God knows all your struggles but He still wants you to finish well Retirement is often seen as the reward for years of hard work, but for many it brings unexpected challenges; loss of identity, routine, purpose and connection. Yet it can also be a season of rediscovery, where fulfilment is found not in career […]
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!
Lake Erie is a huge stretch of water at 241 miles long by 57 miles wide and 210 feet in depth at its deepest point. It is the fourth largest of North America’s five Great Lakes and the eleventh largest in the world. It can be navigated safely and yet it has over 2000 shipwrecks of all sizes. There are many coastlines with hidden dangers that have claimed thousands of ships and their crews.
Whether or not you are into fishing, you might be interested to know who many would say is the greatest fisherman of all time. Certainly he holds some amazing records that have been widely reported but first of all what is he up against in terms of the competition? The largest fish ever caught was a great white shark that weighed an unbelievable 2,664 pounds (1,208.389 kg). Caught off the coast of Australia in 1959, it took angler Alfred Dean just 50 minutes to win the fight against this one-ton shark.
Sometimes it feels that it ‘never rains but it pours’. One thing comes after another and you feel beaten down by the harsh winds of life. You begin to feel that it isn’t fair as you compare your circumstances to those of others who seem to be coasting easily through life. Take this battered grass – it’s nearly over and one more strong wind might just snap it. You know the proverb about the straw that breaks the camel’s back and you wonder how much more you can take… genuinely.
Every locality has its landmarks and we all use them for navigating around our landscapes. A few like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty are notable beyond their locality, but most only mean something to locals. When a familiar old tree is taken down or a favourite shop closes, there is a sense of loss and some disorientation. The pictured monument is probably known only to a very few readers – it is placed in heathland to mark the proximity of habitat for Wild Cranberries, the Woodlark and Nightjar. Some have creatively also used it for geocaching so if it was moved it would be confusing for dog walkers and for those searching for their next geocache answer. You will have some landmarks that mean a lot to you but little to others. Come to that, in the landscape of life, you will have people or events that are significant landmarks particularly to you. Perhaps you are a landmark for others like a cairn on a mountain walk to help them on their way.
How many times have you heard it said that we are all ‘on a journey’? This is applied indiscriminately to individuals going through a time of change, organisations seeking to reinvent themselves, political parties going through necessary redefinition, countries facing upheaval and even churches dealing with difficult issues. To say we are all ‘journeying’ is true but what does it actually mean – travellers we? Some individuals and communities choose travelling as a lifestyle – travel writers make a living out of it, travel documentaries entertain, ‘travellers’ move on together in community, ‘tramps’ keep moving away from something that haunts. Would you say that your life is life a journey? If so, where have you come from and where are you going? ‘These boots are made for walking’ goes the old song by Nancy Sinatra – how many miles, how many tears, how many smiles?
It is in the very nature of temptation that it is hard to resist and that it is common to every single person. Temptation takes many forms and has many disguises but be in no doubt that the aim of the one who tempts is to rob you of joy in your walk with God and the ultimate goal is to ruin you.
‘No one is above temptation. No one is above life in general’ – Kevin Jonas
And yet, every temptation is an opportunity either to bring glory to God through overcoming it or to bring pain to your soul through giving in.
