Live spectacularly


Over the holiday we watched Jack when it was on TV.

At the end, Jack makes an emotional speech which includes the following:

“When a shooting star streaks through the blackness turning night into day, make a wish and think of me and make your life spectacular. I know I did.
” -Robin Williams as Jack.

I believe God speaks through film and reckon this is a reminder of Philippians 2:15 where we are called to shine like stars in the universe.

I don’t make resolutions at New Year as they never last – but if I was going to, Jack/Williams/Paul’s statement would sum up my aim.

Happy New Year.

Shiny Stats

I have recently found the blog of good friend David and it has been great to be able to catch up. A great tool he uses on his blog is Shiny Stats. This is a free web counter which tells which country people are reading the blog from. Seems most of you who read this are in the UK and US, although there are are also some from Hong Kong (hi Mike and Helen),Portugal, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Italy and France! Wow – please say hi as I’m always keen on new places to visit!

Crimes

A number of quotes here on this morning’s execution. Not surprisingly, most of the world again seems to disagree with the US and UK.I agree with David, Saddam could have been imprisoned for life rather than killed in such a horrific way.

Death Sentence

The western press seems to enjoy demonising Muslims at the moment and having a good attempt at belittling Islamic practices.
We in the west have (rightly) condemned Saddam Hussein for genocide, the mass murder of people.
I assume we find this so wrong because we believe life should be respected and that no one has, or should have, the authority to take the life of another.
This report, therefore, concerns me.
Indeed, in the UK, this is totally against the law.
Why then are Western Governments supporting and encouraging death to be repaid by death?
Is not one crime being repaid with another here?

Pray as you go

Pray as you go from The Jesuits has been great for staying connected ovr the season.
I may continue using this for a bit longer.

Christmas goes on …

The Christmas celebrations are fading into the past, but the Ryan household are still trying to retain some of the wonder of the season and I’m pleased to say that the children are still marvelling over how lucky and loved they are due to presents received from others.

The celebrations of the last few days have memories I wish to record and remember:

My humorous eldest wrapping up an apple in a MacDonald’s Big Mac box and upon my quizzical look telling me it was the Apple Mac that I so covet! He thinks he is so funny!

Seeing family members we don’t see enough of.

Wonder that the simplest presents, like 25p strecthy people from Hawkins Bazaar, can provide endless hours of fun.

Seeing the enjoyment on peoples faces as they open presents and discover what is hidden beneath the wrapping.

Watching Daddy Cool last night at The Shaftesbury Theatre as a group of 16 family members – a cool joint present!

Thanks to Sarah’s great present to me I can now have freshly ground coffee whenever I like due to a nice shiny bean grinder.

We say that Christmas is over.
This year, though, I have been thinking a lot about the incarnation.
Christmas is never over.
The Advent-ure of ‘God in Flesh’ is always with us.
As transformed children of God we can keep the excitement!

Merry Christmas


May you experience some of the true wonder and joy of Christmas today.

Come to Bethlehem village (2)

For the afternoon Christmas Eve service we converted the church into Bethlehem village with shepherds, market stall, wise men, the inn and so on. Some people seemed to enjoy coming in and interacting with the characters and others just enjoyed sitting down and watching what was happening around them. The time was relaxed enough to show that either was acceptable and the ‘right thing’ to do.

Darrel was one of the wise men and had the excellent idea of presenting our journey using Google Earth to explain the journey we had made to get to Bethlehem. People were fascinated! It was a stroke of genius from my friend!

Open House

We had ‘open house’ today as a replacement for our normal ‘Birthday party for Jesus’ which normally happens at our house on Christmas Eve. This little ‘tradition’ was started when all our children, and those of friends, were little but now that they are approaching teenage years we thought it would stop. Seems our children want to have the birthday party for Jesus for some years to come yet.

It was a great afternoon and a brief chance, or space. to catch up with friends which is not normally possible in this hectic season.

Protest4

The latest Protest4 update can be found here.