For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
A dear friend of mine recently posted this picture. I was immediately taken with it. Doesn’t it sum up the human condition so succinctly? Too often, like the pigeon in the picture, our limited minds seem incapable of comprehending a bigger picture; sometimes they are unwilling to concede that there even is one. We will... Continue Reading →
Imagine that, in the midst of a bout of temporary insanity, you told your wife this: that in order for you to remain married, she would have to dress up like a nun, because that was the only way you could love her and find her attractive. How long do you think that marriage would... Continue Reading →
One of my pupils recently asked me to list my ten favourite books. It is an unfair question to ask an English teacher. I have read literally thousands of books and to ask me to narrow the list down to a mere ten seems a tad cruel. And what criteria should I use to make... Continue Reading →
A colleague of mine, one for whom I have a sincere admiration, recently came back from Iraq, where she went on a mission to provide encouragement to displaced Christians. Ilda’s faith constantly challenges mine. She epitomises for me what true Christianity is about: not just ‘me, my Bible and Jesus’, but a living faith that... Continue Reading →
I am suspicious of hedonism: somehow it is a lie. Now I do not believe myself to be any more incapable of lying than the next person, but I do hold integrity as one of my core values: I do not believe that one can live a fulfilled life when one is consciously living a... Continue Reading →
Many Christians are content to adopt a live-and-let-live approach towards the Word of Faith movement. They see them as misguided but basically well-meaning (for example, read the thoughts of Eric Hyde, one of my favourite bloggers: https://ehyde.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/why-do-word-of-faith-christians-become-jaded/). I am not so understanding. I believe that Word of Faith preachers – Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen and... Continue Reading →
We are often too quick to blame all social problems on systems: poverty is the result of capitalism; bigotry is the result of religion; economic or social problems are the result of a certain political party being in power; education is in crisis because we have the wrong curriculum or assessment strategy. I could go... Continue Reading →
Do we ever have the right to choose when we die? The issue of assisted suicide is topical in South Africa at the moment. On April 30th this year, Advocate Robin Stransham-Ford died only hours before the court granted his application for state assistance in ending his life, after a prolonged battle with cancer. Health... Continue Reading →
I am wary of attempts to reduce life’s complexities into trite truisms, but if I were pressed to summarise life’s journey into one succinct statement of sugar-packety goodness, it would be this: fulfilment in life is dependent on one simple choice: will you walk the path of hope or the path of despair? Make no... Continue Reading →
There are a few profound moments in the book The Lord of the Rings that were not included in Peter Jackson’s wonderful filmic depiction of the story. One is near the beginning of the novel, where the hobbits are protected from the Nazgul that hunt them by a band of migrating Elves. One of the... Continue Reading →
Vapors In The Wind 