This is the second of two posts based on an article by the BBC entitled “The Disabled Christians reinterpreting the Bible”. The gist of the article is that disability is not a negative thing and may well be present in heaven. This immediately set my alarm bells ringing. I’ve come across this approach to theology of disability on twitter and at a course for making church more accessible to all disabled people (we discussed this idea, but the course itself and the conclusion of

On Sunday 28th April 2019 the BBC published an article about ‘Disabled Christians reinterpreting the Bible”. The gist of the article is that disability is not a negative thing and may well be present in heaven. This immediately set my alarm bells ringing. I’ve come across this approach to theology of disability on twitter and at a course for making church more accessible to all disabled people (we discussed this idea, but the course itself and the conclusion of the group did

A while ago I wrote about rest. I wasn’t sure how it could be fitted in with the necessarily busy lives that many, particularly those with young families and/or elderly parents, lead. It seems foolish and impossible to suggest that people actually stop doing some necessary things in order to make space to rest. And then my mum became ill. She had, early in the New Year, felt that God was asking her to take a step back. But she genuinely didn’t know how, given her commitments

This post is in response to an article shared with me by a good friend. The other posts in this series are The Experience of Pain; Pain in our Culture; Hard-heartedness; and Suffering and Character. Emlet asks the question, “What is your ultimate goal in dealing with chronic pain? Is it to remove pain? Or to redeem pain? Is it to take away pain? Or to transform pain? Or is it a little of both?” On the redemption of pain, I am completely with him. This is exactly what makes un

This post is in response to an article shared with me by a good friend. The other posts in this series are The Experience of Pain; Pain in our Culture; Hard-heartedness; and The Redemption of Pain. Suffering and character Suffering shapes our character, in line with the three responses outlined in the post on hard-heartedness. Suffering may make us hard, as a result of our hardness on ourselves. When we choose this option, we become like the Pharisees, rigid in the face of su

We might be responsible for getting ourselves into a mess, but does that make us ‘responsible’ for getting ourselves out of it? I use quotation marks because ‘responsible’ isn’t quite what I mean here, at least not in its usual meaning. I think what I mean is that people who are in a mess – of any sort – typically lack in and of themselves the means to solely and fully get themselves out of it. Responsible behaviour is necessary but not sufficient (and not always necessary, i

What does it mean for Jesus to give us rest? It is easy to spiritualise his words – that what he means is that we can carry on in our busy lives, and feel at peace within them. It almost seems wrong to suggest that it means anything else. Peace within the storm, not peace without a storm, and all that. God can’t possibly mean actual physical peace, can he? So he must mean spiritual peace; a spiritual overlay of calmness, serenity and tranquillity as the children throw Lego br

The sheep story continues… Note that the traveller represents the recession, the rich man is the wealthy of this country and the poor men are those on benefits or otherwise below the poverty line.  The poor man who may (or may not) have stolen a sheep represents those who may (or may not) be cheats, scroungers or work-shy. Another traveller comes to the rich man for food.  The rich man doesn’t particularly want to feed this man, but knows someone has to.  He doesn’t feel it i

In the Old Testament of the Bible there is a story about King David and an affair he had.  The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a boy.  At this time, a prophet came to David and told him a story, to show him his wrong-doing in taking another man’s wife.  In this story, a rich man with many sheep had to prepare a meal for a traveller.  Instead of taking one of his own sheep, the rich man took a ewe lamb owned by a poor man – the only sheep the man had. David rightly bec

I’ve been talking a lot with my family recently about appropriate responses to suffering. One of the most common responses I’ve come across is “You need to find out what God is trying to teach you through this.”  Sometimes it’s true.  God does discipline us, so it may be that he is encouraging us to address a specific issue in our life.  He may want us to develop perseverance through the testing of our faith.  He may want us to develop character and hope. Sometimes it’s even