Category: Reflection

  • The Clod & the Pebble

    The following is a wonderfully insightful poem by William Blake (1757-1827) The Clod & the Pebble ‘Love seeketh not Itself to please, ‘Nor for itself hath any care; ‘But for another gives its ease, ‘And builds a heaven in Hell’s despair.’ So sang a little Clod of Clay, Trodden with the cattle’s feet : But…

  • Imagination and the role of the artist

    This Image is a visual response to a collection of beautiful images created by my brother Paul. “Why is our world beautiful, and what are we as Christians to do about the fact that our world is beautiful? Why is our world ugly, and what are we as Christians to do about the fact that our…

  • Celebration and Value

    What we celebrate determines what we value and reflects what we believe. (I’m sure I’m quoting or paraphrasing someone here). We celebrate birthdays because we believe in life and value the existence of friends and relatives. We celebrate weddings because we value loving-committed relationships and believe in family. We celebrate the birth of a baby…

  • Reality and Hope

    It’s taken me a while to continue the series of post that have stopped off at points of pain, hope and the prophetic imagination. My eldest brother has wonderfully distilled Brueggemann’s thesis as follows: In his book The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann identifies two modes of Old Testament prophets. The first is the message of future…

  • Energizing Visions

    I ended the last post with a couple of quotes from Henri Nouwen concerning eschatological dreams and visions of harmony. Here’s a quick reminder: These visions… offer us hope when we are close to despair, courage when we are tempted to give up on life, and trust when suspicion seems the more logical attitude. Without…

  • Loving conversation

    A few thoughts are coming together here, but need to be fleshed out more. I’m thinking about how we love one another in the way we speak and converse. First from my brothers blog ‘reimagining science’: “…we have a tendency to think that when we speak, we are just transferring information. However, it’s all a lot…

  • The person I become

    The Next-Wave has an interesting interview with Todd Hunter this month. What stuck me about the quote below is how it fits other thoughts mentioned on this blog — such as Mother Teresa’s quote: “We are called to be faithful, not successful”. This though fits with a previous note — we are invited  to ‘enter’ and ‘receive’…

  • Reflection: Townships and shopping malls

    The following is a poetic reflection on a recent visit to Cape Town. What struck me about the city was the how it seems to be the world shrunk into a city, with global culture and wealth, living next to extreme poverty. I would say, “rubbing shoulders with poverty” – but that would be an…

  • Instead of…

    I’ve mentioned and quoted Eugene Peterson’s talks on the Beatitudes a number of times already. (They can be purchaced online in mp3 format at Regent Bookstore). Early on in the series Peterson does a beautiful introduction to the Beatitudes – which he later expands upon. I’m taking them out of there context here, but there’s still…

  • Fruit

    From Henri Nouwen: Trusting in the Fruits We belong to a generation that wants to see the results of our work. We want to be productive and see with our own eyes what we have made. But that is not the way of God’s Kingdom. Often our witness for God does not lead to tangible…

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