A pastoral Christian letter offering encouragement for moving forward in faith Guilt can weigh heavy on the heart, but God’s mercy is greater than your mistakes. If you’re struggling with guilt, your mental health or feeling isolated and alone, the following Booster has been written especially for you and offers biblical wisdom, grace, and encouragement […]
‘My Journey to Knowing Jesus’: In this, our first Guest Post, born-again Christian Merry explores her journey to Jesus and finding a deep connection with God after a life filled with struggles and hardship; finding peace and love in the arms of The Lord.
The bloom of youth is a lovely thing to see but what about when it begins to fade? All living beings are touched by the passing of time – the petals will fall, the energy will get less and the wrinkles will come.
We tend to get into denial with fitness regimes, special diets, vitamin supplements and more expensive toys. Apparently the new 30 is 40 and 60 has become 70!
Forgiveness Freedom Family Forever. ONLY EVER … Reflections (connect4life.org.uk) OUTSIDE OF YOU … Reflections (connect4life.org.uk)
There are certain big events in life that can set us back on our heels, bring us down to our knees, make us reconsider the direction of our lives or call for a complete reset. Here are a few – broken relationship, loss, accident, redundancy or retirement. When we embark on a new relationship or obtain a new job, adjustments and calculations need to be made to the allocation of limited time, effort and finances. A similar process happens with these ‘life turning points’. We may need to rethink our goals, abandoning some that seem out of date, revising others or setting ourselves new aspirations. Machines and instruments need careful initial calibration as well as occasional recalibration. Bodies and minds can sometimes need this too. Crises don’t only come in midlife. What was the last big event that caused you to have a recalibration and how are you doing since? Clouds are continually forming and reforming with the changing meteorological conditions. There is even such a thing as ‘Recalibration of Neural Networks for Point Cloud Analysis’ used in research to help with the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease! What shape are your clouds and can you spot any recalibration going on?
Human diversity has never been more celebrated than it is today. Yet regardless of culture, race, language, chromosomes and physical characteristics, every human has other aspects that lead to uniqueness within our kind. Experiences, upbringing, hobbies, attitudes, personalities, abilities and tastes to name but a few. However, what we all have in common is that we are part of the human race – each the same yet different. Seeds from this dandelion will result in clones – often regarded as a weed, this little flower has medicinal properties, can be eaten or drunk like sweet coffee and goes through stages of resembling the sun, the moon and stars! Whilst the scientific name is Taraxacum meaning bitter herb, the popular name comes from the French ‘dent de lion’ as the root resembles the tooth of a lion. Each dandelion and every human is one of its kind – only Jesus is ‘THE one of a kind’, truly Divine.
You may well know this bird is an Oyster Catcher and be familiar with its beautiful burbling sound but none of us can share its unique perspective as it skims low across the sea. What is your unique perspective in life at present? In the twists and turns of life, we find ourselves in diverse places, travelling at different speeds and dealing with many types of emotion. Here are some experiences you might be entering, wanting, dreading or leaving behind – going into the valley, on the mountain to, in the boat, on an eagle’s wing or walking on water. Whichever one it is, you probably won’t be able to change it so the vital thing is to have the right perspective as you pass through it.
Supposing you were an artist and had a blank canvas, would you start with Spring, another season or no season? Spring sounds like a logical choice … or does it? Its poetic speech is always of new beginnings as we associate it with the seasonal cycle that we humans have become used to. No Spring, no Summer. No Summer, no Autumn. No Autumn, no Winter. No Winter, no Spring. Each one brings something different and bounces off the previous one bringing the contrasts we all love. Snowdrops herald the Spring even after the fiercest Winter – each fluttering fragile snowdrop is a little white sail symbolising the hope of gentle summer breezes. When you feel like your life is in the grip of Winter, consider the seasons and remember that Spring cannot be far away. Our Father God is ‘The Creator Artist’ and never gets the rhythm of life wrong.
Dementia is experienced by some 50 million people around the world and the number is increasing as people are living longer. Christians seem to rationalise physical illnesses more easily than those which affect the mind. Having a loved one whose Christian faith has been strong throughout life then suffer with dementia and sometimes an apparent loss of faith is much harder to bear. Dementia is indeed a tough nut to crack and there are no easy answers but it is something we need to understand better. Pressures in life can act like nutcrackers as they pivot upon us affecting physical and mental health but dementia is in a league of its own. Many conditions can cause dementia, including degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s but it is also associated with infections, vascular diseases, stroke, depression and chronic drug use. What we fail to know, God knows.
The word alphabet is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. The English alphabet emerged in the 7th century, far later than the Greek one which was formed around 800 BC. The final letter of the 24 letters in the Greek alphabet is omega, hence ‘alpha’ and ‘omega’ meaning the ‘beginning’ and the ‘end’ or ‘first’ and ‘last’. Humans tend to think in terms of beginning and endings in a finite simplistic way but quantum physics tells us that neither zero nor infinity has an actual value! Some scientists say there are a finite number of atoms in an expanding universe whereas others conjecture that they are decreasing. Back to reality – this compost heap has two bins, one is a beginning and the other an ending, but then even that recycling process is a continuum. When one side is emptied, it then in turn becomes the new side once more. Life is not as simple as Lewis Carroll has it: ‘“Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop”’ – Alice in Wonderland
