Prayer and/or Action

I think one of the major frustrations many people have is the prayer but no action scenario. I've heard many people (Christian and non alike) complain about it. Which has got me thinking.

Two biggest characters in the New Testament; Jesus and Paul.

Jesus - "I only do what I see my Father do." From which I shall take a small leap to suggest He prayed a fair amount because He did rather a lot of stuff (you fill in the blanks... ).

Paul - "I pray more than the rest of you." Says the man who wrote two thirds of the new testament and did more to shape Christianities theology than any other human sans God in flesh. And I think he found time to work and make himself useful when he wasn't starting riots.

Now I suspect that both of these characters had a pretty decent balance of prayer and action. In much the same way faith without deeds is useless I imagine that for many people prayer without action is useless too.

Now obviously there are caveats to this. If you are in prison or unable to walk or suffer from various things that make going and doing things problematic / impossible then I wholeheartedly understand that prayer is probably your action. But sadly I suspect the majority of us don't fall into that camp.

If we were to think of prayer as being in relationship with God, then we probably should do a bit more of the second greatest commandment - love your neighbour as ourself. Which I think would solve the prayer versus action debate which so frustrates so many.

Maybe I am being too simplistic but I really don't think the gospel, Jesus, life is supposed to be as complicated as we so often make it.

Shall save the who is my neighbour debate for another time.

Lord teach me to pray. Lord teach me to act.

Silence then a Flurry of Activity

I feel like my life has a theme which goes something like "quiet" then "busy, busy, busy" and repeat ad nauseum.

Having hardly blogged for months, I find myself doing two in two days.

My songwriting feels a bit like that at the moment.

As does house buying.

And work.

Life.

Today I have been working on a new project which I will end up sharing at some point, although right now it's not appropriate.

In the background I have "It's Not Enough" by Dustin Kensrue playing. My beautiful wife amused me no end when she commented upon the song "why so angry Dustin?". Safe to say our musical loves are sometimes poles apart. But I will win her over on this one, cue maniacal laughter.

And so ends today's random blog. Ta ta.

The Assumption

So my wife pulled me up on something this week. She shared some things that had been on her mind for a while and my response was 'let's pray'.

On the face of it a positive and spiritual response. God points to me.

However it wasn't that simple. She then pointed out that the way I was talking made a rather large and wholly wrong assumption that she hadn't prayed about said thing. I realised that sometimes in my trying to be Godly it comes across as suggesting that others are less so and forgotten all about the Almighty and interactions with Him. Minus points to me.

Assuming my wife hasn't prayed is very stupid, she is a deeply spiritual person(whether she would describe it like that is another matter entirely). I think part of the reason I was and am so attracted to her is the way in which Christ is at work in her and how she very simply allows that outworking in her life. I can and do learn a lot from her.

So avoid assumptions, they make an ass out of you and mptions. Instead work on how to build one another up. I think there's a bible verse about that somewhere (God points to me and sarcastic minus points to me too). Sometines relationships need the asking of questions, sometimes they need quietness and open arms. Knowing what to offer and when is a true skill.

And before anyone gets worried, I am not saying that we shouldn't pray, in many respects we need to pray more. However, I am learning not to assume others have or have not prayed.

The Joy of Parents

Some close friends have just become parents and of course the question of when will this happen in my happy lil world arises. Not that this is what I want to talk about, parenthood will come all in good time.  I have yet again been reminded of the miracle and marvel that is parents.

In our seemingly increasing broken society I know that for someone to have two sets of parents who aren't divorced is a miracle. I count myself blessed and thank God for my parents and my in-laws. For the last two and a bit years they have been amazing. Giving us space to make a life for ourselves. But also being there when we need help or an ear, a soldering iron or plastering a hole in the ceiling. It's a hard balancing act but they do it so well.

I am not entirely sure what has prompted this, maybe it's just amn excuse to not do the washing up. Or perhaps I'm feeling nostalgic while I sit on the sofa and play guitar. I remember years spent sitting on my bed singing my heart out until a holler from downstairs cut through my "din" usually to say they'd heard that song enough or it was dinner time!

So in short, tres grateful for Mr and Mrs Thomas and Mr and Mrs Connolly.

2 weeks in and 3 lbs gone

Wednesday evening is weigh in. I've lost another pound, so that's 3 lbs in 2 weeks. Which isn't a shabby start.

New Music, New Me...

I've got my hands on three new albums, two courtesy of my gorgeous wife and one from noisetrade. Paramore, Bastille and Paper Route.

They are my current sound tracks. And they are jolly good.

Later on this evening we will be celebrating the gorgeous one's birthday. I am so very blessed, I rarely have the words to express it. This is a cause of frustration for me, especially as I feel that I have got worse at being able to express myself in the last year or so. Maybe it's the nature of satisfaction. Maybe it's my laziness. It gives me something to ponder and work on nonetheless.

Another thing that is blessed is my waistline, possibly overindulged. Need to try on my tuxedo to check that it still fits. Whatever the results the diet begins on Wednesday. The 5-2 diet. All I know is that on those two days I am going to need a lot of grace and willpower!

A New Band Deserves A New Blog

Before you start fretting it's okay, it isn't what you think.

Seven months ago the vicar asked if I'd consider leading worship at the morning service. After thought, prayer and a couple of conversations we decided to give it a go.

So this morning I fore went the usual highness of St As and trooped down to St Ms with my acoustic guitar in hand. I'll admit I was a tad nervous. We'd had a practice on Friday night which was a tad different to my usual band practices but positive none the less.

After a "fraught" start with trying to get a million sets of music books ready (not aided by forgetting to make a song list for everyone!) and we were ready. We rattled through Be Thou My Vision. Amusingly the vicar was running late so we finished the pre service song before they were ready. And from there it flew by,  and pretty nicely too.

I'm now sitting outside church five hours later as I'm about to play electric guitar at the evening service.

Fun.

I am blessed.

Saying No To Football?!

So some dear friends are playing in a football tournament on Monday. Ignoring the fact it is my birthday for one second, I find myself in the strange position of turning down the opportunity to join them and seek glory playing the beautiful game.

I've been trying to work out why I've said no and I have come to the conclusion that I it's because I'm embarrassed. Four years ago I was a relatively lithe eleven and a half stone. Decent touch,  not too slow,  willing to try outrageous things on a footie field which quite came off. I scored goals for fun and occasionally even passed the ball. Fast forward and I'm probably fourteen stone something, very unfit, no longer have the turn of pace to beat a man and in short am quite embarrassed by it all.

So I'm not playing cos I feel like I'll let the team down, let myself down and if I did play I'd actually need to go to bed at 5pm which is a problem when peeps are coming round for drinks at 7pm.

However it is not all doom and gloom. I am resolving that this time next year it will be a different story. Partly because I've got to get back into my tuxedo for a cruise this summer. And partly cost I'd like a few hurrahs still on astro turf covered pictures. A little bit of glory.

Chocolate be gone.
Laziness be gone.

Hello trainers and hello running.

Novel Idea

So I thought it would be an idea to actually write something about le novel. So here we go.

It is taking shape, I have almost finished one of the three stories that is going to make up the story. I am really excited about how it is shaping up. Once I finished these few chapters (I think it's about 4) I will then review this whole section and edit it in one go. We wait and see if I am as excited once I've done that!

The Nexus7 keyboard my dear wife got me for Christmas has been really useful in helping me use my journies to and from work in a more productive manner. I'm not quite on the doing it everyday kick yet but as each week goes by a bit more is done.


And the novel idea, well amusingly in writing this novel it has given me at least two ideas for other novels. Which considering this one has taken me close to five years to complete a third of it is probably not helpful but there we go! It makes me smile and reminds me that I have lots of creative juices in me.

Playing Ma Geetar

Having mildly hurt my wrist at the weekend playing guitar I was somewhat pessimistic, notably on account of an impending gig and the need for practice. Praise the good Lord I managed to play the guitar for half hour this evening without being in too much pain! Huzzah. We see how a full on rock n roll sesh on Saturday.

Now watching a bit of QI on Dave, tres amusing. It does make me smile, the odd mix of silliness and cleverness.

Getting my groove on

So 2013 has been somewhat haphazard and quite underwhelming. It has however had some good things going for it.

I feel like I am getting into my groove on le novel. This is exciting and particularly satisfying. Seeing something take shape, having been working on it for five years I guess it now falls under the category of 'labour of love'. It still makes me smile, occasionally laugh and as each new page takes shape I get a sense of growing satisfaction.

The band has a gig in a couple of weeks, The Comedy near Piccadilly Circus on Weds 23rd January. Am looking forward to tearing it up on stage with my bros. We also have some new songs in the pipeline which is great. I do love getting to play live. Now just hoping that my wrist recovers quickly before band practice this weekend.

In other news I just had my first shave of 2013, yes back to underwhelming!

Ooh What's This?

Today is notable in my eyes for one thing. I used my new keyboard for my Google Nexus7. Infact I am currently sitting on the sofa and typing away with it now. Not only am I using this rather fabulous keyboard (big thanks to my gorgeous wife) I wrote another chapter of le novel! Granted it wasn't the longest of chapters, okay it was a short chapter, but it's another chapter. Get in.

Now for some chocolate!