Praise Poem

Faith is both hard and easy.
We walk the line of duality:
trudging soldiers and soaring eagles
on a narrow way,
an impossible path.
But on we go,
with fingers curled tight about the thumb of a Father;
No weight to our confused
and crisscrossing legs.

"The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand." - Psalm 37:23

Today, I ate a boiled egg.

Happy New Year!
It was pointed out to me that I haven't blogged since October, and I felt rather ashamed. Truth is, I have five or six unfinished blog posts lying in the drafts box, ranging from topics of singleness to the book 'One Day' by David Nicholls. Yet, I haven't been pushing myself to finish them. But a New Year is here, and my challenge is to challenge myself. And also to stop apologising at the beginning of each post.

I had a beautiful Christmas, spending time with my family. We're a small and rather tight-knight group, who refer to ourselves as 'The Buzzards' and make frequent bird of prey jokes. It's a little embarrassing how often, when out for a walk, somebody will spot a bird circling ahead, point and shout, "Look it's one of our relations!" The clan has also multiplied considerably in recent years, as both my cousins now have small children, which has lead to hours of Hide and Seek using the only five hiding places in the house.

Christmas Dinner

The World's Oldest Video Camera

My Favourite Brother

It was good to be there. And now it's time to begin again. College resumes tomorrow, and I'm praying for the most amazing, God-glorifying last six months there. Hope you all had a great Christmas and I'm encouraging your use of the comment box this year, so let me know how it was!

p.s. You may be wondering about the blog title. 2012 promises to be a great year: finishing A-levels, hopefully off to Uni to study English, potentially spending all of July in South Africa, being a part of the new Tribe system with our church youth and to kick it all off, after 12 years of protesting that boiled eggs make me feel sick, I enjoyed one this morning. It's an exciting year!

Writing Course Assignment: Apathy

I wandered past a homeless man
lying in the street,
I wandered past this homeless man
as he stared at my feet.

I trod the same route every day,
a firmness in my step,
not to care that on such streets
such desperation slept.

Until one day I met the cross
where apathy is nailed,
and felt compassion in my chest
and felt how we have failed.

I wandered past a homeless man
but today I saw it all:
injustice, like a leaden shot.
Today I saw a soul.

Living

It's been such a long while since I've done anything. I always have an excuse; 'I'm revising' 'It's exam period' 'I'm on holiday' 'I'm working on my UCAS' 'I'm waiting for results' 'I just got my results' 'PERSONAL STATEMENT!'


It's silly really. 
I just need to live.
It's one of my greatest fears, being lost in the mundane. That each day drags into the same, until you lose that sense of awe at how vast the sky you live under is, at how fresh the morning feels, at simple things like bare feet on over-hot tarmac and the messiness of finger-painting. I get so lost in what must be done that I forget to enjoy.


I went on holiday, wandered the beach at night, and read my bible, and this verse got stamped all over my heart..
"For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God." - Galatians 2:19


And I realised, that I'd gotten so caught up in what must be done that I'd forgotten to just live for God. My actions were boxes that needed to be ticked 
- Read bible daily
- Pray for others
- Stop being so judgemental
- Work on the pride thing


Don't get me wrong, all these things needed to, and still need to be done, but I'd forgotten why I was doing them, how I could do them, how if I just took Jesus literally when he said "Love God, Love Others", everything else falls into place. I realised that every inch of me had been screaming out 'just let me live for God' but I hadn't been letting myself, I'd been hampering my freedom in Christ; because the freedom we're given is grace, the room to make mistakes, say sorry and ask for the Spirit's help to change. Nobody ever changed themselves through following the rules, only through experience, growth, acknowledging our faults and allowing ourselves to be shaped by God can we become even a little bit more like Jesus. There is a great joy that comes from knowing Christ, having him live in us and guide us, and I don't want to miss that because I'm too busy ticking off my 'how to live like a Christian' checklist.

So even though this blog post isn't perfect, neither am I. I could polish it and polish to make it look like how I want to be presented to the outside world. Or I can just stick it up here. It has the capacity to be wrong, but so do I. Just got to live life anyway.

Food For Thought

About so much more than hell. Just hearing Francis Chan's humility in this video is an inspiration.

May Showers

Which person was it
who first fouled the rain
with his melancholy moods?
I feel no such sorrow
at the cascading drops.
A jumper soaked; a chill cold caught,
Anger cries "Rain is for naught!"
Such inconvenience is the price of life.
I'm glad my God, my Lord,
in his kind wisdom poured,
fresh water upon our land.
For now, it's smells of fresh-drenched dirt,
crisp and clean; alive.
For next, it's full, round fruit finding
all's turned ripe one Summer Day.
No inconvenience then: just joy.

The Word

One of the most amazing descriptions of the Bible that I've ever read.
From the Spring Harvest website:

"It’s time we stopped seeing the Bible as a book. It’s 66 volumes by more than three-dozen authors to make a little library. It’s a repository of reference; a Treasure-chest of truth; a library of lives. 
The Bible holds together with remarkable consistency and strength. Core themes run like rivers through the texts. Questions asked in ages past are answered in dreams of the future. Promises made in times of need are fulfilled in times of grace."

And why it's so important to read:

"Biblical direction for the road we travel, will equip you to better understand the Bible, to better apply its teachings and to better live out the powerful call of the Spirit who broods and breathes within its pages."

So true! And so inspiring! (Normally, I would not consider myself an exclamation mark user, however 'the Spirirt who broods and breathes within its pages' is so ridiculously exciting!)

I love my bible.
This video on 'Why the bible?' also sums things up really well, as to why we should trust it.

Ravi Zacharias- if you haven't heard of this guy, look him up. His wisdom is phenomenal. 

 p.s. (skip to 2:24, the stuff before that is about philosophy and can be confusing)