by James Webb
It’s been curious to track the passage of Covid-19 by the newspaper headlines. We’ve gone from a story announcing that ‘Something is Happening Over There’, to a stream of stories announcing that ‘Something is Now Getting Closer’, to a barrage of headlines telling us that ‘Something is Now Here. HERE! IT’S HERE!’.
Six thick, long ropes of licorice. I’ve never seen the like, and neither have the children. They can barely contain their excitement. The red one is strawberry, the green one apple, the blue one blueberry and so on. Five different children and six different licorice ropes. Read more
On my desk sits a copy of Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete and Unabridged I’ll have you know). It’s not there for the reason you might think it is. Read more
Every now and then I’m going to find myself short of inspiration and time, and still needing a weekly blog post. In these moments of emergency, I’m going to mine my previous blog for something suitable (you remember my previous blog – the one I wrote while in Australia? I mentioned it a few weeks back). Anyway, this is one of those times. Here’s some decade old musings on purpose and happiness. I was quite the deep thinker in those days…
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(Once again, I wrote a devotion for our church’s week of prayer. Once again I’m using it as my blog post for this week.)
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” (John 17:24)
This morning the streets of Canterbury, in the early wind and rain, are almost deserted. It makes a nice change after the Christmas excess. Read more
Last week, I went shopping for orange juice. In Tesco’s they had a special offer, which I assumed had something to do with the fact that the four cartons of juice in front of me all had ‘Happy Christmas!’ written on them. The use-by date was the end of January. That was fine; we’d get it drunk by then. As I picked up the juice I noticed that behind it were all the newer, non-festive cartons. They were still on offer, but these ones had a use-by date for the end of February. Read more
Sometimes the Holy Spirit says, “James is distracted and hasn’t got his guard up – let’s plant a bomb in his head.”
I was just on my way to the school to collect the children, and my phone pinged. It was a message from someone who works with me, Read more
Ruth reminded me that this is not just any old New Year. This is the end of the 2010s and we’re about to embark on the roaring 20s. I actually found this encouraging. Read more
Christmas is a bit overwhelming. There’s a lot going on; a lot of demand on my head-space. Normally, it’s busy enough in there, what with the daily news headlines and the pace of life. Read more
It’s another Christmas. I begin to suffer from festive deja vu around now. I walk through town, past the same pop-up stalls and window displays that I saw last year. I sit in front of the TV, wrapping presents, trying to remember if I did exactly this same thing last year, Read more
