A Lamborghini or an Antarctic Prison

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Here's the question of the day:
If you could choose between eliminating world poverty and Bill Gates' fortune, what colour would your Lamborghini be?

Mine would be silver because I don't like to be ostentatious, so red and yellow are out and black gets too hot in summer. If it's silver I can park it at church and the other people will think it's just a fancy Nissan or Toyota and won't think that I'm in wastrel.

I am sure you would be different though. You would have world poverty eliminated by Friday wouldn't you? The sex-slave trade would be eliminated, child soldiers would be returned to their mothers, the refugees on the boats would be able to go home to their then-safe countries because all the bad people would be in the big jail you would build in Antarctica where if they escaped they could accidentally freeze to death or stab each other with icicles.

On second thoughts, that's what I would do to. Forgive me please. 

However I hasten to say I would need to administer it all from a comfortable office with a nice view so I wouldn't get overstressed. I would need a quality entertainment suite because I would be entertaining so many dignitaries, celebrities and politicians and we'd need good coffee in fine china with Belgian shortbread at morning tea and my own kitchen for the staff to cook lunch and a chauffer, and oh yes, I nearly forgot – my own jet. 

The whole thought makes me wonder how serious I am about eliminating world poverty.  I struggle to keep my candle burning bright in my small corner let alone become a city set on a hill that can't be hidden, and never even think of being a cosmic conflagration that burns the landscape clean. Such were William Wilberforce (abolition of slavery), Lord Shaftesbury (abolition of child labour), Robert Raikes (schools for poor children on Sundays) and hundreds of other heroes of the past and the likes of Bill and Melinda Gates of today.

How serious, really, is the prayer, 'God please let me earn more so that I can give more.'?  Why don't I start in tiny ways this morning by letting the kid in the coffee shop keep the change or by buying a copy of “The Big Issue" from the scary looking bloke with the one-eyed dog, or maybe put a bit more on the  sponsorship form for the people doing the World Vision 40 hour famine? Maybe I could grow a gift I don't have and enlarge a heart that is too small with little homeopathic doses of goodness.

Or I could just lie down until this unpleasant feeling goes away. Nah. I did that yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, and the...

Anyway

To infinity and beyond.

Live long and prosper.

Colin Pearce

A Lamborghini or an Antarctic Prison

You can subscribe to two Minutes with God and The Kick in Pants Newsletter (both free and provocative) here. 


Here's the question of the day:
If you could choose between eliminating world poverty and Bill Gates' fortune, what colour would your Lamborghini be?

Mine would be silver because I don't like to be ostentatious, so red and yellow are out and black gets too hot in summer. If it's silver I can park it at church and the other people will think it's just a fancy Nissan or Toyota and won't think that I'm in wastrel.

I am sure you would be different though. You would have world poverty eliminated by Friday wouldn't you? The sex-slave trade would be eliminated, child soldiers would be returned to their mothers, the refugees on the boats would be able to go home to their then-safe countries because all the bad people would be in the big jail you would build in Antarctica where if they escaped they could accidentally freeze to death or stab each other with icicles.

On second thoughts, that's what I would do to. Forgive me please. 

However I hasten to say I would need to administer it all from a comfortable office with a nice view so I wouldn't get overstressed. I would need a quality entertainment suite because I would be entertaining so many dignitaries, celebrities and politicians and we'd need good coffee in fine china with Belgian shortbread at morning tea and my own kitchen for the staff to cook lunch and a chauffer, and oh yes, I nearly forgot – my own jet. 

The whole thought makes me wonder how serious I am about eliminating world poverty.  I struggle to keep my candle burning bright in my small corner let alone become a city set on a hill that can't be hidden, and never even think of being a cosmic conflagration that burns the landscape clean. Such were William Wilberforce (abolition of slavery), Lord Shaftesbury (abolition of child labour), Robert Raikes (schools for poor children on Sundays) and hundreds of other heroes of the past and the likes of Bill and Melinda Gates of today.

How serious, really, is the prayer, 'God please let me earn more so that I can give more.'?  Why don't I start in tiny ways this morning by letting the kid in the coffee shop keep the change or by buying a copy of “The Big Issue" from the scary looking bloke with the one-eyed dog, or maybe put a bit more on the  sponsorship form for the people doing the World Vision 40 hour famine? Maybe I could grow a gift I don't have and enlarge a heart that is too small with little homeopathic doses of goodness.

Or I could just lie down until this unpleasant feeling goes away. Nah. I did that yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, and the...

Anyway

To infinity and beyond.

Live long and prosper.

Colin Pearce

To be a Wind Whisperer

Yesterday, my pastor was speaking about recovery and perseverance and as an example he mentioned that a competition sailor has to read the wind and the currents.

He or she has to be what people are calling, Australian Laser Class yachtsman and Olympic gold medalist,  Tom Slingsby – a Wind Whisperer.

A bit before and a lot after
I'm not bad at reading the wind. I am quite proficient at reading what it has just done but only sometimes I read what it is about to do.  That's all very 'trendy' so to speak, but I confess to not being very good at taking advantage of what I've predicted will happen.

Some people are really good at it. 

Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) was brilliant at it – probably the best there has ever been. He read the closing of the silk road by the Caliph in Istanbul, the rising of European nation states, the victory of the Spanish over the Moors and the birth of a new era of European power, the improvement in square-rig ship building, the development of large-span canvas sails, the maps of John the Navigator, the invention of the astrolobe, the stories of sailors venturing further into the Atlantic on newly charted currents. Amazingly he didn't just read one breeze. He read the whole lot. Putting them all together, he seized the the day and began the Golden Age of Discovery. Admittedly it took him 28 years to put it all together but I think clocks ran slower in those days.

Question:
Would you have been able to read those winds? 

Answer: 
It doesn't matter now. It's been done some 520 years. What matters today is whether you can read the wind that is coming your way – or not coming your way. It's a bit like predciting the future but not the slightest bit as spooky. Actually it's more about prediciting what you will do about the wind once you've observed it's likely behaviour. That makes a gold medal winning sailor.

Have you been able to read the developments of the last 50 years. 

How about some from the last 5 years?

The emergence of China in everything

The emergence of India in technology

The smartphone

The tablet

The fragility of the world economy

The fractures in the EU

The unravelling of the human genome

The Arab ‘Spring’

The rise of the Green Movement

The dragged out wars against terrorism in primitive countries

Does it matter?

No? Hunker down. Wait to go on the pension and hope not to take a long time to die. (Mind you, you are pretty much dead now with an attitude like that)

Yes? Of course it matters. You might be the Christopher Columbus they'll be writing about in 520 years from now – or your kids could be, or your grandies, or the people you meet and influence. 

Anyway, to infinity and beyond.

Live long and prosper.

The Olympics: To win or compete with grace?

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The Athlete


The Olympic Games are on again –
Four long years to train and strain
Hope dashed in a second by a fall or a sprain
or better opponents, in body or brain.

Crowds cheers, journalists' jeers –
Eliminated for dope or too many beers
Living with jitters and mind boggling fears
Both losing and winning inducing tears.

Discipline, effort, vain dedication.
'I'm sorry I lost. I'm in isolation.
My grief finds little or no consolation.
I feel as if I've shamed my whole nation.'

Please tell me my life is still on pace
That it's not defined by a stupid race
But by how I manage whatever I face
Come win or lose, with a load of grace.

I wonder if Jesus ever went to the hippodrome in Jerusalem? Did he walk or take a boat over to Jerash or Gadara to the hippodromes and amphitheatres there. Paul was imprisoned right next door to the hippodrome on the beach front in Caesarea Maritima.  He wrote about running and winning, boxing and wrestling and keeping his own body in good nick. With a blood thirsty crowd of 30,000 screaming for their winner outside his window each week he couldn't have missed the Roman pre-occupation with games. 

You would have had to walk around with your eyes shut not to have bumped into contestants on every street corner and village. With amphitheatres all across the Roman Empire as well as hippodromes and stadia there were chariot races, gladiatorial combats, games, races, wrestling bouts, object tossing and fisticuffs a-plenty.

Today it's the same. We worships the gods of victory, beauty, power, race and money. It's not easy to be in the arena without being taken up with the hype of success, winning, leading, dominating and smashing the opposition. You are either defined by the performance of your favourite team or the model of your car or the brands you wear. And it's all stupid.

As for you – 


So what are you supposed to do? How are you meant to 'be' in today's arena? 

To start with get this in your head: Your ultimate victory is already won for you. Christ has killed off the fear of death. He's won the ultimate human contest. Thankfully we don't have to beat anyone. It's done and dusted. It's the gold medal we wear all day every day – by faith.

Secondly, keep your eye on that tape at the finish line – the life to come. This world is not your home. You're just a-passin' through. That's the race you're running – to get to the end with grace and patience. The end.

As for the the game in progress, we have a comforter, a coach, an advocate. That's the Holy Spirit sent from the Father and we seem to enjoy avoiding him. How dumb is that?

You have team mates, sometimes on their game but like you, most often not. Nevertheless we're on the same team and we are all you've got. The Selector has put us in this team and He has done quite well with teams sillier than ours in the past so He can be relied on.

So run on. You're doing better than you think. Hey, you're reading this!

To infinity and beyond. Live long and prosper!