Thoughts From Just Another Passer By

Okay so as promised further thoughts and blogs on NMSC2012. I will say now that this may or maynot have anything to do with what was actually spoken and I may have got the gist entirely wrong (small disclaimer) but this is what I took from them and have been meditating from with God since that time. SO... Lily Allen and Moses, that great classical combination, right! Most people will probably know the story of Moses but if you don't its a great epic in the bible. A story that  just kind of blows you away when you begin to think about it, make a great film even just the first bit of mosses life so what is there, um, genocide, an attempt to float a baby down the river, adopted by a princess, excepted in the royal family, murder, burning bushes, God, Plagues, parting of rivers etc. etc. (on a side not I love the women in the beginning of the story a true moment of girl power!) But I'm going to be concentrating on just the small encounter with the burning ...

So over this weekend I finally got acquainted with that part of the M1 that signposts THE NORTH, pretty much like that. Such vagueness, the NORTH. I could have been going any where (and with my satnav I could have been going anywhere.) Such frivolity to jump in a car and just drive. If I was to do this without a clear purpose (which I did have) then I can honestly say that the M1 would not be the road of choice! But on Friday (27th Jan 2012) just before 2pm that is where I found myself. Not alone i hasten to add, but rather with Holly, a great mix tape (CD) and my KA - aren't you glad to know I wasn't walking. What a journey through rain and sleet, and according to my satnav on roads that are un-surfaced (the M1 - un-surfaced :S ) and past all the lifeguards. I went to Durham - which I believe is the furthest North I have ever been - to the National Methodist Student Conference, to be greeted by the 'Durhamites' or the MethSoc of Durham University. The fi...

So in a quick break from that dissertation I'm writing I have learnt that it is 112 days or 3 months and 21 days till my final deadline. This is just a small amount of crazy compared to the fact that in: 152 or 5 months  it will be the day I graduate. All Cliff College Third Years, have fun with this great fact.  112 days to write the equivalent of 39000 words, keep on preaching, praying, living and find a job.  Them elusive words "whats next" or "you'll soon not be here" haunt the corners of your conversations. The dreaded thought that some how between now and the next five months you some how have to figure out the entirety of what happens next or at least some sort of action plan. I suppose I'm lucky, I've already started to apply for Jobs. Keeping my ear to the ground for any potential. Reasonably willing to go any where.  It all comes back down to this calling business, I preach so often on calling, and I forever joke that I have...

Deadline is that time of year which all students dread, even if you like deadline it fills you with that cold sweat, knowing that somewhere you friends will be eating that midnight pizza followed by 3am toast and 6 am coffee. Its that moment where you realise your reading may just pay off and that Facebook is possibly the worst invention. Its a time when you consider there is the possibility of two 3 o'clocks in the day and that wikipedia although not quotable is a gift from God. My friends consider that Deadline sends me completely crazy, or rather I become less concerned about confrontation and more prone to speaking my mind. Most find this reasonably amusing, and in some ways  is possibly a trait I should consider adopting more often. So I asked some friends for something to talk about and it was suggest I talked about Aiden Sharpe. This week in college we started an appreciation group for Aiden. This is a guy I've known for a very time through...

Its crazy how often I start a post and never finish what I was going to type. Often for various reasons, sometimes phone calls, or someone wants something that has to be done instantly. Sometimes the words fail me or I get to the end of a post and I look back at the inadequacy of my words. I've sat down many times this week to blog about my New Years Day service and each time I've got three lines into the introduction and one of the above has happened. Preaching a message is so much easier. But I wish to write it here to remind myself of my own words throughout the year. My sermon had a title. I don't often title my sermons, but this just seemed to happen. The Wise Men's Guide to 2012 . Like many traditional sermons it had three points (also all titled so all I had to have in front of me was one title and a subheading - saving the world less notes at a time.)  My first point (and please if you know me and I struggle with any of these through out the year please refer...