Passing remarks

Someone said to me this morning after worship - "You always manage to talk about love."

That might be because the gospel we preach IS a gospel of love.

Someone else said: "What a lot you got out of that simple text." Today's text was Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and wanting to gather his chicks under his wing like a mother hen. A beautiful evocative text with so many layers to be unpicked.

That gospel of love can never be fully mined but we can keep on picking at the threads and finding God at work in our world and in our lives.

The best medicine?

How do folk survive life without a sense of humour? It's claimed that laughter relieves stress. It certainly lessens tension and, often, can be a really useful coping mechanism. Those who work in the most macabre professions - ministers and funeral directors included- often have the keenest sense of humour. It helps us through many a crisis.

This week I came across someone who didn't appear to have a sense of humour, who was really intense and precious. I was just baffled. How is it possible to do all that is asked of us, to cope with all that life throws at us without, more than occasionally, having a good old belly laugh. In this season of Lent, even if we have to reserve it for the sabbaths, may you find plenty of opportunity and occasion to laugh.

Beyond the snow

Once again, this weekend I'm off embarking on more training for the Church of Scotland's applicant assessment process. There's been lots of snow over the past few days so hoping to find a way through. I'm sure,yet again, I'll be stimulated and challenged by all the different interactions and return, as always, exhausted. But, since Sunday looms large, there's no rest for the wicked.

Baling out or stepping up?

"Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don't twist God's Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God."

2 Corinthians 4:1-4

Came across these words today right after a discussion with colleagues about the state of the institutional church and its finances. It's a time for bold responses - not for battening down the hatches. But will God's people rise to the challenge?

A nudge in the right direction

Exploring

Pushing open doors

Allowing possibility to flood in

Scary, daunting, thrilling

Who knows what potential

is about to be realised?

Lent seems like a good time for discovery.

Guided retreat

This year's labyrinth is in the shape of a cross, simpler than last year's Chartres style. There are two optional stations or guided reflections on the journey as well as an encouragement to linger in the centre. These stations change as the weeks of Lent progress and, in Holy Week, will reflect on Christ's last days. Creation of space and time for reflection affords a whole new perspective as we journey, with Christ, to the cross. Thanks be to God.

Life giving discipline

It was a cold beach this morning but bracing and reviving. And full of inspiration. The spirit was glistening on the snow, skipping over the ridges in the sand, being carried in the freezing wind. How is it possible to allow that space so easily to slip away? When the pressure builds, it's one of the first things to slide. Wish I could keep in mind how life giving it is to carve out some thinking space.