musings on ministry
I was delighted to be invited to speak at the Spiritual Care Forum today. Here’s what I said…. Good morning. Thank you so much for the invitation to speak here today. I’m going to talk a bit about why spiritual care is important to me and what it looks like in my community. My first Read More …
There’s a reason I’ve been writing about optimism. Optimists are more motivated to succeed and are therefore more likely achieve something than someone with a more pessimistic outlook. Makes sense, doesn’t it? That’s the kind of statement that we think is pretty obviously true and you’re not alone if that’s what you think. Most people Read More …
“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.” Viktor Frankl I struggle with the idea that I can choose how to respond. My immediate responses are emotional. When something happens or is said I feel it… physically. My first Read More …
I run. At least sometimes I run. One of the tricks I’ve discovered is that you can convince yourself of things when you run, especially over a longer distance where the end seems very far away. I can run for 1km. At the end of that 1km I can tell myself the same thing. I Read More …
I wonder if optimism isn’t particularly helpful at times like these in the church? I’m not for a moment suggesting that pessimism is the appropriate stance either, but I was struck by discovering ‘The Stockdale Paradox’. (You can read more about it here… ) The basic premise of the Stockdale Paradox is that optimism is Read More …