Windows On The Soul

Last Sunday night, I was taken in a dream on a "tour of inspection". We visited many structures built on stilts over the sea. The inspection was specifically examining the condition of the piles. The weather and time had taken their toll. Some were still serviceable, whilst others had eroded to almost match-sticks. Then my own foundations were examined, and found in need of attention. I was then shown the type of foundations required - concrete as hard as the sea bed on which they stood. I noticed a door-way or hatch in the side and asked the reason - the answer - it was an inspection hatch, and regular inspections were essential. The interpretation is clear. The Christian life stands in the middle of the pounding seas of life; a beacon, a solid anchorage in the storm. But the strength of that life depends on the sureness of its foundations, and over time, laziness, compromises, indiscretions and lack of maintenance allow them to be eroded. Part of our preventative maintenanc...

That's the title of one of the exercises I have to do in the coming weeks in preparation for a career planning seminar. I've done various goal setting and life-style evaluations in other training courses, but "Obituary" has a ring of finality about it. As an old preacher friend advised on sermon structure, "First tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em. Then tell 'em. Then tell 'em what you’ve told them". The progressive life (as in moving forward in a direction) is like that, a beginning, a middle and an end.  Another view is "Plan, Do, Evaluate". In the Christian life, the planning stage is a matter of obedience and seeking God's will personally. In obedience, the doing follows (super)naturally as we are driven and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The evaluation is ultimately the Lord's - will our obituaries include "Well done my good and faithful servant"? ----xxxXxxx---- Rom.11:29 "God's gifts...

One of the frustrating things I have to deal with at work is Change Requests from users. All too often, they ask for things they think they need or explain how something should be fixed, when I can see that their proposal will not fix the real problem. All trades and professions see this sort of thing - patients try to tell doctors what medicine they want, we tell the garage to replace worn tyres when the problem is wheel alignment. The mark of a good professional is to be able to elicit the real symptoms, then diagnose the real problem, and convince the customer of the change/fix they really need. It’s such a human trait to want to appear knowledgeable and in control. But I know that even though I bemoan it in my customers, I still find myself doing it when I am the customer. I think we often suffer the same problem with prayer, trying to tell God what we think we need or how to fix a situation. Instead we should be discovering and sharing the real sympto...

A major difference between Christianity and a number of the world's largest religions, is its focus on restoration to harmony of body, mind and spirit. The Way of Christ is not through mindless meditation to nirvana, or ascetic debasement of body, or humanistic rationalism of the pre-eminent mind. The biblical view is of body, mind and spirit as all parts of a whole, not fragmented. However, the modern church seems to "put down" rational discussion as some-how not being "spiritual". One of the big criticisms young people have of the church, is that it doesn't address their questions. Where are the Christian thinkers and debaters in our churches? Articles like that of Tim Costello's on Community (Education Age 4/6/96) are few and far between. Why is the church afraid of 'development of human potential' - its humanistic background is no different than the majority of teaching in our schools and universities (all the more need to build-up the faith ...