We live in a house in which there are clocks in almost all rooms. They are synchronised on Sundays when they are wound and put right but as the week goes on, they drift apart, affected by air pressure and temperature and all the other things that old clocks are influenced by. One thing is…

Continuing my thoughts about Our Heavenly Father and earthly fathers, I am looking at a friend Michael’s experiences of his father. Born in Australia, Michael lived for his first 7 years happily with his mother and father, mainly in New Guinea where his father, an ordained Methodist minister, was serving as a missionary with the…

Watching a rerun of one of the many police programmes recently, a driver was “pulled over” by a police officer and “invited” to sit in the back of the police car. The officer asked the motorist for his driving licence and then details of his car insurance. The motorist, willing to cooperate, produced his licence…

Kangaroos! We were racing across the Australian bush (anywhere outside a city) on the Indian Pacific train, with eyes pinned on the landscape, hoping to catch sight of our first “skippy” or kangaroo. It didn’t take long, although they were quite difficult to spot, blending in with the surrounding countryside. Do you know the collective…

Some years ago, Luke and I decided to take a day trip to Durham.   I fancied having a look round the Cathedral as you do! Not knowing where the car parks are, decided to use the park and ride.    We took our seats at the back of the bus, and we watched as people…

Remember last week I wrote about attending a match at Portman Road?  Well, that week was a bit of a football based week.  As I said, I hadn’t even been to the ground, let alone watched a math there, for 64 years. But I found myself there again in the Premier lounge for a meeting…

When the glorious day came when my wife was due to come home after being in hospital for just over nine and a half weeks, we were told that a care package would be put in place and we would have carers visiting our house four times a day.  My heart sank, my last experience…

In the last few months I have shared a few of these ‘thoughts’ based on the protracted experience of my retirement and that of two other colleagues. The latest one was really very funny provided I laugh at myself. On the occasion of the aforementioned ‘do’ I was at an all-day conference that ended with…

Continuing my thoughts about experiences of fathers, and the Fatherhood of God, – I have often spent time with Kate, a friend, for whom the whole subject of her father brings back very painful memories. When she was 10 her father left the family to start a new relationship, moving 250 miles away to make…

Watching one of the many hospital-based programmes on TV, I was interested in one of the patients in the Accident and Emergency department. The patient’s wife shared a little of how the two had met, and in the early days of their friendship, as a Christian, she invited the young man to church, expecting him…