When you drive up the M6 the signs eventually start to say NORTH.  I’ve always wondered where that place is because the end of the M6 is Scotland but if you keep going long enough you get to what might actually be the place signposted as NORTH… Thurso.

We have just returned from visiting NORTH for the first time and it’s an amazing place.

The landscape is bleak, battered by wind and weather.  It’s a truly wild place.  And it is beautiful.

This is the beach at Strathy, just along the coast from Thurso, past Dounreay.  It was stunning in the rain and the wind so it’s hard to imagine just how amazing it looks in the sunshine.

We spent a weekend with some of the warmest people we have met.  Saturday was spent having interesting conversations with people who really care about their church and the children in and around it and Church on Sunday was full of fun and laughter and chocolate.

If you ever get the chance follow the signs and head NORTH.  You won’t regret it.

David’s training for the London Marathon is going really well. 

Last weekend he ran 20 miles.  To make the run a bit more interesting he ran past the three major stadiums in Glasgow, Celtic Park, Ibrox and Hampden… starting from Hamilton!

You can keep up to date with his progress and find out more about Kidney Research UK and his reasons for running on his blog or follow @bigpapi34 on Twitter.

He’s raised £503 already but needs your help to reach his target of £1,500.

You can sponsor him through the JustGiving link on his blog.  Don’t forget to Gift Aid your donation if you are a UK taxpayer!

Today I was at a meeting.  This was the view.  I sat with my back to this all day.

It’s Loch Lomond from Ross Priory.

UP is a brilliant film.  It’s funny, touching and insightful.

Carl floats off in his house to avoid being sent to live in a nursing home.  He promised his late wife that they would live at Paradise Falls and he tries so hard to make that happen.

What he doesn’t see along the way is that things change.  His responsibilities change.  His context changes.  But his outlook doesn’t.

He made a promise.  He has a goal and he’s going to reach it, no matter what!

There comes a point that Carl realises that he is literally tied to his past and that it is time to let it go.  By letting the house go he isn’t letting go of his love or his memories or his past.  It’s just a house.

It’s not hard to see why Carl wants to keep his house.  It’s full of memories of his wife whom he loved dearly.

It made me think of how much we all have problems with change, especially when it means letting go of the things that remind us most of the people and times that have been so special to us.

But things aren’t the memories.  They aren’t the people or the relationships we cherrished.  They are just things.

Sometimes we can only move on to a new adventure when we let them go.  But that’s hard.

My step-son David is running his first marathon this April in London.  He’s running in aid of kidney research and it would be brilliant if you could sponsor him.

David has set himself two targets: run the marathon in under 4 hours and raise over £1,500.

You can follow his training on his blog, Dave Online, and sponsor him via the blog too.  Remember to gift aid your donation if you are a UK tax payer!  He’s also on @bigpapi34 on Twitter

Tomorrow he’ll run nearly 18 miles, his longest training run yet.

You can find out more about Kidney Research UK.

Last night I was at an open evening at my kid’s primary school.  Their work was on display and I was finding out what the ‘not much’ and ‘nothing’ they do all day is.

Two things struck me.  The first that there seems to be little room for initiative.  I mean real initiative beyond using a  different colour for something.  Castles, islands, knights, maps… all slightly different but essentially the same.

You get good marks for meeting the set criteria.

Seth Godin talks about this:

Compliance is simple to measure, simple to test for and simple to teach. Punish non-compliance, reward obedience and repeat.

Initiative is very difficult to teach to 28 students in a quiet classroom. It’s difficult to brag about in a school board meeting. And it’s a huge pain in the neck to do reliably.

Schools like teaching compliance. They’re pretty good at it.

On the wall in each class was a chart asking parents the elements they think should be present to make the school a successful learning environment.

It was an interesting list and I wish I had taken a quick photo of it.  Coherent curriculum, rewarding success, respect, justice….

and also creativity, transferring skills, initiative…

I put my stars there.  But I was almost the only one.  Most parents preferred compliance.

I wonder if church is the same?

‘That’s not how we do that’  ‘That’s so-and-so’s job’  ‘We tried that once and it didn’t work’  ‘This is what the parable means’

Are we teaching compliance?  It is easier after all.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me birthday wishes today.

The web makes these kinds of greetings much easier and I really appreciate you taking the time to write on my wall on facebook, tweet me a message or even send one of those old fashioned card things.

It made me think about how we keep in touch with people.  How nice it is to feel that someone cares.

I wonder if we do that enough in our church communities?

I hope so but today has reminded me how a short message can make such a big difference.

Thank you.

Seth Godin is shocked.

I was talking to a religious leader, someone who runs a congregation. She made it clear to me that on many days, it’s just a job. A job like any other, you show up, you go through the motions, you get paid.

I guess we find this disturbing because spiritual work should be real, not faked.

I was interested in his perception of religious work because his remarks seem to focus totally on the ’spiritual’ and not on the ‘work’.

I’m reading Seth’s new book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? where he seems to be suggesting that with hard work we can all become the kind of people who create and add value.  He says that we can’t and won’t be a creative genius all day but that the 5 minutes that we are makes a huge difference.  Why should ministry be different?

In his brilliant book Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith Mike Yaconelli tell a story of a preacher he met who was counting the days to retirement, like counting telegraph poles along a long road.  This minister was fed up, tired, drained and burned out.

I’ve met many people who feel like that some days.  I’ve felt like that.  Often.

Spiritual work is hard word.  Some days it feels very much like work, mostly because it IS spiritual work and you feel the pressure to inspire people, to lead and to bring them into the presence of God.

Some days you turn up and go through the motions because it’s work… and we are human.

I love when you hear a lyric in a song as though you are hearing it for the first time.

I was walking to a meeting this morning with my iPod on shuffle when an Editors song came on.  For me that’s always a good thing.  The song was Smokers Outside The Hospital from their An End Has A Start album.  It’s a great song which I’ve listened to many times but a line stood out this morning:

“I can’t believe you if I can’t hear you.”

Maybe it’s because I’ve been thinking about communication over the past few days but I noticed the line in a way I never have before, maybe it’s because I wasn’t thinking about anything else than the song or maybe it was something else but today I heard it.

It fired all kinds of thoughts about evangelism in all it’s forms and how and when we hear things.  I often wonder not just how we tell the Good News but about who we tell it to and where.

‘I can’t believe you if I can’t hear you‘ seems to say something about the need for us to tell in a number of ways and in places that people will hear but perhaps it also says something about how and when we listen.

I’ve listened to that song 16 times according to iTunes but I’ve never heard those lyrics until today.  Today, for whatever reason, I was ready to hear.

Didn’t Jesus say something about letting those who have ears hear?  What are you saying and is anyone listening?  And more importantly, do they hear you?

Photo: Rob GT

The Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Committee are hosting a day looking at ‘Virtualisation & Society in Edinburgh on Thursday 21 January from 10am – 4pm.  The day is FREE.  To book your place email vcano [at] cofscotland [dot] org [dot] uk.

topics:

• How has virtualisation impacted on notions of identity?
• How has virtualisation impacted on our values as human beings?
• How has increased connectivity impacted on the nature of our organisations?
• How has increased connectivity and virtualisation impacted on our ability to develop meaningful communities?
• Is a regulatory framework desirable?
• What are the theological implications of the changes being brought to individuals, to society and to organisations by increased connectivity and virtualisation?

Speakers:

• Prof. John Eldridge. University of Glasgow. Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Prof. Phillip Schlesinger. Professor in Cultural Policy. Institute of Cross Cultural Studies. University of Glasgow.
• Dr. Heidi Campbell. Texas A&M University. Department of Communication.
• David Pullinger. Head of Digital Policy. COI.
• Prof. Michael Northcott. University of Edinburgh. New College.

Come and say Hi! if you’re going.