Month: August 2023

Enjoy about writing

August 21, 2023

What do you enjoy most about writing?

I really enjoy writing a lot. There are a number of things about it that I both enjoy and things that help me.

1. Writing helps me to get my thoughts down, which helps order my thoughts and feel mentally fresher.

2. Writing helps me to learn and grow when I research something when I have to write a sermon or a blog post.

3. Writing helps me to encourage others. And when people tell me something I wrote encouraged them, it encourages me too!

I have been writing sermons, blog posts and articles since the late 1990s. It is something that has really helped me a lot and it is something I really enjoy.

Love where I live

August 20, 2023

What do you love about where you live?

One of the main things I love about where I live is the wide open spaces and the places I can go and walk. The above picture is one of the trails I walk that takes me up the rock overlooking our town.

It takes about 15 minutes to walk up and then I can just sit and look at the view. One direction looks over town, another way looks over farmland and another looks over a forrest.

Once up on the rock I can sit and breath in the fresh air, I can have space to chill out and order my thoughts or I can just pray about what is on my heart. It is a great place to have.

Space and time to order my thoughts is very important to me. This is why I love walking up the rock. It is definitely one of the things I love about where I live.

Space and time with God

August 20, 2023

Our Daily Bread today was very good. It talks about making space in our schedules to breath, think, heal and spend time with God…

In his book Margin, Dr. Richard Swenson writes, “We must have some room to breathe. We need freedom to think and permission to heal. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. . . . Our children lay wounded on the ground, run over by our high-speed good intentions. Is God now pro-exhaustion? Doesn’t He lead people beside the still waters anymore? Who plundered those wide-open spaces of the past, and how can we get them back?” Swenson says we need some quiet, fertile “land” in life where we can rest in God and meet with Him.

Does that resonate? Seeking open spaces is something Moses lived out well. Leading a nation of “stubborn and rebellious” people (Exodus 33:5 nlt), he often withdrew to find rest and guidance in God’s presence. And in his “tent of meeting” (v. 7), “the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (v. 11). Jesus also “often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). Both He and Moses realized the importance of spending time alone with the Father.

We too need to build margin into our lives, some wide and open spaces spent in rest and in God’s presence. Spending time with Him will help us make better decisions—creating healthier margins and boundaries in our life so we have the bandwidth available to love Him and others well.

Let’s seek God in open spaces today.

My admired professions?

August 19, 2023

What profession do you admire most and why?

This is a very interesting question and one I find hard to answer. I have lots of professions that I admire like nurses, teachers, carers, police, occupational therapists and firemen. But I cannot place one above the rest.

As I thought about this I found it is not so much the job role, but the way they do it that impresses me. Anyone can do a job, but not everyone can do it with a servant heart of love.

Years ago I worked for the Immigration department. One of my co-workers was in the compliance area. It is where people who overstay their visas or get in trouble often find themselves and end up being deported.

As you can imagine this is a very full on area. You have to be part investigator, part policemen, part negotiator. One person I worked with was a Christian and he did his role different to the rest. He did it with compassion, service, love. This really stood out to me.

As I think about it today, yes I have professions I admire, but it is more about having a servant heart and loving others as you do it. This is what stands out for me and inspires me the most.