Wonderful

As my friend Terence said as the 6th try was scored, 'A magnificent afternoon' was had in my local. Plenty of the black stuff, mates and a powerful display by England against Wales to cancel out the depression of the result of the same fixture last year.

I love this game, always have...such passion and respect. I mean in football you have a bunch of multi-millionaire prima-donnas who fall down if you so much as fart, and if the ref says anything he gets ambushed. Whereas yesterday you had 6ft8, 18-stone giants crashing into each other, loving it and then getting straight up, and when the ref blows, there's no argument, just apologies and respect....

In the end 47-13 was about right me thinks...

Times of Transition

Simon Mayo once said that 'if you have the wisdom to see life as a journey...Mike Riddell makes for one heck of a guide'. Mike is a precious friend who I don't communicate with nearly enough. He describes himself as 'a wordsmith and raconteur, screenwriter, novelist, playwright and poet'. It is said that guru Riddell 'mines the vaults of the psyche in search of stories which are capable of helping us embrace our humanity'.

The last time we spent a few days together (too long ago now) we talked of change and the difficulty in dealing with it - as we quaffed first a few beers and then some whiskey his wisdom flowed. Here is an example of such insight:

'None of us has precisely the same path to follow, and yet all of us are summoned to follow a path...For many of us, the understanding emerges clearly in mid-life, at the very time when we suspect it is too late for us to do anything about it. Our soul knows better; it is simply time to wake up...So let us go then, you and I. Forging our way into the undiscovered territory of the mystery which constitutes our living. It is the most ancient of all human undertakings - the journey...It is the adventure we have been made for, and we will never know ourselves or others while we ignore it'.

If you build it...

Moments of beauty, of redemption and love that are far beyond what we can imagine let alone live out have chased me tonight - in truth it felt like i was a fox with a blood thirsty pack of bloody hounds on my tail. - ok I know, I'm prone to a little exaggeration!

Anyhow, after my daughter screamed for 2 hours and then finally fell asleep in my arms I needed some help for my soul. The film 'Field of Dreams' always takes me to the edge of myself - provokes me to search the most vulnearble, ignored parts of who i am...and tonight it was a tonic worthy of the finest Bombay Sapphire.

I guess we are all fucked up in some way or another and are all just trying to figure out a way home to a place of belonging, restoration and peace. It's nearly 20 years since I first watched and was profoundly moved by this work of art and it has lost none of its power to move and centre me...it's a glimpse into possibility and the miracle of second chance. In short, a piece of cinema we all should see in our lifetime

My friend the Dr says this; 'Field of dreams reminds us how it's possible to make a mess of things, and then find yourself doing something for someone else.' - maybe that's the only way to find healing....

Drinking with God

"People are always forcing you to make decisions between flesh and spirit, whereas I want to dance myself in the direction of God. I go out drinking with God. I am flirtatious in the company of God. I am not a person who has to put God out of his mind to go out on the town. it's a key point. The divided soul of Marvin Gaye, Elvis - these conflicts tore them apart. They don't tear me apart. I reckon God loves all of me."
Bono

As my dear level 5 friend says....loveitloveitloveit...

The need of our time

"The need of our time is not simply for 'kerygma', the preaching of the gospel; nor for the 'diakonia', service on behalf of justice; nor for 'propheteia', the challeging of the king. The greatest need of our time is for 'koinonia', the call simply to be the church, to love one another, and to offer our lives for the sake of the world."
Jim Wallis (Sojourners)

I love this but I do think it requires a reconfiguring of the Church's socio-cultural frameworks. From a missiological perspective it requires us to affirm other people's starting points - and that just may be the most difficult challenge of all. just as Paul did at Mars Hill in Athens, we will have to look around to find what John Drane describes as a 'touching point', so as to establish a moment or place of connection. the Church needs, with some urgency, to ask how much risk it is prepared to take in order to help others to engage with the mystery of the gospel; for if 'missio dei' teaches us anything; it is that God will most definitely be found in places some people think He/She doesn't belong.