Today is the first anniversary of my father’s death. When I woke up my first thought was of dad. I didn’t feel sad. Rather I felt incredibly thankful. No other man has left as big a mark on my life as my father. He showed me what it means to be a man and a father, the nature of love and the importance of living with conviction. Dad showed me love in a myriad of ways, but the one that...
When I was a youth pastor I found my Monday mornings frequently taken up with older members of the congregation. More often than not I was fending off disappointment and anger about the Sunday night service. There weren’t any hymns. The music was too loud. The drama didn’t make sense. The young people were too noisy. I would try to listen graciously (though not always successfully)...
A year or so ago I met a group of Burmese refugees living a shadowy existence in Malaysia. I was in Kuala Lumpur for a conference, staying in a large and luxurious hotel suite that was ridiculously cheap. My refugee friends were also living in Kuala Lumpur. They rented a spartan apartment in a seedy apartment block that was just a 10 minute walk from my motel. The monthly rental was almost the...
Chapter 5 from my book on ethical consumption. A few years ago I was guest speaker at a youth camp set on the shores of a beautiful lake on the north coast of NSW. One afternoon I saw a group of adolescent campers knee deep in the water herding puffer fish into seaweed. I watched as a young man excitedly grabbed a trapped fish by the tail and lifted it from the water. The fish’s defence...
Most of my prayers go unanswered. What am I to make of that? Is the problem me? My prayers? God? Put simply, does prayer work? Jesus seemed to believe that God acts in response to our prayers. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened...
Does anything trivialize prayer more than praying for a parking spot? Doesn’t “Lord help me find a car park close to the shopping centre entry” really mean “Lord make someone else walk further”? Does it not represent the triumph of a religion that sees God as the great deliverer of consumer comfort? Or is it in fact the opposite, the sign of trust in a loving God who...
Prayer baffles me. I know it’s important, and I find myself drawn to pray. But I don’t get it. Here’s why. A few years back I went to a midweek prayer group in a somewhat agitated state. My very old Apple laptop had just frozen for the umpteenth time and I’d lost a couple of hours work. Yes this was back in the days when even Apple laptops crashed! When the members of my...
Peter Arnett was a CNN television reporter. He tells of a time he was in Israel, in a small town on the West Bank, when a bomb exploded. Bloodied people were everywhere. A man came running up to Peter holding a little girl in his arms. He pleaded with Peter to take her to a hospital. As a member of the press he would be able to get through the security cordon that had been thrown around the...
As I sat there munching on my donut and sipping my coffee at three-thirty in the morning the door of the diner suddenly swung open, and to my discomfort, in marched eight or nine provocative and boisterous prostitutes. It was a small place and they sat on either side of me. Their talk was loud and crude. I felt completely out of place and was just about to make my getaway when I overheard the...
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess. I wish enough ‘Hellos’ to get you through the final...