A bit of vulnerability.

I'm going to be honest here, I don't believe I can manage on this course. Here's the situation, I'm not even 2 months in, and I'm already so far behind with, well, everything that I just can't keep myself from crying whilst sat on the train which thankfully isn't particularly busy at the minute. I just don't get it, WHY does the process of being organised enough to keep my head above water and coping not happen for me? WHY does the process of writing 800 words break me to tears? And why, no matter how hard I try, can I not keep myself from being reminded of what happened the last time I was in this situation? I'm really scared here. I don't want to go through this again. Please pray for me.

Pictorial Triumvirate.

This is a small collection of back cataloged pictures I've been meaning to blog up.
Enjoy.



Necessary?
I think not. Doesn't this just say something about the depths of paranoia society seems to have fallen to? Bureaucracy is the norm, it takes hold of every facet of the human condition. Paperwork for the use of the printer which you need to print off the verification to collect your ID card that is needed to operate the printer, age verification for pizzas, allergy advice on produce because somewhere within a 50 mile radius of the processing someone may have purchased a foil wrapped packet of peanuts on an airplane, needing to be 21 to buy a metal spoon because of drug use potential, yet only 18 to buy knives, which incidentally are involved in one of the fastest growing crime scenes in the UK. Is this irony, or just plain madness?

Let me explain this image a bit, give it a bit of context if you will. I was doing my weekly acquisition of sustenance in Sainsbury's and I can across this seemingly out of place piece of information. Upon further investigation I ascertained that it was not only in the pizza aisle, but all over the entire shop. Warning! You will be asked for identification! I could understand if this was placed with items where age verification will be required, that would be reasonable. It doesn't mean you'll get ID'ed for a pizza, it's just a warning for when necessary.

I still think it's mad.
God bless.



Little fella's lost.
What you're looking at here is a Red Admiral butterfly, or Vanessa atalanta of the family Nymphalidae, it's a common sight to our misty Albion in late Autumn, seen as heralding the coming of winter. Now, why the diatribe on butterflies I hear you wondering, well, what I'd like to draw to your attention is the backdrop of this particular picture. Red Admirals are fond of ivy flowers, and tend to gather near them. This one in particular was just outside the Thermae Bath Spa, right in the center of city, sat on the pedestrianised roadway, nowhere even close to those delectable ivy flowers he craves so much.

In that moment I felt a kinship of sorts with the little fella. He was, as this title states, a little bit lost. I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds themselves in times when they pursued something they want or are fond of, only to find themself completely isolated, and not knowing which way to turn to find our way back onto the ne'er beaten track. Christians in particular fall foul of this as we're called to walk a much narrower path than most (Matthew 7 v14). We do, however, have one thing others don't, a God that loves us so much he'll search for us to the exclusion of all else to bring us back to him (Matthew 18 v12-14). But wait, there's more! That promise extends also to people who don't yet follow Christ, who don't know the life-changing power of Jesus' death and resurrection, for those he will seek and search also if they call to him.

God bless.

And finally...
I know I shouldn't have.
But I just couldn't help myself from giggling when I saw this. Oh, how childish of me...

God bless.

Words of the Christian

How often is it that we find ourselves using word that we assume are normal, and suddenly think about the correctness of the word? I find that as I am quite critical of the English lexicon in general, more so in the church and Christian context.

It’s Monday afternoon, and I’m sat in the office typing out college notes on the 6 competences of my course, and I notice that as I’m typing the little red wiggly line appears under a number of words that am certain that I am spelling correctly, so I double check them. Lo and behold those words aren’t in the computer dictionary, and it gets me thinking are these more words that have just been made up by Christians?

If I said to you the word ‘Disciple’ then chances are you’ll know what I mean, and the computer will not have a problem and not present me with a funny little squiggly red line. However, if I take this just one step further and make the word ‘Discipler’, or even ‘Discipling’ then it becomes a whole new kettle of fish, as the red lines of incorrectivity, yes I did just invent a new word for the purposes of this rant, oh the irony, now appear, why is that?

I’ve found that when looking through ‘church’ language Christians seem to be notorious of, here comes another new pair of inventions, verbifying nouns, nounifying verbs, or translating the noun or verb into a new tense, which might work if the English language still had defined tenses. There are also some instances of new adjectives appearing my “favourite” of which was when I heard the phrase ‘having had backslidden’. Grammatically it’s is all complete nonsense.

Now I do apologise, as I seem to have completely lost myself, and can’t remember where I was going with this, but I will most likely return to this subject as it is something which I continually struggle with when trying to relate church to people outside of it, in fact even to people inside of it as well. I’m not church-bashing at all, and I fully support the church, even though I don’t always agree with it, and I pray that people continue to be challenged by church, and continue to wrestle with issues they have, even ones that may seem as trivial as certain words that may get used. Also, I pray that we become more conscious of the words we ourselves use.

God bless.

It's a good thing we're not Vulcans.

It's 11:30, I'm sat here being a bi of a geek watching Azumi, with an open copy of Games Workshop's latest Codex: Space Marines, whilst commenting on a friends blog and something caught my eye.

I was asked to provide word verification to be allowed to post the comment, and that in itself is not what caught my eye as I think it is incredibly important in the ongoing 'War on Spam' as I now like to dub it, but rather the word I was asked to give as verification, fvupii. Now my wondering is how one would go about pronouncing typed word. Phonetically I imagine it would be something like 'fuh-voo-pee-eye',as any good Latin student would go about pronouncing it, or even 'fwoop-yee', which is just the bit more fanciful. It is a predicament.

Now the next question that just begs to be asked is; what could the dictionary definition of fvupii possibly be? Following the line of portmanteaus, but in relation to the first pronunciation I suggested, it could be this; for when a Vulcan gets a pea stuck in their eye (F'vu-pea-eye) geddit? Any suggestions from anyone else?

Well, I've ran out of typing steam so I'll just leave this as it is.

God bless.