At the beginning of this week, one of the television news items called for people to donate blood, especially if they were type O since there was a shortage, due to staff shortages and changes in people’s behaviour since the pandemic. Blood has a limited shelf life and supplies were getting dangerously low. In this…
I don’t want to imagine the scenes at the Taylor Swift dance class in Southport on Monday. I’m sure anyone who witnessed them will never forget. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved. It’s at times like these words can’t be found that touch the depth of feeling brought to the surface. All…
It’s an odd time of year – I feel caught between endings and beginnings. School’s ended, ministers are leaving, clubs are in recess. Things seem to be in limbo before everything fires into action again in September. Time to stand back, review, take a breath. ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ Psalm 46:10…
Having read the passage in Amos 7 where God shows Amos a plumb line alongside a wall, I was interested to find out more about being ‘true to plumb’. First of all, plumb isn’t a misspelling of plum. It’s not a fruit that’s dangling on the end of the line! Apparently, it’s a derivation of…
Are you lonely? Some people enjoy solitude, being alone doesn’t always mean feeling lonely. Loneliness is the distress, some have called it ‘social pain’, that comes from a perceived gap between desired social interaction and one’s experiences of it. It can lead on to other mental health issues : depression, anxiety, paranoia. Loneliness is often…
Exploring the idea of prayer further, I have been reading Rev John Wesley’s sermon on the subject. He says the model prayer Jesus left us, contains all that we can reasonably pray for; there is nothing that we need to ask God for which isn’t mentioned – physical, mental and spiritual needs, past, present and…
I remember my Grandma having a small plaque that had these three words on; I read it every time I went into her kitchen and sat with her. She lived just down the road, so I would be there at some point on most days. I’ve always been interested in words and letters, so it…
I was there watching when your alarm went off this morning. I saw you hit the snooze button and wondered if you might remember me as you scrolled through the appointments and activities you planned for the day. But I guess your mind was full of other things. I saw you hurriedly jump out of…
At weekends when my children were small, we would often open a tub of popcorn and hunker down to share a film together. I’d invite them to take a handful of the snack and put it in a bowl on their laps and nibble as they watched. However, there was one evening when the tub…
Thinking of the D-Day anniversary, reminded me of this story. One Sunday, a man went to a service in an unfamiliar church. He arrived early and parked his car. As he opened the door to get out, another car pulled up next to him and the driver wound down his window,” I always park there.…