If there was a sliding scale between being a bodger or a perfectionist, where would you be? The bodger just gets on with a job without too much planning and preparation. By contrast, the perfectionist can be prone to procrastinate due to the need to think about every aspect of the job. Most of us are […]
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.
It is widely accepted that each of us sees the world through a particular lens, either one that may distort or correct vision. Types of lens might be economic, social, technological, political or cultural but they are forged from our experience of life. Your lens may help you see clearly or it may add in bias and prejudice. Much is said these days about diversity, discrimination and equality – how does that sit with you? Are you filtering what you see through the same lenses you’ve always had or has your world view been challenged and undergone change? The default human condition is to mix with those who reinforce one’s own world view, be that secular or spiritual, but there is another way to see things that is truly better.
Is this a modern or old-fashioned word would you say? Can you remember the last time you heard it used? Does it belong to fairy tales of the past and the world of the gramophone? Peter Rabbit might have chewed carrots like they were going out of fashion but let us chew on the relevance or otherwise of ‘faithfulness’ for our society today and for our own lives. True enough, the word may belong to a relatively small circle, but the concept is still very much needed. You may struggle to find many examples of this beautiful and most precious attribute lauded in the public arena but you will find many relationships that would have thrived if it was applauded in our private lives. In this era of Tweets, faithfulness is perhaps seen as being a little ‘twee’. How would you value it or quantify it?
How much do you know about your heart? It began beating before you were born, 22 days after you were conceived! Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times. The human heart has been described as ‘very deep’ which maybe apt when you consider its ability to pump 2,000 gallons per day. An Olympic swimming pool holds about 450,000 gallons so it takes a heart 220 days to pump this! In 70 years, a heart pumps 51,100,000 gallons – this is an amazing 114 swimming pools so it’s not surprising we can get a bit weary with every extra year! The heart has inspired poets, lovers, writers, scientists and philosophers. Aristotle identified it as ‘the seat of the soul and emotions’. How much can happen in a heartbeat?
Just how much evidence is required for certainty or to reach a conclusion that is beyond doubt? The modern age stands or falls on the application of scientific methods – hypothesis, theory and law. When new evidence comes to light, new hypotheses will lead to a questioning of previous assumptions and theories which can even undermine reasoning formerly taken to be factual, sound, solid laws! This is the way bodies of knowledge develop and are passed on to subsequent generations as ‘received fact’. It means however that many theories are overturned and some taken as fact now will be overturned in the future! Let’s consider science and faith to see where the evidence points.
Have you ever heard a comforting book of fiction or poetry described as being like a hammer? It doesn’t happen! Then come before the Word of God and you’ll discover what the prophet Jeremiah meant: ‘”Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’ – Jeremiah 23:29. Christians regard the Bible as the authoritative Word of the Living God full of Absolute Truth – if they are wrong, the Bible is ‘absolutely irrelevant’ and people should revert to living based on their ‘relative suppositions’. Presidents, Royalty, scientists, brilliant legal minds and ordinary people have been convinced that it is God’s Word for life – how about you?
• ‘Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face’ – Ronald Reagan
If ‘character’ is who you are and what you do when no one is looking, then D L Moody is right: ‘Character is what you are in the dark’. What is ‘character’? What is good or bad? What is your character? Who is interested anyway?
Supposing you were asked to give a full character reference for someone, what would you include? What if you had to give a genuine character reference for yourself? Here’s a dictionary definition of ‘character’: ‘the total quality of a person’s behaviour, as revealed in his or her habits of thought and expression, actions and personal philosophy of life’.
