There's a well worn quotation - often wrongly attributed to Mark Twain - which goes along the lines of 'by the age of seventeen I realised that my father knew nothing. By the age of twenty one I was amazed at how much he had learned'. Regardless of who coined this phrase, it carries a … Continue reading Amazed at how much they’ve learned →

The later poetry of W.B. Yeats is fascinating for its palpable sense of loss, uncertainty and fear. The man who in his youth could invoke the glow of the Celtic Twilight would, in his maturity, reflect on his world with a bitter sense of dread and foreboding. Yeats could lament his own physical decline, but … Continue reading Recalling the falcon →

My late Dad bought me a pair of Grenson shoes for my wedding, solid and sensible footwear. They can be buffed to guardsman standard, but are stiff and inflexible and uncomfortable. I wore them to his funeral in the year after my wedding, and have only worn them when I'm conducting funerals in the fourteen … Continue reading A marked heel →

I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh –Romans 9:1-3 (ESV) The … Continue reading Young immortals under our own roof – Thomas Chalmers’ charge to Christian parents →

Of all the societal and psychological changes brought on by the dominance of social media, one of its most interesting effects is on our language. Headlines have been replaced by hashtags as a means of capturing the essence of a story, and terms can be coined, duplicated and globally disseminated in a matter of minutes. … Continue reading You had one job →

I come from a church background where the creative arts weren't referenced as part of our service to God, or as part of our gifting from Him. The creative work which I encountered in my teens and twenties was always viewed by me in disjunction from Scripture or ministry at best, or as a distraction … Continue reading Ministry in the making →

Nothing is wasted when God is the one who is directing our path. That is a high truth, and a deep consolation, and it really makes sense of seemingly inconsequential things. Looking back over almost two decades of full time ministry I can see the ways in which God has used seemingly marginal experiences to … Continue reading Burn the plough, or build the platform? →