Inspired

My sister and her husband recently gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. My nephew is a delight. I am blessed to have been able to see him a fair amount.

He was less than 24 hours old when I changed his nappy.

Earlier today we went and visited my sister and nephew. He is a little (and growing very quickly) bundle of joy. Seeing your wife hold a baby makes a man think. Well seeing my wife hold my nephew makes me think at any rate. Seeing his cute little hands and feet, learning about muscles in his face as he contorts them with each new experience.

His reaction to me blowing raspberries on his belly was something else. His little hands tied up into fists, his eyes and mouth wide open!

I am blessed. And one day I hope I will have children of my own.

I see myself in everything

I see myself in everything, or maybe I empathise with everything.

Everything is probably a slight exaggeration, something I am somewhat prone to doing.

I see myself in a lot of things, I empathise with a lot of things. Reading books, watching movies, TV. Music.

It makes things interesting, because sometimes it's just ridiculous!

So sometimes I have to be careful, I get tired, I see or read things and take them on board.

At other times it can be quite beautiful, so very stimulating. I feel alive. Created and creative things. Whether it is watching a movie (currently 42) or reading a book (currently Philippians) or music (Rend Collective) I am moved, inspired, blessed.

Holibobs - Cyprus Baby

Things that I have learnt on holiday in no particular order.

Don't play drinking games with my wife - she is unbeatable.

"now in a minute" is a useful Welsh phrase which probably won't end up in colloquial/normal English lexicon but is nonetheless good fun and brings much laughter.

"I get you" is another fun phrase, must be said with a Welsh accent.

Keepyuppy on Ayia Napa night in the swimming pool at 1am after shots of tequila is very difficult but hilariously funny. We managed 5. That versus in the day time after eating watermelon when we managed over 50. Both good fun. Ooh, ooh, ooh, nooooooo.

God works in mysterious ways - the news of a potential career change came up and I was once again blown away by the reception it received and the continued encouragement that seems to accompany such protestations. He is continually at work, and I continue to underestimate Him. The box I put Him in continues to get bigger, I hope one day I will lose the box entirely. One step at a time.

Cyprus is flippin hot. And that is great. Unless you're pasty and white and burn easily. Thank the good Lord for shade. I managed to stay in the sun for half an hour without suncream. And managed nearly an hour with. Amazing.

I do love a Lee Child novel, definitely my guilty pleasure.

You can never pack too many clothes. So it probably was sensible and dare I say it right that Vix gave me the smaller suitcase.

Cyprus Airways and Larnaca airport are all right. Lamb in burger sauce with rice somehow works. And web check in is a great invention.

My beautiful wife still surprises me with her graciousness towards me. After three years of marriage and a further six as friends it should not surprise me. She shows me more of Jesus every day.

It should be compulsory for all villas to have swimming pools.

Google's Chromecast is a fantastic bit of kit. Meant we could play our music straight from our devices (which had Google Play) without needing to connect with wires. This also led to me being allowed to play music too! I even slipped in some AC/DC, Audio Adrenaline and Bon Jovi. Sadly this meant that Ems could also play the Spice Girls. You win some, you lose some.

'Warwick Rules' Uno is still the best group card game. Full stop.

Shot or biscuit (or chin up) is a good way of using up alcoholic beverages and an overabundance of biscuits.

Having a partner to do exercise with makes things so much easier. Thanks to Pat for helping me do some exercise this last week. Mark, Tracy, Emma, Chris, Pat and Chrisi are a wonderful bunch of people. Vikki's friends are amazing, amazing that they have embraced me as one of their own even though I am (still) the last to join the group. They are fun, frivolous, serious, kind, they listen, engage, take the mickey, encourage, help. In short they are wonderful.

Now in a minute we'll put some washing on and eat bruschetta in honour of the fabulous Ravioli's restaurant, near Ayia Napa.

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.