Next stop? The UK. We stepped into a season of glorious weather. Mid-high 20s. Bright, blue sunny skies. The breeze was so cool, it felt like air-conditioning outside. It was so mild.
Then the media, even some of the people around us, started uttering a phrase, again and again. ‘Heat Wave’. What?! I smiled. I even mocked – gently, graciously, quietly, empathetically, just briefly – but still I did mock. Yes, I did. And the one whom I adore said to me, “Stop it” (not quite like this situation, thankfully). “People can define ‘heat wave’ in their own countries however they like.” Faced with this inescapable logic, I repented – sincerely, deeply, whole-heartedly, even irreversibly. Yes, I did. I even looked for dust and ashes. I even edited a facebook status update. I even wrote a letter, seeking reconciliation with those whom I may have offended. And as repentance tends to do, I felt a new man, released as I was from my shameful ways made known to me, ever so clearly, by the one whom I adore.
In a further voluntary act of penitential penance, to prove my transformed ways, I decided to make restitution by posting photos of this glorious part of the world: the Lake District.
Now, here’s hoping that I don’t hear “Delete it” from the one whom I adore.
nice chatting
Paul
 |
| Bracken Babe (the one whom I adore) with whom I have shared 36 years of marital bliss this very week. |
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…
