In Vince we trust…

Politicians are taking a proper kicking at the moment… some would say for a good reason. Regardless, it is currently fashionable to hate politician.

It is easier for us to blame them rather than ask ourselves if we might do the same in their position (or maybe we are doing what they did)… anyway I digress.

There are many exceptions – there are plenty of good politicians in all parties (don’t ask me to name them though!!) but there is one that at this time seems to stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Vince Cable.

This is the man who predicted the “credit crunch” (how I hate that term) and for years has asked sensbile and insightful questions about what the government was doing to deal with our mounting debt etc.

I admire his humility and lack of “I told you so” when anyone else would have laid it on thick. I trust his genuine prudence and apparent lack of spin.

I for one think that having him as Chancellor wouldn’t be a bad thing…

Barcelona

I’m not sure that I’m the only one who grew to be totally sick and tired of hearing how all Man Utd needed to do last night was to turn up and they’d be European Champions… so I was thrilled to see Barca outplay them with fabulous football. Makes you realised just how good Spain are going to be at next years World Cup as well unfortunately for England.

However, I’m more interested in how Barcelona are run.

The club is owned by its fans and not a single owner who at any minute could pull the plug and destroy the club

The club is not sponsored by anyone – they PAY money to Unicef for them to be on their shirts

Interesting…

Wii Remote Issues

I have a bad feeling that I have broken both of our wii remotes (or “wiimotes”) as I currently have a “flickering and erratic” cursor on the screen.

I have tried smacking both controllers (advised by many including Nintendo) but fear that this may have made it worse.

I was doing really well on Fifa 09 as well…

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Getting arrested

On Saturday I watched the interview with Martin Sheen on the Jonathan Ross show on Iplayer. Normally I can’t bear watching the Wossy show because it is simply all about him… however, this interview was something different – Martin Sheen actually shut Ross up…

You can catch the whole interview on Iplayer but there was one thing that really struck me – Martin Sheen has been arrested nearly 70 times for various acts of civil disobedience whilst protesting against different things. He puts his beliefs into practice and campaigns about nuclear proliferation, war etc etc.

He doesn’t just talk; he does something.

Faith without works is… dead (James 2:26)

End of term

Finished my lectures for my first year… all I’ve got left is one essay on ethics to hand in and a Greek exam to revise for.

Then my church placement begins. Four weeks split into two – two weeks at St Peter’s Henleaze and two weeks at Woodlands Christian Centre.

I’m looking forward to it. I’ll keep an online diary here about it whilst it happens… in case anyone is struggling to get to sleep.

More importantly… June the 16th is coming up quickly.

The party has started…

Just got back from speaking at our church (Crossnet) on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. They’ve been exploring several of Jesus’ parables over the past few weeks. You can find this one HERE in Luke 15

Most people focus on the younger son in the story – how he comes back and his Father greets with with a total lack of any dignity… but the conversation between the older son and their father is SO revealing.

The older son is gutted, angry and resentful. He can’t even call his younger brother his brother – “That son of yours”.

The father begs him to come into the party that had started to celebrate the return of the younger brother but he refuses…

The Kingdom of God is a party, a banquet, a festival, a celebration that “sinners” love and the religious hate.

Isn’t it tragic that sometimes we create a party that the religious people really love and “sinners” hate.

I wonder where Jesus would be.

²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Friday Afternoon

It’s hard for a busy person like myself to find time to put my highly intelligent thoughts on to this blog

The last few weeks have been a bit busier than others (honestly, I’ve really been working on a whole load of things!!) and so I’ve just not got round to adding anything to this.

Since the last blog I’ve eaten a freshly killed pheasant, played volleyball a lot, scored a goal, shared a bed with a 20stone rugby player, lost a bit of weight, prayed a bit, planned some more of New Wine Youth stuff, spoke at a leadership conference, drunk more coffee than is healthy, and still not been fishing since March.

I plan never again to do at least one of those things…