I'm a Page 3 Stunner

I picked up a copy of Redbrick, (the university newspaper, not a Marxist tract as my mum thought) a couple of weeks ago and was surprised to find this on page three.
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Yes, that's me in the background, losing a chapatti race, to a girl. (I think it's my arm in the side pictures too.) Fortunately, the picture is too small for you to see the strained expression on my face as I struggled to catch up after dropping my chapatti for the second time.

The legacy continues

I put my car through its MOT today, it failed with flying colours. There are eight seperate faults that it failed on, some quite trivial I think, some more serious. You should just about be able to make them out below.

I can't help feeling that I'm still suffering the effects from when my nice car was stolen, over a year ago now.

The bally, ballyness of it all

I wasn't going to post yet, I have a photo to share but I need to scan it first, or acquire an electronic version from somewhere else. So that will have to wait.

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Anyway, I'm feeling fed up and I wanted to share it, because I know everyone enjoys listening to me moan. And blogs are supposed to be about being honest, I think. I went to a party last night, and then another tonight. I don't like parties, they always make me feel depressed.

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I thought I'd made a bit of progress in terms of building up a rapport with a few people but I still feel like I don't really fit in very much. I still feel that I have relatively conservative values compared with a lot of people in the chaplaincy, and I don't think it's just a matter of age. For some reason the laxity of others bothers me. I don't know if it's because of the witness to others it gives or just because I don't like to see people behave in such a way. And I really don't want to be the sort of person who tells others what they should and shouldn't be doing all the time.

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There was some talk of Christians being repressed last night. I'm not really sure what that means. I suppose I'm quite repressed but I'm not sure it's always a bad thing. I'm more likely to bite my tongue than have an argument with someone.

Penitence

Referring back to the dream, (see below) there was a reason why I didn't want the sergeant to give me a horrible duty for the morning. I had volunteered to do the penetential prayers for the ecumenical service, and I hadn't prepared them yet.
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It's funny how reality invades our dreamspace. For indeed, I did have a penetential prayer to prepare. And I was quite nervous about it because I was raised in an informal tradition where prayer is more off-the-cuff without set responses from the congregation. The fact that I would need to read it didn't help, I always trip over my words terribly when I read aloud.
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Someone advised me to look through some books of prayers, so I did, but I decided to just write one myself. Besides, I'd got an idea of what I wanted to do.
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When the time came, I garbled it quite badly. So I've decided to put it here, where it might stand, at least once, in a less garbled fashion.

(The theme of the service was helping refugees)

Before we proceed with our penitential prayer, I thought it might be a good idea to remind ourselves of God’s standards

Matt. 5 21 "You have heard that it was said… 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment...

27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart...

38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also...

43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...

48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

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Let’s take a few moments to consider our shortcomings before God.

When I say: Have Mercy on us, Lord

You respond with: Lord, have mercy
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Father God,

For the times when we have been impatient, and proud, and injured others with demeaning language. And for the times when we have underestimated others and been unwilling to see the good in them, or to understand them. And for the times when we have projected our own faults on to others.

Have mercy on us, Lord

For the times when we’ve viewed others as objects and not as complete human beings. When we haven’t resisted our image driven culture and fallen into the trap of judging people by the way they look.

Have Mercy on us, Lord

For those times when we have sought revenge, and to administer our own justice. When we have been judgmental and unforgiving. When we have been hurt and unwilling to let go.

Have mercy on us, Lord

And thinking about refugees, for the times when we haven’t loved our neighbours, when we haven’t given the help we were capable of giving. When we haven’t made the effort of making outsiders feel welcome, and when we have thought of them as a nuisance, or as parasites.

Have Mercy on us, Lord

And for the times when we have not made the effort to understand those whom we find difficult, and those who oppose us, and we have failed to be a blessing to them.

Have Mercy on us, Lord

And now as we go forward, let our confessions turn to repentance, and let us be perfected in your love and your glory.

Amen

To be fair, this wasn't entirely without agenda, I'd been thinking that we needed to be reminded of God's standards for a while (Or at least, what I think are God's standards). It seems to me that some, mainly liberal-ish types, like to emphasize social action and dismiss personal morality. Meanwhile, others, usually evangelicals, emphasize personal morality but dismiss social action.

I tend to lean towards personal morality but I think I should probably lean the other way. Maybe I should swing both ways, maybe that's something else...

Reverie

I had an interesting dream this morning.
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I was at home, on the farm, taking part in a run. I was cheating slightly as I seemed to be attached to a balloon which enabled me to float as I ran. One stride would take me about 10 metres - floaty running is a recurring theme in my dreams.

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We were running along the top of the field where the cattle were, I had to be careful not to run into them as it's difficult to change direction while floating. As we reached the corner of the barn, the others turned right and went into the barn. Unfortunately, I floated off over the fence and drifted down the field. I thrashed about wildly but I couldn't turn myself around. I found myself hovering above a cow and I think I used its head to propel myself back to the barn.

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Entering the barn, I realised that the others were in the army, and I was just accompanying them as an observer. As I reached them, I tried to fit into the line but overshot it and had to readjust myself several times. Their sergeant, who was inspecting them, wasn't very impressed by this and told me I'd have to be up at 7:00 in the morning and perform some horrible task, which I've forgotten now but I think it involved water. He didn't seem to understand that I was just observing.

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The other soldiers were surprisingly supportive and I told them so. One of them, I think, was Paul from Coventry, who was on my printing course from 1992-95. Another was someone from the Catholic society here. Afterwards they sat around and played various musical instruments quietly. I strummed someone's guitar and it seemed to have a natural overdrive effect, and reverb. But we decided it was just the acoustics in the barn playing tricks.

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What does it all mean?

Ashes to ashes

I went into the ecumenical service today and found the room much fuller than usual. Looking around I saw no one familiar, so I looked at my watch and checked mentally whether it was the right day or not. As far as I could tell, I'd got the right time and day, so I found a seat and sat down. As I sat there I kept looking around for people I recognised, half convinced they were playing a trick on me. Five minutes later, in walked two people I knew... in medeival costume. To start with I felt mildly amused and thought everyone must have found it strange. Then I started sniggering and then openly laughing. The two medeival characters were a couple of rows forward from me (that's the price you pay for arriving late) and I don't think they noticed but a few people around me did.

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We had an 'ashing' ritual in the service, (because it's Ash Wednesday) which involved having an ash cross smeared on our foreheads by the ministers present. It was completely new to me and I don't really know what the point of it is. I'm ashamed to say I don't know the exact origins of lent either. What I do know is that I'm going to have to survive for forty days without cola of any sort now - I feel like Dougal trying to give up roller-blading. Actually, I haven't touched a drop since last Tuesday.

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I've decided I might as well give up alcohol while I'm at it. If you want to do the same (re. alcohol, not cola) you can register with www.thirstforlife.org which may, or may not, make a difference.

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I'm going to add a couple of links now. One for Nathan's web-page which I was told about just the other day. Those of you who know Nathan will know he's a real character. The other, I'm afraid, is my page at bebo, one I obtained ages ago but it seems that the folks at bebo have improved their service since then. Anyway, there's quite a few photos there, there will be more soon. And I know you're all gagging for more photos from Korea. Those of you who are registered with bebo will be able to take my quiz, if you haven't already, and leave comments, and draw pictures.