Looking at the Stars

Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts recently. Secondly, I've realised for a blog entitled When I Look at the Stars, there is a distinct lack of pictures of stars. So, to rectify this, here is... a picture of stars! (Courtesy of Dan Jones, or the Hubble Telescope).

Death

Last week a few of us went to see a production of Wit by the Liverpool University Drama Society. The play follows the last days of Vivian Bearing, a professor of John Done poetry, who has been diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic ovarian cancer. The play mixes her final hours with flash-backs to pivotal moments in her life, and also quotes heavily John Done's Holy Sonnet X (Death Be Not Proud). The play as a whole was excellent, but something that stood out to me was the comparison of two versions of the poem.



One version finished with the line: And death thou shalt be no more, death, thou shalt die.

The second finished with the line: And Death thou shalt be no more; Death, thou shalt die!


Vivian Bearing saw the second version as far preferable, with its more interesting punctuation implying that death (or Death) was a way that life finished with a bang. She held that the first version was more like sliding out of life, not a pause. She held that Death was preferable to death, and in the final scene, it appears like she is about to get her wish, with moving last words and a dramatic cardiac arrest.

However, it was not to be, and instead her death was much more subtle, drifting off whilst her old professor read to her.

It made me think.

Old Hymns

Firstly, apologies that I've not posted on this blog for a while, exams kind of swallowed up blogging time. So hopefully the pace will pick up again now they're over.

This week has seen the Frontline conference, 3 days of teaching on how to 'Unleash your full potential' featuring teaching form visiting pastors Jimmy Dowds and Larry Stockstill. By all accounts, the whole conference was a great success. Since it was a midweek conference, I was only able to get to two of the evening sessions and was really blessed by Larry Stockstill both times.

However, perhaps surprisingly, both nights, it was the worship that God really spoke to me through. In addition to the usual modern songs, the first evening also involved singing a version of Amazing Grace. My attention was really drawn to one verse in particular:

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining like the sun,
We've no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.

Eternity is going to be fun!

Swimsuits

Duncan Goodhew (that completely bald swimmer from a few years ago for those of you who don't know who he is) has recently said that he disagrees with the current trend for hi-tech swimsuits that are causing so many world records to be broken over the last few years. Many long-standing world records have been broken by swimmers wearing the Speedo LZR racer. This suit has not actually been independantly verified as complying with the sports guidelines. Goodhew disagrees with the suit on the basis that swimming should be just the swimmer and the water. To an extent, I agree with him. However, it is difficult at what point using a specially designed swimsuit gives an unfair advantage. Technically, all swimsuits are designed to be streamlined, so unless swimmers either a) swim naked, or b) swim wearing pyjamas or jeans, then an artificial line must be drawn. From my point of view, the disadvantage of engineered suits is that it is almost pointless comparing my times with professional times. The main advantage is also that it is pointless comparing my times with professional times, so I have an excuse to not be as good. Maybe thats a bad thing.

Whats In A Name?

I was struck recently reading the story of Abraham in Genesis, and specifically the point in his life where God gives him the name Abraham. Leading up this point, he and his wife Sarai (renamed Sarah), were praying for a child. God declared that they would conceive, and as part of the covenant between God and Abram, God gave him the name Abraham, meaning father of many nations. This meant that every time Sarah spoke to him, his name spoke as a reminder of God's promise to them. "Father of many nations, your tea's ready!", "Father of many nations, have you milked the goats yet?" and so on.

Abraham and Sarahs' confession would have caused their faith to rise, and eventually, they did give birth to a son, Israel, and Abraham did become a fatehr to many nations. This story is a typical illustration of how a positive confession is important in serving to raise faith for the miraculous (Abraham and Sarah were well past childbearing age, even by todays standards with IVF - Israel was a true miracle child).

However, on reading this passage recently, I noticed something for the first time. Prior to being called Abraham (Father of many nations), Abraham was Abram (Exalted Father). In other words, his confession was still positive and still declared fatherhood. In changing his name, God provided him with a higher confession, a greater dimension of faith and a fresh revelation. Even if our confession is good, and our expectations faith filled, there is still room for God to break in and it is important to allow him to increase our confession to a higher level, allowing the truly miraculous to take place.

Abram (Exalted Father) had a son with a servant girl.
Abraham (Father of many nations) had a son with his wife, and became the father of many nations.

So make the decision to speak out your confession, and let it be raised to another level, and see how God takes up the challenge!

Community Lessons from Geese

Geese can teach us many things about how to act as a community.

1. Geese always fly in a V-shaped formation. As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird behind. In a V shape, the whole flock adds 71% more range than if each bird was flying alone. When the community acts together, it is more efficient and each member benefits.

2. When a goose falls out of formation, it experiences drag and slows down. It quickly moves back into formation to continue taking advantage of the power of the flock. If we have as much sense as geese, we will quickly learn when we are not taking advantage of, and contributing to, the community and rectify this.

3. When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose takes its place at the front. Members of the community should take turns to do the hard work, so that the whole community continues to benefit together. A community is depend on all its members.

4. The geese flying in the V formation honk to encourage those at the front to keep up their speed. It is important to encourage others members of the community verbally.

5. When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of the formation with it, and remain with it, looking after it until it either dies, or is well enough to fly again. Then they relaunch, and either join another flock or catch up with the original flock. Members of a community should look after one another.

Surely we have as much sense as geese?

Bush-isms

Here's a bit of light relief (or a source of major stress when you remember this man has been effectively in charge of the world for the last 8 years). But he did provide some good quotes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7809160.stm