THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH
personal observations on life and faith
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When Siblings Fall Out
Be here now. And they were. At the end of summer 2024, several million people queued on Ticketmaster to obtain entry to see Noel and Liam Gallagher perform together as Oasis for the first time since 2009 when they broke up after a bitter sibling row. It was perhaps inevitable – not that the endlessly feuding brothers would make up – but that the financial lure of reforming would bring them together, not least when there was a costly divorce settlement to finance. In making up, the brothers are allowing the Britpop generation to indulge its memories of the 1990s
Recent Topics You May Have Missed
The Stroll To Emmaus, Those who Have Eyes To See, A Life More Ordinary, The Wisdom Deficit, Giving Our Lives Away, The Gift Of Gratitude
Recent Topics You May Have Missed
Pop Idols, Kicking The Darkness Until It Bleeds Light, Logos, Breaking Point, Here's looking At You, Kid, Words Made Flesh,
Slow Motion Summer
In the summer of 2024 I took a sabbatical. It was my first since 2009 and will be my last in stipendiary ministry as, being 61, retirement will come next.
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When You Still Haven't Found
Having championed the cause of introverts in her book Quiet, Susan Cain has taken up the frequently related state of poignancy. Words like melancholy
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Disrupting Death
Death is nothing at all, writes Henry Scott-Holland. It does not count…Nothing has happened…Everything remains exactly as it was.
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Most Viewed
The Bubble first published Feb 2011
The Bubble
We live in a little personal bubble in the busyness of urban life and need God to pop it to see what he has in store for us outside
One advert that makes me smile is the cosmetics pitch to 'get the London look'. In this case the London look is Kate Moss after three hours in makeup. In my experience, the London look is a pasty and puffy white face, nicely set off by black bags around bloodshot eyes. There is another dimension to the London look too: the vacant look gaze which is fixed in the middle distance. It tells everyone around that they are not relevant because whatever is in your mind is not here but somewhere else. Mobiles, blackberries and the iPod touch -- among others -- enable us to keep our focus other than where we are, ensuring that those demands, which would have waited for us in the recent past, are now brought right into the present, squeezing our attention. It is like a perverse form of eschatology, where the future is brought into the present to transform our experience of it, only for the worse and not for the better.. - Read More
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SIMON's VIDEOS
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PAST OCTOBER TOPICS
- MATT SANTOS FOR PRESIDENT OCT 2008
- JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL OCT 2009
- RESISTANCE IS FERTILE-OCT 2010
- LEBANON OCT 2010
- THE ALTERNATIVE SPENDING REVIEW OCT 2010
- WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE OCT 2010
- THE WISDOM DEFICIT OCT 2010
- WHAT JEREMIAH MIGHT SAY IF HE WERE NICK ROBINSON OCT 2011
- QUESTION TIME-OCT 2011
- THE ADVICE CULTURE-OCT 2011
- WHAT ARE MEN FOR OCT 2012
- ON BEING BORED OCT 2012
- TO BOLDLY GO OCT 2012
Popular Reads
SOUL EROSION
Most of the ways in which we provide guidance, training and support for discipleship is predicated on having time and energy to think and pray.
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ROUTE TWO
What do we make of the road not taken? The romance that does not lead to marriage; the job we don’t get; the house that falls through; the career that doesn’t materialise.
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THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
The first Gulf War in 1991 did not take place. This was the judgment of the philosopher Jean Baudrillard at the time and how people laughed at him for it.
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ARTICLES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Live Aid's Legacy
The generosity which inspired July 13, 1985 is still present in the British public ....
Debating Immigration
What are the values we should hold to in tackling today's big policy question?
Are We In A Muddle Over Our Discipleship?
Have we become so protective of personal autonomy in following Christ that we no longer submit to external discipline?
Is Willpower Enough To Win?
There are risks in suggesting that success in our chosen field is merely a function of wanting it more than the next person.