For two months now I’ve participated in Lisa-Jo Baker’s “Five-Minute Friday” (you can find all my Five Minute Friday posts in the ‘related posts’ at the bottom). The concept is simple, and brilliant:

Write for 5 minutes, straight from the heart, on that weeks theme  - given by Lisa-Jo – and then share it.

No edits, no marinading or reflecting – just write and share.

If you’re a writer or blogger, I’d recommend it – it really challenges and helps you grow as a writer. It’s most definitely helped me and I look forward to it every single week

Today’s theme is ‘View’. I hope you like the post, and please do let me know your thoughts (or should that be ‘views’)  in the comments below. Here goes:

As we go about our daily lives, our view often gets very narrow. We can even stand on a beach and look out to see. But the view ends. The horizon comes. There are continents, oceans and all sorts of variety out in creation. But when you zoom out, go into space, you can see the whole world in all it’s glorious awesomeness.

Your view changes.

It’s true in life too. When my Mum died, I was angry, upset, Continue Reading…

For the last eight weeks now I’ve participated in Lisa-Jo Baker’s “Five-Minute Friday” (you can find all my Five Minute Friday posts in the ‘related posts’ at the bottom). The concept is simple, and brilliant:

Write for 5 minutes, straight from the heart, on a theme given by Lisa-Jo – and then share it.

No edits, no marinading or reflecting – just write and share.

If you’re a writer or blogger, I’d recommend it – it really challenges and helps you grow as a writer. It’s most definitely helped me.

Today’s theme is ‘Song’. I hope you like the post, and please do let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Here goes:

I love singing. I love putting my iPod on and pretending I am on a band on stage, in my room.

I was recently making a dent in my sofa after doing some cleaning and tidying. I felt I’d earned it. I let my body go like a sail with air through it, and just relaxed. I was tempted to turn the radio or TV on. But for some reason I didn’t. I just stopped.

I listened to the voices inside my head. You know, the voices we all have but choose to ignore. The random thoughts. The reflections.

And as listened, realised there was so much more in there than empty space or jumbled thoughts.

My mind was playing pictures, images, words, thoughts. I could see them all happening at once, like a movie playing in the infinite cinema of my Continue Reading…

For the last seven weeks I’ve participated in Lisa-Jo Baker’s “Five-Minute Friday” (you can find all my Five Minute Friday posts in the ‘related posts’ at the bottom). The concept is simple:

Write for 5 minutes, straight from the heart, on a given subject – and then share it.

No edits, no marinading or reflecting – just write and share.

If you’re a writer or blogger, I’d heartedly recommend it – it really challenges and helps you grow as a writer. It’s most definitely helped me.

The topics which Lisa-Jo comes up with each week have a funny way of calling out something God has been doing in my life that week, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this. It’s strange that way – and it’s one reason I love it.

Today’s theme is ‘Comfort’. I hope you like the post, and please do let me know your thoughts in the comments below. So here goes:

When you’re a Christian, it’s very easy to get a particular image of God. A God who is simply waiting to punish us, holding on to catch us out. So when we inevitably screw up – which, let’s face it, we all do – it’s easy to go beyond taking responsibility and to punish ourselves. I’ve done this many a time.

Been convicted of something I’ve done wrong, then punished myself. It’s not done any good. All it’s done is made the issue worse. Instead of actually dealing with the issue, I’ve become depressed, negative and lost all confidence. And that’s not condusive to growth.

What we’re called to do is take responsibility for our dark side, and commit to positive change.

We aren’t called to punish ourselves. We aren’t called to judge ourselves. And God isn’t sitting there waiting to punish us. He’s sitting there waiting to love us. Forgive us. Comfort us. And transform us.

We simply need to own the truth about ourselves and our actions. Then, choose to live differently.

We need to understand the grace of Continue Reading…

If we’re honest with ourselves, we’re all broken.

Admit it. You  have insecurities, doubts and fears. You may never share them or let others in on them, but they are there. Buried deep inside. Often not confronted – which only makes them worse.

Life does this to us. It makes us anxious and afraid, then destroys us from the inside.

Three of the biggest myths about brokenness:

1) We have to have it all together to have a meaningful life.

2) We are the only ones who’ve experienced it.

3) There is no way out of our brokenness.

To tackle them briefly in turn, I suspect if you looked at most of the people who’ve succeeded in the world, the ones you think most have it together, and saw what was really going on, you’d see they were just as messed up as you.

Secondly, if Continue Reading…

For the last six weeks now I’ve participated in Lisa-Jo Baker’s “Five-Minute Friday” (you can find all my Five Minute Friday posts in the ‘related posts’ at the bottom). The concept is simply writing for 5 minutes, straight from the heart, on a given subject – and then sharing it.

No edits, no marinading or reflecting – just write and share.

If you’re a writer or blogger, I’d definitely recommend it – it really challenges and helps you grow as a writer. It’s certainly helped me.

The topics which Lisa-Jo comes up with each week have a funny way of calling out something God has been doing in my life that week. It’s strange that way – and it’s one reason I love it.

Today’s theme is ‘Brave’. I hope you like the post, please do let me know your thoughts in the comments below. So here goes:

When we hear the word ‘brave’ we often think of taking big risks. Making a jump. To paraphrase a well-known TV show and film series, going boldly where no man (or woman) has gone before.

But I’ve learned recently saying yes to every opportunity for the sake of being courageous, or taking a risk, isn’t being brave.

It’s not taking a risk at all.

It’s actually more Continue Reading…

For the last five weeks I’ve participated in Lisa-Jo Baker’s “Five-Minute Friday”. The concept is simply writing for 5 minutes, straight from the heart, on a given subject – and then sharing it.

No edits, no marinading or reflecting – just write and share.

If you’re a writer or blogger of any kind, I’d definitely recommend it – it really pushes you and helps you grow as a writer.

Today’s theme is ‘Friend’ – which was a testing one given I wrote a post on it last night and was shattered after a busy week. But I had a go. So here’s my thoughts on ‘Friend’ – do let me know what you think!

How many friends do you have? In a world where we can ‘friend’ people we’ve never met by social media, we can be friends with lots of people we’ve never met. I have hundreds of Facebook friends and over 1000 Twitter followers.

But am I really ‘friends’ with all of those?

What really is a friend?

I think the meaning of the word has been lost, or diluted. We’ve made ‘friend’ a byword for someone we’ve had one conversation with online or Continue Reading…

Rob Bell tells a story in his new book about how when he first became a pastor, a member of his church came up to him after a service said to him ‘If you want to see real church, go to an AA meeting’. So he went, and when it came to his turn, just said ‘pass’.

He said after a while he began to realise something.

It was a “bullshit free zone” (his phrasing).

No hiding. No being polite in front of people. No disguising your weaknesses. No protecting yourself.

Just owning who you really are. Being vulnerable. Making yourself naked before others. Admitting your dark side. No hiding.

As I began to reflect on this I realised this would be a great model for church.

We’ve all experienced or heard about churches where secrets are kept. Where people hide their weaknesses. Where fear of being exposed governs behaviour. It happens all too often in the modern church.

But this isn’t church. It’s a Continue Reading…

For the last month  now I’ve participated in Lisa-Jo Baker’s “Five-Minute Friday”. The concept is simply writing for 5 minutes, straight from the heart, on a given subject – and then sharing it.

No edits, no marinading or reflecting – just write and share.

If you’re a writer or blogger of any kind, I’d definitely recommend it – it really pushes you and helps you grow as a writer.

And today I’m doing it again. Today the theme is “Jump”, and I struggled with this for two reasons. First, I’ve recently written a post called ‘Why we all Need to Jump‘ and second, I was initially feeling too tired to write.

However, I managed to write this on my i-phone on the way home:

Right now, as I write, I don’t feel like jumping. The energy in my body at this moment makes me feel like simply giving up.

I feel like I am jumping too much, diving headlong into commitments and risks without a second glance, I don’t stop to look before I leap.

Now looking before you leap can be a bad decision occasionally. It fills us with fear and we take a step back. But at others it can be wise.

Because jumping into too many commitments at once just isn’t healthy.

Why? Because Continue Reading…

On Monday I was at Union Chapel in London, to hear Rob Bell (left) talk about his new book “What we talk about when we talk about God” (which, by the way, is awesome), and do a question and answer session.

As ever, Bell was top class, proving himself again as an exceptional speaker and communicator, and his message really resonated with me.

But one other element struck me whilst listening to him speak.

The energy he had sharing his message. The infectious enthusiasm for the topic. The heart behind his talk. As he drew towards the end, he was moved almost to tears sharing his heart with us.

The water welling up in his eyes crystallised just how much he cared about his message. How what he was sharing was not simply a speech prepared for an audience, as much as it was an outpouring of his heart.

You got the impression this was man who has no care Continue Reading…