What happened to all the Calvinists???

If you are the father of a young child, you will be familiar with the experience of hearing crying in the middle of the night, knowing that it’s your turn/job to go check it out, and semi-consciously making lame excuses as to why you CAN’T go check it out.  This morning, my wife told me about last night’s offering from my sleeping lips:

Cara: Waaaaaaaa

Bec: Are you going to go to her?

Matt: But what happened to all the Calvinists?

Bec: Huh?

Matt: Nothing

Bec: So are you going to go to her?

Matt: But where are all the shapes?

Bec: Huh?

Matt: Nothing

Bec: So are you going to go to her?

Matt (actually waking from stupor): Yes already!

Hmmm… Should I read something into that??  Am I subconsciously worried about all the Calvinists???… and the shapes???  (PS Yes I know I promised a proper theological post soon, but it’s holidays, so it just doesn’t work that way)

God has a sense of humour

To those of you who  think that God has no sense of humour, explain this potato, sighted in Sainsburys Beeston, at approximately 3:44pm today…

oh… and I PROMISE I’ll get back onto proper theological posts soon!!

11 years ago today…

Eleven years ago today I married a wonderful woman…

happy anniversary, sg!!

Christmas

Psalm 40:3

He put a new song in my mouth,
       a hymn of praise to our God.
       Many will see and fear the LORD
       and put their trust in him.

Merry Christmas!

Advent thoughts: I want you

My little three year old daughter is sick at the moment - she just woke up crying and called me up to her bed.  I asked her: ”Do you want a drink”  No.  “Do you want songs?”  Shake of head.  “Do you want more covers?”  Silence.  “What’s up then – what do you want???”  She simply replied, “I want you.”

What greater gift could a father give than himself?  I lay down beside her and took her under my arm.  Of course, I’m not the first father to act in this way…

“I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD.”  (Ezekiel 34:15)

3 days till Christmas…

Christmas tribute

Israel bringing tribute to the East, circa 800BCE…

The East, bringing it back…

Son of David

One reason I haven’t done a blog post in a while is because I’ve been working on this little video… I’ve tried to pursue a flight through Mark’s Gospel, combining pictures I took in Israel with the words of Mark, and the sounds of the suffering Davidic figure who is its central character.  I hope that this provides something worthwhile to think about during this season of Advent…

Why I don’t have a moustache…

One reason and one reason only: I can’t compete with this…

How do we protect the weak?

“Kiwanja was a disaster for everyone. The people were betrayed not just by rebels who committed terrible war crimes against them but by the international community that failed to protect them.”
ANNEKE VAN WOUDENBERG, of Human Rights Watch, on a massacre in eastern Congo.

I’m reminded of Rwanda.  It’s events like this, and WWII, and others, that make me see the weight of “just war theory” – the idea that in this fallen world, sometimes the need to protect others must reluctantly involve the use of force.  On the other hand, one major thorn in the side of just war theory seems to be Jesus’ rebuke (in Matthew, Luke, and John) to the one who tried to protect him with the sword at his arrest: Surely if there was ever a time to protect the innocent by force, it was when the Son of David was being lynched by the Roman invaders… but no: “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.”

I suppose the question to continue to struggle with is this: What do we do when creative attempts at non-violent peace-making (on behalf of others) seem to have been exhausted?

the only thing worse than a bad romantic comedy…

The only thing worse than a bad romantic comedy (eg Knocked Up) is a bad romantic drama – which I endured last night, in the form of Definitely Maybe…  Here was one of the stupidest lines: (Woman to man) “I feel lost… especially when it comes to relationships!”  Does anyone actually talk like that??

I feel like the only way I can bring restoration to my sad loss of two hours is to go back in a time machine… or perhaps to vicariously regain the lost hours by watching a movie about going back in time… preferably a movie featuring an oddball professor and some wacky one-liners.