Things wot I learned on holiday #3

Got speaks through Sat Nav.

Really, He does.

We were travelling into Belfast to visit some friends last week and following the instructions from the helpful Tom. Tom said turn left at a particular junction - and it didn't seem from the signposts that it was the right one for us, but we took it.

At the top of the hill on this junction was a elderly gentleman with his stricken BMW 3-Series. The clutch had packed in. And his mobile phone wasn't working, so he couldn't phone anyone for help. And he wasn't physically able to walk to the nearest house.

So, we got him on the phone to his wife and to the car dealership and that was that. We left him happily waiting on the recovery lorry and re-joined the main road.

If we'd been following a map, I guess we'd have carried on past the junction. Sure, someone else may have taken that road eventually, but I'd like to think we were put there to help the guy in his hour of need.

So listen to the Sat Nav and see what happens*.

(img source: TeamPolizei, it's not our car.)

*use common sense when applying this advice next to cliffs, power stations or walls.

September Song

I was on the way to work the other day and these lyrics came to mind.

This confusing fire where the flames fall down to earth

The world is upside down and in the autumn we forget

The pen within my hand led the ink into its mark

The book upon my lap now lies closed, its verse retired

No solace in these words, no mirror to the beauty here

The paper and the page, the poetry that fails and falls and dies

Can you make me live? Can your words be true?

Can you take this heart? Can you make it new?

Why can I not change all the pain I see?

Why do I do wrong? Is there something wrong with me?

My head is in my hands, the tears fall down my face,

Why do you forgive? Why cover me with grace?

How can I not search all these mysteries?

Forgive my unbelief, help me to believe

Like leaves the questions fall, silent, empty, stilled, untrue

And in my heart I know you will never change and all I have is you

In particular the chorus. Such an honest cry for Grace. For Mercy. For Peace.

Beautiful. Thank you, Daniel Goodman & Note for a Child.

You can hear the song on You Tube here.

old and new

I've been involved in what might be described as Church Music for a long time. More than half my life - and I'm not *that* old.

I say that not to claim expert position or some kind of stature, but that in recognising that I've been involved in something like that for a while, the possibility is there that I find it mundane. Or just crank out the same old tunes. Or stick to what is safe.

But my perception of what have made the *best* times of what is also described as Worship has been when there's been a simplicity, depth and sense of Presence. It's times like that when you feel like it's hard to move. Like the air is thick with awe. Like the air you are filling your lungs with is richer than the air somewhere else.

Those are physical feelings for something that's apparently just a spiritual experience. But who said that there's no connection between the physical and the spiritual.

All of this has been in my head as I reflect on the power of simplicity. Of the deeply profound impact that a simple word can have. That a simple act of kindness can have.

I have wondered if this is the pressing down, shaking together and running over spoken of in Luke 6:38

There's no formula that will see this happen, other than making room for God and following where He is going.

Have you felt this before?

What do you know about it?

A calming, perspective-creating piece of film from the American Museum of Natural History.

Being very small has never been so simply stunning to me since our first picture of the weeWeir.

What do you think?