Parachute ‘06

Well, Parachute is over and I have to say it was unquestionably fantastic. There are many highlights to a music festival but for some peculiar reason the ‘music’ was not necessarily ‘the’ highlight that you would normally expect…Yet again, the power of astonishing people had to be the most valuable part of the weekend.

I am someone who would define himself as being typically a natural recluse. I’m the kind of guy who seems to instinctively shrink into himself, a natural born loner. However, through some divinely inspired machination of God’s will, over the weekend I was constantly finding myself in the presence of radically cool people.

Although at a festival of something around twenty-five thousand one would expect to find a sample of all kinds of cool new people, I was amazed that these radically cool people, that I couldn’t seem to ever lose, were all people that I already knew. Even when I was able to ‘get away’ from one of them, no sooner had I parted ways than I felt a hand on my shoulder or a bottle land on my head, or some arms link around my stomach and squeeze me tightly. There was someone to jump around and dance with at mumsdollar and reuben morgan, someone to discuss theological stuff with around the tent, someone to sit back and groove to some jazz with and someone to just simply watch, listen and make me smile. There was a little bit of everything that I needed.

Finally having some time to sit in that alone space I found myself curiously not so alone. I am always looking for where God is directing me and I have found that wherever I find him has tended to be where he wants me. I found him today, not in any one person or anything or any place, but in everyone… James, Chris, Casey, Jono, Jacob, Rosanna, Rachel, Alex, Alana, Darren, Jared, Mark, Strahan, Emma, Graham, Catherine, Jo, Tash, Cairin, Greg, Carmel, Leah, and Claire…just to name a few

They reminded me that God is with me always and forever. How can I ever be alone, if God resides in my heart?

My top Parachute Bands for 2006:
Delirious are amazing. And Reuben Morgan rocks my world.

Re: Messy Desk

Following today, my desk is also a lot cleaner.

Today...

I kneel at the cross
My body is broken
The Saviour is there
No word to be spoken

Freedom is mine
Grace freely given
I soar with my Saviour
Redeemed and forgiven.

Messy Desk

I’ve recently been trying to process some of the thoughts that have been piling on the small desk that makes up my mind. It is just like my messy desk, with its cluttered drawers and piles of paper and books meters high. I used to know where everything was in my desk, but there is just too much for me to handle on my own.

I have forgotten what most of it is all about but the thoughts on the top of my desk are all well known to me...thoughts that haunt my dreams, fuel my desires and plague me with guilt.

The problem with these thoughts is that they are blocking the valuable ideas buried beneath them. Ideas the God has inspired in me to help others come to know him better, ideas that will help me know him better. If only there was some way to put those thoughts into a box, and lock them away…

Your statutes are wonderful;
therefore I obey them.
The unfolding of your words gives light;
it gives understanding to the simple.
longing for your commands.
Turn to me and have mercy on me,
as you always do to those who love your name.
Direct my footsteps according to your word;
let no sin rule over me.
Redeem me from the oppression of men,
that I may obey your precepts.
Make your face shine upon your servant
and teach me your decrees.
Streams of tears flow from my eyes,
for your law is not obeyed.

Psalms 119: 129-136

5 months later and oh so much the wiser...pfffff

I certainly have found re-reading over earlier blogs of the first year of my university life quite an interesting revelation into who I am and what I have become over the year. For the simple reasoning of self-discovery I have decided that it is important for me to continue recording my thoughts as I develop in my relationship with others and with God.

I assume by now that even the most avid visitor to my little journal will now have been detered by 5 months of silence, but I guess that means I am a little closer to where I started and can allow people to discover it in time.

From now onwards, the primary purpose of this journal is not for you, the reader, but more intently for me, the writer. As I have already stated, this will be my physical outlet of thought so that I can more readily process ideas and come to more substantial outcomes. However I certainly do hope that others may find something in it that may inspire them to think about and idea or ideal that is relevant to them. I know there are many more wise and intelligent thinkers out there who may also be able to contribute to my thought processes and I welcome you to do so.