 18 about the persistent widow and the judge? Using the parable of the widow who has been dealt a hard hand by the courts, Jesus explained that we should be persistent in our prayers, petitioning constantly for the justice we need and for those things that we desire. Now take this with the other way that we’re told to pray in the Lords Prayer (Luke 11:2) which says “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. So it’s pointless asking for thins that are clearly not God’s will, but last time I checked I was pretty sure that God’s will was for every one of us to come to know him. After all he didn’t send Jesus to die on the cross for a part of the population, he sent him for the World. (John 3:16)
So how does this marry up? God won’t make the decision for us. He won’t make us love Him any more than He’ll make us do anything else, but he says that if we petition strongly then how can he refuse to do what we ask? The way I see it, God is a shrewd and very skillful negotiator and a brilliant builder of arguments. As I stated in a previous blog, He’s the master strategist, every element falling into it’s specific place in the plan. If his people are petitioning him night and day, unrelenting, for the salvation of people He will do everything in His power to bring that about. He’ll build heavy arguments in the favour of coming to know him. He’ll your hand to be forced, allow you to find yourself in difficult positions as a result of your choices, so that a decision is required. But there’s a but.
I won’t say that it’s a sure thing. Simply because we as humans are pig headed and stubborn. So we can’t afford to give up if we have people on our target list to see won into the Kingdom. We can’t afford to relent for a moment. After all God is omnipotent, all powerful so he’s got a pretty big armory to bring to bear. He’ll show you the truth, He’ll show you what your missing out on and then if He needs to do it again and again he won’t let up until it’s sunk in.
And then after all that. It’s your decision.
Yep, thats right. God will not reach down, stick a finger inside our heads and twiddle away at the neurons until the right one fires and a decision is made that I need to become a christian and love God. It might seem that way sometimes but free will is an institution that God invested in man right back at the start and it’s not something that He’s going to violate because he is integrity. And there are no levels to the free will thing. It’s not like he’s given us the scope to choose what we’re going to wear today or how much sugar we put in our coffee or which insurance company we’re going to go with; and not the big life changing things. No, He’s given us the ability to make the choices in the trivial and the important.
So how does this work with scriptures like that in Luke 18 about the persistent widow and the judge? Using the parable of the widow who has been dealt a hard hand by the courts, Jesus explained that we should be persistent in our prayers, petitioning constantly for the justice we need and for those things that we desire. Now take this with the other way that we’re told to pray in the Lords Prayer (Luke 11:2) which says “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. So it’s pointless asking for thins that are clearly not God’s will, but last time I checked I was pretty sure that God’s will was for every one of us to come to know him. After all he didn’t send Jesus to die on the cross for a part of the population, he sent him for the World. (John 3:16)
So how does this marry up? God won’t make the decision for us. He won’t make us love Him any more than He’ll make us do anything else, but he says that if we petition strongly then how can he refuse to do what we ask? The way I see it, God is a shrewd and very skillful negotiator and a brilliant builder of arguments. As I stated in a previous blog, He’s the master strategist, every element falling into it’s specific place in the plan. If his people are petitioning him night and day, unrelenting, for the salvation of people He will do everything in His power to bring that about. He’ll build heavy arguments in the favour of coming to know him. He’ll your hand to be forced, allow you to find yourself in difficult positions as a result of your choices, so that a decision is required. But there’s a but.
I won’t say that it’s a sure thing. Simply because we as humans are pig headed and stubborn. So we can’t afford to give up if we have people on our target list to see won into the Kingdom. We can’t afford to relent for a moment. After all God is omnipotent, all powerful so he’s got a pretty big armory to bring to bear. He’ll show you the truth, He’ll show you what your missing out on and then if He needs to do it again and again he won’t let up until it’s sunk in.
And then after all that. It’s your decision.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
We're at War People!
I've been reading a book called "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge which is, in his words, an invitation for Men to be man they are supposed to be. This book is a pretty intense read and one of the realisations that it has opened my eyes to is that we're at war. Sure I don't have bombs going off in the streets that I live in but God is opening my eyes to the fact that I am a part of a spiritual war, one between the Kingdom of Light and that of Darkness and contrary to the polished stone, stained glass windows and pretty painted walls that we see in our churches with our physical eyes, this isn't pretty at all. While we don't have limbs being blown off and people being disfigured physically there is are far more devastating results in the spiritual realm with souls being scarred and minds being tormented.
This realisation has changed my perspective on a number of scriptures including my life verse, Romans 8:28, which states that "all things work together for the Good of those who love God and who are called according to his purposes". This is an awesome powerful scripture that once you get a hold of it can do wonders for your outlook on life. That and other scriptures like Jeremiah 29:11 and that other one that I can never remember the reference for that says "The steps of a Good man are ordered by the Lord".
God has slowly been changing my view on Rom 8:28, first by revealing the things he's specific about in that scripture and also the things that he's not specific about. For starters he's not specific about who the good is going to happen to, except that it's for those who love him and are called according to his purposes, and he's not specific about how it's going to happen. He likes to have that ace up his sleeve, sometimes i think so he can stand back and say "Betcha didn't think it'd happen like that hey." The thing that he's specific about is what will be used, and he's quite specific that it's all things. At first the realisation that I might go through troubling times and not get anything out of it at the end or see a result for my pain is quite disappointing. This is also quite selfish and when it boils down to it, the perspective is limited to that which I can see in the natural and doesn't trust God to the full.
He added another piece to the puzzle about this scripture this week. The fact that we're at war in the spiritual makes an incredible difference in this. A war is made up of many battles, some of which the importance isn't entirely apparent when they're being fought, nor readily apparent to the men in the trenches, and it's not until days, weeks or months down the track that the significance becomes apparent. The battles may even incur heavy losses, inflict physical and emotional pain on those fighting on the front lines but the sacrifice plays it's part in the totality of war even when the soldiers don't understand at the time.
Normally in war it's only apparent to the Generals looking at the bigger picture how the pieces fit together, how each individual battle fits together to secure the victory. Playing each piece of the strategy in it's place. It's the very same with the spiritual battle that each christian wages every day. Each trial and persecution is an individual battle that we go through, persecution from the forces of Darkness to attempt to prevent us from fulfilling that which God has set before us. While we might come out the other side of a battle bruised, bloody, worn out and drained it may not be immediately seen why we had to fight that particular fight. We need to trust that the General knows exactly how that battle fits into His plan of War and that he, as the master strategist knows exactly what He's doing, even though we don't know how the result may end up. He knows, He's promised that it WILL be good and really that's all that matters.
The other thing about fighting this war, is that we're not just numbers. The Master Strategist knows the number of hairs on every soldier's head, he catches every tear and bottles it, and he knows my name. He's been in the trenches with me, fighting side by side with me and he promises that everything I go through He's there along side me, watching my back and yet he knows exactly how my battle fits into the war in it's entirety. Not something that I find easy to get my head around but He's the alpha, the omega, the beginning and the end, He holds the universe in the palm of His hand, and yet he cares for me.
I take heart that God is using the battles I go through for the good of His people, we may not see the outcome immediately but it will be Good. Knowing that the outcome will be good almost makes me glad for persecution. After all, no-one attacks something that they do not perceive to be a danger. I know that if I am under attack it means that God must have something pretty awesome planned and that I can do all things through Christ in me.
This realisation has changed my perspective on a number of scriptures including my life verse, Romans 8:28, which states that "all things work together for the Good of those who love God and who are called according to his purposes". This is an awesome powerful scripture that once you get a hold of it can do wonders for your outlook on life. That and other scriptures like Jeremiah 29:11 and that other one that I can never remember the reference for that says "The steps of a Good man are ordered by the Lord".
God has slowly been changing my view on Rom 8:28, first by revealing the things he's specific about in that scripture and also the things that he's not specific about. For starters he's not specific about who the good is going to happen to, except that it's for those who love him and are called according to his purposes, and he's not specific about how it's going to happen. He likes to have that ace up his sleeve, sometimes i think so he can stand back and say "Betcha didn't think it'd happen like that hey." The thing that he's specific about is what will be used, and he's quite specific that it's all things. At first the realisation that I might go through troubling times and not get anything out of it at the end or see a result for my pain is quite disappointing. This is also quite selfish and when it boils down to it, the perspective is limited to that which I can see in the natural and doesn't trust God to the full.
He added another piece to the puzzle about this scripture this week. The fact that we're at war in the spiritual makes an incredible difference in this. A war is made up of many battles, some of which the importance isn't entirely apparent when they're being fought, nor readily apparent to the men in the trenches, and it's not until days, weeks or months down the track that the significance becomes apparent. The battles may even incur heavy losses, inflict physical and emotional pain on those fighting on the front lines but the sacrifice plays it's part in the totality of war even when the soldiers don't understand at the time.
Normally in war it's only apparent to the Generals looking at the bigger picture how the pieces fit together, how each individual battle fits together to secure the victory. Playing each piece of the strategy in it's place. It's the very same with the spiritual battle that each christian wages every day. Each trial and persecution is an individual battle that we go through, persecution from the forces of Darkness to attempt to prevent us from fulfilling that which God has set before us. While we might come out the other side of a battle bruised, bloody, worn out and drained it may not be immediately seen why we had to fight that particular fight. We need to trust that the General knows exactly how that battle fits into His plan of War and that he, as the master strategist knows exactly what He's doing, even though we don't know how the result may end up. He knows, He's promised that it WILL be good and really that's all that matters.
The other thing about fighting this war, is that we're not just numbers. The Master Strategist knows the number of hairs on every soldier's head, he catches every tear and bottles it, and he knows my name. He's been in the trenches with me, fighting side by side with me and he promises that everything I go through He's there along side me, watching my back and yet he knows exactly how my battle fits into the war in it's entirety. Not something that I find easy to get my head around but He's the alpha, the omega, the beginning and the end, He holds the universe in the palm of His hand, and yet he cares for me.
I take heart that God is using the battles I go through for the good of His people, we may not see the outcome immediately but it will be Good. Knowing that the outcome will be good almost makes me glad for persecution. After all, no-one attacks something that they do not perceive to be a danger. I know that if I am under attack it means that God must have something pretty awesome planned and that I can do all things through Christ in me.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Have you licked an eyeball recently?
You're probably reading this and wondering "what the heck was Mick smoking when he wrote this?" Well surprising as it may be I'm not high on anything, perhaps a little life but nothing more. The reason eyeball licking is making an appearance in this blog is that I joined an exclusive club tonight, and no it's not the mile high club, although there was an exchange of bodily fluids... mostly spit and tears but thats it. Yeah, I can now say I've licked an eyeball, and we're talking one that is definitely in situ, still functioning.
Normally my blogs have some sort of deeper meaning, something that people can take away and think about. This one is no different. The way I see it, licking eyeballs has overtones of opportunities of significance, more specifically the opportunity to become a christian. The link may seem a bit tenuous but bear with me.
For starters it's not every day that you get the opportunity to lick an eyeball and this is for many reasons. For starters eyeball licking isn't something that comes up in conversation that often. There's social and cultural constraints upon us that simply prevent us from talking about it and for most people it's not a concept that they think about. But once it comes up it's normally brought up by someone who's in the club and is quite enthusiastic about the topic. It's the same with Christianity, there are perceived constraints that might stop us from talking about Christ with our friends or family but once you've joined the club you get quite passionate about the fact that you're a member and you want to bring it up in conversation despite the odd looks you get.
One of the other things is that the opportunity doesn't always come along that often, and when it does it sometimes takes a bit of working up to it before you finally take the plunge and go for the lick. I've got to admit it took me a bit before I actually went in, tongue out and took the lick. I was in the right circumstances, the arguments had been made and so I went for it. It was the same when I became a Christian, it took God quite a bit of effort before he convinced me to make the decision and live for him. He got me in just the right place, made his arguments and I couldn't refuse. I said the prayer, meant it and the rest is history, although that said, the future is not guaranteed.
Once I'd licked the eye well it was the turning point between being a non licker, and a member of the club, someone who's licked someone else's eye. The event marked a threshold that I'd crossed from one state to another and now it's quite difficult to turn it back. When I became a Christian, I said a prayer and committed in my heart to follow Christ as my Lord and Saviour. Now when that happens the Holy Spirit moves in and it becomes quite difficult for you to turn back from your new status. Sure the evidence may not show to look at you from the outside but it's something on the inside that determines the difference.
Post lick there's the benefits of being a member of the eye licker's club. You're probably wondering what those benefits are (and it took me a while to work it out so I had something to write here) but it's mostly the cred you get and the simple fact that you can say "Yes I've licked someone's eye". There's also trade offs. Sure you get some odd looks from people if you do tell them that you've licked someone's eye, but now you can ring up the radio station and actually have a story to tell when they put the call out for the oddest thing you've done. Christianity has it's trade offs. It's not your life any more because when you commit your heart to God, it's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. It doesn't mean that life is going to be peachy from now on and may mean that it could get tougher (probably will get tougher) but the benefits are that you can stand on the promises of God, that your steps are ordered, that He has a future and a hope for you and that no matter what you're going through it will be used for good.
So when you get the opportunity, think about it. Will I regret this later on... probably not. Do the benefits outweigh the pitfalls? Yeah they do, but you won't get to really find out what the benefits are until you take the plunge and lick the eye, or make that decision to accept Christ into your life and live it out.
So have you licked an eye recently?
Normally my blogs have some sort of deeper meaning, something that people can take away and think about. This one is no different. The way I see it, licking eyeballs has overtones of opportunities of significance, more specifically the opportunity to become a christian. The link may seem a bit tenuous but bear with me.
For starters it's not every day that you get the opportunity to lick an eyeball and this is for many reasons. For starters eyeball licking isn't something that comes up in conversation that often. There's social and cultural constraints upon us that simply prevent us from talking about it and for most people it's not a concept that they think about. But once it comes up it's normally brought up by someone who's in the club and is quite enthusiastic about the topic. It's the same with Christianity, there are perceived constraints that might stop us from talking about Christ with our friends or family but once you've joined the club you get quite passionate about the fact that you're a member and you want to bring it up in conversation despite the odd looks you get.
One of the other things is that the opportunity doesn't always come along that often, and when it does it sometimes takes a bit of working up to it before you finally take the plunge and go for the lick. I've got to admit it took me a bit before I actually went in, tongue out and took the lick. I was in the right circumstances, the arguments had been made and so I went for it. It was the same when I became a Christian, it took God quite a bit of effort before he convinced me to make the decision and live for him. He got me in just the right place, made his arguments and I couldn't refuse. I said the prayer, meant it and the rest is history, although that said, the future is not guaranteed.
Once I'd licked the eye well it was the turning point between being a non licker, and a member of the club, someone who's licked someone else's eye. The event marked a threshold that I'd crossed from one state to another and now it's quite difficult to turn it back. When I became a Christian, I said a prayer and committed in my heart to follow Christ as my Lord and Saviour. Now when that happens the Holy Spirit moves in and it becomes quite difficult for you to turn back from your new status. Sure the evidence may not show to look at you from the outside but it's something on the inside that determines the difference.
Post lick there's the benefits of being a member of the eye licker's club. You're probably wondering what those benefits are (and it took me a while to work it out so I had something to write here) but it's mostly the cred you get and the simple fact that you can say "Yes I've licked someone's eye". There's also trade offs. Sure you get some odd looks from people if you do tell them that you've licked someone's eye, but now you can ring up the radio station and actually have a story to tell when they put the call out for the oddest thing you've done. Christianity has it's trade offs. It's not your life any more because when you commit your heart to God, it's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. It doesn't mean that life is going to be peachy from now on and may mean that it could get tougher (probably will get tougher) but the benefits are that you can stand on the promises of God, that your steps are ordered, that He has a future and a hope for you and that no matter what you're going through it will be used for good.
So when you get the opportunity, think about it. Will I regret this later on... probably not. Do the benefits outweigh the pitfalls? Yeah they do, but you won't get to really find out what the benefits are until you take the plunge and lick the eye, or make that decision to accept Christ into your life and live it out.
So have you licked an eye recently?
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Do Us a Favour
Kings Christian Church has started it’s relationships series in November and has got off to a screaming start with a good down to earth relevant message on why Christianity is relevant to how you conduct your relationships. Good practical stuff and really quite worthwhile getting into you regardless of where you are in your relationship lifecycle, be it single, going out, engaged or married, and for those who have unfortunately had to go through it divorced.
One of the best bits of the night is the panel segment where people, not necessarily preachers, but those in the church, get up and are asked about how they did things, are doing things and how it’s going for them. All sorts of probing questions get asked, and the closing question that was asked was “What is your advice for those single people who are wanting a relationship?” My good friend Richard Griffiths, who was being interviewed that night, came out with the gem “Stop Looking” which is absolutely golden.
There’s a few reasons why looking isn’t such a good thing and my favourite is “you find what you’re looking for” which basically means that if you’re actively looking for a relationship you’ll find it in pretty much every girl that you cross paths with because you’re constantly asking the question “Is she the one?” (Please bear in mind that I’m writing this from my perspective, so if you’re of the female persuasion and reading this substitute the opposite pronoun) Basically you’ve got your target sensors switched to high, your standards overridden and are on a mission to bag yourself a target… well probably not quite that harsh but a wife is to be seen in every girl, even if it’s not the right time and she’s not the best thing for you.
So, do us a favour… a favour to all of those people who are currently single around you. Help us to stop looking. Stop reminding us that we’re single. Stop joking around about going looking for girls, or making comments about the fact that a girl is pretty or nice. If we’re not smart enough to figure that out on our own what hope do we have? If anything the constant reminders, while well meaning or joking, are a bit of a drag really.
If this singleness thing is a season then I want to be running as hard as I can for those things that God has for me in this season without being distracted and slowed down by constant niggling that I should be looking somewhere else. If I’m going to be less effective in this season because I’m getting distracted, I don’t want to be distracted!
If it is a season then God, in his wisdom, will draw that season to a close in his own time with a peace that passes understanding. After all it’s written that God gives us the dreams and desires of our heart. I choose to believe that this is a twofold meaning, in that he puts the dreams and desires there in the first place, then fulfils them once their time has come. God cannot be defined or contained so who knows how he’s going to bring those dreams to pass.
I’ve heard it said that often times God brings a person into your life when you’re running full on. You glance to the side and see someone running along side you. That’s not the end of it though, if you glance over again and they’re still there, and again and they’re still there then you’re probably on to something but don’t stop to find out, just keep running. If they’re meant to stick around they’ll keep up.
I ask the question a whole lot about whether or not I really do trust God in how I live my life and really when you trust God, you let go. I can’t trust God while I’m trying to hold the reins and look for myself. As the words from “Your Sweet Voice” by the Paul Colman Trio go:
So excuse me if I don’t laugh at the jokes or respond that well to the suggestion that I should get together with such-n-such because she’s such a nice girl. I’ve got a race to run and I don’t need the extra drag right now.
Do us a favour if you’re friends of single people, get around them and be their pit crew (to continue the racing analogy). Encourage them in the things that they are doing, support them and ask the hard questions when they need asking and keep them focussed on the racetrack, not the pretty girls they’re passing on the sidelines.
One of the best bits of the night is the panel segment where people, not necessarily preachers, but those in the church, get up and are asked about how they did things, are doing things and how it’s going for them. All sorts of probing questions get asked, and the closing question that was asked was “What is your advice for those single people who are wanting a relationship?” My good friend Richard Griffiths, who was being interviewed that night, came out with the gem “Stop Looking” which is absolutely golden.
There’s a few reasons why looking isn’t such a good thing and my favourite is “you find what you’re looking for” which basically means that if you’re actively looking for a relationship you’ll find it in pretty much every girl that you cross paths with because you’re constantly asking the question “Is she the one?” (Please bear in mind that I’m writing this from my perspective, so if you’re of the female persuasion and reading this substitute the opposite pronoun) Basically you’ve got your target sensors switched to high, your standards overridden and are on a mission to bag yourself a target… well probably not quite that harsh but a wife is to be seen in every girl, even if it’s not the right time and she’s not the best thing for you.
So, do us a favour… a favour to all of those people who are currently single around you. Help us to stop looking. Stop reminding us that we’re single. Stop joking around about going looking for girls, or making comments about the fact that a girl is pretty or nice. If we’re not smart enough to figure that out on our own what hope do we have? If anything the constant reminders, while well meaning or joking, are a bit of a drag really.
If this singleness thing is a season then I want to be running as hard as I can for those things that God has for me in this season without being distracted and slowed down by constant niggling that I should be looking somewhere else. If I’m going to be less effective in this season because I’m getting distracted, I don’t want to be distracted!
If it is a season then God, in his wisdom, will draw that season to a close in his own time with a peace that passes understanding. After all it’s written that God gives us the dreams and desires of our heart. I choose to believe that this is a twofold meaning, in that he puts the dreams and desires there in the first place, then fulfils them once their time has come. God cannot be defined or contained so who knows how he’s going to bring those dreams to pass.
I’ve heard it said that often times God brings a person into your life when you’re running full on. You glance to the side and see someone running along side you. That’s not the end of it though, if you glance over again and they’re still there, and again and they’re still there then you’re probably on to something but don’t stop to find out, just keep running. If they’re meant to stick around they’ll keep up.
I ask the question a whole lot about whether or not I really do trust God in how I live my life and really when you trust God, you let go. I can’t trust God while I’m trying to hold the reins and look for myself. As the words from “Your Sweet Voice” by the Paul Colman Trio go:
I’ll wait for Your sweet voice
Guiding me to the right choice
I’ll wait for Your sweet voice
I’ve gotta let it go, let it go
Yeah your sweet voice
So excuse me if I don’t laugh at the jokes or respond that well to the suggestion that I should get together with such-n-such because she’s such a nice girl. I’ve got a race to run and I don’t need the extra drag right now.
Do us a favour if you’re friends of single people, get around them and be their pit crew (to continue the racing analogy). Encourage them in the things that they are doing, support them and ask the hard questions when they need asking and keep them focussed on the racetrack, not the pretty girls they’re passing on the sidelines.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
how bad do you want this?
I've been challenged by God over the last couple of days regarding quite a few things that are going on in my life and it came to the point tonight where I just had to get it down in some kind of tangible way, and could think of no better way than blogging about it. It's been a while, and I figured this one was worth it.
The title of this one pretty much gives the whole thing away, but it's been the question that God has been asking me all week. I've been praying that I'd get into uni to do medicine and get into the military so I can actually finance it and praying to God that he'd get me in, and the response that I've been getting back has been "How bad do you want this?"
The question led me to the conclusion that I'd better be able to prove it. One of the ways I can is by putting my actions where my mouth is and put the work in to getting ready for this, put the hard yards into training for the physicals and getting my physical endurance up. Putting the time into research and talking to the navy types and getting my knowledge up to scratch about the military and preparedness for the interviews.
The one that really brought myself to the point of writing about this was praying in the car that I really wanted a deeper relationship with God, that I wanted his presence to be written all over my life in a new way... and God came back with "How bad do you want this? well prove it to me!".
There's a couple of things that I'm learning out of this. One is that the scripture that says "Where your treasure is there your heart is" is so true, and the reverse of it works, in that if you want your heart to be somewhere then put your treasure there. Sink your time, your knowledege and your money and treasured things into where you want to be. For me that means spending time on the net researching the job I'm going for, spending time on the phone speaking to military doctors and finding out what they do.
It also means getting down on my knees every night and every morning and praying, reading my bible every day. It's not a religeous thing, but I want my heart to be deeper into God and so I need to put the time in and just do it. It doesn't matter if I'm tired or busy, I need to put my treasure into the places I want to go to.
The second thing I'm learning is that God honours effort. If I put the time in and really work at something that I want He honours that. Sure if I'm not meant to be somewhere in his will then I just won't get there and will end up somewhere else, but if I put the treasure in then God will meet me where I'm at and help me over the line. Mind, it may not be in the timeframe that I think it should be... but that's a whole other story!
The title of this one pretty much gives the whole thing away, but it's been the question that God has been asking me all week. I've been praying that I'd get into uni to do medicine and get into the military so I can actually finance it and praying to God that he'd get me in, and the response that I've been getting back has been "How bad do you want this?"
The question led me to the conclusion that I'd better be able to prove it. One of the ways I can is by putting my actions where my mouth is and put the work in to getting ready for this, put the hard yards into training for the physicals and getting my physical endurance up. Putting the time into research and talking to the navy types and getting my knowledge up to scratch about the military and preparedness for the interviews.
The one that really brought myself to the point of writing about this was praying in the car that I really wanted a deeper relationship with God, that I wanted his presence to be written all over my life in a new way... and God came back with "How bad do you want this? well prove it to me!".
There's a couple of things that I'm learning out of this. One is that the scripture that says "Where your treasure is there your heart is" is so true, and the reverse of it works, in that if you want your heart to be somewhere then put your treasure there. Sink your time, your knowledege and your money and treasured things into where you want to be. For me that means spending time on the net researching the job I'm going for, spending time on the phone speaking to military doctors and finding out what they do.
It also means getting down on my knees every night and every morning and praying, reading my bible every day. It's not a religeous thing, but I want my heart to be deeper into God and so I need to put the time in and just do it. It doesn't matter if I'm tired or busy, I need to put my treasure into the places I want to go to.
The second thing I'm learning is that God honours effort. If I put the time in and really work at something that I want He honours that. Sure if I'm not meant to be somewhere in his will then I just won't get there and will end up somewhere else, but if I put the treasure in then God will meet me where I'm at and help me over the line. Mind, it may not be in the timeframe that I think it should be... but that's a whole other story!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Promises
Man, after the weekend that's just been I'm glad I'm a god botherer. Lets just say that I'm glad that I have the promises of God to stand on when life isn't fun. Promises like "The steps of a Good Man are ordered by the Lord" and my LifeVerse which is "All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes".
It's been the kind of weekend where you're left standing wondering why a whole lot of things happened. Why I had to meet a girl, fall hard for her, and have it all fall apart, to still have it kick me in the guts every time I see her. Why I got to achieve my dream of leading a production team making all the production needs of my church happen, to have it crumble to bits. Why it has to hurt and feel like running through treacle.
And then the foundation that I stand on tell me that it's pointless looking back, pointless to think why, but to think where to from here?
I guess without if things had worked out with me and this aforementioned girl, I wouldn't have had the guts and the impetus to apply to go back to uni and apply with the defence forces. Sure I can't see what the things I've been through are going to be used for but the promise is there, God doesn't say how but he'll use the things that have happened.
It's the promises that mean I can stand up face the new day. Thank God that He promises, also, that His mercies are new every morning!
Yeah, this one is very much a testimony as a faith builder, more for me than anything else. Thanks for the patience!
It's been the kind of weekend where you're left standing wondering why a whole lot of things happened. Why I had to meet a girl, fall hard for her, and have it all fall apart, to still have it kick me in the guts every time I see her. Why I got to achieve my dream of leading a production team making all the production needs of my church happen, to have it crumble to bits. Why it has to hurt and feel like running through treacle.
And then the foundation that I stand on tell me that it's pointless looking back, pointless to think why, but to think where to from here?
I guess without if things had worked out with me and this aforementioned girl, I wouldn't have had the guts and the impetus to apply to go back to uni and apply with the defence forces. Sure I can't see what the things I've been through are going to be used for but the promise is there, God doesn't say how but he'll use the things that have happened.
It's the promises that mean I can stand up face the new day. Thank God that He promises, also, that His mercies are new every morning!
Yeah, this one is very much a testimony as a faith builder, more for me than anything else. Thanks for the patience!
Friday, September 14, 2007
care for some porn with your coffee?
Straight up this is an article about pornography. I’ve been challenged recently in my life by this issue and by talking it over with a few close friends and members of my family am discovering that this is a bigger issue than my previously closed eyes allowed me to see. This discovery has pushed me to put my thoughts down for a few reasons including letting guys know that they’re not along in this and giving guys hope that there is a way out of the problem that you find yourself in. I figure that being able to put a face to a problem somehow makes it more real to people and somehow makes it easier to grab hold of.
I started out with the intention of writing a single post that would sum up my thoughts on the issue but quickly found that it was much bigger than one post could hope to sum up. In this day and age of the internet and the world wide waste of time the issue has escalated to greater heights with kids being able to access porn with the click of a mouse button, and more often than not unintentionally. Problem is once the claws are in, they’ve got barbs and are quite difficult to remove often leaving scars.
Analogies are my thing, as you would have discovered if you’ve been following my blog for any reasonable amount of time and this time it’s no different.
I’m a bit of a coffee lover. Not one of those “it’s gotta be just coffee, no milk, no sugar, straight from the beans” coffee lovers, but a lover of coffee because of what it does for me first thing in the morning. It has the effect of the full moon setting on a were-wolf in turning the monster into a human. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy a good cup of coffee when I drink one, but first thing in the morning (or at other desperate times) a cup of Nescafe Blend 43 goodness doesn’t go astray.
The normal method that I use to make said coffee is teaspoon (or two) of 43 beans worth of goodness, two teaspoons of sugar, hot water, then milk and stir. The amount of milk in the coffee will then determine how soon after I can actually consume it. Sometimes, however this routine is altered a little to the effect of two teaspoons of sugar in the mug, and a quarter to half a teaspoon of sugar in the mouth. Yeah, that’s right, I don’t have a problem with eating sugar every now and then. It just tastes so sweet in the mouth and at the time it really doesn’t seem like it’s affecting anything else. Problem is, after eating the sugar and experiencing the concentrated sweetness, the coffee that I’ve been looking forward to just ends up tasting bitter and foul. Not the pleasurable experience that it should be.
Nothing changed with the coffee, just the fact that the sweetener was consumed out of context. In this way sugar and porn are very similar. The way I see it, sex and all that fun stuff are the sweetener in a marriage. I know I sure as heck want a little sugar in the coffee of life when I get married because it makes being married taste the way it should. Thing is if I start to look at porn and get my sweetener elsewhere, when I come back to the relationship that the sweetener should be enjoyed within I end up with a foul taste in my mouth.
The terrible thing about pornography is that it doesn’t just affect me. It’s a bit like passive smoking in that one person enjoys the experience but other people pay the price for their actions. If I’m looking at porn then it doesn’t just affect me. It affects my wife (well, when I have one), my kids (when I have those too) and my friends and family. How does me getting a little pleasure out of looking at skin affect my wife? Well to quote “Marriable” by Hayley and Michael DiMarco
The more someone looks at porn, the more the person’s senses become deadened sexually (and the greater appetite they have for images that go further than the last ones viewed). While one might thing that porn can be compartmentalised in secret, married men who are honest will tell you that if you look at porn nightly, weekly or even once every couple of months, chances are your wife will look less and less attractive to you. And we can all agree that can’t be good for a marriage relationship.
To take that further, if it is affecting my relationship with my wife then if I have kids it can’t be a good thing for them either! They need to have a healthy example to follow of their dad being in love with their mum and that lead is endangered when pornography is brought into the picture.
This one has been focussed quite a bit on why porn is such a nasty and insidious thing and on it’s own would really leave people wondering if there is anything they can do about the addiction. It’s not a situation without hope, sure not easy to get out of but it’s do-able, so the next few posts are going to be focussed around the problems that I feel face guys who are wanting to kick the addiction and how I managed to get to where I am now. Sure, I still fall and stumble, and I have to be on my guard every day and night to prevent slips from happening but it is possible to do!
The best part is that even though we sin and fall God still picks us up and dusts us off and sends us on our way and if we want his help to kick the addiction then he will move heaven and earth to make it possible!
I started out with the intention of writing a single post that would sum up my thoughts on the issue but quickly found that it was much bigger than one post could hope to sum up. In this day and age of the internet and the world wide waste of time the issue has escalated to greater heights with kids being able to access porn with the click of a mouse button, and more often than not unintentionally. Problem is once the claws are in, they’ve got barbs and are quite difficult to remove often leaving scars.
Analogies are my thing, as you would have discovered if you’ve been following my blog for any reasonable amount of time and this time it’s no different.
I’m a bit of a coffee lover. Not one of those “it’s gotta be just coffee, no milk, no sugar, straight from the beans” coffee lovers, but a lover of coffee because of what it does for me first thing in the morning. It has the effect of the full moon setting on a were-wolf in turning the monster into a human. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy a good cup of coffee when I drink one, but first thing in the morning (or at other desperate times) a cup of Nescafe Blend 43 goodness doesn’t go astray.
The normal method that I use to make said coffee is teaspoon (or two) of 43 beans worth of goodness, two teaspoons of sugar, hot water, then milk and stir. The amount of milk in the coffee will then determine how soon after I can actually consume it. Sometimes, however this routine is altered a little to the effect of two teaspoons of sugar in the mug, and a quarter to half a teaspoon of sugar in the mouth. Yeah, that’s right, I don’t have a problem with eating sugar every now and then. It just tastes so sweet in the mouth and at the time it really doesn’t seem like it’s affecting anything else. Problem is, after eating the sugar and experiencing the concentrated sweetness, the coffee that I’ve been looking forward to just ends up tasting bitter and foul. Not the pleasurable experience that it should be.
Nothing changed with the coffee, just the fact that the sweetener was consumed out of context. In this way sugar and porn are very similar. The way I see it, sex and all that fun stuff are the sweetener in a marriage. I know I sure as heck want a little sugar in the coffee of life when I get married because it makes being married taste the way it should. Thing is if I start to look at porn and get my sweetener elsewhere, when I come back to the relationship that the sweetener should be enjoyed within I end up with a foul taste in my mouth.
The terrible thing about pornography is that it doesn’t just affect me. It’s a bit like passive smoking in that one person enjoys the experience but other people pay the price for their actions. If I’m looking at porn then it doesn’t just affect me. It affects my wife (well, when I have one), my kids (when I have those too) and my friends and family. How does me getting a little pleasure out of looking at skin affect my wife? Well to quote “Marriable” by Hayley and Michael DiMarco
The more someone looks at porn, the more the person’s senses become deadened sexually (and the greater appetite they have for images that go further than the last ones viewed). While one might thing that porn can be compartmentalised in secret, married men who are honest will tell you that if you look at porn nightly, weekly or even once every couple of months, chances are your wife will look less and less attractive to you. And we can all agree that can’t be good for a marriage relationship.
To take that further, if it is affecting my relationship with my wife then if I have kids it can’t be a good thing for them either! They need to have a healthy example to follow of their dad being in love with their mum and that lead is endangered when pornography is brought into the picture.
This one has been focussed quite a bit on why porn is such a nasty and insidious thing and on it’s own would really leave people wondering if there is anything they can do about the addiction. It’s not a situation without hope, sure not easy to get out of but it’s do-able, so the next few posts are going to be focussed around the problems that I feel face guys who are wanting to kick the addiction and how I managed to get to where I am now. Sure, I still fall and stumble, and I have to be on my guard every day and night to prevent slips from happening but it is possible to do!
The best part is that even though we sin and fall God still picks us up and dusts us off and sends us on our way and if we want his help to kick the addiction then he will move heaven and earth to make it possible!
Monday, September 3, 2007
Heavenly Dad
The more I go through life and experience that which it has to offer, and give what I have to offer, the more I realise that My God is my heavenly dad. It’s interesting to know that the jewish word Abba, used sometimes to refer to God, means daddy as we would say it. An affectionate term of love between child and father. He’s my daddy in heaven, loving me, holding onto the bike after taking off the training wheels and yelling out encouragement when I ride down the hill after he’s let go, but always there to pick me up again and kiss my hurts better and set me on my feet ready to face the world again.
Part of this journey of realisation has happened very recently and it changed my view of God from the crusty old distant being who dictates in a booming voice those things that I shall not do, to the daddy and boy in the shed making stuff. The boys hand on the plane and the daddy’s arms wrapped around the boy guiding his hands and offering instruction and gently chiding when the boy makes a mistake. He never angrily punishes the boy for the imperfections of his inexperience but gently pushes him toward a better way.
The part of this journey that I’ve just been through is realising what the 10 commandments are all about, specifically what He’s getting at when He’s telling us not to covet our neighbours anything. (Deut 5:21). I have been guilty of this, of coveting my brother and sister’s families. I am blessed to have an awesome brother and amazing sister, both married and both with their first daughters growing up before me and making me a very proud uncle. They’ve both recently made it known that they’re expecting their second little whatsit in the not too distant future too, which is fantastic news and I’m ecstatic for them. The thing for me is I would love to be married and have a family of my own. A wife and kids to whom I can be a loving husband and daddy. I have to admit that it gets me down sometimes that I haven’t done that yet and that I can’t see it happening in the near future. Really when I get this way it’s pretty much me coveting what my brother and sister have in their families. Sure there’s probably some legit desire there, but it’s made worse by me looking at what they have and wanting it.
The realisation that the advice not to covet my neighbour’s, or in this case my brother and sister’s, stuff is a gentle correction, words of advice softly spoken in my ear to stop me from getting bitter and twisted inside. If you were reading the bible as re-written by me it would go a little something like this.
I am so blessed in being able to do what I want to do when I want to. Being able to respond to phone calls on a Wednesday and be in New Zealand on the Monday after is something I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Sure it’s on my list that I want a wife and kids but I shouldn’t let that desire make what I’m doing now a bitter and twisted thing. God will give me the dreams and desires of my heart and it’ll probably surprise me big time when it happens, and when it does it’ll be a good thing.
There’s an upside to every situation, but in saying that it also means there’s a trade off. So I trust that my Abba Father has my best interests at heart when he gently scolds me for coveting my sibling’s families and get on with living the life of a single man, enjoying the upside of not being told off for burping and farting my way through life!
Part of this journey of realisation has happened very recently and it changed my view of God from the crusty old distant being who dictates in a booming voice those things that I shall not do, to the daddy and boy in the shed making stuff. The boys hand on the plane and the daddy’s arms wrapped around the boy guiding his hands and offering instruction and gently chiding when the boy makes a mistake. He never angrily punishes the boy for the imperfections of his inexperience but gently pushes him toward a better way.
The part of this journey that I’ve just been through is realising what the 10 commandments are all about, specifically what He’s getting at when He’s telling us not to covet our neighbours anything. (Deut 5:21). I have been guilty of this, of coveting my brother and sister’s families. I am blessed to have an awesome brother and amazing sister, both married and both with their first daughters growing up before me and making me a very proud uncle. They’ve both recently made it known that they’re expecting their second little whatsit in the not too distant future too, which is fantastic news and I’m ecstatic for them. The thing for me is I would love to be married and have a family of my own. A wife and kids to whom I can be a loving husband and daddy. I have to admit that it gets me down sometimes that I haven’t done that yet and that I can’t see it happening in the near future. Really when I get this way it’s pretty much me coveting what my brother and sister have in their families. Sure there’s probably some legit desire there, but it’s made worse by me looking at what they have and wanting it.
The realisation that the advice not to covet my neighbour’s, or in this case my brother and sister’s, stuff is a gentle correction, words of advice softly spoken in my ear to stop me from getting bitter and twisted inside. If you were reading the bible as re-written by me it would go a little something like this.
Don’t covet the fact that Tim and Jen are both married and have kids, that they’re settled and building their families, for you would not be able to do the things I have planned for you, like going to New Zealand at the drop of a hat, and (God willing) going back to uni and (again, God willing) joining the Air Force, if you too had a wife and kids. Don’t worry about your future, your dreams and desires are looked after, so get on with doing what I have for you now and don’t let comparing where you’re at with your brother and sister make what you’re doing now have a bitter after taste in your mouth.
I am so blessed in being able to do what I want to do when I want to. Being able to respond to phone calls on a Wednesday and be in New Zealand on the Monday after is something I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Sure it’s on my list that I want a wife and kids but I shouldn’t let that desire make what I’m doing now a bitter and twisted thing. God will give me the dreams and desires of my heart and it’ll probably surprise me big time when it happens, and when it does it’ll be a good thing.
There’s an upside to every situation, but in saying that it also means there’s a trade off. So I trust that my Abba Father has my best interests at heart when he gently scolds me for coveting my sibling’s families and get on with living the life of a single man, enjoying the upside of not being told off for burping and farting my way through life!
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Wonderful
It probably shouldn’t surprise you that I’ve managed to pull a blog from a Doctor Who episode, but it’s probably not the way in which you’d expect. I was watching last weeks episode in which the Doctor becomes a man called John Smith to hide from some creatures who will destroy earth if they find and capture him. In order to hide he becomes human, and puts all of his gallifreian nature into a watch which stays hidden until it’s open at the right time. Essentially though, when John Smith opens the watch he dies and the Doctor comes back, but John has to make the decision.
The scene from which this quote is taken is just before the watch is opened when a young boy called Timothy, who was keeping the watch, is convincing John that he has to open the watch. Tim’s words are below.
I’ve seen him
He’s like fire and ice and rage
He’s like the night and the storm and the heart of the sun
He’s ancient and forever, he burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe...
...and he’s wonderful
It reminded me of the nature of my God. When digging into the bible you find that he’s not just some warm and fluffy benevolent being sitting up in heaven watching the goings on down in the world below. He’s not some judgemental nazi who smites and destroys because He can. Sure He gets angry and can wipe out a people in a single word, but He loves and that love is all powerful. I think sometimes, and I’m guilty of this myself, that we underplay who God is.
He’s wonderful! Look outside at the trees and the flowers and the birds, the animals, the ocean, the land and the sky. He made all of that just for our pleasure and to point us to him! The stars in the sky! We can’t understand why though! Why would God do what he did for me? Why would he send his Son to die for my sins so that I might be cleansed? If I could understand it, have the answer to that question I think I wouldn’t want to know! It’s something that I’m just going to have to learn to live with, but it’ll probably be the first question on my lips for Him when I meet Him in heaven!
It reminds me of another quote from one of my favourite books.
“He’s not a tame lion...”
The scene from which this quote is taken is just before the watch is opened when a young boy called Timothy, who was keeping the watch, is convincing John that he has to open the watch. Tim’s words are below.
I’ve seen him
He’s like fire and ice and rage
He’s like the night and the storm and the heart of the sun
He’s ancient and forever, he burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe...
...and he’s wonderful
It reminded me of the nature of my God. When digging into the bible you find that he’s not just some warm and fluffy benevolent being sitting up in heaven watching the goings on down in the world below. He’s not some judgemental nazi who smites and destroys because He can. Sure He gets angry and can wipe out a people in a single word, but He loves and that love is all powerful. I think sometimes, and I’m guilty of this myself, that we underplay who God is.
He’s wonderful! Look outside at the trees and the flowers and the birds, the animals, the ocean, the land and the sky. He made all of that just for our pleasure and to point us to him! The stars in the sky! We can’t understand why though! Why would God do what he did for me? Why would he send his Son to die for my sins so that I might be cleansed? If I could understand it, have the answer to that question I think I wouldn’t want to know! It’s something that I’m just going to have to learn to live with, but it’ll probably be the first question on my lips for Him when I meet Him in heaven!
It reminds me of another quote from one of my favourite books.
“He’s not a tame lion...”
Monday, August 27, 2007
honestly... what's the point?
I've been thinking, and yeah it's been hurting. What I've been thinking about has been a direct stem from the blog I posted about a week ago which was talking about why I do what I do. What it got me thinking about is the stuff that we do as humans. Not so much the day to day things like eating or sleeping but the significant things in our lives like getting married and having families. The other part of this is that a friend of mine is getting married in October.
He's not a christian bloke and has been with his, now, fiance for quite some time. Actually it's been ever since I met him so well over two years now. Thing is he's been with her for two years living in a de-facto relationship. I don't mean to knock him for making the decision, in fact totally the opposite! I think it's a fantastic thing that they've made the decision to commit to each other publicly.
So the question that's got me thinking is what's the point? If you've been taking advantage of the things that are traditionally reserved for the union of marriage prior to it why bother getting married? If it's purely a human thing, then really why bother going through spending all the money on a ceremony? What appears to be a quaint tradition in this day and age with the steady erosion of values and morals, you've got to ask yourself what the point is when it's socially acceptable to go for it at the drop of a hat.
When God is taken out of the picture a whole lot of significant things become meaningless. The eternity factor makes a whole lot of things what they are. Marriage I guess is the example that has been at the forefront of my mind. It's not a human concept and I think we've proven it with the state of things at present. Problem with that is we tend to screw ourselves up when we do it our way. If we do things God's way then it all works out.
Not strange really, because after all he designed us, and gave us the instruction manual in the form of the bible. It's interesting to read proverbs and most people would think if you stuck some of them on a poster that they were just really good ideas and almost common sense. They just work! Not really suprising when you thing that the one who put them on paper is the one who designed us!
He's not a christian bloke and has been with his, now, fiance for quite some time. Actually it's been ever since I met him so well over two years now. Thing is he's been with her for two years living in a de-facto relationship. I don't mean to knock him for making the decision, in fact totally the opposite! I think it's a fantastic thing that they've made the decision to commit to each other publicly.
So the question that's got me thinking is what's the point? If you've been taking advantage of the things that are traditionally reserved for the union of marriage prior to it why bother getting married? If it's purely a human thing, then really why bother going through spending all the money on a ceremony? What appears to be a quaint tradition in this day and age with the steady erosion of values and morals, you've got to ask yourself what the point is when it's socially acceptable to go for it at the drop of a hat.
When God is taken out of the picture a whole lot of significant things become meaningless. The eternity factor makes a whole lot of things what they are. Marriage I guess is the example that has been at the forefront of my mind. It's not a human concept and I think we've proven it with the state of things at present. Problem with that is we tend to screw ourselves up when we do it our way. If we do things God's way then it all works out.
Not strange really, because after all he designed us, and gave us the instruction manual in the form of the bible. It's interesting to read proverbs and most people would think if you stuck some of them on a poster that they were just really good ideas and almost common sense. They just work! Not really suprising when you thing that the one who put them on paper is the one who designed us!
Saturday, August 25, 2007
...made in the image of...
I've had some interesting discussions with people who don't believe the same things that I do about the scripture in Genesis that says we are made in the image of God. It's found in Genesis 9:6. The discussions have normally gone along the lines that God must have two arms, two legs a head, eyes nose and a mouth because look at us. It's what we've got and because we're made in his image he must have the same.
I think it's a little different and it's only been recently that I've actually thought of a cohesive response to the God has to physically be the same shape as us. It goes a little something like this.
Ever had someone walk up to you and tell you that you remind them of someone. You know who they're talking about and know that you look nothing like them. Not even remotely. But it's not the looks that remind them, it's the little thinks. Little flicks of the head, small mannerisms, little speech ticks and other characteristics that aren't physical but still are similar to the other person. I think it's the same with us and God. Once we start hanging around him we pick up the mannerisms and characteristics in our personalities. We start to be infused with love and an eternal focus.
I don't quite think I've done this justice really but it's not a physical thing. I guess as christians we are like looking in the dull mirror where we can't quite make out what's in it but we can see the general outline. we wont be able to see it properly until we stand face to face and can see it for ourselves.
I think it's a little different and it's only been recently that I've actually thought of a cohesive response to the God has to physically be the same shape as us. It goes a little something like this.
Ever had someone walk up to you and tell you that you remind them of someone. You know who they're talking about and know that you look nothing like them. Not even remotely. But it's not the looks that remind them, it's the little thinks. Little flicks of the head, small mannerisms, little speech ticks and other characteristics that aren't physical but still are similar to the other person. I think it's the same with us and God. Once we start hanging around him we pick up the mannerisms and characteristics in our personalities. We start to be infused with love and an eternal focus.
I don't quite think I've done this justice really but it's not a physical thing. I guess as christians we are like looking in the dull mirror where we can't quite make out what's in it but we can see the general outline. we wont be able to see it properly until we stand face to face and can see it for ourselves.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Why do you do what you do?
This blog has been a long time coming, mainly due to the fact that the topic is probably far larger than I could ever hope to cover but I'm going to try anyway because it's something that has been weighing on my mind for quite a while, need to get the pressure off so I can get on with writing more! gotta get the flow of blogs going again so you people will continue to complain that there are far too many posts going up and you can't keep up!
Enough with the babble and on with what I came here to talk about. Why do you do what you do? It's a question that I had posed to me way back in the day when I was just getting into production. Doing sound and lighting is pretty cool. You get to play with awesome toys, make lots of noise and make buildings shake... or at least air conditioning ducts and ceilings rumble. The other side of it is that there's very often early mornings, late nights and not a whole lot of sleep involved. Some of the events I've done have resulted in a grand total of about 20 hours of sleep in an entire week, and one of the worst has been a full day from 7:30 am Saturday - 3:00 am Sunday for a Youth Alive in brisbane, to come home and have to front up for a church bump in at 5:00 am, barely enough time for an hours sleep in the middle. It's those moments when "why do you do what you do?" becomes key.
I was trying to think of the reasons why you could do something and mostly came up with things that enable you to do it.
1: Because I can. Well duh... why do you think the dog... never mind. because I can isn't enough to make you hang in there when the going gets tough. If it's as simple as "because I can" it'll be pretty simple for you to pull the pin when it seems like you can't.
2: Because it's what I do. Dangerous place to live if you tie your identity up in it. What happens then if you lose the physical ability to do it?
3: Because I love it. in this case I don't think love is being used in the context of it being a choice to love it for the good and the bad. It's a feeling of really enjoying it at the time, but if you're not enjoying it (because everything has a good and a bad side) then why keep going?
4: Because I have all these gifts and talents and I have to use them somehow. still not good enough to see you through the thick and the thin. Where's the motivation when the poo hits the fan? what's to stop you from bunking off and coming back when it's all (apparently) good again?
The only two that I could think of that really would keep you going through thick and thin to keep doing something even though it was tearing you to bits and hurting like hell were these. Theses are additions to the things that enable you to fulfil a function and keep you hanging in there when it gets tough.
1: It's my purpose to see people won into the kingdom of God.
go out into all the world and make disciples of man. I choose to endure and sacrifice the early mornings, heavy lifting, late nights and physical abuse because it's my way of contributing to church and making an environment that people can come into and hear the word of God without being distracted and so that they might be given an opportunity to come to know him.
2: to give glory to God
you're probably wondering how late nights and heavy lifting gives glory to God. Well it enables the musicians and singers to get up on stage and do their thing and praise God through music, it enables the congregation to praise him in the traditional manner. Sure I can't always lift my voice and hands to him in worship, but the attitude with which I push buttons and move faders is that I'll do the very best I can because I'm doing it for my Lord and Saviour! He gave everything for me, so the least I can do is give back of my time, my muscles and my gifts and talents... after all he gave them to me anyway!
With those two over-riding principles guiding me I'm guarded from having my purpose wrapped up in what I do. Sure I do what I do because of the purpose, but what I do doesn't determine the purpose, so if I lose my sight or my hearing I'll still be able to win people into the kingdom, and I'll still be able to give glory to God, I'll just have to come up with a new and creative way of doing it is all!
Enough with the babble and on with what I came here to talk about. Why do you do what you do? It's a question that I had posed to me way back in the day when I was just getting into production. Doing sound and lighting is pretty cool. You get to play with awesome toys, make lots of noise and make buildings shake... or at least air conditioning ducts and ceilings rumble. The other side of it is that there's very often early mornings, late nights and not a whole lot of sleep involved. Some of the events I've done have resulted in a grand total of about 20 hours of sleep in an entire week, and one of the worst has been a full day from 7:30 am Saturday - 3:00 am Sunday for a Youth Alive in brisbane, to come home and have to front up for a church bump in at 5:00 am, barely enough time for an hours sleep in the middle. It's those moments when "why do you do what you do?" becomes key.
I was trying to think of the reasons why you could do something and mostly came up with things that enable you to do it.
1: Because I can. Well duh... why do you think the dog... never mind. because I can isn't enough to make you hang in there when the going gets tough. If it's as simple as "because I can" it'll be pretty simple for you to pull the pin when it seems like you can't.
2: Because it's what I do. Dangerous place to live if you tie your identity up in it. What happens then if you lose the physical ability to do it?
3: Because I love it. in this case I don't think love is being used in the context of it being a choice to love it for the good and the bad. It's a feeling of really enjoying it at the time, but if you're not enjoying it (because everything has a good and a bad side) then why keep going?
4: Because I have all these gifts and talents and I have to use them somehow. still not good enough to see you through the thick and the thin. Where's the motivation when the poo hits the fan? what's to stop you from bunking off and coming back when it's all (apparently) good again?
The only two that I could think of that really would keep you going through thick and thin to keep doing something even though it was tearing you to bits and hurting like hell were these. Theses are additions to the things that enable you to fulfil a function and keep you hanging in there when it gets tough.
1: It's my purpose to see people won into the kingdom of God.
go out into all the world and make disciples of man. I choose to endure and sacrifice the early mornings, heavy lifting, late nights and physical abuse because it's my way of contributing to church and making an environment that people can come into and hear the word of God without being distracted and so that they might be given an opportunity to come to know him.
2: to give glory to God
you're probably wondering how late nights and heavy lifting gives glory to God. Well it enables the musicians and singers to get up on stage and do their thing and praise God through music, it enables the congregation to praise him in the traditional manner. Sure I can't always lift my voice and hands to him in worship, but the attitude with which I push buttons and move faders is that I'll do the very best I can because I'm doing it for my Lord and Saviour! He gave everything for me, so the least I can do is give back of my time, my muscles and my gifts and talents... after all he gave them to me anyway!
With those two over-riding principles guiding me I'm guarded from having my purpose wrapped up in what I do. Sure I do what I do because of the purpose, but what I do doesn't determine the purpose, so if I lose my sight or my hearing I'll still be able to win people into the kingdom, and I'll still be able to give glory to God, I'll just have to come up with a new and creative way of doing it is all!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Goats
Hi Guys
this is just to let those of you who had a dollar to give know that we've just bought a goat!
This will help to make a lasting difference in the life of a family on the african continent by giving them a supply of nutritious milk, and also opportunities to breed the animal and sell the offspring making an economic contribution to their village and community.
view the e card here
Thanks for making a difference
Mick
this is just to let those of you who had a dollar to give know that we've just bought a goat!
This will help to make a lasting difference in the life of a family on the african continent by giving them a supply of nutritious milk, and also opportunities to breed the animal and sell the offspring making an economic contribution to their village and community.
view the e card here
Thanks for making a difference
Mick
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
amplifiers
I heard an interesting one during a vox pop on 96.5 at the ecca yesterday. A young dad was being interviewed because he had probably the youngest child at the ecca with him. His daughter was two weeks old and he'd brought her out to get the ecca into her. Pretty sure it was his daughter, I could be wrong... but anyways he had three kids with him at the time.
Now 96.5 being the radio station that it is, the conversation largely revolved around the family and some question, I think it was "What's the best thing about having kids" or some other suitably pat question lead to the answer of "Kids are amplifiers", sure they're pretty loud at times but that wasn't what he meant. This bloke was actually really switched on when he said this... kids are relationship amplifiers, he explained, if you have a great relationship they'll make it even better and bring more joy, but if your relationship isn't the best at the time it'll show up all the cracks and the nasty side.
Guess it's like a comment I left on James Macpherson's blog where he was talking about character. Relationships are the same, it's not until they're under the pump that you really see what they're made of.
Now 96.5 being the radio station that it is, the conversation largely revolved around the family and some question, I think it was "What's the best thing about having kids" or some other suitably pat question lead to the answer of "Kids are amplifiers", sure they're pretty loud at times but that wasn't what he meant. This bloke was actually really switched on when he said this... kids are relationship amplifiers, he explained, if you have a great relationship they'll make it even better and bring more joy, but if your relationship isn't the best at the time it'll show up all the cracks and the nasty side.
Guess it's like a comment I left on James Macpherson's blog where he was talking about character. Relationships are the same, it's not until they're under the pump that you really see what they're made of.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
harder
I was at church last sunday night when we had one of our water baptism services. 12 people had come to the point in their lives where they wanted to make a public declaration that they are Christians, going under the water and coming back up a citizen of the kingdom of God. Part of the night involved videos of each person explaining why they had made the decision to get dunked. The one that grabbed me, not because I could identify with it but quite the opposite was a girl who made the statement that since she became a christian she was happier, like happy all the time.
That kinda struck a chord with me, probably because if anything the opposite has been true. Since becoming a Christian and making the decision that God is my Lord and Jesus is my Saviour life has been anything but happy happy joy joy all the time. If anything, life has had more downs than ups, or at least the downs have been a whole lot more intense than I remember them being prior to that. I had to think about what tangible change (if any) has been made in my life since I decided to give my life to God.
If anything the change has been that my life has become harder. Not harder in the sense of more difficult, but harder as in steel in my bones harder. Like when I decided to become a christian God put me on the table, opened me up and grafted titanium into my bones, Wolverine style... unfortunately I don't have the blades that come out of my knuckles, those would be fun. Sure life has had some major ups and downs over the last few years, sometimes leaving me standing there wondering what the heck just happened and where the ground went because it wasn't under my feet when I checked last. The world that I live in hasn't stopped having it's nasty moments or chronically stressful times, but I now have a foundation that I can stand on and build from that is more sound and solid than the natural world that I see with my eyes.
I have a relationship with a God who's promises are always true, and the only thing he can't do is lie. His promises to me are found in Jeremiah 29:11,
Romans 8:28
Proverbs 3:5-6
It's very true that what is seen in the physical world is often echoed in the spiritual world. A tree planted on solid ground with a good, well developed root system will be able to stand through the toughest, roughest of storms. Sure it suffers bruises and beatings from the storm, but it's never enough to kill it or break it. It makes it through the storm and on to live through the next day. We're the same. If we plant ourselves in God, put our roots down through prayer and reading the bible we'll become stronger and more able to weather the storm and come out of it in one piece.
The other end to the picture is the fact that God will never let anything get to you that you can't deal with. I'm not going to go into detail with this one because James Macpherson has written an incredible series on that very topic, called "Your Trouble's in Trouble" which can be found by clicking the following links
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
While it's not the nicest thing to go through the trouble and the storms of life, I have the hope that God gives that says you'll make it through, I guarantee it!
That kinda struck a chord with me, probably because if anything the opposite has been true. Since becoming a Christian and making the decision that God is my Lord and Jesus is my Saviour life has been anything but happy happy joy joy all the time. If anything, life has had more downs than ups, or at least the downs have been a whole lot more intense than I remember them being prior to that. I had to think about what tangible change (if any) has been made in my life since I decided to give my life to God.
If anything the change has been that my life has become harder. Not harder in the sense of more difficult, but harder as in steel in my bones harder. Like when I decided to become a christian God put me on the table, opened me up and grafted titanium into my bones, Wolverine style... unfortunately I don't have the blades that come out of my knuckles, those would be fun. Sure life has had some major ups and downs over the last few years, sometimes leaving me standing there wondering what the heck just happened and where the ground went because it wasn't under my feet when I checked last. The world that I live in hasn't stopped having it's nasty moments or chronically stressful times, but I now have a foundation that I can stand on and build from that is more sound and solid than the natural world that I see with my eyes.
I have a relationship with a God who's promises are always true, and the only thing he can't do is lie. His promises to me are found in Jeremiah 29:11,
11I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. 12"When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen.
Romans 8:28
He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track.
It's very true that what is seen in the physical world is often echoed in the spiritual world. A tree planted on solid ground with a good, well developed root system will be able to stand through the toughest, roughest of storms. Sure it suffers bruises and beatings from the storm, but it's never enough to kill it or break it. It makes it through the storm and on to live through the next day. We're the same. If we plant ourselves in God, put our roots down through prayer and reading the bible we'll become stronger and more able to weather the storm and come out of it in one piece.
The other end to the picture is the fact that God will never let anything get to you that you can't deal with. I'm not going to go into detail with this one because James Macpherson has written an incredible series on that very topic, called "Your Trouble's in Trouble" which can be found by clicking the following links
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
While it's not the nicest thing to go through the trouble and the storms of life, I have the hope that God gives that says you'll make it through, I guarantee it!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
An old one
this one is a repost. back from my very first blog that I started when I was at uni all the way back in 2004, it kept going until the end of 2005 and kinda limped to a stand still never to be posted to again.
If you're keen on seeing what was running through my mind all those years ago :P have a look here
anyways this is one of the last things I posted on that blog, but in my opinion it's an awesome argument for creation. Might have to elaborate on it sometime.
If you're keen on seeing what was running through my mind all those years ago :P have a look here
anyways this is one of the last things I posted on that blog, but in my opinion it's an awesome argument for creation. Might have to elaborate on it sometime.
Using a watch as a compass
Heres an interesting one... an argument for creation that I worked out while I was walking in a national park. My Dad taught me this and it's always useful and I've only just realised why its significant. The above link is relevant to the northern hemisphere, because if you point toward the sun you're facing south... in the southern hemisphere when you face toward the sun you're facing north. But anyways what blew me away was that God sorted it all out so who ever created the analogue clock/watch created it so that you could find your direction from it. I dunno if that strikes anyone but I thought that was pretty cool
Another thing, Photos... sure they help to remember things but they don't capture the moment. I think photos are like certain smells they trigger memories but there's always stuff that the photo doesn't capture. It doesn't capture the way you feel in that moment, it doesn't capture the fact that your heart was racing a mile a minute, or that you were out of breath when you took it. Sometimes they don't even capture whats going on in the scene, like the twinkling of rain drops on the leaves of a tree.
Makes ya think hey.
Monday, July 30, 2007
sufficient for me
I got lucky on the weekend. Big time lucky. I got a ticket, probably the best ticket I could ever have received. And by now you're probably wondering what kind of ticket this is. Well it was a speeding ticket issued by our local constabulary.
Yeah, that's right, I got busted for being sixteen K's over the speed limit, and it's the best thing.
You're probably thinking "wow this guy is screwed up. Shouldn't he be hacked off because he got a ticket?". Well, no I'm not hacked because this ticket has reminded me of a few important things.
1: I'm blessed that I'm not dead!
yeah, that's right. I'm blessed to receive this ticket because it reminds me that God has been gracious enough to let me stay alive. I've gone much faster than the speed that I was doing when I got caught and it's not something I'm proud of, and it have been so easy for something to have gone wrong and me ended up wrapped around a tree. How's that for being an idiot. God gives me all these opportunities and I go and flaunt it by pushing the pedal. Scoffing in the face of everything that God is trying to do in my life and he still says "I love you, and I forgive you for being a total goose".
2: I'm responsible
Yeah, it reminded me of what I agreed to. the responsibilities that I agreed to when I signed the form and paid my $55 dollars to get my licence. I'm not paying for my right to drive, I'm paying for the privilege. Along with the privilege comes the responsibilities. The privilege of scooting around the planet in a 1.5 tonne car comes with the responsibilities of driving in a way that won't endanger the people around me. If I can't handle that and choose to flout those limits then I need to cop the consequences, be it a $150 fine or losing the licence, or the guilt of a life hanging over my head.
3: God's grace is sufficient.
God's grace doesn't change what I did. It doesn't make what I did right. It doesn't mean that I should keep doing it just because it absolves my sin. I am blessed that God decided that he would take my sin away no matter what I do. It doesn't mean that I should go around and speed all the time because it's taken away. Anything but. The good thing that even though we might try our hardest we all make mistakes and he forgives us without question.
Now I've just got to do whatever it takes to keep my driving in line. He's nailed me, now it's time for me to run with it.
Yeah, that's right, I got busted for being sixteen K's over the speed limit, and it's the best thing.
You're probably thinking "wow this guy is screwed up. Shouldn't he be hacked off because he got a ticket?". Well, no I'm not hacked because this ticket has reminded me of a few important things.
1: I'm blessed that I'm not dead!
yeah, that's right. I'm blessed to receive this ticket because it reminds me that God has been gracious enough to let me stay alive. I've gone much faster than the speed that I was doing when I got caught and it's not something I'm proud of, and it have been so easy for something to have gone wrong and me ended up wrapped around a tree. How's that for being an idiot. God gives me all these opportunities and I go and flaunt it by pushing the pedal. Scoffing in the face of everything that God is trying to do in my life and he still says "I love you, and I forgive you for being a total goose".
2: I'm responsible
Yeah, it reminded me of what I agreed to. the responsibilities that I agreed to when I signed the form and paid my $55 dollars to get my licence. I'm not paying for my right to drive, I'm paying for the privilege. Along with the privilege comes the responsibilities. The privilege of scooting around the planet in a 1.5 tonne car comes with the responsibilities of driving in a way that won't endanger the people around me. If I can't handle that and choose to flout those limits then I need to cop the consequences, be it a $150 fine or losing the licence, or the guilt of a life hanging over my head.
3: God's grace is sufficient.
God's grace doesn't change what I did. It doesn't make what I did right. It doesn't mean that I should keep doing it just because it absolves my sin. I am blessed that God decided that he would take my sin away no matter what I do. It doesn't mean that I should go around and speed all the time because it's taken away. Anything but. The good thing that even though we might try our hardest we all make mistakes and he forgives us without question.
Now I've just got to do whatever it takes to keep my driving in line. He's nailed me, now it's time for me to run with it.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Letter to the editor
This blog post is in response to Mark Furler's Column in Monday's Sunshine Coast Daily and the flurry of emails, commends and letters to the editor that it generated..
My letter is below.
---
After reading the various letters that have been shredding Mark Furler’s column about the Harry Potter series to bits because of his stance on some of the values within the series I was motivated to write. Not because of whether or not I agree with any of the stances (I agree with Mark by the way) but because of the mechanism with which the values were delivered.
The series started off all light and fluffy, to quote my mum “you could have mistaken it for Enid Blyton”, with things named Muggles and Quiddich and platform nine and three quarters, nothing too nasty. The kids loved it, and the parents loved it because the kids were reading! Hurrah! Move on down the line about five books and you have something that was still readable but very much darker but with only two books to go you were hanging out for the end because you knew there were only two to go and you really wanted to know how it ends. You might not like what you are reading but you still do because of the careful engineering of the series.
Just look at the movies ratings, they went from being PG up to M, but the kids flocked to the latest in droves and the parents let them because they really don’t want to say no to their kids... And after all it’s just Harry Potter.
Guess we really need to have a good hard look at what we choose to expose our kids and ourselves to. Oh, and well done Mark on bringing this up!
My letter is below.
---
After reading the various letters that have been shredding Mark Furler’s column about the Harry Potter series to bits because of his stance on some of the values within the series I was motivated to write. Not because of whether or not I agree with any of the stances (I agree with Mark by the way) but because of the mechanism with which the values were delivered.
The series started off all light and fluffy, to quote my mum “you could have mistaken it for Enid Blyton”, with things named Muggles and Quiddich and platform nine and three quarters, nothing too nasty. The kids loved it, and the parents loved it because the kids were reading! Hurrah! Move on down the line about five books and you have something that was still readable but very much darker but with only two books to go you were hanging out for the end because you knew there were only two to go and you really wanted to know how it ends. You might not like what you are reading but you still do because of the careful engineering of the series.
Just look at the movies ratings, they went from being PG up to M, but the kids flocked to the latest in droves and the parents let them because they really don’t want to say no to their kids... And after all it’s just Harry Potter.
Guess we really need to have a good hard look at what we choose to expose our kids and ourselves to. Oh, and well done Mark on bringing this up!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
It's just, like, hey wow!
I dont know if you've ever had one of those moments where you take a look at an idea or have some kind of realisation where you're left going "hey, wow! that's awesome!". I had one of those moments (well I have them all the time) yesterday while out walking and looking around at the world.
The moment that I had involved me and the sun... more specifically marvelling at how the brightness of the sun was "just right" and it got me thinking about all the different factors tied up in making sure that this brightness was just right. Lets start from the big ones and work it all the way down to the small.
The sun itself. For starters it's just the right size, burning at just the right temperature to produce light at just the right brightness of some stupid amounts of ANSI Lumens. The other part to the sun is that it's burning with just the right balance of chemicals to produce just the right colour of light, which works in concert with the temperature to produce the colour temperature that we assosciate with white light.
The next part in this equation is the distance between the sun and the earth. It's just right... any closer and it would be too bright and any further away and we'd be squinting all the time we are outside and have the lights on the whole time we're inside
The earth itself has a major influence on how bright the light is that gets to us. The astronauts on the moon have to wear specially gold plated visors when on the surface due to the fact that there is no atmosphere to protect them from the full force of the sun's radiation. the earth's atmosphere has a major affect in how much light actually gets to us, as well as the colour of what we see.
Environmental influences aside, there are also a myriad of human anatomical and physiological factors that play a part in how bright the light is. The first is the design of the eye and more specifically the size of the pupil. I think the pupil is almost like the hole in the doughnut... probably one of the few cases where nothing has a name, but that aside, the fact that we can adjust the size of the pupil to control how much light reaches the retina is amazing. Also, that it happens without us thinking about it even more amazing. But the pupil has limitations as to how big it can get and also how small, those limitations are finely tuned to the environment within which it operates.
The next part is the design of the retina. The sensory nerves in the eye have a set sensitivity in which light is converted from an analogue signal into the digital signal that the nerves pass (yes God designed the Analogue/Digital before we even thought about it and has been operating in binary before we thought up numbers). How light is converted into digital impulses by the retina is an amazing cascade of chemical reactions that result in a fequency of impulses corresponding to the brightness of the different frequencies of light. The retina is also designed so that there is a membrane of tissue and blood vessels over the top of the sensory nerves which plays a part in how much light reaches the retina. The only place where this membrane doesn't cover the retina is called the Fovea which is the point that the eye focusses the light onto so that we can percieve the detail in the image.
How amazing it is that God took less than six days to get this right. One day, let there be light and there it was, the light called day, the darkness called night. Just right.
Let there be something between the water and the water, and the sky was in place.
Let there be two great lights in the sky, the greater to govern the day, the lesser the night.
Let us make man in our image, so God created man in his own image.
All the way through this, And God saw that it was good. I choose to interperate that as God made sure that all the details were sorted out and just so.
I look at everything in it's place and see that there could be nothing else but a creator who made sure that everything was good. Something else I think about is what it would be like if we even tried to get something like this to work on our own. What a nightmare! If it were up to us, we'd have to spend eternity working it all out before even hoping to implement the beta version of the universe, then once we'd run all the tests and picked up on all the unplanned problems, design beta2, run testing and debugging and so on until we reached something that kinda worked.
God did it in six days. And it all worked. Just like that.
How amazing!
The moment that I had involved me and the sun... more specifically marvelling at how the brightness of the sun was "just right" and it got me thinking about all the different factors tied up in making sure that this brightness was just right. Lets start from the big ones and work it all the way down to the small.
The sun itself. For starters it's just the right size, burning at just the right temperature to produce light at just the right brightness of some stupid amounts of ANSI Lumens. The other part to the sun is that it's burning with just the right balance of chemicals to produce just the right colour of light, which works in concert with the temperature to produce the colour temperature that we assosciate with white light.
The next part in this equation is the distance between the sun and the earth. It's just right... any closer and it would be too bright and any further away and we'd be squinting all the time we are outside and have the lights on the whole time we're inside
The earth itself has a major influence on how bright the light is that gets to us. The astronauts on the moon have to wear specially gold plated visors when on the surface due to the fact that there is no atmosphere to protect them from the full force of the sun's radiation. the earth's atmosphere has a major affect in how much light actually gets to us, as well as the colour of what we see.
Environmental influences aside, there are also a myriad of human anatomical and physiological factors that play a part in how bright the light is. The first is the design of the eye and more specifically the size of the pupil. I think the pupil is almost like the hole in the doughnut... probably one of the few cases where nothing has a name, but that aside, the fact that we can adjust the size of the pupil to control how much light reaches the retina is amazing. Also, that it happens without us thinking about it even more amazing. But the pupil has limitations as to how big it can get and also how small, those limitations are finely tuned to the environment within which it operates.
The next part is the design of the retina. The sensory nerves in the eye have a set sensitivity in which light is converted from an analogue signal into the digital signal that the nerves pass (yes God designed the Analogue/Digital before we even thought about it and has been operating in binary before we thought up numbers). How light is converted into digital impulses by the retina is an amazing cascade of chemical reactions that result in a fequency of impulses corresponding to the brightness of the different frequencies of light. The retina is also designed so that there is a membrane of tissue and blood vessels over the top of the sensory nerves which plays a part in how much light reaches the retina. The only place where this membrane doesn't cover the retina is called the Fovea which is the point that the eye focusses the light onto so that we can percieve the detail in the image.
How amazing it is that God took less than six days to get this right. One day, let there be light and there it was, the light called day, the darkness called night. Just right.
Let there be something between the water and the water, and the sky was in place.
Let there be two great lights in the sky, the greater to govern the day, the lesser the night.
Let us make man in our image, so God created man in his own image.
All the way through this, And God saw that it was good. I choose to interperate that as God made sure that all the details were sorted out and just so.
I look at everything in it's place and see that there could be nothing else but a creator who made sure that everything was good. Something else I think about is what it would be like if we even tried to get something like this to work on our own. What a nightmare! If it were up to us, we'd have to spend eternity working it all out before even hoping to implement the beta version of the universe, then once we'd run all the tests and picked up on all the unplanned problems, design beta2, run testing and debugging and so on until we reached something that kinda worked.
God did it in six days. And it all worked. Just like that.
How amazing!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
The Techie Bible
GENESIS
In the beginning there was the Stage, and the Stage was without lights or sets, and darkness was on the faces of the actors. And the Technical Director said, "Let there be Lights!" and the Techies worked and wired, and there were lights. Spotlights and specials, areas and backlighting - yea, lights of all shapes, sizes and hues. And the TD saw the lights, that they were well aimed and focused, gelled according to the scene, and no more was there darkness on the faces of the actors. And it was good. And the evening and the morning were the First Day.
And the TD looked upon the actors and saw that although they walked in light, they did walk upon a bare stage, and had no place to be, and the TD was moved to pity. And the TD said, "Let there be a Set!": and the Techies scrambled and worked, and there was a set, with platforms, wagons, stairs, and furniture of various types and sized, each according to the need. And the actors did walk within the set, and did have a place to be. And the TD saw the set, that it was good, and the evening and the morning were the Second
Day.
And the TD saw the actors, that although they did have a place to be, they did look like fools, for they waved their hands, clutched at open air, and struck each other with nothing. And in his heart, the TD was moved to pity. And the TD said, "Let there be Props!": and the Techies worked feverishly and
did buy and build, and there were props. And they were good, and the evening and the morning were the Third Day.
And the TD looked upon the actors, and saw that they did go forth in blue jeans and the TD knew that this would not due. And the TD said, "Let there be Costumes!": and the Techies did cut and sew and shape, and there were costumes, each sized to the actor, according to the play, and keeping in with the role. And no more did the actors go forth in blue jeans and the TD saw the costumes, that they were good, and the evening and the morning were the Fourth Day.
And the TD watched the play, and saw that the actors did wait in silence, and was moved to pity. And the TD said, "Let there be Sound!": and the Techies worked and taped, and there were sounds, each according to its place and cue, all at the proper levels. And the TD heard the sounds, that they were good, and the evening and the morning were the Fifth Day.
And lo, all these works were completed in five days, showing that if God had used sufficient Techies in the first place, He would have finished sooner.
More here... if you're not a tech, don't expect to get it. It's a real niche humor thing ok! If you're talent then you might get it but don't be surprised if you're the butt of some of it.
In the beginning there was the Stage, and the Stage was without lights or sets, and darkness was on the faces of the actors. And the Technical Director said, "Let there be Lights!" and the Techies worked and wired, and there were lights. Spotlights and specials, areas and backlighting - yea, lights of all shapes, sizes and hues. And the TD saw the lights, that they were well aimed and focused, gelled according to the scene, and no more was there darkness on the faces of the actors. And it was good. And the evening and the morning were the First Day.
And the TD looked upon the actors and saw that although they walked in light, they did walk upon a bare stage, and had no place to be, and the TD was moved to pity. And the TD said, "Let there be a Set!": and the Techies scrambled and worked, and there was a set, with platforms, wagons, stairs, and furniture of various types and sized, each according to the need. And the actors did walk within the set, and did have a place to be. And the TD saw the set, that it was good, and the evening and the morning were the Second
Day.
And the TD saw the actors, that although they did have a place to be, they did look like fools, for they waved their hands, clutched at open air, and struck each other with nothing. And in his heart, the TD was moved to pity. And the TD said, "Let there be Props!": and the Techies worked feverishly and
did buy and build, and there were props. And they were good, and the evening and the morning were the Third Day.
And the TD looked upon the actors, and saw that they did go forth in blue jeans and the TD knew that this would not due. And the TD said, "Let there be Costumes!": and the Techies did cut and sew and shape, and there were costumes, each sized to the actor, according to the play, and keeping in with the role. And no more did the actors go forth in blue jeans and the TD saw the costumes, that they were good, and the evening and the morning were the Fourth Day.
And the TD watched the play, and saw that the actors did wait in silence, and was moved to pity. And the TD said, "Let there be Sound!": and the Techies worked and taped, and there were sounds, each according to its place and cue, all at the proper levels. And the TD heard the sounds, that they were good, and the evening and the morning were the Fifth Day.
And lo, all these works were completed in five days, showing that if God had used sufficient Techies in the first place, He would have finished sooner.
More here... if you're not a tech, don't expect to get it. It's a real niche humor thing ok! If you're talent then you might get it but don't be surprised if you're the butt of some of it.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Would the real DeckChair Danny please step forward
How's this for awesome. A man has flow over 300km in his lawn chair, suspended under about 100 balloons filled with helium.
the courier mail story can be found here
Just goes to show that if you really put your mind to something you're going to pull it off.
On a semi related note, I can't remember where I heard this, but I've been thinking a whole lot about what it takes to be great and some of the points I've either heard or been inspired with are as follows
1: Be focussed.
Achieving something great or with a great impact is akin to the difference between a shotgun shell and a sniper rifle.
2: Don't let good enough get in the way
Good enough is a sure fire way to make sure that everything you do is mediocre. I think that was pretty much my attitude throughout school. If I could get away with the minimum amount of effort, that's all I'd do. The result of that was a spate of HA's and SA's throughout highschool. It was only when I started getting picky about my assignments and putting the effort in to make sure the details were correct, and everything was in order, instead of "that'll do" that my results started picking up.
3: Greatness requires sacrifice.
It might be time, effort, or even choice, but there will be a sacrifice there somewhere. Just make sure the sacrifices are worth it. Is the greatness that you're going after driven by a selfish pride or by a desire to elevate those around you to a higher place in relation to their lives?
4: Greatness requires teamwork.
I'm pretty sure Nehemiah couldn't have rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem by himself. With this point also comes the recognition that people fulfil different functions within the team. Some will be leaders, some will be do-ers. There's a new team function that I've realised can actually be really powerful, and that is the solution developer. Basically I'm trying to exploit a characteristic of mine where I can come up with an awesome solution to a problem but never pull it off. Now I'm sure I could but for some reason I rarely finish stuff. But I really think that some people are awesome for thinking up solutions to curley problems, and then others who aren't so creative are the ones who can take the idea, run with it and finish it off.
I guess this is a bit preachy, but what it boils down to is me wanting to make an impact in the world. And really greatness has nothing to do with it. If I want to make an impact in the world then I need to pray as my father in heaven taught me. It's got nothing to do with me and what I do, but with God and what he chooses to do through me.
The lords prayer NIV
Matthew 6:9-13
9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.[a]'
Or the Message translation
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
the courier mail story can be found here
Just goes to show that if you really put your mind to something you're going to pull it off.
On a semi related note, I can't remember where I heard this, but I've been thinking a whole lot about what it takes to be great and some of the points I've either heard or been inspired with are as follows
1: Be focussed.
Achieving something great or with a great impact is akin to the difference between a shotgun shell and a sniper rifle.
2: Don't let good enough get in the way
Good enough is a sure fire way to make sure that everything you do is mediocre. I think that was pretty much my attitude throughout school. If I could get away with the minimum amount of effort, that's all I'd do. The result of that was a spate of HA's and SA's throughout highschool. It was only when I started getting picky about my assignments and putting the effort in to make sure the details were correct, and everything was in order, instead of "that'll do" that my results started picking up.
3: Greatness requires sacrifice.
It might be time, effort, or even choice, but there will be a sacrifice there somewhere. Just make sure the sacrifices are worth it. Is the greatness that you're going after driven by a selfish pride or by a desire to elevate those around you to a higher place in relation to their lives?
4: Greatness requires teamwork.
I'm pretty sure Nehemiah couldn't have rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem by himself. With this point also comes the recognition that people fulfil different functions within the team. Some will be leaders, some will be do-ers. There's a new team function that I've realised can actually be really powerful, and that is the solution developer. Basically I'm trying to exploit a characteristic of mine where I can come up with an awesome solution to a problem but never pull it off. Now I'm sure I could but for some reason I rarely finish stuff. But I really think that some people are awesome for thinking up solutions to curley problems, and then others who aren't so creative are the ones who can take the idea, run with it and finish it off.
I guess this is a bit preachy, but what it boils down to is me wanting to make an impact in the world. And really greatness has nothing to do with it. If I want to make an impact in the world then I need to pray as my father in heaven taught me. It's got nothing to do with me and what I do, but with God and what he chooses to do through me.
The lords prayer NIV
Matthew 6:9-13
9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.[a]'
Or the Message translation
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Twenty Six Summers
Been listening to a new album that's just been brought out by a very talented worship writer who goes by the name of Vicky Beeching. The album is called "Painting the Invisible" and contains some brilliant worship songs, including a hymn called "The wonder of the cross". Another fantastic feature of this CD is the fact that the chord charts are included with the lyrics for all of the songs that you would want to play for church. Love that idea!
One song in particular hit home to me today and summed up life for me so far, especially over the last two years or there abouts. The song is called "Twenty Six Summers" and is basically, in the words of a review that I read today, a love song to God. Probably no coincidence that I happen to be 26 this year either, but as far as I know God doesn't deal in coincidence... everything is planned out to perfection. I digress.
The lyrics of the song that hit home are these:
Certainly over the last year and a half there's been stuff happen in my life that I've been left wondering why I had to go through that, and I get the feeling that for some of them, probably most, I won't get to find out what the reason was until I die and go home. But I do know that the promises for me are good... promises for a future and a hope, so I look forward to the things that God has planned for me, uncertain as to exactly what they are, but pushing forward toward the dreams and desires that he's placed in my heart!
One song in particular hit home to me today and summed up life for me so far, especially over the last two years or there abouts. The song is called "Twenty Six Summers" and is basically, in the words of a review that I read today, a love song to God. Probably no coincidence that I happen to be 26 this year either, but as far as I know God doesn't deal in coincidence... everything is planned out to perfection. I digress.
The lyrics of the song that hit home are these:
Through twenty-six summers
And twenty-six winters
I’ve laughed in the spring time
I’ve cried in the rain
Though I’ve questioned the meaning
Of some of life’s seasons
It’s true that they’ve left me holding on tighter to You
Certainly over the last year and a half there's been stuff happen in my life that I've been left wondering why I had to go through that, and I get the feeling that for some of them, probably most, I won't get to find out what the reason was until I die and go home. But I do know that the promises for me are good... promises for a future and a hope, so I look forward to the things that God has planned for me, uncertain as to exactly what they are, but pushing forward toward the dreams and desires that he's placed in my heart!
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