Spring is sprunging

This is one of my favourite times of year (apart from holidays).

The flowers are blooming, the bees are buzzing, and as you can see, our almond tree is blossoming. Its sweet smell wafts through the whole garden, attracting all sorts of insects that have awoken from their winter slumber (or egging... or whatever they do during winter). Its greening branches stretch longingly toward the warm morning sun.

During the last few weeks we've had the most beautiful days!

When being a Nurse... comes in handy

My little man (duck) Fergus nearly died today... A tag that was around his ankle had been cutting into his flesh (with out us knowing) and Mum found him with blood streaming down his leg.

Fortunately I heard Mum call out, and I found her holding him upside down with a bleeding leg in the air. I rushed inside and found some dressings, disinfectant and a bandage. I dressed his little leg and wound half a roll of tape around it.

He lost a lot of blood, but the bleeding stopped. I looked out there before, and the fact that he was scratching himself with his sore foot, and giving the 'eye' to another duck through the fence, suggests that he's OK. Time will tell of course... I pray he'll survive, and that he won't be successful in picking the bandage off. I'm just thankful we were home when it happened.

The Endless Question

Sometimes things happen that I can't understand.
People do things to others that are beyond what I thought were the limits of human cruelty.
And I have to ask, why?
All prior conclusions are stretched so that they don't fit any more.
I have to return to the basis of all things: People can be downright evil, but God is good.
Sometimes people choose to hate, mustering the most abominable evil and unleashing it on one another... but God is love.
In the end, all the 'why's will be turned upside down, and God remains the only solid rock I can stand on.
Jesus, in his struggle on the cross, somehow looked suffering in the eye, foreshadowing the patient endurance of his people through all things... to the end when all evil, death, hell and the rest will be thrown into the lake of fire.

Rest in peace.

Books, books, 30 books in all

Looking up the Koorong website for the answers is not the way to solve this quiz, because they’re all in here: 30 book titles from my bookshelf – displayed for you all to see. Getting it right may be hard, though: it’d almost take a heavenly man to find them all. You could try reaching for the invisible God to look for answers, but you’d probably mount the case for a creator over this quiz, as it’s clearly been masterminded by a human. Someone said they found the answers fastened to the rock, mainly because they were too busy not to pray for the answers. Her name was Mel. Way too enthusiastic, I’d say. Looking for answers is a procedure that’s truly a branch of pathophysiology; others reckon it’s one of the fundamentals of nursing.

Oh, I’ve got all kinds of books, full of Australian stories. For the heart, there’s the complete works: of Shakespeare, Little Women, and The Diary of Anne. Frankly, I don’t have a large range, although I will admit you’ll find many books about doing Anthropology and Bible Doctrine. Some books might help you learn how to read the Bible. For all it’s worth, I’d suggest a book called The Old Testament. Survey the best of them and you’ll agree. Many are in fact about the Bible; atlases may come in handy if I am to tell the truth. Encountering these books might help you become more spiritual; leadership may be required to read them however.

Is it tea time already? Personally, I think you’d better say the riddle of grace before you sample my cookery (the Australian way), but I guess you could say, “what’s so amazing about grace anyway?". Well I’d at least suggest you be thankful, considering all He’s lovingly done for you.

If you think you’re failing, forward is the only path to achieving the things to come. That’s the message: you’ve just got to be purpose-driven. Life is like that. Anyway, hurry along so you don’t get left behind: comment with your answers and in a week you’ll find out if you were right or wrong!

Age and Coffee Mornings...

... don't mix.

That's right, I got up all dressed and house nice and clean, ready for one of my Mum's friends to come for coffee. "Make sure you're up by 9am," she said.

9am comes around, and no friend to be seen. "Don't worry, she's usually here by 9:30," she says.

It's 10am, and still no friends here. "Hmmm," says Mum. "Let me see... Friday the 18th of August, Chris coming after lunch. That's right... so... Oh! Hang on! After lunch? Oh dear...".

I got up for nothing! I could have spent another half an hour in my nice warm bed!

Oh well, back to the study! And my cup of tea...

Do I smell... gas?

Well, it looks like I'll have to put my little laser on gas now, seeing as all I seem to be spending my money on lately is petrol.

There's a mad rush for people getting LPG conversions today, after Prime Minister John Howard announced yesterday that people will receive a $2000 grant for converting their car to LPG. After speaking with some mechanics today, it seems they're gonna be pushing to deal with the onslaught of new conversion jobs. The big test, apparantly, will be whether the factories that manufacture LPG kits will be able to keep up. Guess we will see.

Good on you Libs for giving us a hand with that: I'm not gonna get so cynical that I'm not grateful for being given something good.

The Awful Rowing Toward God

I was stamped out like a Plymouth fender

into this world....

but I grew, I grew,

and God was there like an island I had not rowed to ...

I am rowing, I am rowing

though the oarlocks stick and are rusty

and the sea blinks and rolls

like a worried eyeball,

but I am rowing, I am rowing,

though the wind pushes me back

and I know that that island will not be perfect,

it will have the flaws of life,

the absurdities of the dinner table,

but there will be a door

and I will open it

and I will get rid of the rat inside me,

the gnawing pestilential rat.

God will take it with his two hands

and embrace it.

From The Awful Rowing Toward God by Anne Sexton.


I'm still grappling with what the author means by this poem. But I do identify with the "gnawing pestilential rat" inside all of us, the evil part of us, that persistent, ever-bothersome rat. I understand, and I feel, the desire to get rid of it.

God is the only one who can take that rat away, and I look forward to the day when I will finally surrender it to him, and take on a restored, renewed me, with His name written on me, and with great rejoicing.

Website recommendation: Christian Forums

I don't normally go for forums websites... people are normally too involved in each other to notice newcomers, and besides, most talk about non-interesting things.

That was until I bumped into Christian forums. You get to design your own personal character - buy clothes for it with accumulated 'blessings', and even get a CF pet!

We debate all sorts of things, and make friends all over the world (albeit mostly from the USA). It's not just for Christians either - there's something there for everyone.

Check it out, and if you join using this link, you'll give me 10 blessings! Thanks!

Bundrf?

Return of the word verification riddles... What's bundrf?

I think it's the kind of rum dwarves would drink. Or maybe hobbits.

What do you reckon?

Life lessons... from a donkey

I found this piece of paper sitting in the kitchen. I don't know where it came from, but it presents some really good thoughts.

What a good way to react to obstacles in life - "Just shake it off and step on it". Some people, when they get dirt chucked on them in life, start drowning in it (and by the way some complain, you might think they enjoy being drowned so they have something to talk about).

Yes, we sometimes have hurts that are too difficult to bear. But in those times we need to get together with others and carry each other along. And when we feel like we've got no-one, we're never fully alone. We can always come to Jesus and ask him for strength to get through. And then, just like the donkey, we've got to shake it off (let go of past hurts, failures and disappointments) and step on it - use it as a learning experience to make you stronger in the future.

The other bit I like is this: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent". What a chewy statement! We only feel like the underdog, the person with never-ending bad luck, the defeated one, because we have given permission for those messages to come into our life and be received! Don't you believe it, reader: you are important and special to someone so much greater than yourself, than others, than the world. You are loved by God himself.

Heard dis B4?

Dis is how much God luvd da wrld:

He gave his Son, his 1 & only Son.

& dis is Y:

so dat no1 need B destroyd;

by believin n him,

nE1 can hav a whole & lastin lYf.

Jhn 3:16 MSG.

Just Imagine

If you were to imagine the greatest tragedy that could happen in life or death, what would it be?

A centenary of stories, statements, and signage