climbing hiking camping

These are the final lines of a poem written in 1938 by Robert D Abrahams. He is reflecting on wars around the world whilst he and his wife, safe at home,  drive to a game of bridge: Tonight Shanghai is burning, And we are dying too. What bomb more surely mortal Than death inside of you? For some men die by shrapnel, And some go down in flames, But most men perish inch by inch, In play at little games. The words are a challenge to every one of us. Will we allow ourselves to die inch by inch? Or will we determine to live for a cause? Will we allow others to play little games with our lives? Or will we ignore the fear of shrapnel and fight? May every one of us reading these words determine to live; and to live for something great, something lasting, something meaningful.

This is not the usual short blog from me- you’re going to need patience to read it, but there’s a REWARD if you get to the end. I don’t go in for too much reflection on these pages, but 2017 was a life-changing year, so here goes. I’m so grateful for such a wonderful wife. My youngest daughter constantly reminds me that I managed to secure a beautiful woman- well beyond everyone’s expectations! And to have four children and two kids-in-law, all of whom love God is an amazing blessing. As for the two grandkids, don’t get me started! As I REFLECT on the year, it was mixed, with doors closing and others opening. To be dropped from the lead team for our Leicester church was a real sadness. We remain leaders in various capacities at ‘home base’ in Peterborough and will continue to support Leicester as much as we can. But other doors opened. Not least with the Leprosy Mission and Mission24. To be Chair of the Leprosy Mission England & Wales is an immense privilege. This often forgotten a...

I love the London Marathon. I've run it twice. I didn't love it at the time though! The last six or so miles are hard. You have run out of all energy, your body wants to give in. But you keep going. As you run into The Mall on that final mile, there's thousands of people cheering you on. It's that which gets you over the finish line. People you will never meet, cheering you on by name (assuming your name is on your shirt!) The noise. The applause. It gets you there. I love this short clip from the BBC of runners helping each other. Lets do the same in the race of life. Don't give up. Keep going. And for those of us with a Christian faith, the Bible says there's a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on over the finishing line. This is how a modern translation puts it: "Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra sp...

As we approached the New Year, I posted the following on Facebook. Its simple statements obviously hit a chord as many 'likes' and 'shares' followed. So, with thanks to the original author, Julie Baumgardner, it's posted here. May it be true for all of us, all of the time.

An amazing thing has just happened in my city. Leicester City Football Club has won the Premiership. Outside of the usual ‘big spenders’, Leicester are only the second club to manage the impossible (Blackburn Rovers being the other club in 1994/95). They won it on team spirit, togetherness, courage and determination. In the end, money can’t buy determination. It’s worth looking at the financials here. The chart below, from the BBC, shows how Leicester stacks up in terms of cost, against the biggest spending club, Manchester City: Yes, that’s right. Leicester has just won the Premiership with a team valued at 7.5% of the ‘top’ club. And that’s not all. Leicester City have also attained the greatest financial ‘over achievement’ when measured against wages. Here’s the proof courtesy of the Financial Times no less (via Pensions Playpen): Much has already been written about this impossible success. And I’m sure there will be more to follow. Cold finance says this achievement is imp...

David Brooks wrote a beautiful article in the New York Times . His proposition is a simple one. Do we want to build our virtues as reflected in a career résumé, or do we want to build virtues in our life that might be remembered after we are gone - what Brooks calls a Eulogy Virtue. Here's a quote from the article: "Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character." And again: "You (can) live with an unconscious boredom, separated from the deepest meaning of life and the highest moral joys. Gradually, a humiliating gap opens between your actual self and your desired self, between you and those incandescent souls you sometimes meet." I appreciate my résumé. My success in the world of work has taken me a long way. But if I want to go further - beyond this life - I need to add the kind of virtues that may be talked of at a funeral. I don't expect for a moment that anything I do to build my inner life will be of the ...

Often we embark on a journey with no end in sight. We're not sure how long it will be, or even if we will end up where we want to be. Or at least where we thought we'd be. Such is the journey of life. Twists and turns. Unexpected moments. Some pleasant. Some not so. But there are always blessings along the way. The Children of Israel trekked through the wilderness with Moses for 40 years. Quite a journey. But they got there. And near the end of the journey there were unexpected blessings. One of them   is simply recorded- they camped just outside the Promised Land with their faces 'towards the sunrise'. They were travelling north, but as they looked east, they saw the sun rise. It was a new day for them. They were at the start of something. A few verses later in the bible, we read that they found a well of water and sang a song of declaration over it- 'spring up o well!' Wherever you are on your journey, take time to state your purposes. Declare them. Write them...

‘I’m here between the bookends of everything that was and what will be’ It’s a quote from an Amy Grant song. Every one of us is on a journey. We have no idea of where we are in the journey between those two bookends. In a sense, there is little or nothing we can do about that. But what we can do is ensure that where we are right now is as effective and life affirming as it’s possible to be. To give our all. To live to the full. The Apostle Paul said ‘God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!’ That’s true for every one of us. There’s a life worth living, a life worth giving. If I’m between the bookends with no idea at what particular point, I want to make my life count. So for me, with apologies to Amy Grant for changing the lyrics, it’s not ‘what will be’ but what, with God’s help, CAN be.   All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are...

She was sick all night. So much so, that by 5.30am  -the day of her Commonwealth Games race in Glasgow- she was on a drip in hospital. Add the that the fact that her operation previously meant that she still had an open wound and things were not looking so good. Lynsey Sharp is a Scottish athlete and that day was the day she competed in the 800 metres final. She had scraped in as a ‘fastest loser’ so things were not adding up to any kind of medal.  But on the night, she ran. And ran. Breaking apart the Kenyan/Ugandan duo expected to win, she came away with a silver medal. It was her last race. Her final time on the bike. But rather than try and win, she did something extraordinary. She pushed on ahead, sacrificing her own stamina to help her younger colleague get the gold. And a silver for her- Emma Pooley. He was in the first leg of the 100 metres relay, first round. But as he stretched away, Kimmari Roache’s leg gave way. Extreme pain. But he kept going. He had to keep going...

We decide where we go and what we do in life.   We choose whether we lose our days in TV soaps and game shows or determine to achieve more by our lives.   We decide whether life is an existence or an achievement, whether we leave a memory or a mark on our generation.   Bryn Jones

Most of our journey through life is made in small steps. What the writer Eugene Peterson calls ‘A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.’ A coffee here, a meal there. A conversation one day, a car journey the next. Small integral parts of life’s direction. Occasionally, a giant step comes along. For us two have come at once. The first is the start of KingsGate Community Church Leicester . Our first (amazing!) meeting was last night. As someone who had spoken often of the possibility of KingsGate planting a new church into Leicester, it is the realisation of a dream. And a giant step. The other giant step comes as we drop our youngest child, Lois, off at Heathrow later today, as she starts her long obedience in the same direction. She is travelling out to Bulembu in Swaziland to serve as a long term missionary. For us, it means an empty house for the first time, with the other three children having already moved away. Two giant steps. Two key moments in our lives. And fuel for the j...

On the 7th day of the 7th month, 77 years later, history was made. The last British winner was Virginia Wade in ’77. And 77 years ago, the last British man to win; Fred Perry. “I don't play any tournaments to come second best.” Andy Murray.  

You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain. Tom Hiddleston [We are] created to walk in precarious places, not on the easy levels of life. Amy Carmichael