Too many things...

So little time.

There have been to many things to want to blog about this last week, but I've been WAY too busy really. Here's a few:

BBC radio 4 had a program about the 'romantic' poets; Byron, Shelly and Keats. It was all do very matter-of-fact, but it appears Byron was sexually abused as a child, and subsequently bisexual with serious personality problems, Shelly couldn't choose between sisters, so had them both (amoungst others) and Keats was seriously anti-christian. In fact a major force for admiration of Byron and Shelley by keats was their atheistic stance, even to the point of replacing Jesus with themselves in certain pictures..

I've been reading Plutarch's "the age of Alexander" recently. Greek society around 400BC was strange. Women were like a seperate species (which is stranger, in many ways) and they really did use young boys for love. All the urban legends I'd heard about this era have so far proven true. Throws Romans 1 into perspective.

Just heard some friends of ours want to get divorced. This is REALLY not good news - since becoming christians a couple of years ago they have really been through a lot. If you're up for it, pray for Andrew and Jane and their children.

AS a church, we're going through 'interesting times', with Barrie, our community head moving on to plant another church. We need clarity as to where the next leadership should come from. There is a couple in the church that we all know will lead a church one day - they clearly have that mark on their lives - but a number of us feel 'not now'. We feel the church needs fresh direction and leadership, and it would be hard for someone to arise within and provide that. Not impossible, but difficult. We need wisdom, insight and sensitivity to hear what God's saying. Nuts to working it out with human intellect.

Pray for 'Ricky Ralph' - a guy I met in Texas a couple of weeks ago. Apart from playing guitar really well, he needs a job that covers the bills.

I survived leading worship yesterday afternoon. It's all very well making statements about us "not being adequate, so God has to move" but for me it's literally true, and this does not create a comfort zone. Especially when some friends were having their daughter dedicated, and a large number of family were present. But God was gracious to both them and us.

Our next door neighbour is having a complex back operation today. His spine has some crumbling vertebrae, and the sciatic nerve is being pressed, causing considerable pain. If the op goes wrong then he could end up partially paralysed with no bladder control. If it goes well then he'll be pain free and happier than he's been for some time. Pray for Andrew.

And finally......

It's a beautiful morning here. Sunny. Dry. Clear. And with a darned thick layer of ice on the windscreen. We live in a valley with it's own micro-climate. It's quite common to find the temperature several degrees different where we live compared to the area above. Looks like we had a layer of cold air trapped by us, while everywhere else had warmed up. Should be a nice day.

Now, work calls.