Gays, Good Christians and a Great Big God

A Little Background
I've just been reading about the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's decision to "allowing practicing homosexuals, in committed relationships, to hold positions of authority within the denomination" (see here for the original article). This voted decision on Friday 21st August (just last Friday) has caused a huge internet response with blogs and comments as well as an apparent schism within the Lutheran church.

Can't I just take Romans 1 out of the Bible?
It's a toughie - to be honest, I wish I could say that homosexuality wasn't an issue. I sincerely wish that God hadn't written about it. I mean, couldn't we just take Romans 1 out of the Bible? I love people who are homosexual, it doesn't make me feel repugnant. I don't view it as a disease to avoid, just as I don't view liars as someone to avoid (just in case the lying rubs off on me?) After all, Jesus made a point of hanging out with who the religious establishment would view as morally reprehensible. How can we call ourselves "little Christs", and not do likewise? Besides, I think we as the church have a lot to learn about solidarity, unity, acceptance and community from the gay community. When was the last time I was "loud and proud" about my faith?

An Incomplete Church?
I've had friends who have come out and then left the church due to the lack of love they've received (one friend, in particular, I'm thinking of). I could see the pain in his life - that in pursuing what he felt was true for him meant being abandoned by the church (and this should never be - after all, in him leaving the church, did the church in fact become less complete - because we'd just lost a vital limb? - see Romans 12:5). This is the tension I find in being a pastor. I wish that Romans 1:26-27 wasn't in the Bible. Yet it is, and this is something I have to wrestle with. But it is interesting to note that in the same breathe as practicing homosexuals, Paul lists the envious, the slanderers (saying something untrue about someone to harm their reputation), the deceitful, the insolent, the arrogant, the boastful. Hmmm...perhaps it's too easy to point out one sin and underscore it / highlight it / capitalize it, and in doing so miss the rest (plankeye, anyone?).


So You're Not Gay. But Do You Gossip?
Besides, and I'm just thinking here, what if Romans 1:24:-32 is actually a crescendo passage? What if the list is ordered in 'levels' of what breaks God's heart. That is, as you read along, it's actually getting worse. It starts of with homosexual practice but then goes to envy, murder, strife, deceit and... MALICE (you can hear the audience gasp). No wait, but there's more...gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful (someone faints in the audience); they invent ways of doing evil; they... disobey...their...parents (a woman screams); they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. When is the last time you saw a placard saying "God's HATES those who disobey their parents!!"? Or "God hates the insolent"? Do we even blink an eye when we see the banner "God hates fags"?

One Finger Pointing At You. Three Pointing Back At Me
What if we're focusing on the sin of the day, homosexuality, while God is looking at me, at you, asking "Do you hide malice in your heart? Do you gossip? Do you boast about yourself and your achievement? Do you angle conversations so people will praise you? Do you name drop? Do you make sure people know how many hours you work? Do you disobey your parents?" You know, the old "one finger pointing at you; three fingers pointing back at me" scenario.

The Behaviour Has Changed. The Life Has Not.
You see, whenever we, the Church, tries to force the world into behavioural modification (without the prerequisite life change first), I feel God is speaking to each of us and whispering "Yeah, but what about you?". Christ was never about behavioural modification or just 'being good'. In fact, being good, being nice, being lukewarm, makes God want to throw up (see here). Many of the darkest chapters of church history involvde often well-meaning good Christian people going into another culture and forcing values / moral codes on the indigenous people groups. Instead of teaching them about Christ's sacrifice and intense love for them, they clothed them in good, stout clothes to hide their nakedness and made them speak English (Spanish, Portuguese...) - I know I'm irresponsibly simplifying some complicated and nuanced history here - I apologize. But you know what I mean.

What does God want?

Read Amos 5:21-24 (read the whole chapter for context)

But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Our worship is meaningless to Him unless we are being agents of His righteousness and His justice in our world. Why? Because that IS our worship? What would it mean for you or I to stand up for the civil rights of a homosexual colleague who was being poorly treated or a gay friend at school who was being picked on? How the justice would roll! How the righteousness would never fail! THIS is worship!

Absolute Truth And Unconditional Grace
However, God does speak out against practicing homosexuality. Paul, in Romans 1, does deal with sin and the consequences of sin, of that there can be no doubt. It does become difficult when Church-wide theological doctrines and an individuals freedom of choice and freewill collide. After all, we're not just talking about an obscure line written in a dusty book somewhere - we're talking about real relationships, real lives, real love, real people who are attempting to navigate their way through life. And this is one of those cases. God intended for there to be a moral value espoused by the church (and especially it's leadership) even as He intended there to be utter grace and pure love given to each individual in the church and for whom the church exists (i.e. those not yet in the church). After all isn't that what He's shown us?

Inalienable Human Rights For Gays
I would love to see gay relationships have the same legal protection as heterosexual marriages. Does this mean that I espouse the practicing homosexual lifestyle? No. But I believe that their human dignity demands this. After all, forcing a non-Christian gay person to abandon their sexual practices in the name of faith is a huge misuse of power - we cannot legislate morality. Real life change can only come through a saving relationship with Christ (please don't read life change as "becoming un-homosexual" - I know homosexuals for whom attraction to the same sex did not abate after becoming a believer, but that God gave them the grace to live a life of celibacy...even to enter a loving same sex marriage; whilst for others, they struggle with it their whole life, just as others struggle with eating disorders or anger or lust their whole life). Real life is not becoming straight. I know many straight people who are just existing, just scraping through, just living for the weekend, just living for retirement. Sexuality is not the issue here. The Lordship of Christ is the issue here.

The Need To Enter Into Discussion
I do believe that we, the Wesleyan Church, need to be discussing this and issues like this now. Because if it's not an issue now, it will be soon, and we can't wait until the moment of decision to decide. We can't put our hands in front of our eyes and hope the issue will somehow pass us by. For the Lutheran church it already is an issue. Practicing homosexuals can hold places of authority in the Lutheran church. This is how it is. It is a present reality.

What I Do Believe (a disclaimer of sorts)
Finally, I believe in God, I believe Jesus (one person of the Trinity) came to save us and redeem us through His death on the cross after being born miraculously to the virgin Mary. I believe that there is such a thing as moral right and moral wrong and that we, as humans, are incapable of creating a moral rule for ourselves (even though we keep trying). Only God, as Creator, has the right and authority to deem what is acceptable and what is not. Any time we seek to do that, we are exceeding our boundaries as created beings and, in effect, telling God "I know best". I believe that we, as humans, as believers in Jesus Christ, have a fantastic talent for turning away from sound doctrine and, instead, gathering around ourselves a great number of teachers to tell us what we want to hear (see here). We like to invent truth. We like to invent morality. We like to turn away from doctrine and instead embrace what feels good or doesn't make us too uncomfortable. We are a product of post-modernism. What if, instead of trying to interpret scripture to suit our view of God, we allowed scripture to determine our view of God. After all, I think is was CS Lewis who said that if we're worshiping a God we've invented, are we really worshiping God at all? (Horrible paraphrase, but it was something like that).

Sripture Is Clear (1)
God clearly says in scripture that practicing homosexuality in counter to his desire for humanity, for his best plans for us. Just as he said lying is counter to his desire for humanity, and cheating is counter to his desire, and lusting after someone who is not my wife is counter to his desire. I do not understand all the medical science behind homosexuality, and I will not pretend that making Jesus your Lord will simply "make if all go away". Life is messy and God promises to meet us in the midst of our messy lives being lived in a messy world (that's my paraphrase!)

I do believe that there are many gay people who have been hurt by the church (sometimes well-meaning and sometimes being hateful). I do believe that taking a position of "us vs them" is harmful, and that a Christian hating homosexuals or being disgusted by them is doing (sometimes) irreparable damage in the lives of people for whom God is at best merely a distant being, irrelevant and detached (or non-existent) and at worst a malevolent God who is motivated by anger and has it out for the gays (or whoever the "sinners du jour" are).

Scripture Is Clear (2)
God calls us to love unconditionally, just as He loved us unconditionally and gave Himself for us, while we were yet sinners.

You Might Want To Watch This
An interesting DVD you might want to borrow and watch from the library (Ottawa Library) is "One Punk Under God" - a documentary on Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's son, Jay and his church called "Revolution". In episode 2 and 3 the process of deciding whether to accept same-sex unions on the same level and without reservation as heterosexual marriage is discussed. I'd highly recommend it - not because I agree with everything Jay puts forward (in fact I heartily disagree with some things), but because it stimulates honest and debate and it shows in stark reality the decisions with Church leaders are finding themselves having to make. By the way, they do accept same-sex unions in the end. Crap! I just ruined it for you, eh?


Hate The Sin, Love The Sinner
But I totally agree with the statement "it would be lovely to hear instead of "Love the sinner - hate the sin", someone preach "Just Love". Why I agree with this is that many people (including myself) cannot divorce themselves from what they do. After all, gay people don't call themselves "people who engage in homosexual practice"; no, they call themselves "homosexuals". When I'm dealing with my sin, I can't objectively stand outside myself and say "I'm Dan, a sinner saved by grace, who's currently struggling with sin". No, I feel "I'm a worm, I'm useless, I suck...how could I have done this to you again, Lord?". I feel that I am my sin, my failure. Christians make the mistake of thinking that sin can be thought of objectively, outside of the person. But I know experientally that that's not true. So when someone hears the church say "Hate the homosexuality, love the homosexual", all the gay person hears is "Hate...the homosexual" because to a huge extent we are what we do (or at least we feel like that). We view this throwaway statement as an attack on our very humanity (rights and dignity) especially if we don't view our current action as a sin, or we do not have a new identity in Christ, and believe that the church is trying to force us into its moral mold through behaviour modification.

The greatest sin (there I go again, rating sin!) would be for the Church to turn away those who need to hear the message of the gospel, through polemic rhetoric and reactionary bigotry.

Time To Pull Our Heads Out Of The Sand
This isn't a simple issue and it's not one that will go away. But the Church has a responsibility to wrestle with this, to be true to the Bible and to church history, whilst somehow in this crazy balancing act, erring on the side of grace and absolute unconditional love.

Have fun figuring that one out!

Cheers
Dan

God ignited a spark on Sunday

Sundays for me mean leading worship. I recall reading in "Worship Matters" by Bob Kauflin that someone once commented that leading worship week in week out seems boring. And Bob responded that, without God, it would be! That's me at the moment. On a human level, what we're doing doesn't seem to make much sense - gathering, singing, reading a book, praying, sitting, listening.
But when you look deeper, see what's really going on - it's profound. It's about pathetic human beings reaching out to touch the Divine and being touched in return.

Take for example Sunday - we'd sung some songs, prayed for the VBS this week, listened to the message about Christ's forgiveness and reinstatement of Peter in John 21 and then the music band got back up to sing a couple more songs - "From the Inside Out" and "Mighty to Save". During "Inside Out", I noticed some movement going on to my left - Marcia, one of the worship team had stopped singing, overcome with the reality of what she was singing:

"And the cry of my heart is to bring you praise
From the inside out, Lord my soul cries out"

I didn't look over and see, but I remember seeing from the corner of my eye that something was going on. Marcia had put down her mic. We sang the song "Inside out" with passion and a painful desire for God. It was then that the Holy Spirit gave me a prayer to pray. A pray I would not have prayed on my own; a stutter-free prayer of power and truth. It was a prayer focused on the finished work of the cross, and what this means to our day to day lives. When Christ said "It is finished", He meant "It is finished". I prayed the prayer, but the Holy Spirit prayed the prayer to me. I was the utterer of the prayer. I was the recipient of the prayer. God was speaking through me to me (OK, He was speaking to other people too!). Even during the sermon, God had placed a deep desire in my heart for people to get, really get that all that is good about God and all that is broken about us meets at the cross. The cross is the centre, the flashpoint, what it's all about. And then God gave me that prayer.

It's funny how leading public worship can sometimes be an intensely private affair as if it is just "me and God", so sweet and so intense is the experience. There's no need to rush - we just want to linger. I know that public worship is public worship and the entire local church body joins in. Yet so real is the encounter, during times like this past Sunday, that the refrain "Mine, mine, mine, I know Thou art mine. Saviour, dear Saviour, I know Thou are mine" does not seem remiss. It captures the moment. It is US and God. It's also me and God.

It was as if God-touching-Marcia was the spark and then the fire spread in a wave. This isn't about lifting any individual up, but it is about noticing the mystery and wonder of how God moves.

Then, as the cherry on top of the dessert, we were able to finish off with "Mighty to Save" - what powerful lyrics; what a powerful song.

My last observation, and this highlights the grace of God is this: I had had an earthy week - not much time spent in the heavenlies - faced with my weakness and sin, I came in on Sunday more aware of this clay than all your power within, as Paul Oakley puts it in his song "I need you now".

It made me realize that God desires to bless us. Yes, He wants a holy people (yet how much of my holiness is true holiness and how much is legalism...just trying to win God's favour?) Yet God, in His sovereign grace chose to minister to me and through me as He prayed through me and to me.

And I thank Him for that.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Martyn Joseph - music to move me (out of a place called "Complacency")

A worship Pastor tired of worship music?
Sometimes I get so tired of "worship" music. Which may sound odd coming from a worship pastor. But it's true. Sometimes the tired lyrics and worn cliches and Nashville scene make me question when does worship music stop being about the next greatest anthem and start being about God. How do we sing songs about God anyway? How can we sum Him up in a pithy four liner? Obviously we can't. But we try. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. People have been doing it for centuries. We will always try to understand the mystery, to express the inexpressible. That's how God has made us. That's what makes us human.

Some great worship albums
There are some worship leaders who I keep returning to. Eoghan Heaslip is one (I love his albums "Mercy" and "Grace in the Wilderness"); Paul Oakley's "Unafraid" is a powerful stripped back live acoustic with some of the most beautiful lyrics (see Moth to a Flame) - I keep coming back to this album. Delirious? and their earlier acoustic work is often powerful (see Find me in the River or "When All Around Has Fallen", or "I've Searched for Gold"). Matt Redman's "Facedown" album is a keeper. As is Graham Kendrick's "What Grace". But it's rare that listening to worship music moves me in the way that perhaps the author would like it to.

A Grander View
What I've discovered is that I find true worship music in the strangest places. What's the difference between "worship" music and worship music. Just that worship music moves me closer to God. Sure it depends on how I'm feeling, what mood I'm in, but lately I find I go elsewhere other than traditional "worship" albums to encounter God. For example, Taize music, or Sacred Polyphony. My journey even takes me to Icelandic prog-rock artists, Sigur Ros, with the grand sonic landscapes they paint, that somehow bring to mind the greatness of God. Classical music, such as Eric Satie's Gymnopedie or Clair de Lune by Debussy. Gorecki's "Sympony of Sorrowful Songs" moves me (try closing your eyes and listening to this all the way through without crying. )

These songs and many more move me to worship - not in any linear way, but in a way that somehow encompasses me and gets me feeling and experiencing the mystery and beauty of God.

Martyn Joseph
But now to Martyn Joseph - a Welsh singer songwriter who I've seen here in Canada numerous times. He moves me out of a place of complacency. He moves me to remembering that God has placed me on earth to be someone who honours God and to do something to honour God. All without ever saying remotely referring to either of those points. Interesting. I could tell you all about him. Or I could point you to a couple of youtube videos of his. Here. Here. Here. You can also download some free songs from his website here. This is one of the places where I discover worship music.

Cheers
Dan

* Disclaimer - I love modern worship music. I respect worship musicians. I love singing worship music. I just know that worship music is greater and deeper and more than the latest offering from (_______) fill in the blank.

Everyone's slave

"Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

“Accompanying Mother Theresa, as we did, to the Home for the Dying, to the lepers and unwanted children, I found I went through three phases. The first was horror mixed with pity, the second compassion pure and simple, and the third, reaching far beyond compassion something I had never experienced before- an awareness that these dying and derelict men and women, these lepers with stumps instead of hands these unwanted children were not pitiable, repulsive or forlorn, but rather dear and delightful; as it might be, friends of long standing, brothers and sisters.
How is it to be explained—the very heart and mystery of the Christian faith? To soothe those battered old heads, to grasp those poor stumps, to take in one's arms those children consigned to dustbins, because it is his head, as they are his stumps and his children, of whom he said that whosoever received one such child in his name received him.”
- Malcolm Muggeridge.

Something moved in me as I read this: "I make myself a slave to everyone".
Isn't this the battering ram that smashes down the tenuous walls of my so-called rights, my individuality, my self-worth, my self-preservation and every single reason that I create not to reach out in the power of Christ's love to others? Oh, to bend every cell of my being to the purpose of reaching others for Christ; becoming their slaves, letting them own me. Becoming like them. Because that is the only doorway through which I can bring Christ into their lives.
God, break me - make me Your slave, that I might be slaves to all.
Amen.

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

Prayer? Exciting? You off your rocker?

(taken from the Prayer Today website; which I discovered through Winchester Wesleyan Church’s Website)

MOTIVATED BY PLEASURE

When you have had a delightfully delicious meal at an elegant restaurant no one has to twist your arm to get you to go back the second time. No one has to force you, or ask to a second time, to eat a candy bar, or go to the beach, or go on a date with the person you are in love with. You do those things again and again because you enjoyed them. Pleasure motivates us.

YOU DO WHAT YOU ENJOY DOING

Jesus often spent a whole night in prayer to God. At the outset of his ministry he spent forty days and forty nights in prayer. How did he do that? I would fall asleep sometime during the first hour. I know, I’ve tried.

The secret is not in expanding your list of prayer requests to read off to God like a shopping list, nor is it to set a marathon goal of two hours of prayer, or twelve hours of prayer. Extended times with God were possible for Jesus, and for you, when you enjoy those prayer times. You do what you enjoy doing.

HEAVEN - NOT AN EXTENDED WEDNESDAY NIGHT PRAYER MEETING

So, we need to find ways to break the old stereotypes of prayer as long, boring, monologues of never-ending requests to God, about things that we have little or no interest in. If prayer is a taste of heaven, then it should be enjoyable and create a craving in us for more. How horrible if heaven turned out to be an extended Wednesday evening prayer meeting! I think even Jesus would fight to stay awake in one of those sluggish vigils.

HAPPY, ENJOYABLE, INTIMATE
How do you make prayer interesting? Do it God’s way. The Scriptures are filled with examples and admonitions toward prayer, and hardly any of them is an encouragement to spend hours listing prayer requests to God. Part of prayer is certainly asking, but that is not the substance of prayer. Prayer is a relationship to God. That relationship needs to be happy, enjoyable and intimate. Bottom line, prayer should to be enjoy God. The famous Westminster Shorter Catechism answers well the question concerning the chief end of man.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. It is the prime directive! It is the purpose for which we were created. It is what heaven is all about.

JUST STREETS OF GOLD?

If heaven were just mansions and streets of gold then God could have left us here on earth with those amenities. But heaven is where God is. And, as the song says, Where Jesus is, ‘tis heaven there. If we don’t enjoy God’s presence and conversation here on earth, how will we ever endure eternity in heaven?

SMOOTH, RICH, BITTER-SWEET CHOCOLATE DESSERT

What do you delight in? I delight I delight to sit by the sea and watch the waves crashing onto the shore. My wife and I can do that for hours in silent timeless wonder. It’s delightful. I delight in soaking in a hot tub when my back and neck are aching from a long day of hard labor. I delight in a deliciously prepared, well-seasoned meal at a fine restaurant with friends and good conversation, then to finish it off with a smooth, rich bitter sweet chocolate dessert and an expresso coffee.

None of these delights compares to the delight I have found in a day or few days of retreat alone with God. When prayer becomes delightful, extending it is never a problem. (continue reading article here)

To continue reading this excellent article, taken from the Prayer Today website; to take the next step deepening your relationship with God through an exciting life of delightful prayer, click HERE. On the resulting page, just click on "How to pray all day". Also available on this page: "Cross of Prayer" and "How to Pray for an hour". For the original manuscript, taken from www.prayertoday.org, click HERE

May these insights draw you closer to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as together we resist our natural pull towards a dry, boring, unadventurous faith and instead decide to move deeper into a love relationship with our Creator, Saviour, Judge, Friend and Lover.

Cheers

Dan

My Big Fat Greek Wording

I'm speaking at a youth music camp at Silver Lake at the end of the month. So I've been thinking about what to speak on. The passage that came to me is John 4:23-24:

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

I've been meditating on, and investigating the phrase "In Spirit and in truth". And the question that jumped to my mind is "Why choose these two characteristics in particular?" Why not "his worshipers must worship in purity and love" or "holiness and excellence" or "sincerity and passion"? Why "in Spirit and in truth"?

So I've been using resources such as Strong's Concordance, different translations of the Bible and NEXT Bible and looking into the greek words used.

Here's what I discover:
The Greek word for Spirit is pneuma, and according to Strong's, it can mean any of the following: a current of air, i.e. breath (blast) or a breeze; a spirit, i.e. (human) the rational soul, (by implication) vital principle, mental disposition, etc., or (superhuman) an angel, demon, or (divine) God, Christ's spirit, the Holy Spirit:--ghost, life, spirit(-ual, -ually), mind. In short, it can either refer to our Spirit or the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Greek word for truth is aletheia which comes from the word alethes.
Are you still with me? Hold on in there for just a while longer!!! Now, the word alethes comes from two words a (meaning "not") and lanthano meaning to suppress / be ignorant of / be hid.
In short, the word truth refers to "not suppressing / hiding" - i.e. authenticity.

So God is looking for worshipers who are living authentic lives in the power of His Spirit (Spirit and in truth).

Intriguingly, John 16:13 also connects the twin concepts of Spirit and truth as he quotes Christ as saying:
"When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide You into all truth..."

Finally, in my devotions, this morning, the set reading was Galatians 5:16-24.
Here are some excerpts:

"I say then: walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (v16)
"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (v25).

What shows that we are walking in the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit.
"...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (v22-23)
What shows we are not walking in the Spirit? The fruits of the self-life.
"...sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these" (v19-21)

I'm still trying to figure out this John 4:23-24 verse, but at this point, it seems to me that God is actively looking for / seeking / desiring people who will worship Him by being opposed with every ounce of their being to living hidden, secret lives and instead are committed to living authentic, open lives in the power of the Spirit, resulting in a visibly transformed life of which the evidence is clear to all. This seems to me what worshiping in Spirit and in truth means.

• Does your life demonstrate your are walking in the Spirit or in your own power (follow the trail of evidence)?
• Are you living a life of vulnerable, open authenticity? If not, what skeletons are in your closet?
• Do you believe that God is seeking to free you from this?
• Are you willing to ask Him to lead you to freedom, understanding that this half-life of suppressed guilt and slavery to sin is not bringing you joy?
• Feel free to reply to this blog, or to email me at its.dan.wallis@gmail.com
• I've lived under this cloud of guilt, sin and shame for too many years, and there are still times when I go back there for a visit. But I know that God is calling me to a life of liberating authenticity where people know my worst self and love me still, where God knows my worst self and loves me still, and where I begin to see myself as God sees me. I'm not talking about telling everyone your deepest darkest, but finding a fellow believer (or group of Christ-following friends) who are a few steps down the road in their Christian walk from you and with whom you can take the risk to be honest.
  

The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9a)

He's looking for you.

Cheers
Dan

Slo-pitch success

So tonight, I played for my slo-pitch Baseball team (Shipman Surveying) in the North Gower league. I caught the last ball against the other team and we won! I'm still trying to get used to catching the ball in my left hand (which wears the catching glove). The right hand is for throwing. It's pretty counter-intuitive, but one bruised thumb and a number of missed catches later, I'm finally getting used to it. Slo-pitch is also a lot less physical than rugby (which I tried last year...the first time since I was a whippet-fast winger aged 16...which I discovered I am no longer). Our slo-pitch team is pretty cool - I like the hanging out as much as the playing the game. We even have an English cricket boy, Phil, who's pretty darned good with his catches. Howzat!