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!

Jesus at the Bus Station in Jerusalem

When we were in Jerusalem in June 2012 we were pretty nauseated by the 'holy' pilgrimage sites. I came across one though that really got to me. It was the understated English recreation of the Garden Tomb. I was taken with its tranquility and its take-it-or-leave-it explanations. I was particularly captured by the suggestion that the possible site of Jesus' crucifixion may have been just outside the fence at what is now a bus station in the Muslim Quarter. I wrote this little meditation about it.

Hello Jesus,

When Joan Osbourne asked in her song,

What if God was one of us,

 just a slob like one of us,

 just a stranger on a bus,

 tryin' to make his way home?

I wondered if you’d think it was a rude question.

But Martin the enthusiastic Englishman in the Garden Tomb today said they crucified you at the Muslim Quarter bus station there at the cross roads in East Jerusalem just outside the Garden fence; not on a hill, not up high, but down low where everyone could see you, laugh at you, spit on you and blow smoke in your face as they went past with their donkeys loaded with olives and oil, onions and dates and falafel mix.

Then he said you were too heavy for two old men to carry all the way up the hill to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre so Nicodemus and Joseph of Aramathea carried you a hundred meters to the tomb Joseph's family was going to use for him. It's nice there. The birds must have woken you up three days later. I saw a little mother Laughing Dove on her nest she'd made on top of the Arlec floodlight where we had communion. Did you see her too? 


Or did you help her make a home there? I suppose you did. That's what you're like, isn't it?

When the Maries came to embalm you properly on that first morning of the week you were up and about, waiting for the bus to Emmaus. Then you got a ticket to Galilee, cooked your friends breakfast and then caught the last bus back to Jerusalem. A bit later you caught the first bus home.

You've been on a lot of buses ever since.

Do you remember the day when I was 10? You caught the Number 17 to Kingswood and got off at Kyre Avenue and came to Mrs McPhee's after-school Bible group? Do you remember how you asked if you could catch the bus home with me afterwards and stay?

I do. 

I was a bit unsure of you at first, but I am really glad we've been on the same bus ever since.

And then a month or two later you gave my Daddy a free ticket to Heaven. Kind really. He was tired and sick and I didn't really mind that much at the time. I thought it fair you paid his fare.

And to think I saw the place where you first got interested in buses. 

You and buses.

I see why you're interested in slobs like us, and whenever you meet us and ask us on board, you really do find your way home.

It's all so good

.

"And God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good."

When is the end to people inventing their own religions and gods to the exclusion of the one staring them in the eye?

Everything sings the praises of God. Everything paints the praises of God. Everything hums the praises of God. Everything writes the praises of God.

Horrible beetles and beautiful flowers. Disgusting bugs and delicious fruits. Torrential rains and burning deserts. Tiny moss and giant redgums. Black people's pink palms, white people's blue eyes, chinese people's almond eyes, Eskimos' flat noses , dogs' tails, cats' purrs, chimps' antics, elephants' trunks, baby's giggles.

I really don't know how someone can look at a sunflower, the blue sky and a child, a frond, a fern and a handful of compost and conclude beyond all argument to the contrary that it's all the result of nobody being interested enough to start it all with a design and a plan in mind. It has as far fetched to me that personal God doesn't exist and that He's not interested in you and me as to suggest that an Airbus 380 could be formed out of the North wind blowing rubbish across the Wingfield Tip.

Perhaps 'the universe' did it. Does 'universe' have a name by the way? Is it Bob or Betty? Is it a him or a her? And is it capitalised like 'Universe' or is it a hippie and has an all-lower case name like tiger-nevada-butterfly-yo-man? Wh-a-a-at? What's that you say? It can be anything you want it to be!  Puh-lease. And you say I'M  a dreamer!

When is the end to people inventing their own religions and gods to the exclusion of the one staring them in the eye?

Anyway, Happy 2012 to you.

To infinity and beyond.

Live long and prosper.

Colin Pearce

Just because people mess things up doesn't mean everything is messed up

Just because wars and mayhem (followed by junehem and julyhem if you will) doesn't mean peace and tranquility and order have ceased to exist. After the Nazis, the Japanese and Italians did WWII and the allies fixed 'em up good and proper, a few years passed and we are all driving Japanese cars and having holidays in Rome, and the Wall came down anyway. God's grace prevails.

Just because people overspend and borrow too much and lend too much and get greedy on the stock exchange doesn't mean that frugality, savings and judicious spending cease to exist. God's grace prevails.

Just because journalists hack phones and tell lies and write rubbish on every page of the newspaper  doesn't mean that truth ceases to mean anything. Journalists are not the bastions of truth even though one of their untruths is to tell you that they are the guardians of the world. God's grace prevails.


Just because people separate and divorce doesn't mean marriage is outmoded nor does it negate the existence of wisdom in pre-marriage choice and commitment. God's grace prevails.

Just because some "welfare desperados" who are just bright enough to rort the welfare system – they feed their dogs, buy their cigarettes, buy their lotto tickets and then come to the Salvos for a food basket or rent relief – doesn't mean charity toward the genuine poor people in Somalia need not exist. Hats off to K.Rudd and the Australian people for getting in there and making a dent. God's grace prevails.

Anyway

To infinity and beyond.

Live long and prosper.


Everyone's been talking about "the wedding"

P.S. If you don't see your first name above, please use this link and tell me what it is so I can alter the database.

Everyone's been talking about "the wedding".  I think most people only focussed on the dress and the veil and whether Harry has a chance with Pippa. Here's what I thought was worth writing about:



Firstly I have to say, any similarity between the Jesus, the Man of Galilee and the pomp of the Church of England seems to have escaped the chaps in charge. Nevertheless, it's quite a thing that they've got a costume and a hat and a ribbon and a gown and a set patter for everything. Quite amazing. Terribly British and most impressive. What about the voices and perfect diction of the officiating ministers? I could listen to them all day. 

Secondly, the service made a profound and simple statement to the watching world, "This is marriage. It's how things are set out for human society. It's between a man and a woman,  it's God's plan and it's forever." The orthodoxy and the power of its being so for hundreds of years was the star of the show for me.

Wasn't James Middleton's rendition of Romans 12 the most stunning thing you've heard in a long time? He was never going to appear before millions of people again and he made the most of it. He presented himself and the Holy Scriptures with perfect dignity.

And lastly, the prayer William and Catherine composed for the Bishop of London to read for them is worth printing out and sticky taping to the back of the bathroom door.

God our Father, we thank you for our families; for th elove that we share and for the joy of our marriage.

In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important  in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.

Strengthened by our union, help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, Amen

No, no, two more things. 

I loved how Catherine knew the words of the hymns and sang without looking at the program. I really did.

And I've never seen the likes of him saluting his colours, the cenotaphs and the regiments as they drove past them and her averting her eyes in respect as he did so – and with what natural ease she did it!

Granny used to say: "Goodness must be taught," and this was a wonderful lesson on what is right and good.

Anyway, live long and prosper.

To infinity and beyond.

Colin

Article 7 about what Jesus would Blog or Twitter: Not the usual gibberish, that's for sure.

Article 7 about what Jesus would Blog or Twitter: Not the usual gibberish, that's for sure.

Land here to catch up on the previous articles

And one more thing. I'd like to double the subscription numbers for this newsletter and you could help by recommending a friend subscribe. How about it? What abut forwarding this one now with a recommendation to go to The Subscription page of my website?

I don't think Jesus would blog or Twitter about the lousy deal he got on timber for some chairs he was making. Ask yourself,
Would he whine on Twitter about how his cloak itched?
or how his feet hurt?
or invite us to Compete on Facebook about movie stars or favourite songs?
or prattle on about a TV show?
or share snaps of his weekend walk on Lake Tiberias?

My guess is he'd blog and twitter about things that directly hooked up to the Kingdom of God.Commenting on something like this would be more his cup of tea.

It's a story from the BBC Online about how Chinese businesses are making more money because they are run by Christians who pray for the success of their business. On one hand Jesus would no doubt be pleased to have these guys in the Kingdom of God yet on the other he'd be sounding the cautionary note that making more money is not the sole aim of being a Godly person.

Regardless, he'd be more into commenting on news articles like this than the Collingwood/St.Kilda draw, Desperate Housewives, Leon Washington or Paris Hilton.

Anyway,

To infinity and beyond!
Live long and prosper

Disclaimer: My views are my own.