Everything I’m reading at the moment seems to point to the necessity of Christian suffering. It’s not a message I’ve been seeking. In fact, I keep trying to post it back. I turn the pages of the bible. I put on a different song. I pray, ‘Ok God – but not for me. Not now and frankly, not ever.’ This week I even picked out a book entitled ‘Joy’ as an antidote. (It turned out to be about the joy that comes …Read More
An incredible family – and an incredible story. Thank you James and Virag. “I received an email recently, with the subject “the words no parent ever wants to hear”. When I opened the email, to find the sender was a healthcare company making a trivial point about the suprise of running out of nappies, I was rather exasperated. Over the past three and a half years, I have heard too many things that no parent ever wants to hear. …Read More
Guest post from Glen: How do you capture the grief of losing a five year old child? Ryan and Amy Green, a Christian couple from Colorado, made a game about it “That Dragon, Cancer“, which people are calling “the most profound videogame ever.” Since Emma showed it to me, I can’t stop thinking about it. It did not begin life as a memorial. The game was birthed while hopes were high for Joel’s healing. He had been diagnosed with brain cancer …Read More
When bad things happen to you or the people you love, how do you try to comfort them? “It’s not so bad?” “It’ll all work out for the best?” “Things could be worse. I heard of one guy who…” “Don’t waste time worrying about it.” If you’re a Christian, maybe you say this: “God’s in charge so He must have caused/wanted this.” “God has made it happen for a reason, even if we can’t see it.” “God doesn’t want …Read More
Most of the time, I live life like I’m dreaming. Maybe you’re the same. It takes no effort – the minutes propel us forwards, into routines of socks and schedules and sandwiches. Days, weeks, months…years like waves, lulling us to sleep. Life – unchanging, except for a peppering of balloons and wreaths; anniversaries, birthdays and deaths. But sometimes, something happens to shake us awake. An event. Perhaps a tragedy. And once we’ve been woken, we can’t go back to sleep. The world looks …Read More
Here’s a question. If I’m a Christian then why do I feel so messed-up? Isn’t Jesus supposed to come in and deal with the bad? And if it doesn’t happen instantly,well HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE? Isn’t the Christian life about getting better? And in the meantime, what am I supposed to do with all my stuff? I’ve been a Christian now for years. By this stage I should be jumping the toadstools of suffering and going straight to the …Read More
Sometimes I read things in the Bible and think, fair enough. But sometimes I struggle. Sometimes, I have to suppress an audible snort. Romans 5:3 is a case in point. ‘Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope’. 13 years ago Glen and I were just about to get together. He’d been reading Phil 3:10 and (in a moment of madness) prayed, ‘Lord, if it will …Read More
Where have we come from? Where are we headed? Cosmologist, Laurence Krauss, thinks he knows. Listen to this 5 minute video which summarizes his book “A Universe from Nothing.” Krauss sees a beautiful symmetry to our cosmic history: From nothing, we’re heading nowhere as our universe is flung out to its inevitable heat death. We are, therefore, an infinitesimally small blip in cosmic time, birthed out of nothing, suspended over the void and headed for annihilation. Krauss realises that his scientific theories …Read More
When I take funerals, I’ll occasionally say these words at the graveside – they’ve been made famous by the old Book of Common Prayer: Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay. They are words from Job 14 communicating the brevity of life. We’re like cut …Read More
Guest Post from Glen on the story of Job: So here’s the story: Job loses his wealth, his health and his family in a series of extraordinary calamities. The reader is aware – though Job is not – that the whole thing began in heaven with a kind of wager between the LORD and Satan. The LORD is proud of His servant Job and so permits truly diabolical attacks which He knows Job will endure. But the suffering is intense. …Read More
