30 things to do before I'm 30

I had my 29th birthday a couple of weeks ago and it made me think. 30 is traditionally the age when women start to panic about not having a man, or not having children, or not having done this or that, so I've decided to make a list of things I want to do before my 30th birthday, on March 18 2009.

I'll cross them off when I've done them, and if they're interesting enough I'll tell you about them ;-)

1. Go horse riding on a beach
2. Buy my own house
3. Learn to not dip into my overdraft at all
4. Try at least 10 recipes from every cookbook I own
5. Take a holiday in Britain
6. Get my full motorbike licence
7. Finish reading the Old Testament
8. Write a book
9. Do kareoke
10. Learn to paint
11. Learn to dance
12. After doing item 2 have a posh dinner party
13. Write letters to my parents telling them how amazing they are
14. Walk up the Wrekin
15. Walk along the Frontescyllte aqueduct
16. Read Pride & Prejudice
17. Record a CD
18. Spend a day exploring the local area
19. Take part in a sponsored event
20. Go to Africa
21. Learn to play the flute
22. Take part in a 26-mile walk (marathon or something else!)
23. Visit the British Museum
24. Go to work in my pyjamas
25. Spend a morning at the piano playing through books and enjoying myself
26. Live on £1.35 per day for a week
27. Remind myself how to hoola hoop
28. Finish a one-year course I started last year(!)
29. Watch Gone With The Wind
30. Plan a party for my 30th birthday :-)

Are sermons really that boring?

Sister Margaret had spent weeks preparing the first grade children for their first Communion, stressing the solemnity and importance of this sacrament.

Much to her chagrin, during Mass on the big day, one boy in the front row was talking and giggling nonstop. Finally, unable to put up with it any longer, she whispered to the lad seated next to her, "Please go up there and tell that one he's done enough talking and had better stop, right now!"

Without question, the boy rose and walked to the front... and delivered Sister Margaret's message to the surprised priest in the middle of his sermon!

That joke (from the Good Clean Funnies List - highly recommended) may be a bit unrealistic, but honesly, haven't you ever wanted to tell the preacher he's said enough and should finish?

Sometimes you get the guy who has no presence. What he's saying might be very good, but he's just not got the personality to deliver it well.

Other times you get the cliched vicar who drones on using big words and with no relevance to real life. It might be useful to a theology student, but for practical every day application, it's pretty much useless.

Sometimes you've got some who really knows his stuff, and one-on-one or in Bible study he's very good, he's just not good at delivering his knowledge in sermon format.

But sometimes you find someone who you can really connect with. It's someone who speaks in a way that you understand and about issues you want to know more about. Their theology is spot on but they don't express it with long words, they just talk as if they're having a conversation with you. They talk to God in just the same way, as if he's in the room next to you. And when they talk about the Bible they really make it come alive for you so you can really understand what was going on.

If you have problems finding good preachers and you're the same sort of age as me (20s-30s) then you might want to check out Pastor Mark Driscoll's sermons from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. They're on www.marshillchurch.org and cover all sorts of subjects, books of the Bible, and are well worth listening to.

Bad days

Isn't it weird how some days just start badly and carry on badly all day?

This morning I woke up and my heating wasn't working. It was freezing, and I had to wash my hair with a fan heater going to make it even tolerably warm.

As a result of trying to sort that out I was late to work, and when I got there I discovered I hadn't done something I should have done yesterday, so was scrambling to catch up.

After that I went to a meeting and discovered half way there that I didn't know exactly where I should be going, then the meeting went on longer than it was supposed to, so I eventually got back to the office and my lunch well after 2pm.

What went wrong?

I do know one thing that effected my state of mind was that I hadn't done my devotions in the morning. I do try to, and it does tend to settle my mind and calm me down before I start the day. For the last couple of weeks my devotion times have been scatty, to say the least. On one hand I feel like I should do them at the same time every day so I get into a good routine, but on the other hand I don't want it to be just a routine thing in case it loses its special-ness.

I need to work on this more...

The Christianity Club

Have you ever noticed how sometimes being Christian is like being a member of a super secret club? I've noticed it a few times recently. I started a new job a few weeks ago and on my first day as I was chatting to the people in the office I discovered that one of the other guys was Christian. Immediately we had a connection, and the conversation because more relaxed and animated.

Maybe it's because once you've established someone as a Christian you know what mind-set and attitude they're going to have about certain subjects and so you know more areas of conversation that will be 'safe'. If you live in a small town, like myself and the other guy in the office do, you usually find you have friends or aquaintances in common as well.

I wonder if it's something the first Christians found, when they drew the fish on the floor and suddenly conversations sprung up about their beliefs, their churches, and their friends?

Although it is good in some ways that Christians feel comfortable enough to be able to strike up conversation so readily with other believers, I'm not sure it's a good thing that it takes knowing someone is a Christian before you do open up. In some circumstances obviously it's good - if you're thinking about talking to someone about God you might approach the subject slowly, whereas if you know they're Christian you don't have to worry about scaring them off by being too religious.

Any thoughts, anyone?