Inspired - first tentative steps

I started to write an entry last week and interrupted myself... several days later I've remembered what I was going to write about.

A friend lent me a book a while back (which I will return soon), which really inspired me. It was called Doorposts by Timothy Botts. The basic idea is that he has taken passages of scripture and presented them as calligraphy. Now my talents are significantly less impressive, but it inspired me and I've made some tentative steps of my own (see below). It kind of links to my thoughts on Praying in Color and also Richard Rohr's idea of having a current mantra. Anyway I'm finding it quite useful and therapeutic and challenging and inspiring. I may show some of my further attempts in due course.

It's also prompted some thoughts about motivation, which I'll come back to later.

Palm Sunday and rugby

alm Sunday and rugby – what’s the connection?

Well… crowds!

This morning in church we were reminded of the crowds that would have been making their way up to Jerusalem at the same time as Jesus. Since donkeys were a common enough form of transport, what made Jesus stand out? How could anyone even notice him in the crush of tourist, worshippers, flag sellers and ticket touts?

My mind (working in it’s usual bizarre way) jumped to a memorable experience from my formative years. In 1975, as a 13 year-old, I went to see Scotland playing Wales with a group from my school. Our bus was parked next to a Welsh rugby club’s vehicle – and these big boyos adopted us as a group and walked towards the ground with us.

As we got closer it became clear that there was a bit of a problem. It turned out that a world record crowd had turned up to see this match – officially 104,000 people made it inside the ground. In those days you entered Murrayfield through a big tunnel – and there was a real danger that skinny kids like me would get completely crushed.

Our new found Welsh mates made sure that we were OK. I had one on each side of me as we entered the tunnel, they each grabbed me by the elbow and lifted me. My feet didn’t touch the ground until they could deposit me safely at the schoolboy seats.

Since then I’ve always had a soft spot for the Welsh. Aye, their singing is good, they’ve produced some fantastic rugby players, and they share our Celtic antipathy for the English, but mainly my fondness is due to the memory of 1975.

So congratulations to them on achieving the Grand Slam –and it gives me an excuse to post more photos of daffodils!

BiSY bees

I've mentioned before that I write bible study material for a bunch of teenagers. During term they meet in our house after school every Thursday - we call it "Nurture Group". Aye, not too original - but it does what it says on the tin, and any time we've tried to change it the youngsters protest (maybe geeky is the new cool?). I should mention at this point that the study leaders are my wife and a couple of friends from our church. They are the real heroes in this endeavour.

Anyway, today was the first Thursday of the new school term and we had record numbers - 28! And at least a couple of the regulars missing. I'm stoondit - 28 kids coming to study the Bible (and eat food and have a laugh), then one of them asked if she can bring 4 friends from her church!

It's only a few years since we were wondering if we should keep the group going when the numers dropped to a handful. But since they were faithful in turning up each week - and growing as individuals - we decided to persevere.

There is hope!

So why BiSY bees as a title for this blog? Well, before I get into that I should explain that our planning for NG covers a six-year period. This coincides with the maximum duration of a secondary school career in Scotland - unless you're a teacher. It also means that my brain only has to cope with Revelation and Creation once every six years.

Right, BiSY is a new introduction this year - it stands for the Bible in Six Years. We've introduced an optional six year plan for reading the whole Bible. We'll see how it goes. By the way, if anyone knows of a six-year plan it would save me a bit of effort;-)

The thinking behind this is kind of inspired by Brodie's blog on "Deep Scripture". I've tried the Bible in a Year stuff - but it becomes a mind-numbing chore, with more effort going into 'ticking the boxes' than into reflection and learning. I've tried the Bible Study notes approach - they're a bit variable (that's a euphemism). So I figured that we would give them a different approach. Along the way we'll give them some tips, prompts, quizzes etc to make them think about what they're reading, but most of all we'll celebrate the fact that our house is too small for all of the kids who want to study the Bible in Perth.

Rejoice!

By the book

"I haven't read a book in my life. I haven't got enough time. I prefer to listen to music, although I do love fashion magazines."
Victoria Beckham

According to the BBC website, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6285740.stm) we are reading more. Apart from Victoria Beckham – and I’m not going down that road! As Albert Einstein said:

“I refuse to engage in an intellectual battle with an unarmed man.”

‘Nuff said.

Anyway, the BBC story seems like good news - although I suppose that it depends to some extent on what is being read. Research like this is interesting, but is it valuable? Actually, I’m not going to knock it or over-analyse – just accept it as good news. I like the idea of filling gaps in schedules with reading. Given that I’m ‘pathologically early’ for everything, it’s been a habit of mine for many years to carry journals and articles with me to read in the inevitable gaps.

However, one of my bad habits has been to read a few chapters of a book and then shelve it for months, while I pick up another one repeat the process. I recently had to tidy up my bookshelves (enough to make them presentable) because we had visitors coming. So I found all the partially read stuff, and put them in the priority pile, with a challenge to myself to get through (all the way through) them over the summer. We’ll see how that goes.

And finally for today, I surprised myself. I was thinking about Romans 12, and found myself looking at the message version. Now I have a long‑standing aversion to the Message. I’ve nothing against Eugene Peterson. If I’m honest about it, it’s probably intellectual snobbery or pretentiousness on my part, but it’s real enough to me! So, I like this passage - maybe I’ll try and be a lot less judgemental and a wee bit more open-minded.

Here’s the passage:

1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

The Bible as blog?

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few people engage in it.”
- Henry Ford

I was listening to a sermon while driving to work today (podcast from St Michael le Belfry’s in York). Anyway, the details don’t particularly matter, but it occurred to me that there are aspects of the Bible that have similar features to blogging.

For example:-
¨ There are every day stories of every day people – e.g. Ruth, Esther.
¨ There is poetry and philosophical musings – Psalms, Proverbs
¨ There are thought provoking developments of previously accepted norms and wisdom – the gospels, e.g. the Sermon on the Mount.

But what resonated most with me were the reflective aspects of Paul’s writings. In Romans chapter 6, he expounds the transformation that has come about through the work of Christ – “You have been set free from sin …" (verse 18). Yet in chapter 7, as he reflects on his – and our – ongoing sin, he concludes: “So then, I myself am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (verse 25b)

Maybe I’m wide of the mark on this, but any thoughts, comments or better examples would be welcomed.