The Beauty in Brokenness

By • February 5, 2020 • Blog

Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything, That’s how the light gets in. Leonard Cohen, Anthem The world is broken. Systems are broken. The government is broken. The environment is broken. We are broken. And with it, we are brokenhearted. Amazingly—given how universal brokenness is—we never seem to make our peace with brokenness. It continues to outrage us, even though we’ve never known anything different. But our hearts break for …Read More

Restless, till we find the right kind of restlessness

By • January 31, 2020 • Blog, blogging

by Glen We were talking about singleness but we could have been talking about anything. “Finding someone” was the way into the conversation but the way out requires us to set aside “finding someone”. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that in this post, even though we’ll begin with that issue. Really I want to talk about “satisfaction in Christ” and “finding your identity in Jesus” and all that stuff that trips off good Christians’ lips. What on earth does …Read More

Hope when faith fails

By • January 24, 2020 • Blog, blogging, teaching

Here’s me presenting the Daily Service for Radio 4, based around Mark 9:20-24. Thanks so much to all of you who have been praying Share…FacebookTwitterTumblrPinterestStumbleUponDiggemail

Body Neutral and the Bible

By • January 7, 2020 • Blog

The Best Me January is a very confused month. On the one hand, ‘time to treat yourself! Book a holiday! Schedule in time-out. Nurture, regroup, recover.’ On the other, ‘Time to discipline yourself. Rein in all the excess. Work harder, achieve more, be The Best You.’ So what is ‘The Best Me?’ Our culture traditionally offers two answers to this question. The first is to focus on physical change aka Getting A New Body (through fitness, diet, surgery or whatever). …Read More

A Hope-filled New Year – whatever we face

By • January 1, 2020 • Blog

One from the archives…   This year.  You can have Hope. Whatever you’re facing; (and even if you’re refusing to face it). Not a wishy-washy sense that everything will be okay. Not a feeling or a temperament. Not a stake in something that can be torn away. Hope. Not something you work up by yourself. Not dependent on those around you. Not about your house or your health or your happiness. Hope. Not for other people. Not for when you’ve earned it …Read More

Gospel for the festive frazzled

By • December 9, 2019 • Blog

1. “You are worried and upset about many things.  But only one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:42). Look at the context of this passage.  Martha is wrapping presents, stuffing turkey, decorating the tree, baking mince pies and keeping the whole show on the road.  She’s feeling neglected and stressed – but her solutions aren’t helping.  She doesn’t need a spreadsheet – or even a special reading plan. Just one thing matters – time with Jesus! Whatever our surroundings, the Lord …Read More

Light has dawned: guest post

By • December 5, 2019 • Blog

Thanks so much to Sharon, for this wonderful advent meditation for those suffering from mental illness. She writes; …. I suffer from depression, a symptom of my schizoaffective disorder, and, if I’m honest, I find these few weeks leading up to Christmas difficult. As I write, I am sitting in my kitchen. It’s mid-morning, but it’s dark, with heavy cloud pressing down upon the house. The low pressure makes me feel claustrophobic, and part of me just wants to go back …Read More

Childlessness and Church: Guest Post

By • November 28, 2019 • Blog

Last week a reader emailed, to ask if I would write a post on involuntary childlessness.  She said, ‘We as a Christian couple haven’t been able to have children, but not by choice… It’s not what we wanted but it’s where we are… I just want folks to think a bit!’ Glen and I have had some experience of this, but I wondered if anything I wrote would sound glib, given that we’ve now had Ruby and adopted a wee …Read More

No-one expects..the Podcast Inquisition

By • November 27, 2019 • Blog

James Cary is Mr Podcasts and I was fortunate enough to be inquisitioned (is that a thing?) by him for The Inquisition Podcast. Listen in here as I talk about my story and the difference Jesus makes. And do subscribe to the Inquisition — a fab new podcast. Share…FacebookTwitterTumblrPinterestStumbleUponDiggemail

The One Who Is Comfort — God the Spirit

By • November 21, 2019 • Blog

It’s the last in our series on the Trinity.  And to round it off, here’s a wonderful guest post from Glen… “Remember guys,” said the youth leader, with wide-eyed, hyper-Haribo, youth-leader enthusiasm, “the Spirit is NOT an it. It’s a He!” The lesson the youth leader wanted to teach is the lesson he needed to learn. He knew that the personhood of the Spirit was important. Technically. But that didn’t change the way he related to the Spirit. He knew he should call …Read More