Puncture a human heart and it will bleed; pierce it spiritually and the result is tears.

Columba Stewart, Prayer and Community: The Benedictine Tradition

I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships so will our healing.

Wm Paul Young, The Shack

This is a health and safety announcement, this is a health and safety announcement. You may be hit by a ball.

I know on an individual level my behaviour is influenced by the size of the audience. Anything over two and I’d rather not know. What about on a larger scale?

There has been a huge amount of reporting of economic events – “credit crunch”, “financial tsunami”, “World growth worst for 60 years”, “Grim predictions for UK economy”. The internet news pages and 24 hours news channels all need their content and the economic situation is the latest story subjected to the media frenzy.

Now the mass media we have these days can be a good thing. World events are instantly in our living rooms or on our mobile phones. We were able to watch the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony from our hotel in Italy last Summer. Great.

There isn’t always things that need reporting though. It’s not a case that the media makes things up, but the stories get laboured far more than they would have 15 years ago. I remember seeing job losses on a scoreboard on the ITN News at Ten. But that was once a week I think. Unemployment isn’t as high as it has been in the past. Inflation is a lot lower than it has been. Interest rates are at record lows. But I think the population has been scared into thinking it isn’t safe to spend your money because it is going to run out. I think it is more about confidence than reality. And confidence is being undermined by a repeated doom and gloom message from the media.

In the words of Private Fraser, “we’re all doomed”.

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Cicero, 55 B.C.

Angel Chimes

A Christmas edition of this feature that I was reminded of when Mrs A and I visited the Christmas Shop in Lechlade this weekend.  They were selling them as the original Swedish Angel Chimes. I didn’t realise they were Swedish in origin, but they must have been the feature of many households in the 1970s.  We had one, my friend who lived across the road had one at his house and Mrs A had one too!

I found a You Tube clip, but it didn’t have very good sound, so I’ve put in this photo.  When the candles are lit, the heat drives the top round and round causing the bars hanging under the angels to strike the bells.

Lovely!

Did anyone else have one of these?

When you plant a tree, you need to put a stake in the ground to give it support.  Many people put the stake parallel to the tree trunk and tie the tree to the stake at a high level. The stake will keep the tree upright as it grows, and at some point in the future you can remove the stake.  But the tree won’t have endured much testing.  The stake will have prevented much strengthening in the trunk as it was growing. And this lack of strength is the cause of many mature trees uprooting.

Instead, the stake should be put at 45 degrees to the trunk, with the tree tied not far off the ground.  This method will mean the tree when it is growing will sway in the wind more, which will help the tree grow a stronger trunk. And a stronger trunk will mean the tree can endure more powerful storms.

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
Romans 5:1-5, NIV

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Gil Bailie