Refreshing

Surprise! When Jo came to pick me up from work today she told me that we have a new shower.
After 3 or 4 goes at contacting our plumber, we finally agreed a time for him to come round and take a look. That was Saturday. Today, he just turned up and fitted it. So its back to showering tomorrow and I won't have to give up washing for Lent.

Meanwhile the exercises that I have been given do seem to be making some difference to the strength and reach of the right arm. I sat in the drivers seat of the car today and checked out the movement around the steering wheel. Driving looks a distinct possibility now, whereas on Saturday I definitely could not get my arm high enough under its own power.

The journey to work is about 90% by car, and the rest is a short walk. This is to ensure that I get at least some basic exercise, other than the recovery requirement. I was reminded on my walk in that a few years ago we did a map of our walk to work for Lent - as part of our training. The objective was to help us reflect on the different people and places we passed. Their significance for us and for others and whether there was anything we should do - like get involved with the people inside one of the buildings in some way. Tonight I read the Lent entry 'Coming up for Air', and thought how nice it would be to breath fresh air, instead of the exhaust fumes I get on my journey.

A shower is refreshing in the morning, so is my walk once I get past the worst of the traffic. They (and coffee) set me up for the mornings work on MS-SQL and VB 2005. Then at lunch time I go down for air, and take a short walk to set myself up for the afternoon.

Lent, Wisdom, and a question

On my lunchtime walk I passed a woman with a smudge on her forehead. How I miss going to the service at St Mary le Bow. I have also had to pass on going to the service at our own St. Johns - oh well!

Yesterday I commented on the need for wisdom on http://www.cowart.info/blog/2009/02/big-belly-poor-people.html. Today, I found some here http://gatheringgrace.blogs.com/thegathering/2009/02/lent-no-1---so-it-begins.html. The reference is specifically to 1 Tim 6:17 - "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." Just suppose our global banking system had been based on that verse - just a little (is that possible?).

For Lent, I have promised myself, and prayed for strength to follow the readings at http://www.ucb.co.uk/w4u, and also the http://twitter.com/c_of_e.

So back to the sermon preparation "What did Jesus do about temptation?" - answers on a post card (or at least on a comment) please.

Twitter

This has to be one of the strangest web applications, especially as it seems to be catching on. Anyway, as I don't think my life is interesting enough for loads of people to know what I'm doing every few minutes, I will use it for the reason I joined - to see what's happening in Lent @ http://twitter.com/c_of_e. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, this year I will not have the opportunity to attend a service. Even if there was one that I knew about local to my work, I would feel very guilty about leaving for an hour or more at lunchtime, when they are already letting me come in late and go home early because of my shoulder. So I will not be 'ashed', and will not receive comments like "there's a smudge on your forehead" - shame. It's a good conversation starter.

Christmas, Easter - confused?

Christmas, Easter
I sat at the computer this morning to start work on my Christmas sermon. To try to find some interesting ways into the story of the shepherds. I had just started, when Jo brought me the days post. Something from the diocese - hmmm... "What could they want?" ... my next training day is in March. A Christmas card perhaps? No -The Lent & Eastertide programme!My sermon will, of course, have to take in some of the aspects of Easter, but I wasn't expecting it to arrive so soon.

More than a quarter of Brits don't know where Jesus was born!
Its higher than a third amongst the young. The appalling spiritual state of our nation was mentioned again on the radio (BBC Radio 4) this morning. Could I find the story on the BBC web-site? - No! It is, however, reported in India. Yesterday there was Seikh telling us not to lose religious heritage - I think it may be too late. Christmas now means "giving presents and being with family" apparently.