Review of 2012- from where I stand

• Most memorable national event: Definitely the London Olympics. I'm not a sports person myself, but so enjoyed watching the grit, determination, skill and humanity of the atletes. A wonderful event, made possible by a host of willing volunteers. Thank you to you all.
• Most memorable family event: the birth of our first grand child who is a real joy.
• Most unusual thing I did this year: Pulling a fibre optic cable through a marshy nature reserve with about 100 volunteers to give visitors and scientists a better view of what was happening in the osprey nest on the reserve.
• Saddest moments of the year: when a 5 year old girl was abducted and murdered in a nearby town, when an 11 year old girl was shot by the Taliban for championing education for girls in Afghanistan, and more recently when an Indian student was gang raped on a bus in Delhi and later died of her injuries.
• Personal achievements of the year: surviving a whole year of running my own company: selling two of my paintings at Easter; being instrumental in setting up two new local community groups; being elected as a town councillor; exhibiting at several conferences and managing the logistics involved without mishap;
• Most addictive TV programme: Downton Abbey. I started watching series 3 having not watched previously, and enjoyed it so much that I borrowed and watched the whole of the first two series as well!
• Most influential sermon of the year: In fact this is a series of 6 sermons preached by Alan Hewitt several years ago about the Biblical view of the role of women. He examines the Biblical evidence carefully and rationally and comes to the very liberating conclusion that God created man and women to be equal and that there is no scriptural basis for excluding women from any ministries of the church. Although I have not felt oppressed in previous churches, I nevertheless felt very liberated by hearing him say what I have always really believed to be true. This series is having a deep impact on my awareness of the oppression of women globally.
• Best Christmas present: We gave each other new wedding rings, having "expanded" out of our previous ones. A very good gift to celebrate 31 years of marriage.
• Best film of the year: Untouchable. I've watched lots of films on DVD which are not necessarily this year's films.  Untouchable is a film from this year and well worth seeing.
• Moments that I want to bottle and keep for ever: Seeing otters in the river close to home- my first ever sighting in the wild; the amazing autumn colours this year; my grand daughter's smile;

Serious or glorious?

I was thinking about the posts I have written and thinking that maybe it was all getting a bit too deep and serious.
 I suppose I could have started a blog for videos of cute kittens and laughing babies. I could have tried a comedy blog, but really I'm not funny enough. I could have blogged about something very intelligent and abstract to try to get a cultural following.
Somehow all of these seem just hollow. I'm a reality girl myself. I like to talk about what is real and honest. Life sucks sometimes and covering it up with a sticking plaster of casual entertainment just doesn't seem to do justice to how we are feeling. It's like patting someone on the back and saying "You'll soon get over it," when they have just announced that their marriage has ended. Platitudes just won't wash.
However, life is also glorious and unexpected and hilarious sometimes. I'm all for being honest about that too!
I have enjoyed this autumn like no autumn that I can remember. The wet summer followed by a sudden cold snap in October meant that all the trees turned over a few short weeks and it was superb. How I enjoyed photographing it all, and now how I am enjoying painting it too!

 

Actually life is both serious and glorious, often at the same time! So I guess my blog will always have elements of both. I hope you can cope!
:-)

Sorrow upon sorrow

No one could feel anything other than profound sorrow at this time when a lone gunman has murdered at least 26 people, 20 of them children.
We will never know what was in his mind as he pulled the trigger time and time again.
The human suffering caused by this violent act will never be fully appreciated.
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Sin is the biggest enemy of our world. But there is an answer.
It's not easy to understand because it doesn't fit with our human way of dealing with things. But then our human way of dealing with things hasn't got us very far, so maybe we ought to look at what God says.
God says that sin separates us from him and that we can't deal with it on our own. The people of Israel were always turning their back on God and trying to find their own solutions to problems they faced. It was always God who provided the solution- plagues to persuade Pharoah to release the people from captivity, water in the desert, pillars of fire for guidance etc.
God also said that he would save the people from their sin by providing a child. The words of prophets gave clues about what the people of Israel should expect long before Jesus, who many accepted as the Messiah, was born.

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.

Isaiah Chapter 9

We wouldn't look to a child to save the world from sin, but then "the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength."

At a time of sorrow upon sorrow, humanity needs an answer to sin. How I long for the peace, justice and righteousness announced by Isaiah.

Joining up the dots. . . . . .

I am in the middle of looking at signage in my town. It is reinforcing to me the serious problems that we as a society have with joining up the dots. There are so many bodies and organisations doing a bit of improvement here and there and what you end up with is a mess! There are so many styles of signage, so many different colours, many out of date or pointing the wrong way, or pointing to things which have moved or closed down. It is a real dog's dinner.
There seems to me to be real mileage in removing ALL the signs and starting again from scratch, but no one ever has the vision or budget to do it.
This isn't just an isolated problem though. You can see the same thing in so many spheres of public life. Lots of people wanting to make things better, but ending up duplicating what another group is doing or simply cutting across it.
Resources are wasted and people get frustrated. There must be a way of communicating better.

I am aware that actually we communicate with each other more than ever before, but I am not sure that quantity makes up for quality. I am bombarded with hundreds of emails that I neither wish to or have time to read. Surely there must be a better way of co-ordinating our efforts and working with our communities in mind.

I think I will start up a campaign group called Join the dots to campaign for joined up thinking! Actually -too late- I typed it into Google and it is, amongst other things, a market research company.

Maybe Join the dots could sort out our signage!

So where has all the money gone?

I guess this article will prove that I didn't learn much when I did economics at school!
Where has all the money gone?
We receive money, both individually and as nations, when we do a job or sell something or provide a service. We pay out money when we buy goods or services. This suggest that if the money goes out of my pocket, it goes into someone else's. On a global scale, surely it means that if one country is spending the money, another country is receiving it.
This is the basis for my simplistic view that money is like the tide. If it's out here, it must be in somewhere else!
So how can there be a global recession?
Is there a country somewhere receiving lots of money and then burning it as fuel? I just can't get my head around it.
I just know that the news this week that the UK may not get out of debt until 2018 at the earliest is very bad news.
Everything has gone topsy-turvy in the world. How can you be in boom one year then just a few years later be in recession? How did it happen? What changed and why did no one see it coming?
My final mind-boggling question is, "Is it real/true anyway?" (I know- I'm beginning to sound like a conspiracy theorist!)
Take people I know. Essentially life is the same as it was before, except that they are more worried about the future, financially, and less inclined to spend money. This leads to a reduction in sales and demand for services, which affects businesses. Those businesses become worried about the future financially and start to reduce their workforce. People lose their jobs and it gets in the paper and on the TV. Then my friends and neighbours read the news and become more fearful about the future and the whole thing goes round in a self fulfilling prophecy loop. So who started the loop and on what basis?

I suppose I am not really questioning whether there is a recession- the evidence is all around me BUT I just can't help wondering what it all really means...........................

Sin again!

I guess, if you have been reading my blog posts sequentially, you may have been amazed that I have written two longish posts on sin without mentioning God at all. Well, that's about to change!

The reason that I didn't mention God before was that sometimes people read the word "God" then switch off to everything else that is written in the same paragraph. I guess I wanted to show how sin is part of our everyday experience and inseparable from many of our troubles and problems in life(whether we believe in God or not) . I also wanted to recognise the fact that sin isn't just "out there" but is also "in me".

Where that leaves us is.......sunk! Because sin is endemic, we are in no position to help ourselves out of the mess we are in.

That's why I have to mention God now. Christians believe that God reveals himself and his plans through the Bible, but also that they can and do experience him in their day to day lives.

Atheism seems to be very fashionable at present, with some high-profilers making a lot of noise about trying to get rid of religion. They cite wars and injustices done in the name of God as the justification for their claim that religion is a poison. They unsurprisingly do not document wars and atrocities carried out by atheists such as Stalin, PolPot and others.

These atheists have been very successful at spreading their views but if you stand back and look dispassionately at organisations fighting for social justice, looking after the poor and marginalised and improving conditions for everyday people, it is hard to find one which was not started by Christians. Many still have a strong Christian ethos today.

We can all point to terrible historical events carried out in the name of religion, but honesty compels us to acknowledge that our world would be a very different place today if it weren't for the influence and actions of Christians throughout the ages, in all spheres of life.

In addition are the evidences of radical changes in people's lives. Churches are places where you will find ex-alcoholics, ex-drug-addicts and ex-criminals. Why? Because God has made a change in them from the inside out.

That is why God has to come into the picture if you want to find a remedy for sin. God can change people inside, in a way which no education programme or prison rehabilitation programme can.

So how does God deal with sin and make a difference in our lives? You'll have to wait for another installment, as I have to go and make supper!

Enjoying life

I have to admit to being very happy with my life. It is crazy-busy and complex at times, but actually I just love the variety.
In the last week I have:

• Gone to photograph litter on an estate and seen waxwings (rather beautiful migrant birds) on bushes next to the path
• Delivered posters around town centre shops and talked to shop keepers
• Made mince pies and cardboard angels
• Taught 4 -7 year olds in Sunday School
• Visited a huge marble "temple" for the worship of materialism, namely the Trafford Shopping Centre in Manchester
• Worked on two different paintings
• Seen a video of my 6 month old granddaughter pulling herself up to standing
• Chaired a meeting to set up a footpaths and bridleways group
• Attended a lunch for prospective town clerk candidates
• Sent out an email newsletter to customers

And that's just the stuff I can remember!

One thing that occurs to me is that, though I haven't always enjoyed life, I have never wanted to live anyone else's life. Even when I was being bullied at school, I didn't wish to be anyone else. Although I did often wish to be me in a different time and place!
I wish I had known then what I know now, about living at peace with yourself, accepting the bad things as a season that will end (as all seasons end) and about enjoying the things that are in front of you. It is hard to be entirely downcast when there are waxwings, mincepies and granddaughters to be appreciated and enjoyed!

That Sin-King feeling

Okay so dogs took over the blog yesterday. I had to get my moan out of the way! Now back to sin.

I was thinking about what I would call this post and, being rather partial to puns, was thinking of words that start with "sin". When I thought sin-king, that seemed quite good, but the more I have thought about it, the more I realise how appropriate it is.

The reason we all find it so difficult to talk about sin is that we are all people living in glass houses, who really shouldn't throw stones.
Well I haven't murdered anyone- yet- but I have found that sin has a persisitent hold on my life. Anger, pride, self-centredness and greed are neighbours who spend a fair amount of time in my house. Despite my good intentions, I can't seem to stop them visiting. Even moving to Wales hasn't thrown them off the scent!

I have to face the fact that sin is often king of my life, which makes it all the more difficult to talk about sin as a real issue for our society. Nevertheless, it is.

In my previous post on this subject, I talked about the financial cost to our communities, but really the human tragedy is the cost that we as a society cannot afford.
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Just take a few moments with me to think about the many ways in which individuals are mangled and torn apart by sin.
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It's horrendous. Within a couple of minutes the list grows longer than one can bear to contemplate.
That's why sin is an issue which needs our urgent attention.

Who really believes that there is no such thing as sin or morality, right or wrong? When the rubber hits the road, nearly every one of us recognises that people do good things and bad things, and we applaud the right and hate the wrong, the unjust and the cruel.

So what can we do to address sin in ourselves and in others?

Dogs are like Marmite....

...you either love them or you hate them.
Maybe it's going a bit too far to say that I hate dogs, but I never really trust them. Some of my friends have dogs and I cope with having them around, providing they don't jump up and lick my face, but I just don't enjoy them.
Man has had a long association with dogs and I know that many are perfectly well behaved and are like one of the family. However, there are far too many dog owners who do not take their responsibilities seriously.
The amount of dog fouling in public parks is unpleasant, but the number of reports of dogs attacking people is horrifying. Just in the last week, a new born baby was killed by a Jack Russell, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Just type "dog kills baby" into Google and you will see a huge tragic list of such cases.
You may wonder what brought on this blog post. Well it was the annoyance I felt when a visitor to my house, someone I had not met before, turned up for a meeting with me, with their greyhound type dog. As a non dog-lover, I felt that that was out of order. I politely said that the dog could go into our courtyard garden, but then had to resist the emotional pressure put on me by the visitor saying, "He doesn't seem very happy out there."

I guess the thrust of what I feel is that people lose all sense of proportion when they have dogs.
How else could you explain the behaviour of my visitor?
How else could you explain the insensitivity of someone saying to you, "It's alright, she won't bite!" when their dog has cornered you on a public footpath, barking furiously?
How else could you explain a family allowing a dog to roam around freely when they have toddlers in the home?

I don't want to alienate my doggie friends, so apologies if I have hurt your feelings. But please do remember that your dog is, in fact, a dog.

The big one- sin!

Having just seen a photo of shoppers in America pushing and trampling to get bargains in a pre-Christmas sale, it's just got to be done.
I'm going to talk about sin.

The funny thing is that everyone knows what sin looks like, but nobody wants to talk about it.

I heard a definition of sin as "I in the middle" which I think sums it up well.
Sin is when what I want is more important than what you want, when doing things my way becomes a number 1 priority.
When I become the star of my own show and think that everything in life revolves, or should revolve, round me, that is when people get hurt.
A murderer thinks that their own pleasure in killing takes precedence over the right to life of another human being.
A thief justifies their crime by citing their needs and desires.
A person trampling another to get to a bargain, is shouting aloud that they consider their needs as more important than anyone else's.

We all recognise sin when we see it and we are all affected by it.

Why are insurance premiums climbing all the time? Because individuals exploit the system and make false claims. Each bogus claim is putting the financial desires of one person before the needs of a greater group of people. And we all pay.

Sin affects the amount of tax we pay- hugely!  Would our national budget be in such a state if we didn't have to pay to keep people in prison? If there was no sin, would we need a police force or an army? If there was no violence, hospital Accident and Emergency rooms would be empty on a Saturday night. The list goes on.

So the question is, why, when it has such an effect on our lives, are we so anxious to avoid mentioning it. It must be the number 1 of all unpopular words. Why is sin the elephant in the room?

That is a question I will leave you mulling over. I'll tackle it tomorrow.

The pros and cons of Christmas lights

Over this weekend, we have put up our Christmas decorations. I know it's only November still, but the town is having the Christmas lights switch on this coming Friday, and as we live in the town centre, we try to have our lights up by that time.
I experience a strange mix of enthusiasm and guilt, because, when I casually go to the local shop to buy a new string of fairy lights (which I seem to do every year!), it reminds me of what a wasteful, throw-away nation we are. Fairy lights are designed to break- of that I am absolutely sure.
That is why every light string you buy has a different shaped bulb holder, just so that when you have used the four spare bulbs, there is no chance that some you rescued from a now defunct set will be any use. I have a pot with about 60 mini light bulbs which have been accumulated over the years, When we found a dud bulb in a string, not one of those bulbs was suitable.
The reuslt is that when you use all the spares, you simply throw the whole lot away, wire, plug, bulb holders and all and buy a new set. (Good for the manufacturer's business!)
And this is only one aspect of the chronic waste that occurs at this time of year. I make a strenuous effort every year to stop my husband buying crackers, but every year I fail. "It's tradition!" he cries.

Anyway, I have put up lights in every window facing onto the street and it looks lovely. Now comes the second guilty feeling about the amount of energy the lights will use, even though some are low energy. And they have probably been made it China and travelled thousands of miles to my house.

There is no doubt that living beyond our environmental means is so ingrained in our lives, that even when you are aware of it and try to reduce your wastefulness, it is easier said than done!

Do badgers play board games?

We had a friend around for supper yesterday evening and ended up playing a board game- our favourite "Settlers of Catan".*
I think I must have a really weird brain because I was suddenly struck by the amazingness of mankind being able to make rules to govern a fictional situation, have abstract goals and to choose to sit together playing a game, which has no real outcomes, except the opportunity to chat with friends. Being me, of course, I had to voice my thoughts which led to a hilarious conversation about whether badgers play board games or rabbits sit in their burrows with a pack of cards!

It is mindblowing how complex our bodies and minds are. Sometimes when I'm cooking, I wonder how long it would take to program a robot to do all the little tasks required to make a simple meal and whether it would be edible at the end!
Or when I travel in cities and see all the people going about their business, each with their own life, goals and relationships. My mind wonders at the level of order, with all those people following the written and unwritten rules of society and the patterns they have learnt. "Go to the ticket machine, put in metal dics to obtain a bit of card. Slide that piece of card into a machine at the entrance to the station. Follow signs to platform 7." The more you think about thinking, the more you realise how stupendous it all is.
As I said, I have a pretty weird brain!
One thing I just can't get my head around though, is how all this order could have happened as a result of a chance collision between atoms.



* Settlers of Catan is a great board game, not too complex, doesn't involve knocking players out and can be done and dusted in a couple of hours. Highly recommended. www.catan.com

Really bad things happen (2)

I feel I should come back to this knotty painful subject.
Horrible things happen to good people, or at least to those who haven't done anything particularly wrong, and we find ourselves asking the question which has no answer, "Why?"
Why did a five year old girl get abducted and murdered by someone she knew in a safe rural community? Why did a six year old boy, full of life and fun, get maimed and then killed by meningitis related septicaemia?
People deal with these questions in diffferent ways.
I've already described the "head in the sand" approach.
There's the "Find someone to blame" reaction. (The parents didn't take enough care. The doctors weren't skilful enough. etc)
The fatalistic approach of "Que sera, sera" can seem passive and uncaring.
Anger is quite usual and God often takes the blame for the unfairness of the situation.
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(The stars are me pausing and reflecting.)
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What would God himself say in response to these tragedies?
I think he would weep with those who weep. He would have compassion on those who mourn, just as he did when summoned to the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He would demonstrate his love in a way that was meaningful to those in sorrow. He would also help them to find a way through the sorrow to a place of peace.
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When people say that God is uncaring or doesn't understand their pain, they forget that he has seen his son unjustly accused, beaten, tortured and murdered and has forgiven the murderers.
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To discuss this question of suffering fully, you have to mention that unfashionable word, sin, and that very fashionable concept, free will. I think that's a subject for another day.

A drop in the ocean

I have been out delivering posters today to advertise all the good things that are happening in my town over the Christmas period. Most of the shopkeepers and business owners were very pleased to find out the councillors were doing something, because, like many towns across the country, the town centre and retailers are struggling here.
A few shop keepers were negative. One said, "Pretty soon the town will be gone, with all the businesses closing."
That got me thinking again about the need for a positive attitude in life. It is just so easy to be negative and to focus on what you haven't got.
I am an optimist by nature. I do get pushed down by circumstances, but haven't the energy to stay depressed for long.
I have also always believed that one person can make a difference in this world.
This is probably because of stories we were told in assemblies (many moons ago) about people who had made a mark in history- people like Florence Nightingale, Emeline Pankhurst, David Livingstone, Mahatma Gandhi and Jesus. Each of them had a vision that was larger than themselves and battled on in the face of opposition to make a difference to the society in which they lived.
A few years ago, I watched the film "Amazing Grace"* which was about the life of William Wilberforce, who was a giant amongst those who have changed history (yet did not see the changes he fought for during his lifetime.) He struggled with bitter opposition on many sides, yet held true to his fundemental belief that all men were equal and that none should be slaves. His life is truly inspirational.

There are many wrongs and problems in society. People say, "What can I do? It's just a drop in the ocean."

Well my "drop" this week is taking posters round to advertise the town, but I'm not stopping there. One person can make a difference. We can't all be Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Theresa, but every life makes ripples.

*If you haven't seen "Amazing Grace" I thoroughly recommend it. www.amazinggracemovie.com

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."  Philippians 4:8

Is faith just blind naivety?

I have not forgotten my post of yesterday, but want to think about faith today.
Faith. It's a much maligned word these days. There are plenty of militant atheists who will say that faith is self delusion and that the world is better off without it.
There was a time when I would have said that I was an athesit too. At secondary school, I learnt that the Big Bang was true and that science had effectively proved that God doesn't exist. It didn't occur to me at that stage to doubt my teachers. It was only when I was a student at college that I met people who thought otherwise.
Faith is said to be a cop out because it involves believing in something or someone you can't actually see, but is that a reasonable conclusion?
There are many things we cannot see and yet still believe in and slot into our understanding of everyday life: air, magnetism, sound, love, gravity, life, death, power, electricity, democracy.... I am surprised, just writing that list, about how easy it is to think of things!
So in 1980 I went from being a person who believed there was no God, to someone who believes that God is real. The process was a combination of logical weighing of the evidence and experience of the effects of God in my life.
I believe in electricity because I had it explained to me at school (not that I understand it even so!) and also because I can see its effects.
It was the same with coming to faith in God. I looked at evidence for the life of Jesus, for the historical basis of scripture and at how the universe displays a design that seems more than accidental. It seemed to make sense. But just as electricity would stay as head knowledge if you never switched on a switch or plugged in an appliance, I had to experience the effects of God in my life in order to know for certain that he is real.
Looking at my list-

• I have breathed the air and felt the effects of not being able to breathe it underwater.
• I have felt love for my family and experienced their love for me.
• Gravity pulls me and other objects towards the ground.

In the same way, I have felt the effects of God in my life and I could no more deny his existence than I could say that gravity is a myth. So is faith self delusion simply because we cannot see God? I, of course, do not agree.

Really bad things happen

Today on Facebook, I learnt that a six year old boy I had never met had died of acute septicaemia and I cried. A few weeks ago a five year old girl was taken from the street near her home and it seems very likely that she has been murdered by a family acquaintance.
Really bad things happen.
There are many different responses to these horrible events.
The "head in the sand" approach is how I deal mentally with what is happening in Syria . I'm not saying that it is right, but sometimes I am just afraid to let the human tragedy of the situation in. It seems like a flood of murky water that will engulf me if I allow even a chink in my defensive armour. I read a headline, but don't go further, or if it comes onto the news I somehow allow the shocking words to run around my mind, rather than seeping in.
I couldn't stick my head in the sand when April vanished, because I had helped to plant fruit trees at the corner of her estate and know people from the village, which is only 30 miles away. I prayed for her safe return and could imagine a tiny part of the grief and anguish that her parents were going through, and still are.
And today I heard that Caden had died, having followed the story of his battle for survival through the gruelling testimony of his family, mainly his father, who gave a daily update on Facebook. I really respected the way in which faith, hope, love and despair were woven through the whole story of Caden's sudden illness and desperate fight for life.
Maybe faith in a loving God is easier when everything is plain sailing, but it is never more vital than when things are going horribly wrong.
That's all I have to say for now. My heart feels too heavy to know what to write next, but I will return to this painful subject soon.

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies....

I was in the car for about 15 hours over the last few days, so listened to a range of CDs, including some Christian worship albums, a CD by a Scottish accordion player called Gary Innes*, the second/last Daniel Bedingfield album and a compilation of great rock ballads, which are good for driving to.
I was listening to the rock ballads, when a song by Fleetwood Mac came on with the words "Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies". That got me thinking about how familiar and popular songs can really affect and warp our idea of what relationships are really like.
This song suggests that the singer would rather be told "I love you" even if it's a lie, than hear the truth. What a poor basis for a relationship.
One thing that I have learnt is that lies are always destructive. When you discover that someone you trust has lied to you, it makes you question what they say in future. You find yourself thinking, "Is that really what happened, or is he/she just saying that?" Trust can be rebuilt, but it takes a lot longer to rebuild than it did to destroy it in the first place.
Honesty isn't always easy either. What do you say when your partner buys an abysmal shirt, or gets a shocking new hair style?
What do you say when your relationship has been going through a bad patch and you are not sure if you still love your partner any more?
Blunt honesty can be cruel, but in the end lies are crueller, as they add the hurt of being deceived over a long period to the hurt of the truth that was being concealed in the first place.
As usual, God has an answer in the verses often read at weddings. "Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthinans 13 verse 6


* Gary and his band are really worth listening too- http://uk.myspace.com/garyinnes

Welcome to my new blog.

So why am I starting a new blog, when I hardly have time to keep up with Facebook and the Veritasse website?
A good question!
I have been Tweeting sporadically for some time now and am struck by how impossible it is to say anything meaningful in the 148 (?) characters allowed. I follow a number of organisations and individuals but have been generally underwhelmed by their tweets. Many resort to a machine gun fire of short, pithy (Yes pithy is a word, and it's not rude!) comments on life. The Christians intersperse these with daily scriptures- which is fine but a bit random.
I am also frustrated by how little I understand of the tweets- all those abbreviatiosn leave me reeling.
That's why I am starting this new blog- More than soundbites.
I want to comment on things- you know the normal "life the universe and everything"- at my own pace. Making my own decisions about number of characters etc!
I am also going to try an experiment, as I am not intending to publicise my blog. If you are here, it's because you have stumbled upon my musings by accident. Hello and welcome- you and I may be the only ones!