Leaving Birmingham at 1.30 and seeing this sign on the M6 was both horrible and weird.
Listening to reports on 5 Live made me feel sick, helpless and angry – and it was not even affecting me directly.

You can find reports here from the BBC and The Guardian.

At times like this all we can do is pray for those that are hurting.

This photo was quick on the circulation list and I could not resist posting it as it made me laugh loads. Anyone for a half price t-shirt. Surely they should be on Ebay as collectors items!!

Where will you be in 2012? The Olympics are coming to London!! Fantastic news, so flipping wonderfully stupendously fantastic. In addition my little home town of Weymouth gets to host the sailing. I’ll be torn … London athletics, or Weymouth beach and sailing. It’s a good job I have 7 years to decide.

London …Olympics … 2012 … did I say I was excited?

I saw War of the Worlds this morning.
It was a great film although I thought the ending was a bit lame,. although more believable probably than flying into the centre of a fleet ‘Independance Day’ style and uploading a virus.

I will say no more in case you have not seen it yet.

The film is worth going to see. It reminded me of the fragileness of humankind and the strength of the parent child relationship. There is a good scene where true love needs to be displayed by a letting go, even in the face of certain disaster – maybe there is a slight prodigal theme here?

Today it starts.
Keep praying.
Light your candle.
Hold vigil.

Another decade of failure would mean 100 000 000 people would die; each one is avoidable.

Can you exhaust feelings of being proud? I don’t think so. I’m obviously having a proud period!

Today, at 4.00pm, I opened the front door to a singing Thomas. He was singing because his report tells us that he is a level 5 across the board (with a 4 for writing) for maths, english (rreading) and science. The expectation by the end of Year 6 is to be Level 4, hence his excitement, and my pride.

Well done Tom!

On Thursday I have been creative with my diary and my car. I need to be in Birmingham at 10 am for a Locdown meeting and then need to return to London by 6 pm for a Soul in the City meeting in London.

I realised too late that I was doing this and so cannot now get a reasonably priced train ticket so will need to be driving.

This is a long shot – but does anyone know a carpark or somewhere to park near a tube station which would be on my route into London from Birmingham which will enable me to get to the SITC meeting which is to be held in central London?

Found this today – amazing what bargains you can find on ebay!

Will anyone actually buy this?

But … more importantly … what does this mean?

doo doo doo doo …. we are entering the twilight zone!

Maggi writes well here and gives us a good reminder that the responsibility for eliminating poverty is not just the responsibility of 8 men who meet in a room by a golf course at the end of the week.

If this is going to work, if we are to see a change – then we must all be prepared to eradicate poverty.

Go have a read of maggi’s words and the comments too.

Last week I spoke of Rob Bell from Mars Hill.

Before my trip to Leeds I downloaded a couple of mp3 sermons of his to listen to if I finished my work. I listened to one called ‘The theology of breathing’ which I found interesting and got me thinking differently about stuff. It’s well worth downloading and listening to.

Bell spoke of Ruah and Pneuma, words in the old and new testament for spirit. These words are also translated as breath and Bell opened up the thought being nothing without the breath of God. We were created from dust and God breathed into us to make us human, without ruah/pneuma we are dust, dead, nothing!

Interesting as the thought comes, and Bell brings it up, that when we say ‘God is not close’ he replies, ‘I breathed into you, I am in your breath – I can’t get any closer, I’m so close I’m inside’. Its a sobering and exciting thought to think that since the beginning of our lives God has been dwelling within us. We may not notice, but he breathed into us and he is still there.

I also picked up from Bell a few more bits about breathing. Breathing helps to get toxins out of our bodies. Most of us breathe from our chest only, so our breathing only removes around 20% of thee toxins that it could. If we breath deeply, more of the toxins are got rid of.

Try breathing deeply right now few times. It immediately calms us. Toxins are being removed but I wonder if we are also being reminded of God’s deep indwelling presence? I wonder if as we breath deeply, whether we unknowingly connect with our maker in a way we do not fully understand, yet feel the calming and encouraging effects of?

We all know that in times of stress if we breathe deeply that it can help to calm us. I can recall a few occasions when I have lost it and thought afterwards, ‘If only I had taken a few deep breaths first!’ Breathing deeply, properly, has physiological effects. It calms our breathing, increases oxygen to the brain, aerates our blood and so slows our heart beat.

Is it possible that there is more here then we understand. For centuries Christian meditation has centred around deep breathing and stilling self before God. Does this deepening of the breathing help us to connect deeply with God which we cannot do when we are charging around? On average we breath around 16-20 times a minute from our chest when God created us to breath around 10 times a minute properly. No wonder we feel overworked and tired!!!

I wonder whether breathing has something divine about it. The word in the old testament, ruah, may be translated breath or spirit. When we are born we breath, new Christian’s receive the spirit. When we stop breathing we die, without God’s spirit we are as good as dead. Without ‘ruah’, whether that is breath or spirit, we are just dust.

For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to remember to breathe properly. As I do this I have become more conscious of the presence of Jesus. That is no surprise as that is merely the result of this stuff going through my head. There has been an interesting development, though. Each time I breathe deeply I remember God, and I remember that I am loved exactly as I am. That is great to remember when you are having a hard crappy day, or just received a tirade of abuse, or just started to doubt your calling, or stopped believing in yourself or your ability to do something God has called you to … I think I have covered lots of everyday occurrences there (well most of mine anyway!)! It reminds me, too, of the request to ‘pray continually’.

So … if I say to you ‘excuse me … I need to breathe for a moment’ …you know what’s going on!

I’m a proud dad.

Today in church we saw 6 young people baptised. It was a great and exciting occasion.

It was a mega proud moment for a mum and dad as we watched Beth tell the church why she wanted to be baptised and then see the event itself.

What a great way to end a fantatstic weekend.