50th!!!!

yes, a couple of days ago (19 April) - I hit the 50 mark -
they say life begins at 40, so i've just turned 10!

Here i am surrounded by my fantastic children.

My beautiful wife is behind the camera

Four Spiritual Stages

I've just finished reading 'Naked Spirituality' by Brian McLaren. I heard Brian speak on the subject at Greenbelt last year. The book goes into more detail. It's a good read. Brian is heavily influenced by Richard Rohr, and unashamedly so. In fact he quotes Rohr several times throughout the book.
The 4 spiritual stages that McLaren suggests are the following:
1. Simplicity - where there's a high notion of 'right versus wrong' - dualism.
2. Complexity - 'effective versus ineffective' - pragmatism.
3. Perplexity - 'honest versus dishonest' - relativism.
4. Harmony - 'humility' seeking to encounter God nakedly.

McLaren sees these stages are spirals, that the spiritual journey takes us upwards in these 4 stages, spiraling upwards.

I can see something of this pattern in my own life. The early days when the faith was simplistic everything was easily divided into black and white; then the complexity of trying to work it out and 'perform'; this then leads to perplexity (for me the most difficult stage to move out from) when faith is almost lost, God seems distant and almost inexistent...
I don't know if I've ever experienced the harmony stage - or maybe I've had a small taste of the intimacy of God, naked before him, accepted despite myself - loved, not because I deserve it but loved because God is love...but then it's so easy to get back to trying to prove myself to others and God.

The Machine !

A couple of posts ago I wrote about my motorbike licence exploit.
I'm no on 2 wheels and enjoying the exceptionally sunny weather we've been having.
It's been great :)

My 2 wheeled machine is a Yamaha 600 fazer - (FZ6 S2  with ABS).
I was looking for an all-round bike and that's exactly what it is. Ideal for going to work and back, handles well on small roads, it's also got a sporty edge to it - with 98 horse-power at 12,000 rpm.
It's comfortable at longer distances - at least that's what I read in several bike magazines - the truth will be revealed this weekend when we (Jackie & I) go for a spin in the Val Jolie region.
I'll tell you about

SatMix - The Other/l'Autre

Tomorrow at 7pm we are putting on a SatMix event where we will explore 'the Other' using a mix of multimedia, song, sketches and more...

It should be a great evening

Scrappy piece of paper

This scrappy piece of paper now entitles me to ride a motorbike! To obtain this scrappy piece of paper was no easy task.
I had to re-take my highway code (in French bien sûr!), then take an off-road practical test - slalom, emergency stop, balance, slow speed, 'normal' speed...
and today I took the road test. In all it's taken me 8 months, and a few euros!!

I wanted to get my motorbike licence  before my 50th birthday - mission accomplished - I'll be striking on the 19th April, a month today.

So this scrappy piece of paper means a lot to me :)

so watch this space for motorcycle posts!

The Problem with Scripture - women!

I wrote a couple of posts ago about the problem with Scripture and in particularly the difficulty of interpretation.
Last night we had a special church meeting with a potential 'candidate' for the job of pastor. In his 'speech' he mentioned a 'non-negotiable' issue if he were to become pastor of the church. The issue was  women leadership in the church. He would not accept a woman elder because it's not biblical.

So here we find a 'classic' example of interpretation of Scripture. Women leadership was, and apparently still is a thorny issue.

In some of St Paul's epistles he does mention that women should remain silent in church, that they should wear a kind of head covering and also there doesn't seem to be any evidence of women leaders in the Bible. (Except for Deborah &  Esther in the old testament and Lydia and Sapphira in the New Testament...)

However, Paul also mentions how masters should treat their slaves (with kindness of course). Unfortunately these 'slave' passages were used to defend the practice of slavery in the 'good old days' of the Empire but today (I hope) we would agree that slavery is definitely not what God intended.
I believe that the same applies to women. Our understanding of humanity and of God has greatly evolved and our culture is not the same as Paul's. In the same way as we no longer see slavery as biblical I suggest that we should no longer see that 'women should remain silent and therefore no leadership roles' as also not  biblical.

I think Paul was heading in this direction when he wrote:
"For all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

So it's not whether you're a man or a woman that counts but your gifts, calling and character. These should be the criteria to evaluate whether you should be an elder or leader.

I think that if we contemplate the life and teachings of Jesus we would come to the same conclusion.

I'm saddened that I've had to post this.

Alas we are still focusing on the non-essentials.

Mystery Girl with the hat

here's a painting from Rachel Benkemoun a young artist from Lille.

I adore the colours and the manga style.