I can't say that I'm a Boyzone fan. Firstly, because I don't even know the title of any of their hits and, secondly, because I'm not sure I'd want to admit to it even if I did!
But I did buy a CD of Ronan Keating's greatest hits for Carole a year or two back, and I got to meet and talk to Ronan briefly at a Make Poverty History march in London about the same time.
So I was interested to read today of the Christian faith of Boyzone's former 'bad boy' Shane Lynch (on the right in the picture above). The anger and bitterness that had characterised his past - and led to a breakdown in his relationship with Ronan Keating - has been dealt with. He put things right with Ronan and the band reunited to perform on Children In Need last November. They're now planning a tour this coming summer.
Shane comments in the latest issue of New Life newspaper, "...some people mocked me when I announced that I was a Christian two years ago, but this is no flash in the pan experience. I'm stronger, freer and happier than I've ever been in my life and it gets better and better. Every day is a brand new adventure. I'm a better man for the faith which has been placed in my heart."
I've posted the Youtube video of the Children In Need reunion below. It's great to see Shane with his arm around Ronan's shoulder afterwards. Of course, I can't admit that I enjoyed listening to them....!!
Today I will make a difference. I will begin by controlling my thoughts. A person is the product of his thoughts. I want to be happy and hopeful. Therefore, I will have thoughts that are happy and hopeful. I refuse to be victimized by my circumstances. I will not let petty inconveniences such as stoplights, long lines, and traffic jams be my masters. I will avoid negativism and gossip. Optimism will be my companion, and victory will be my hallmark. Today I will make a difference.
I will be grateful for the twenty-four hours that are before me. Time is a precious commodity. I refuse to allow what little time I have to be contaminated by self-pity, anxiety, or boredom. I will face this day with the joy of a child and the courage of a giant. I will drink each minute as though it is my last. When tomorrow comes, today will be gone forever. While it is here, I will use it for loving and giving. Today I will make a difference.
I will not let past failures haunt me. Even though my life is scarred with mistakes, I refuse to rummage through my trash heap of failures. I will admit them. I will correct them. I will press on. Victoriously. No failure is fatal. It’s OK to stumble… I will get up. It’s OK to fail… I will rise again. Today I will make a difference.
I will spend time with those I love. My spouse, my children, my family. A man can own the world but be poor for the lack of love. A man can own nothing and yet be wealthy in relationships. Today I will spend at least five minutes with the significant people in my world. Five quality minutes of talking or hugging or thanking or listening. Five undiluted minutes with my wife, children, and friends.
Molly is a member of our fellowship here at Ampthill Baptist Church, with interests as diverse as singing, motorbike racing....and astronomy! Molly is a Fellow of the Royal Society and sent me this photo earlier today. She's given me permission to share it with you.
Today is a national holiday in the United States: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I still get a frisson of excitement run down my spine when I hear the conclusion of his 'I Have A Dream' speech following the march to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in August 1963. Those words still have the power to inspire and lead to a consequent desire to work towards justice in all of its forms.
Although the quality is not great, I find the video below moving - a montage of photos and clips from Martin Luther King's speeches over the U2 song, Pride, which was written after the group had visited the Chicago Peace Museum. Pride refers to the pride that MLK had inspired in black people.
In the book of Deuteronomy, God’s relationship with his people is compared to that, ‘...like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions.’
It’s a verse that is both challenging and comforting. What does Moses mean when he says that God is, ‘Like an eagle that stirs up its nest...’?
When the eagle makes her nest the uncomfortable layer of branches, thorns and sharp stones at the base are cushioned by a layer of fur and feathers from her prey. This is very much appreciated by the young eaglet but, in time, becomes a comfort zone making it much harder to persuade the bird to leave the nest and fly! So the eagle stirs up the nest, ripping out this comfortable base and exposing the material beneath to encourage the eaglet to vacate the nest!
I’ve asked a number of people this past week the reasons why they have ‘remained in the comfort zone’ rather than stepping out in order to live life to its utmost. The most popular answer has been fear of the unknown: “What if I step out and then fall flat on my face?” Fear of change was another answer. It was Mark Twain who said that the only person who likes change is a wet baby! Then there was, lack of confidence, laziness, and the 'affluenza' which so often dulls our appetite for life.
What keeps you in your comfort zone? Think about that for a few moments, and then ponder these words of John Ortberg:
‘This is a way that leads to stagnation – unrealised potential, unfilled longings. It leads to a sense that I’m not living my life; the one I was supposed to live. It leads to boredom, to what Gregg Levoy calls the common cold of the soul. To sinful patterns of behaviour that never get confronted and changed, Abilities and gifts that never get cultivated and deployed – Until weeks become months And months turn into years, And one day you’re looking back on a life of Deep intimate gut-wrenchingly honest conversations you never had; Great bold prayers you never prayed, Exhilarating risks you never took, Sacrificial gifts you never offered Lives you never touched, And you’re sitting in a recliner with a shrivelled soul, And forgotten dreams, And you realise there was a world of desperate need, And a great God calling you to be a part of something bigger than yourself – You see the person you could have become but did not; You never followed your calling. You never got out of the boat.’
Or, in the context of our passage here, you never got out of the nest!
Maybe God’s stirring up the nest of our soul, challenging us to step out and soar with him. We can have the confidence that he will be with us and will watch over us even if he has to give us a bit of a push, and then catch us if we find ourselves falling: ‘...like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions.’
There are a number of adaptations of a legend of an Indian brave in America who took an eagle’s egg and placed it into the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet thought that it was a prairie chicken and spent its life searching the ground for seeds and insects. One day, now fully-grown, he looked up and saw a majestic eagle soaring effortlessly on the air currents high above. “What bird is that?” he asked, to which one of the prairie chickens replied, “That’s an eagle, the king of the birds, but you could never be like him,” and so the eagle continued to search for bugs!
What conditions us? Do you want to be scratching about in the dirt with the chickens, or soaring with the eagles?
The prophet, Isaiah, writes:
‘Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.’
Stanley Jones wrote about the behaviour of an eagle he witnessed in the Himalayas as a storm approached: "I expected it to head to the earth to escape the fury of the elements. Instead the eagle set its wings in such a way that when the storm struck it rose above and cleared the storm. It used the strong winds to go higher."
Eagles are made to fly….and to fly high! And God calls us not to live mediocre lives, but meaningful passionate lives given in adventurous service to him.
As the old Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, expressed it, ‘Brother, your failure, if you fail, will begin in your faith. The air says to the eagle, “Trust me; spread thy broad wings; I will bear thee up to the sun. Only trust me. Take thy foot from off yon rock which thou canst feel beneath thee. Get away from it, and be buoyed up by the unseen element.” My brethren, eaglets of heaven, mount aloft, for God invites you. Mount! You have but to trust him.’
I lay in bed yesterday morning and listened, for the first time this year, to a song thrush singing in someone's garden across the street. If it wasn't for the fact that I had a very busy day ahead of me, I could have lain there listening to this wonderful songster all morning!
We're continuing with thoughts from the chapter on sensual intelligence in Tony Buzan's Head First.
Here's another fascinating array of facts:
You have 16,000 hair cells in your inner ear - they respond faster than any other cell in your body.
Any of the 16,000 hair cells will trigger if you move the tip by as little as the width of an atom! That's the equivalent of being able to detect the movement at the top of the world's tallest skyscraper if it moved less than half-an-inch.
Your hair cells, when you listen to the high notes in classical music, fire at the rate of 20,000 times a second.
Your ear receives information in one dimension, and yet you hear 3-D sound and can instantaneously locate its origin. How? Because your amazing ear-brain system can distinguish the different time by which the 'same' sound arrived in each ear. The difference that you can distinguish is 200-millionths of a second!
Buzan suggests several exercises to give our ears regular aural treats. The first is to learn to discriminate the different sounds in nature, especially bird song. I led a dawn chorus walk a few years ago and I was so encouraged by the excitement of those present as they realised that it was possible to learn the difference between our common birds with a bit of practice and the use of helpful mnemonics. Spring is not far away...get yourself a CD or DVD of bird song (there's a number that you can choose from) and start to learn the common species. It really isn't hard and makes all the difference when you're in the countryside, giving you a totally new perspective.
Buzan also suggests other treats, including:
Listen to more ethnic and classical music - widen your aural horizons.
Listen to excellent recordings on the best equipment, and attend live concerts.
Occasionally give your ears the treat of no sound - like the rest of your body they need rest, and will reward you well for providing them with it!
Finally, something that I've never forgotten regarding the benefits of music...when I worked for the dairy unit at the Nottingham University School of Agriculture, the chief herdsman, Dave, used to play a tape of his favourite group, The Seekers, in the milking parlour. He insisted that there was a noticeable rise in the milk yields when the cows were listening to the amazing voice of Judith Durham and the other group members. So I've included the video of one of my favourite Seekers songs, I'll never find another you, below. Who knows what it might do for you as you listen to it!!
The Apple phenomenon rolls on. Co-founder Steve Jobs gave a keynote speech at the Macworld conference in San Francisco, yesterday, extolling the virtues of the exciting film rental opportunities that will be possible with the new Apple TV box.
Steve Jobs has got the knack of coming up with memorable quotes. My favourite, by far, is his appeal to John Sculley, Pepsi Cola's youngest ever President, when persuading him to join the Apple team:
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?"
That would have done it for me!
This evening, 80 or so Trustees, staff & volunteers of The Greensand Trust gathered for a social at Eversholt Village Hall. The conservational work that the Trust does across Mid-Bedfordshire is absolutely first class, and it was great to see everyone involved encouraging and appreciating one another. I really value the friendships that I've made over the years working with the 'Eastern Vols', a fantastic group of people, wonderful characters one and all, if a bit bananas (which is why I fit in so easily)! Below is their concluding contribution to the evening. I confess to being the 'vicar' who turns up for tea! I didn't want to spoil the piece by singing, so I elected to video it instead. Lyrics have been added below.
TO THE TUNE OF SILENT NIGHT.
EL SUPREMO, RICHARD WOOLNOUGH, SENDS HIS ORDERS, DOWN BELOW. “WORK THEIR FINGERS RIGHT DOWN TO THE BONE, PAY NO HEED IF THEY GRUMBLE AND GROAN, VOLES ARE GRIST TO THE MILL, VOLES ARE GRIST TO THE MILL.”
GANGMASTER GAV AND GANGMISTRESS LIZ, HEAR THE WORD, DO THE BIZ, ESTHER AND KEITH FROM THE WEST DO THE SAME, CALLS FOR MORE TROOPS ARE THE NAME OF THE GAME, GET MORE VOLES FOR THE TEAM, GET MORE VOLES FOR THE TEAM.
TO THE TUNE OF JINGLE BELLS.
SO- MASOCHISTS, ARSONISTS, COME AND JOIN THE VOLES, IF YOU LIKE A BIT OF PAIN, THEY CAN MEET YOUR GOALS. OH- THORNS IN FLESH, BRUISES, CUTS, ANKLES YOU CAN SPRAIN. VOLES CAN GIVE YOU ALL OF THIS, PLUS SOAKINGS IN THE RAIN.
DIGGING GREAT BIG HOLES, HACKING AT THE BRUSH, BUILDING GREAT BIG FIRES, GIVES HOTROD SUCH A RUSH. PITTS RECORDS IT ALL, SEDGELY WATCHES O’ER, JOHN B MAKES THE TEA, AND ALL IS WELL ONCE MORE.
OH- DUCK END DAVE, LIKES TO RAVE, ‘BOUT HIS FINE RESERVE. RUBBER GEAR IS COL’S DELIGHT, THE PONDLIFE TO CONSERVE. OH- SUE AND LIZ, REMIND US OF, WHAT WE CAN ACHIEVE. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, REMINDS US ALL OF STEVE.
FRANCES SHAMES US ALL, SHE IS SUPER FIT, AUDREY’S PUMPKIN PIES, SLOW HER NOT A BIT. WENDY, SAL AND GEORGE, LIKE TO WORK ALL DAY, VICARS MERELY COME FOR TEA, AND OTHERS MERELY PLAY.
OH- EASTERN VOLES, MEET WESTERN VOLES, THAT’S A SPECIAL TREAT. THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING, IT’S GOOD FOR US TO MEET. WE- THANK THE TRUST, FOR THIS FINE FEAST, AND RAISE A CUP OF CHEER. TO EACH OF YOU, WE WISH YOU ALL, A VOLING GOOD NEW YEAR.
On the 1st August 2011, my wife Carole and I moved to the village of Freshwater in the midst of the outstanding countryside on the western side of the Isle of Wight, close to the Needles, where I am now serving as the Pastor of Colwell Baptist Church. My previous blog, 'Bedfordshire Wild' became 'The Wild West' and records the flora & fauna I'm discovering in the beautiful countryside that surrounds our new home. I was privileged to have been able to serve the Bedfordshire Natural History Society as Chairman before moving to the island, and I remain passionate and committed to encouraging other people - both young and old - to get excited about their local countryside!
I can't say that I'm a Boyzone fan. Firstly, because I don't even know the title of any of their hits and, secondly, because I'm not sure I'd want to admit to it even if I did!
