I stared at it for a good few seconds, my mind working out why I would deserve it. When the taxi stopped, I paid the driver and said there’s a pound coin just there. Looking back, I think we surprised each other: he didn’t want the 4p and rounded down the fare to a whole number. Self-control is one of the fruits of the spirit listed in Gal 5:22-23. There are many examples of self-control “success stories” in the Bible, as well as failures! Not merely abstaining from doing a bad thing, or choosing to do the right thing, it […]
Monthly archives: January 2019
21 posts
You might call it a hymn, or a song. For me, it’s a song. The music was not originally written for the organ, but for guitar and drum, and keyboard / piano, most likely in that sequence of primacy of musical instruments. That does not mean it should be played on such musical instruments; the point is that this song is one of many ‘songs’ that have become ‘standard repertoire’ across many churches (ie, across denominations, languages, regions, countries) that when it was needed to be used, it probably matter less what instruments were used. There is a different line […]
Understanding yourself is an easy task, much easier than understanding another person, or other beings – animals, artificial intelligent entities etc. Not so, there are times you cannot control your emotion. As your physical self relates to the physical world around you, as you process information internal and external to you, you might react much less than what you expected of yourself. You took a second glance at the fruit seller when he did not wait for the weighing machine to settle and told you the price, seemingly rounded up. You paid anyway thinking it’s much less fuss doing so, […]
This café is famous for its breakfast. It’s the only food place that opens 8am every weekday. Some years back, after changing jobs, I had to spend hours driving to and from work. I decided that for some days I would stay in budget hotels or hostels so to save on the driving. The only place that you can get breakfast at 6am is a major international quick food outlet. This café that’s famous for its breakfast, also serves main dishes. We tried ordering a ‘dinner’ number and were astonished they served it in 5 minutes, and so we had […]
The news about Voyager 1 passing Ultima Thule is fascinating. It’s beyond my capacity to understand the ‘how’ of operating such an aircraft to pass precisely that point. I recall a hymn that might be familiar to some, it has ‘earth’ in its title, first word: Earth, Rejoice, our Lord is King!. The words in this hymn are probably rather ancient, or at least the style, e.g. ‘sing ye in triumphant strains’ which probably means something – you people sing about the Lord’s superlative triumphant, or the sing about it superlatively… The hymn speaks of comfort, God is comfort, and […]
If you are sure you don’t need some help, you can stop reading here. However, he will support you even the highest waves and the deepest depth. When it gets rather blazing and you wished you could draw the curtain in, hope that you will awake from your dream and it’s aint happening, His all consuming mercy sustains you, and his glorious love restores you. Fear, loneliness, depression, doubt. He is listening to your cries. There’s nothing to doubt. Do not be afraid about that. Lost, confused, crushed, washed up. He says you are precious to him. There’s nothing to […]
One idea to provide some variations to piano accompaniment in supporting singing voices is on the bass line. The following is an example, being the end of song, or a section of the song, closing with a dominant 7th to tonic. The chords are in first (root) position. The melody flows largely in 1-step motion, except in 2nd bar a 2-step motion from A to C#. The bass line for the second bar, D to A is ok too, but there’s a slight hint of all harmony moving in the same direction which I would keep an eye on – […]
1977, the year Voyager 1 was launched. No longer in its teenage years, in early 2019, it had reached a point in space no human created object had travelled to, and transmitted back images of a planet it sought to focus on – Ultima Thule. Thinking about this a month after the event feels like a long past event, historical. But scientists had planned for this several human generations ago; to some, even the launch was before they were born. Human creativity and capacity in science is phenomenal. As someone completely uninformed about planetary science, I’m sure much of the […]
During the reconstruction, access for the Scout group to their room will be severely restricted. We should find out more about details – perhaps the workers can allow access for a day a week for the Scout group. The project manager can get feedback very soon so Scout activities are not affected. Construction will start in a month. Another uncertainty is raised by someone who has been assisting with the garden for some time, and her concern was that the impression is that much of the garden will not be accessible and so it will not be maintained. The project […]
When Christians sing Come, now is the time to worship, what do they mean? It’s a collective thing. They invite others to come and worship together. It’s a nice tune too. And there is a further thing, they worship, they say somebody or something else is really really fantastic they put this person or thing up somewhere prominent, and they give this person / thing all their attention, and shower praise to him / her / it. Been there, done that? When I had the opportunity to lead an international conference of a research society, I felt an enormous gratitude […]
See part 1. With a rare arrangement for a second practice school, I tried to start anew. Having arranged lodging in two families, I began this part and initially the subject teachers appeared to be more able to guide me. In the third week, the same problem recurred, the subject teachers were working almost independently of the college, and the support I got from my college was largely for me to discover ways of working myself. A one-sided account, I’m sure those involved have different views. Having to walk away from the course was extremely painful. But to continue even […]
It’s more than just understanding, various dictionaries define it as a strong feeling of compassion and sadness for somebody else who is facing problems, as well as a strong desire to improve the general condition to reduce suffering. Is anyone of us compassionate? To show compassion requires a lot of ‘space’ in your ‘tank’, as you think you might be giving a lot of yourself to give attention to the one suffering and find ways to help them. When the problem is so big, the one able to show compassion will realise restoring the suffering person is key, and how […]
The worship team had met to rehearse and chat about how best to lead and support the congregation in the worship service, see previous blog here. As would musical preparation in many churches on Sunday, we met an hour before the service to run through the songs. An exercise to ‘warm up’ and ‘tune’ ourselves to the theme of the service. This is much easier to do since our worship leader is also sharing the message – various traditions have this as homily, sermon or simply message. More about this later. The worship team seeks to prepare congregation for worship […]
The church assistant treasurer has set up new ways to manage offerings such that everyone has more time to talk to each other following the formal service time. I recently looked through about a hundred row of data to identify common and new information. A friend has come to the end of a PhD journey and worked through a lot of field data to complete the thesis. While you are in the middle of doing something, where you face a lot of information, it’s difficult to see the bigger picture. See the hundreds of birds flying together, not only they […]
The other person informed me there is water along the road and she had great difficulty using the wheelchair there. It would be better if I went another way though longer, but dry. I said thanks but went ahead, out of curiosity but also a different wheelchair might fare better, or worse. On this occasion, I had more difficulty turning around than trying to get through the water, though not deep, but the surface the water now covered made it really difficult to know your way without getting stuck. The helpfulness of the lady who took the trouble to stop […]