Lentblog2020

The longer this goes on the less I feel I want to look at anything that is being posted on social media.  And I dont mean the doom and gloom stuff - to be honest there hasnt been a massive amount of that in recent days.  But Im finding it harder and harder to scroll through the screeds and screeds of bible verses and sermons and calls to prayer and especially the well meaning lists of advice about how we are supposed to be looking after ourselves.  For some reason I feel that all of it is starting to make me numb.  And it's hard enough to feel any sense of engagement with the world when one is shut inside.  So anything that adds to the numbness cant be good can it?   On the other hand, social media ( well, facebook) is the only way I really keep in touch with anyone so Im stuck with it a bit.   I do find Im scrolling through most of whats posted at the moment and concentrating on laughing at the funny stuff and chatting with friends....

Every now and again something comes along to remind us of our mortality.  At the moment its Corona Virus.  I suppose before that it was HIV.   And before that Spanish Influenza.  For all our technological innovations and inventive genius we don't seem to be able to stop nature coming up with new ways to try to kill us.   And I suspect that God allows this in order to try to keep us focused on the facts.  The fact is that we are all going to die.  Its the only thing of which we can be 100% certain.  Other things might happen, but death definitely will. We dont think about it much.   But in times like these we suddenly get a bit more focused.  So yesterday I said to Keith that we must both write down our passwords for various things, and tell each other where we have put stuff, and make sure that if anything happened to one of us, the other would be able to access the bank accounts and know what the pension arrangements ...

This Christian life is all about growth.  Being planted in good soil and then, watered by Gods ongoing presence, growing up towards the sun.  The point of the christian life is to bear fruit.  And the fruit is    love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control ( Gal 5 22)   I get the feeling that at this peculiar and particular time God is working on all of us to grow us in ways we hadn't expected or planned for.  Many of us have been transplanted out of our usual places of work and have landed back home, the pot and soil in which we are growing have changed.  We are getting fed through the internet instead of through meeting together.  It's all very odd.  But God is still at work.  His call to us is still ' Lift up your heads that the King of Glory may come in' We are still created to look for the sun and turn our faces towards Him. When I first moved to Ireland I l...

Something I wrote a few years ago which seems fitting for these days.   2 minutes 30 secs.  Enjoy. https://soundcloud.com/carolinehamilton/20130505-worship-at-8-1-trim

Im not a very political person.  I tend to be of the opinion that our politicians, whatever 'flavour' , are generally good and decent people who have gone into politics to try to make a difference and do good.  I have never been a fan of moaning and complaining about policies and procedures because I have a vote and I do believe that in the exercise of my democratic rights I'm a heck of a lot better off than many people in the world who live under dictatorships.   So, whilst I would have preferred to remain in the EU, I am happy to concede that more people wanted to leave, and I'm not going to moan about the process of leaving because I'm not in possession of any of the facts.   I trust that the politicians are trying their best to do a good job in a mad world and I'm happy to leave them to it. But today I do feel that I want to say something about politics - in relation to the virus and all that is going on in the world just now. Like many people, two ...

You are probably going to find this very strange, but it wasn't until last week that I adopted Spotify and started to make myself some playlists on my phone .   For some reason I cant quite explain, I have not listened to much music in the past few years.    As a bit of a technical numpty I have just avoided sorting out my personal musical library until very recently.   But once Sam added me to the family Spotify account I spent a happy afternoon tripping down musical memory lane and adding all my very favourite songs and tracks to my phone.  Yesterday I went out for a walk with my headphones on and sang along to some very old friends. I've made a playlist of worship songs and another one of hymns.  But the music I was listening to yesterday was just entitled ' favourites' and encompassed songs from my childhood right through my teens and twenties to more recent years.   Those songs which have stuck , the ones to which I know all the w...

Im sure its not just me, but at times like this when everyone is posting ' helpful' articles online about how to do life in a pandemic, its easy to get awfully depressed about how little of the helpful stuff you are actually managing to do. If you have children you will be bombarded with people telling you you need to keep the routine, get them up in the morning, encourage them to do their schoolwork at the kitchen table.  ( I haven't actually read anything saying they should be in their school uniforms but it wouldn't surprise me if someone has advised that!)  We need to limit their screen time, get them outside in the fresh air and make sure they go to bed at the same time as on a normal school day.  Oh, and of course not to forget, we have to reassure them about the virus and explain to them that as long as they wash their hands a hundred times a day they will probably be OK. Then for us as adults we are supposed to be keeping to a routine, eating healthily, spen...