Praise You in the Storm

A couple of months back, I had the privilege of speaking at KingsGate Church, my home church in Peterborough. As part of my talk, I used a short dvd of a song. A number of people have asked me what the song was and whether there was access to the dvd presentation. The link is below.

The song, ‘Praise You in the Storm’ by Casting Crowns, became very precious to me over a three year period. It was a period of turmoil in my life with two redundancies. Plus I turned 50. This was something of a shock! I coped with turning 40 without a problem but 50 was something else!

I determined that age would not be a barrier to life (and this blog was one of the results- the blog address refers to the mountains I intend to climb in my 50’s and beyond.)

Back to the song. In the hard times, the words expressed so well where I was at. Some times all I could do was sing the first verse- it just felt like it was still raining, so many things unresolved. Other times I reached the chorus- I can be thankful, even in the storm!

Enjoy the song.

Exclusive Picture- Water on Mars!

One of the big news stories this year has been the search for water on Mars- signs that there may have been life there. Here is an exclusive picture (well nearly!) showing that -yes indeed- there is water on Mars!



#Thanks to Tom Stevens for this
#Even funnier as I work for Mars! (The confectionery company, not the planet!)

The Audacity of Hope

Less than 150 years ago, there was still slavery in America. 80 years ago, there were over 6 million members of the racist Ku Klux Klan. 36 years ago, there was still racial segregation.

Just 45 years ago Martin Luther King delivered his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech which included: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

The dream came true. On Tuesday 4th November 2008, Senator Barack Obama was elected the first black President of the United States, the most powerful position on the planet.

In 2006, Obama wrote the book ‘The Audacity of Hope’, the title taken from a sermon he had heard. This is what he says:

‘I'm not talking about blind optimism here……….. No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores;…… the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!’

Criminal

Ever got into something too deep and no matter what you do, it just gets deeper and deeper?

The Economist reports on the Governor of the Central Bank of Indonesia, just jailed for 5 years. He used bank funds to…. bribe members of parliament to…. pay for lawyers to…. defend bank officials accused of corruption!

We have a lot of know-how, but where’s the know-why?

We can split the atom, fly to the moon, scan the eye and sat-nav our way around the world. We can create, design, develop and build. We have an amazing amount of know-how. By why? What is the use of know-how if we don’t have any know-why?

Peter Lewis wrote ‘our data banks are loaded with technical know-how, while our century has become bankrupt of know-why. Even as we solve the problems, we remain our greatest problem. We can control colossal forces but we cannot control ourselves….. Having locked God out of a scientifically determined universe, we now find ourselves lost in a spiritually empty universe: one with no higher purpose and in which life has no ultimate meaning.’

In a time of credit crunch and bank collapses, we need more than know-how.

The know-why is approximately 2000 years old.

Necker Island Again

Friends have asked me to post a few more photo's from our amazing holiday, so here they are. Trust they don't cause you to break the 11th Commandment - 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours holiday'!

Thank you Virgin Atlantic

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you will know why it’s been silent for the last week or more. Roh and I have just returned from the holiday of a lifetime, courtesy of Richard Branson.

Earlier in the year I was the fortunate winner of a Virgin Atlantic frequent flyers draw- and the prize was a week for two on Richard Branson's private island, Necker Island in the Caribbean (the Virgin Islands of course!). It really was the holiday of a lifetime. We were the sole occupants a 3 storey Bali style villa in the middle of the island (see picture). There was sailing, tennis, speed boats, snorkelling- and as much food and drink as you could manage- all for free.



And the beauty was stunning. A tropical island next to a coral reef. I’m not sure the photo’s do justice to it.





And look who Roh found.....



One of the highlights was climbing up to the ‘crows nest’ in the main house at night and looking up at the stars (while drinking champagne!). You could see the Milky Way with the naked eye. The stars were in 3-D, not just a flat sky as we see in the UK. Such amazing beauty. Such incredible creation.

‘When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?’ Psalm 8: 3-4