Some posts are more enjoyable to write than others. Not always sure why. Probably a bit more creativity and cultural exegesis at work. I love working in that world. Juxtaposition flips my switch. Often the wave is building in my mind for some months and when it crashes to shore in a post which is great fun. Here goes with a few of my favourites:
#11 camel, elephant, buffalo
It is the best wisdom I can muster on how to live when you move from a country like NZ to a country like India. When frustration begins to fray the temperament, I still travel here for my own advice.
#10 robin & marian, high school musical revisited, ruby sparks
In a previous life I taught a course on worldview and movies. I’ve ruined so many movies for so many people over the years. It has been an important ministry. Here I cheat with a three-in-one entry.
#9 chapter two first eleven
Yes, I do love my cricket – partly because it no longer holds something close to an idolatrous hold on me anymore. Sometimes it even provides me with the framework to say something important.
#8 ecclesiastes without chapter twelve
Could there be a better sporting biography than Andre Agassi’s Open? I find that very hard to believe. But then when it is juxtaposed with Ecclesiastes – well, let the osmosis begin.
#7 reading nike theologically
Completing a sporting triumvirate of entries, each with possibilities for profound theological thinking, comes this reflection on the Nike commercial in the build-up to the 2010 football World Cup.
#6 tour de leadership
Oops – hang on a second. One more post with a sporting theme. Cricket. Tennis. Football. And now – cycling. I just can’t leave this one off the list, as I had such fun writing it.
#5 bond at fifty
A character and storyline that has endured for half a century. Each evolution is a window on society at the time (more than is realised) – and maybe also a mirror on ourselves (more than is realised).
#4 extending the playlist: prayer-full and extending the playlist: praise-full
I love hymns. The removal of the best ones from the playlist of NZ churches is a grave error in judgement. We are made in the image of what we sing. Today we are shallow and smaller of spirit.
#3 the olympics with other eyes
I’ve been doing this for three or four Olympics now. The watching of this supreme sporting event builds the enthusiasm for the mission of God in the world to fever pitch as well. Integrated living.
#2 on a date in chennai
A trip that was designed to annoy, we decided to enjoy. And so it came to pass. Out flowed a post that tries to capture the annoying and the enjoying way in which India can take hold of you.
#1 living it up at the lido
Taking my parents to Miss Potter, set in the Lake District which they so loved – is enhanced by an image & then it gets lost in serious reflection on the place of the elderly in our world today.
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
It was my very first training seminar with Langham Preaching. April 2009. We were based at the OMF Guest House in Chiangmai, Thailand. As I wandered the property, I came across this striking quotation on one of the walls: So striking, in fact, that I stopped to take its photo! But is it really true?…
Ten years ago, Ode to Georgetown was my response to being surprised by grief when the only church I had ever pastored closed its doors. Last week brought the news that the theological college which I attended, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), was to close most of its Chicagoland campus. I have been feeling a…
I am neither painter nor poet, musician nor actor. With Art and Music and Drama classes at school, I was present in body—but absent in spirit and skill. However, as a teacher, there has been the occasional flare of creativity in the crafting of assignments. One of my favourites is one of my first ones.…
John Stott was the first one to help me see the tension in Jesus’ teaching on salt and light. They are pictures for how his disciples are to live in society. Salt pulls them in, keeping them involved. Light holds them back, keeping them distinctive. Being light responds to ‘the danger of worldliness’, while being…
