For years I thought that a successful Church was one that was filled to capacity every Sunday, as a teenager I used to look around our local chapel and dream of the day when I would see the place packed to capacity every Sunday, sadly the only times I saw that happen was on special…

Over the last couple of weeks my patience has been really tested. I had to wait a long time at the hospital; Ray, my husband, had to wait to see the dentist and I was waiting for him in the car. We were to have a Smart meter fitted on a sunny afternoon and he didn’t turn…

Jonah wanted to watch what happened to Nineveh. He went out to a vantage point and made himself a shelter to protect himself from the sun while he boiled with rage at God’s mercy.  A large, leafy plant grew quickly and sheltered him adding to the comfort of his viewing platform. Then a worm chewed…

Lee Atwater was a well-known figure in U.S. politics. He engineered the successful 1988 presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush and was the head of the Republican National Committee (1988-10991). But in the midst of all his activities he developed an inoperable brain tumour and died at the age of 40. During his illness, Atwater came…

There was a time when masks were worn by actors to portray a character in a play – an animal, a bird, a monster. Children love making and wearing masks for fancy dress parties, and aristocrats in a bygone era wore masks to balls. Surgeons and theatre nurses wear masks to perform operations, and those…

What is contentment? Is it being satisfied with what you’ve got? Is it an acceptance that although you want more you have enough? What are the dangers of contentment? Complacency, taking your “eye of the ball?” Spiritual drift, forgetting to keep God at the centre of all we do. In an earlier Thought for the…