The Chronicles Of…

I was privy to know that the Bible Society had applied for a “Jesus. All about life” stall at this year’s Easter show but heard on Friday that the application was rejected! No Jesus at the Easter show! (Read about it here)
It’s quite a wonder to behold… No Muhammad at the Ramadan festival?

So, i think we can finally say what we had suspected to be the case for quite some time… it really is a show AT Easter rather than an Easter show.

However, It has prompted me to recognise that most Aussies probably view Easter and Christmas the way I view the the Queen’s Birthday in June. The similarities with Christmas especially are really very profound… QB: celebrates the birth of a sovereign with a public holiday on the date that isn’t actually the real birthday… Christmas, the same… But if somebody wanted to tell me the real reason for my June long weekend was because the queen was born and she is the head of the country I live in and that I should pay her homage on her birthday, I wouldost likely tell them I didn’t care. As far as I’m concerned this is my public holiday regardless of what it stands for…

Sound familar?

I’ve just completed an assignment for the Psalms and Daniel subject I’m doing at Youthworks College this semester and I’m interested to see if the assignment is useful in practice…

This is the assignment:

A friend is haunted by an event that took place in the past. You don’t actually know what happened but you know that memory of that event triggers a cycle of anger, resentment and guilt. Choose three psalms that would help your friend who feels trapped in this cycle. Explain why you have chosen these particular psalms and explain how they might be used as part of a process of helping your friend move from victim to survivor.

I chose psalms 55, 32, and 124 in response (in that order). Here’s a short explanation of the psalms I chose:

• Psalm 55 is to help you express your hurt, pain and anger to God;
• Psalm 32 is to help you deal with any guilt you feel from the saga;
• and Psalm 124 is to help you celebrate freedom the hurt and express a firm dependence on God for salvation in all circumstances.

If you are someone who is still revisited by a painful memory of a hurtful event in the past that you haven’t dealt with, I’d be interested if these psalms help aid your process from victim to survivor. Please let me know.

Here’s something for all you theologisers out there! What are your thoughts on this?

A healthy church is a gathering where everyone gets what they don’t want.

What I mean by that is, church should not be be tailored to everyone’s liking. There should be hymns for people who don’t like hymns, kid’s talks for people who don’t like kid’s talks, long prayer times for people who don’t like long prayers and vis versa… There should be people and personalities there that don’t naturally connect – this is a healthy church.

Discuss.

John Calvin on the Psalms:

What various and resplendent riches are contained in this treasury, it were difficult to find words to describe… I have been wont to call this book, I think not inappropriately, ‘The Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul’ for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.

Calvin J., J. King (tr.). Commentary on the Book of Psalms, Vol. 1. Grand Rapids, 1979, p. xxxvii

It’s coming.

This is going to be a harder hit that i was prepared for. Not only is this the year I turn 30, but this year I’ve also sold my motorbike with 1000cc’s of pure joy, and now I’m driving a 7 seater Mitsubishi Nimbus (1990), and I’ve been talking to Fi about getting a digital radio for my B’day so I can listen to ABC702 clearer at home, and (this is the clincher) I’m starting to get cranky if I don’t get a chance to read the paper or a book on the weekend.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

it’s like a reverse mid-life crisis. Instead of trying to be young and hip I’m going the other way.

If you see me wearing slacks and boat shoes, you do me the favour… sneak up behind me and drive a hat pin through my brain, then nuke the Nimbus from outer space… it’s the only way to be sure.

Let myself quote myself…

We must be wary of any belief system that gives people a license to behave as they would naturally behave anyway.

But… the christian belief system grates against our natural inclinations to serve our own selfish desires.

Ahhh… it’s good to go to a rock concert with a real rock crowd.

I went to see Faith No More at the Hordern Pavilion (my favourite venue!) last night with James. The last time I saw them was 13 years ago at the same venue with Pete, Matt, Chris, (Spiro?) and some other 16/17 year olds.
Old.

I remember the concert in 1997 was really wild (might’ve been the first concert I crowd surfed at…?), and FNM have lost none of their rock. Neither have their fans.

It was the usual story down near the front where James and I were. Lots of guys mixed in with guys and their petite girlfriends taking up the space where you want the crowd to go crazy… I was ready for more disappointing crowd lameness… BUT! The lights went down. FNM played midnight cowboy (slow instrumental song) and built the anticipation. Then BOOM! First song, the crowd surged, the mosh pit went mental (pro. men-ull) and the girls and lady-boys came running out like squirrels from a bush fire.

It was great. No fear of treading on the precious and fragile, just free, crazy, uninhibited jumping, heading banging, and slamming! I was 17 again! Except now I’m bigger framed and 30kgs heavier, so the pit was not the intimidating “I might die here” place that I remembered.
I just let loose. It was great.

And at the end there was the nostalgic familiarity of being soaked with sweat and partially deaf. The sweat I can live with, but I do feel regret for not protecting my hearing better… I’ve come to realise that hearing is not only worth protecting just because you’ve got, but because I feel stupid when I have to ask people 3 times to repeat themselves or have my phone speaker set at 50 decibels above normal… next time.

I’d never heard of the support band “Eagles of Deathmetal” before but they put on a great show. I think they have the same drummer from Queens of the Stone Age… either way, they were much better than the Jesus Lizard who did support for the 97 show. If I remember correctly, their lead singer was wasted and he pulled out his old fella on stage…

I got up this morning at 5.40am to go for a bike ride to Bondi and back (I do this about twice a week to stop getting fat well slow down the fatness!).

I met my riding buddy at Stanmore station, and then made it as far as the Caltex servo in Enmore where I decide to put more air in my front tyre. The air compressor was broken so I decided to use my hand pump. I had to inflate the tyre to 95PSI (that’s a hell of alot of pressure!) and somewhere about 70PSI the valve on my inner tube breaks. It just broke. Pssssssfffff. Total flat tyre.

Ride over.

So basically i got up at 20 to 6 in the morning to ride my pushy to the servo in Enmore and then walk home…

Fail.

Does anyone know, if it’s possible to use WordPress software to run any kind of website?
You see the thing is, I really like the way the WordPress runs the “back-end” and I’m interested in building a website that has the same interface. Especially so I can use all the plugins that are made for it.
Ok geeks… over to you.

I got a new pushy yesterday! My old bike crapped itself after 5 years of ownership. I think i’ll get it fixed up and working again eventually, but it was too small anyway and not really suited for the riding i’m doing (you know, very similar to Le Tour kinda stuff…)

It’s a cell bikes X1 Classic. It’s nice and big with good running gear for good distance rides like to Cronulla and back once or twice a week (60kms each ride).

So look out world! This’ll help keep the fat away!