"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers." - VoltairE

Thank You for Saying No

September 6, 2023


I recently came across this poem by Ruth Harms Calkin and thought it was really profound.

Thank You for Saying No

Lord, day after day I've thanked You
For saying yes.

But when have I genuinely thanked You
For saying no?

Yet I shudder to think
Of the possible smears
The cumulative blots on my life
Had You not been sufficiently wise
To say an unalterable no.

So thank You for saying no
When my want list for things
Far exceeded my longing for You.
When I asked for a stone
Foolishly certain I asked for bread
Thank You for saying no

To my petulant "Just this time, Lord?”
Thank You for saying no
To senseless excuses
Selfish motives
Dangerous diversions.

Thank You for saying no
When the temptation that enticed me
Would have bound me beyond escape.

Thank You for saying no
When I asked You to leave me alone.

Above all
Thank You for saying no
When in anguish I asked
"If I give You all else
May I keep this?"

Lord, my awe increases
When I see the wisdom
Of Your divine no.

(Ruth Harms Calkin, from 'Tell Me Again Lord, I Forget')

 

Cryptic Bible places quiz

August 10, 2023


It’s time for another slightly less serious blog post, so here are some cryptic clues to biblical place names. Enjoy!

  1. Ms Hathoway, hot drink, Scottish exclamation
  2. Back yard of Cornish project
  3. Cartoon Tom’s companion with runner Sebastian’s surname
  4. Occular portent
  5. An infant meets the first part of the capital
  6. Gymnast Tweddle, Comedian Mr. Mack, edge of a dress
  7. Thank you kebab!
  8. Water in Amman’s country
  9. Go wandering
  10. Country of affirmative head gesture
  11. A clump of earth and a meditative noise
  12. Remains ...

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Identity 3 - Our Christian identity

August 9, 2023


In the previous posts in this series I looked at identity in society and culture and God’s identity revealed to us. In this final instalment we’re going to look at our Christian identity.

What is our identity in Christ?

(i) Uplifting images

These are the ones that are on all the bookmarks, cards and posters. And it’s right that we should delight in encouraging one another with all these wonderful things that are true about us now that we’re in Christ.

Here are some of them:

  • We are made in ...

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Identity 2 - God’s identity revealed to us

June 26, 2023


In the last blog post in this series I looked at identity in society and culture. In this post I want to focus on God’s identity revealed to us.

The importance of names

Pause to think:

  • What does your name mean?
  • Is there a particular significance to your name? Did your parents choose it for a specific reason?
In Biblical culture, names (both place names and people names) were very important - you can pick up on some of that from the prominence of genealogies. Biblical names are often really signi...

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Have it your way

June 21, 2023


Burger King tells us to ‘Have it your way’. Radio Disney promises to give us ‘Your Music, Your Way’. As consumers, we’re constantly fed the message that we come first – that our world revolves around us.

We are so steeped in consumerism and we don’t even realise it. That doesn’t necessarily mean having loads of material possessions or even wanting loads of material possessions. Rather it means the belief that the world revolves around me. That I am the most important person in ...

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Identity 1 - Identity in society and culture

June 8, 2023


In this 3-part blog series on identity, I’m going to be exploring:

  1. Identity in society and culture
  2. God’s identity revealed to us
  3. Our Christian identity
How do we introduce ourselves?

I might say something like, “My name’s Anne and I work with Living Out and the local church. I’m from Manchester originally but have lived in the North East for 23 years.”

Notice how I just introduced myself with my name and what I do. Instead I could have told you that I’ve got an irrational fear of butt...

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Good things come to those who wait (for bears and God)

June 7, 2023


On a recent trip to Slovenia, my friend and I booked to go with a nature expert to try and see a wild brown bear. We drove out into the forest, hiked to the wildlife hide, climbed the ladder and took up our positions on the wooden bench, binoculars at the ready, to watch and wait.

After the third hour sitting silently and patiently in the hide, I was getting a bit restless. Despite being on high alert, the only wildlife we’d seen was a shrew. I was starting to wonder whether we should have j...

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Bench

May 3, 2023


Just for fun, here's a poem I wrote three years ago when my friends gave me random words and challenged me to base some verse on them. So here's 'bench':

Every year we come back here -
look out to sea.
Private memories, shared silence.
He loved it here,
did William.
Who did he think about
when he sat and mused?
What intricacies entwined themselves
in heart and mind?
What puzzles did he turn over
until they were smoothed?
Or maybe we’ve afforded him
an intellectual dignity
that never was.
Maybe he was thin...

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Intimacy with God

May 3, 2023


A visitor to my website recently contacted me to ask “What do you mean when you talk about experiencing intimacy with God? How does it feel being intimate with God / Jesus and is it enough?”

I thought these were excellent questions, so here’s my attempt at an answer.

I guess our culture often defines intimacy in terms of sex, or at least physical intimacy. That’s often what we immediately think of when we think of ‘intimacy’. But I think it’s much broader and deeper than that. It...

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Sin and the sunk cost fallacy

April 5, 2023


I like reading books about economics. One of the things that I’ve always found fascinating is the sunk cost fallacy, “the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.” 1

We all know the kind of thing: Sitting through a terrible film because you’ve paid for the ticket and so wasting time and money, rather than just money; Pursuing a career that...

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Living Out is registered UK Charity no. 1165572 | The Baptist Union is Charity no. 249635