Category: Faith & life

Book I want to read

January 27, 2024

What books do you want to read?

I have to admit I was never a great reader at school. Getting me to read was like pulling teeth for my teachers. I loved sport and maths, but reading was not my thing.

After leaving school this continued until my early twenties. All of a sudden though, I had a desire to read the Bible. I did not have one so I went to the local church and purchased one.

After getting a Bible of my own I found I actually loved reading for the first time in my life. It was nothing to read for an hour of more. Looking back I now know this was God drawing me to His Word and enabling me to do it.

Many years later the Bible is still my go to book. I very rarely read other books as I prefer to listen to them while I am travelling. But I can always just sit down and read my Bible. I can pick it up any time of the day or night and just read.

I just love the fact that the Bible has 40 different authors, it is made up of 66 books, was written over a 1600 year time period, but it has one central theme – God’s love and saving message for mankind. He loves us all and He wants us to be in relationship with Him.

This is why I love the Bible so much. It tells us how we got here, who we are, that God loves us and He has a plan for our lives. For me there is no other book that compares or even comes close to it.

So which book do I want to read? It is the Bible for me by a long long way.

Good leadership?

January 19, 2024

What makes a good leader?

Leadership is something that is vitally important in all areas of life. We have all had good leaders that we loved and bad leaders who we did not love as much.

When I was at Bible college I had to do an assignment on what we thought was good leadership. We had to come up with five points with both Biblical ideas and reflections on Christian leadership sources.

Surprisingly I found this harder than I expected. There is so many examples of Biblical leadership and thousands of resources on Christian leadership.

In the end I distilled my idea of principles of Christian leadership to the following five points.

1. Christian leaders need to cultivate an intimate relationship with God

2. Christian leaders need to have a servant heart

3. Christian leaders need to be shepherds of God’s people

4. Christian leaders need to live with character and integrity

5. Christian leaders need to be committed to making disciples

For me personally I really thought long and hard about these five things. Thankfully my lecturer agreed and gave me a good mark for it.

If you are interested you can read an online version of my article on my website below. It is a cut down version of my assignment.

Five Principles of Christian Leadership

Felt loved?

January 17, 2024

Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved?

I have to say in answering this question that I am a very blessed man. I feel loved by my wife every day and when I see my adult children they always give me a big hug and tell me they love me.

But one instance when I felt really loved recently was on the last day of school in 2023. I was walking around school doing my usual work as a Chaplain, when I large group of students came and gave me cards. I got lots of high fives and fist bumps from them all too.

On the cards were really nice messages of how they loved and appreciated my work as their Chaplain. They said things like thanks for always being there to listen and encourage us. One card from the oldest students was signed by all of them with personal messages.

I really love my job as a school Chaplain and times like that make me feel loved and appreciated too.

Reducing clutter in our lives

January 16, 2024

I guess if we are honest we all have extra clutter in our lives. Those things that just seem to pile up over the place over the years. Anyone who has moved house recently knows about excess clutter!

In reflecting on this question my mind quickly went from clutter around the house, to the clutter in our lives. By this I mean the extra things we do because we think we “should” do them.

If we pause and reflect for a moment, we all probably have things in our life we do because we think we should. Sometimes it is our own expectations, sometimes it is because other people expect it of us.

This year while I have been on holidays I have put some very intentional thought in to the things I do and looking at the clutter in my life. I have titled it “My roles and goals for 2024”. 

On this list I have intentionally stripped it back to the basics and included things that I feel God wants me to do. It includes God inspired goals, but also my private goals that do not conflict with His. And I have included my roles I have in my work and family.

Doing this is to give a clearer vision for 2024 and the things I need to focus on. This will give me more time and energy to focus on key things. And more time for downtime and rest. Which is just as important. We all need to enter in to God’s sabbath rest.

Years ago I read of what a well known Pastor did in his first years of ministry. Everyone had expectations of him. He was working seven days a week to fulfil them all. He had little rest and little downtime. He narrowed his focus to four key roles and said no to the rest. This helped shape the next forty years of his ministry. It gave him longevity.

I know personally it is hard to say no to many of the requests I get. As helpers we want to help. But as the older Pastor learned we have to narrow our focus if we are to serve long term and not get overloaded. We have all probably heard the old saying, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person, they will get it done”. 

This is where God’s call on our lives comes in. What are we really called to do? We are called to our families first, then some type of paid work and some other ministry outside our home. Our callings and roles will all look different, but understanding them can help us keep focussed.

So returning to the question of “Where can you reduce clutter in your life?” For me it is about the extra things I do that are not really part of my calling. The things I do because of the expectations I have or others have for me. This is where I am starting and I believe it will give me a clearer focus in 2024.

Motivation from your younger self

January 12, 2024

I have been on holidays the last few weeks since school finished just before Christmas. It has been a nice time to rest, relax and spend time with family. It has also been a good time to reflect and renew.

During some down town I was looking through some old photos and videos. I found an old photo of when I was in my mid twenties. I was very much in to cycling and weights at the time and I was quite fit looking for me. I also found an old video too that surprised and shocked me muscle wise.

It was interesting on how motivated I was in my training. I would train one hour a day in the gym four days a week and I would cycle 200-300 kilometres per week. I would train six days a week, twice a day and have Sundays off for rest and church.

It was amazing how my reflections turned back to that time and the fitness goals I was chasing. It may have been 30 years ago (wow time flies!), but I could remember the my tiny shed with my gym and the racing bikes I owned. The alarm going off every morning at 4.50am so I could train before work. My motivation was sky high.

This caused me to think about my faith and walk with God 20-30 years ago. I thought about the churches I attended, looked through my old prayer journals, remembered preaching my first sermon and the people who helped me grow in my faith. The passion and zeal I had for the things of God was off the chart.

Somehow in the midst of all of this reflection I could feel motivation and passion being drawn from the past. It was like I was being inspired and motivated by my younger self. The goals and dreams I had way back then became fresh in my mind again. Mentally it was like I was right back there again.

As I have reflected on these things I really think I have gained motivation from my younger self. I was desperate to be well from Rheumatoid Arthritis and now I am. Something I never dreamed could happen! I was desperate to grow in my faith and to serve God full time. This has happened too.

I am just thankful to God for all He has done for me. I really do not know where I would be without Him in my life. I am also very thankful to my younger self and all the work “he” put in to his training and Bible studies. It has given me a new burst of motivation to press on towards the goals that God has before me.