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 (more…)

Today I’m doing a little experiment. I’m taking part in a little event called ’5 Minute Friday’. Each week a bunch of bloggers are challenged to write for just 5 minutes on a subject, and then post it. As it is. With no time to edit or correct at all. It’s all linked up to Lisa-Jo Baker’s blog where you can find more info. So today, I’m taking my first tentative step on this journey – on the theme of Rest. Let me know what you think!

On the weekend of my birthday this year, I felt I needed a rest. I’d just launched a book and done a lot of writing and promotional work, and was absolutely exhausted. I wanted to take some time off writing and social media, and just chill out and recharge. But nevertheless, I felt guilty about it.

Like somehow the world would end if I didn’t rest.

Now I like rest. No doubt about it. Rest can be awesome, relaxing and a lot of fun. But in a busy world, where a common phrase is “I’m just too busy”, it’s easy to feel guilty about rest. I did then, and we all do at times.

Why? Well, because (more…)

The eagle-eyed of you may have noticed a distinct lack of new material here in the last month or so. I decided to take a bit of what is commonly called a ‘sabbatical’ from posting new material here (though some guest posts have appeared elsewhere).

I’d love to give you all nice Christian jargon to explain this, like I ‘felt God leading me to’ or ‘it was a time/season of resting’ (come on, you’ve all heard this language before).

But that’s not really me, I’d rather just be myself and be honest. So here’s the deal.

I lost all motivation and energy for posting, and realised my motives were getting distorted.

Writing  – more specifically posting  – was getting me down. It had become a burden.

I posted out of fear of failure and anonymity, to be popular and successful. This fear had also subtly impacted my writing itself, in subtle ways. I had begun writing for everyone else.

What I felt I should write, what would be popular.

Writing and posting had become an idol. (more…)

Hello all! Today is the third and most likely final in my ‘Best of the Blog (So Far)’ series. (You can find the other parts here and here).

Before we get to the topic of today’s posts, (which as you can probably tell, are more personal in nature), I’d like to put in another quick mention of my upcoming newsletter.

One value that’s really important to me is to connect with my readers – you. So in the very near future I plan to be sending out a monthly newsletter. This will not only keep you up to date with what I’m doing and what’s happening here in a much more simple and accessible way, but will have the bonus of containing some exclusive content for you.

I’d really love to connect more with you all and have some exciting, exclusive material I really want to share with you – so I’d love to invite you to subscribe here (it’s free by the way!).

Hi all, welcome to my second posts on the ‘best of the blog’ (so far) which I’m publishing whilst taking a sabbatical from posting new material. Here I’ll be sharing some of my most read posts and some of the ones which mean the most to me.

Just before we get to that, I’d to put in another quick mention of my upcoming newsletter.

One thing that’s important to me is to connect with my readers – you. So in the very near future I plan to be sending out a monthly newsletter.

This will not only keep you up to date with what I’m doing and what’s happening here in a much more accessible way, but will have the bonus of containing some exclusive content only for subscribers.

I’d really love to connect more with you all and have some exciting, exclusive material I really want to share with you – so I’d love to invite you to subscribe here (it’s free by the way!).

Now back to the best of the blog. Today we’re focussing more on posts on issues concerning social media and faith. As ever, there’s a little except (more…)

As you’ve probably noticed, this month I’m taking a break from posting new material. There will be more on my reasons and the outcomes of this next month, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

But in the meantime I simply wanted to share with you some of my most read posts from the last 18 months or so.

For each post I’ll share a link to the post along with a small excerpt to give you a taster. I hope you are really blessed by these posts, and I look forward to sharing some new material with you very soon.

Abstinence: A dirty word?

Sex. So often it’s a taboo subject for Christians. I know I’ve never really written on the subject before (more…)

Today I’m going to be going back to the topic of social media . In the time since I last blogged on the subject I’ve decided that this topic is far too big to merely have a short-term series on it.

The issue of social media is so significant  and there are so many areas to cover that we need to devote time to it, and so from now on it’ll be one of the ongoing discussions/themes of my blog.

I recently decided to take some time off from social media. I’ve always believed it important we take regular sabbaths from social media  – but I’d always struggled to really lay it down and actually do it.

Which is a good sign that I really needed to stop.

So with the help of a couple of accountability partners, I decided to spend 48 hours out of the digital realm.

Cut off. No Facebook, no Twitter, no Google + or e-mail, for 48 hours. (more…)

Christmas has now been and gone. It’s less than a week and we’ll be into the new year – which is only two months away from my next birthday.

It’s a time where you naturally come to reflect on what God has been doing in you in the past year, what might lie ahead in the year to come and begin to get some perspective on things. It’s a natural process and one I tend to go through in the last couple of months of every year.

It’s strange, looking back, just what God has been doing. To be honest, it’s nothing like I expected at the beginning of the year. I realise now looking back, that I had all these plans of what God was going to do this year, how I was going to grow, what was going to happen.

It hasn’t happened anything like I planned – and I thank God for that.

One thing that I am feeling overwhelmingly right now though, at the end of the year, is thankfulness.

I have seen people I love pass on to be with Jesus this year. I have seen good friends lose their jobs, homes or in some cases loved ones. All this has happened in my immediate community, and impacted my world. I have been praying this year for people to find jobs, find homes and for God’s comfort in their grief. I have also had the privilege of seeing people I care for make a public commitment to Christ and be baptised, which has been a source of great joy.

At the same time, God has been taking me on a journey inside myself, into my own heart. He’s been exposing truths about me – some I knew existed, some I didn’t, and it hasn’t been pretty.  (more…)

Time passes so quickly. It hardly seems to be December, yet we are already two weeks into Advent, coming into our third week. Having spoken of shalom, the peace of God on the blog already this advent, and also about how we need to embrace the God who is all around us right here, right now, it seems right today to speak about grace.

I won’t pretend for one moment I can answer all the questions all of us have around this subject, or cover it wholly and completely in one short blog post. But I want to at least have a worthy examination of the subject.

What do you think of when you think of grace? Personally, I think of undeserved merit. Something given without thought of reward, without condition. We talk of people in some situations showing us grace, or being gracious toward us or when faced with difficult circumstances.

Grace is often talked about as a quality we display in certain situations or circumstances – a quality some people possess, and some don’t.

In other words, a specific type of personality.

The thing is, I don’t believe that grace is simply a quality that some possess and others don’t – not in terms of a personality trait.

No. I believe true grace is very different, much greater than that.

Read the quote below: (more…)

This weekend is the first of Advent. Can you believe it, still November and it’s advent already? Christmas within touching distance. It’s amazing how time flies isn’t it? Hardly feels that long ago since the start of the year, and advent is here already.

Personally, I love advent, largely because thus far, in its truest meaning, it’s been spared from the corruption of consumerism. As Christians we can still take this time and really focus on the heart of the Christmas message, the coming of Christ. Consumerism has it’s own ‘advent’ I grant you, with advent calendars and present buying, but the actual heart of advent has escaped the consumer trap.

Advent, for me, is a time of both preparation and remembrance.

Preparation, as we prepare for the coming of Jesus, we start to ponder anew the meaning of His coming and our own response to that.

Remembrance, because we begin to remember his coming and it’s implications for us and the world around us, and we begin to look back over the past year and see what God has been doing in our own lives.

Often it’s good at those times it’s good to stop and reflect. So during this advent, I’m hoping to write a few blog posts on some of the themes and issues we encounter at this time of year.

First, I want to look at the the theme of peace – or rather, shalom. (more…)