by James Webb
I’m sitting in Gatwick airport in that limbo just before we’re supposed to board our plane – that space when you’re simultaneously on holiday and not on holiday. It’s Schrodinger’s Holiday. As I sit there, I’m reading Jesus’ words in John 12:24-28. Read more
I’m going to take a blog break for a couple of weeks over the summer, starting after this post. This is the first break I’ve taken since I started in 2015, so I don’t feel guilty at all. I’m going to leave you with a thought, something you can mull over while I’m off-line, and then we’ll pick up with business as usual in a couple of weeks. OK? Good.
The thought is this: you are contagious.
Don’t worry. So am I. Read more
Reid has already left for school with his mum, while Calvin sleeps on in his GCSE-free zone. Xanthe is somewhere in the house, killing time by listening to music at a volume level chosen for the purpose of agitating her younger brother. I ask Parker about his homework. He declares in a loud voice that he needs some alone time and marches out into the garden. Imogen, sitting at the table munching on her cereal, doesn’t even look up from her book. Read more
I don’t have much to say this week, which is fine. I’ve been talking a lot recently.
All I want to announce is that, as of yesterday, Ruth and I have been married for twenty years.
I know that doesn’t sound like much to some of you, but it’s kind of a big deal to me. Not because I’m amazed that we’ve lasted this long, or anything like that. Rather, because it’s an opportunity for me to reflect, and in doing so confirm something that I’ve known for a while – namely that I’m happier with my marriage now than I was when we first started out two decades ago. Read more
I’ve just written a blog post.
But not this blog post.
I was reflecting on something that had happened to me years ago, and I thought the experience would make a good post. It was an interesting situation, personal and significant, with a strong applicable lesson at the end. In short, it was perfect blog material. Read more
I preached a sermon this week; the main thrust of which was the message that God does not demand perfection of us. Afterwards, I sat down, feeling flat and disappointed because I felt like the sermon hadn’t gone perfectly.
I must be growing, because it only took me a few moments to realise the irony of the situation. Read more
Sometimes a song or a story or a poem will generate a powerful emotional response in me by putting into words something that is buried deep within, something I haven’t really given shape to myself yet. This is what art does. Why just the other day I was listening to someone explain how he had been left shaken by listening to a short story that somehow managed to encapsulate his own experience of childhood. Read more
(I warned you that I’d be writing more poetry. Good poetry doesn’t need an explanation, so you can be sure that what follows is not a good poem. It came out of a thought I’m sure many of you have had; Easter is now so normalised that it can be easy – even for followers of Jesus – to take for granted things that shouldn’t. Anyway, it’s not a great poem, and comes across a bit more cynical than I’d like. I don’t want you to think that I’m some kind of Easter Scrooge – I actually quite like chocolate eggs and holidays, but I also quite like the last two lines. If I had the time I’d try and fix what I think is wrong with it, but there’s an Easter blog due, so…) Read more
I’m making a conscious effort in 2019 to develop my skill at writing poetry. I’m trying to learn and understand the rules, with marginal success, though you may notice an increase in the amount of poetry that appears on the blog as I experiment. You are nothing more than guinea pigs to me. Read more
We’re about halfway through Lent – the length of time where we prepare for the good news that Jesus would not stay dead.
I think I like the idea of Lent more than I like Lent itself. Don’t get me wrong, I think Lent is a good thing – a timely and excellent reminder – and I’m sure that many people benefit from it’s place in the calendar. However, because things like reflection, discipline and ritual all have an important home in my spirituality, I don’t think that they’re tools that should just be dragged out of storage for a forty-day chunk of the year. I try to make them a regular habit and so that aspect of Lent seems – dare I say it – a tad redundant to me.
Furthermore, Easter is not a time where things slow down and opportunities for reflection increase – quite the opposite. I imagine many of you face the same situation. For me, Easter sees an increase in workload regarding children, family, school and church. Making time for solitude and space for reflection feels like even more of a luxury at this time of year, so I’m grateful that it’s already a part of my life. Instead my greatest need during the March/April madness is to make sure that I’m constantly inviting God into the middle of whatever smoke and thunder makes up my life each day.
Although it’s important and totally right to celebrate Easter each year, I know that I need Jesus and his resurrection every day of my life. I suppose that my hope is that I carry the attitudes of Lent with me 365 days a year, instead of for just forty.
