What a ride...

I made it!

I had a busy week with very full days, but I managed to get through virtually everything I had to do. As I look back on the week I celebrate that.

The world a safer place? Really?

So the Americans got Osama bin Laden. I guess he had it coming. I appreciated that they did not wipe out whole towns doing it. I also appreciate the American feeling on this. My country has not had 3000 people killed by an act of terrorism. But there are a few things that trouble me.

• I felt sick about the celebrations that went on. While he was a bad and deranged man, he was still a human being and that makes him my brother. If he had to be killed we should be sad about the necessity and the whole mess this world has got itself into. If you must, be pleased that a job has been done but be sad that we intelligent human beings get ourselves so twisted that nations and people's hate each other that much.
• Secondly, our intelligent Prime Minister, John Key says in reaction to the news of Osama's death, "The world will be a safer place." .... beep ... wrong... ultimately violence begets violence and does not bring peace. Already there have been deaths of innocent people in response to the killing. Killing Osama bin Laden could have just have been like when a horse was tied next to my bee hive... the bees were stirred up and went wild.
• As I was walking the hills yesterday I had this vision from my childhood of gangs of kids in a play ground. One gang has someone they want to avenge. They do so, then the next gang wants pay back. I recall gangs of kids roaming the playground and indeed the streets around the school on this endless battle.... until... the school principal lined us up and in no uncertain terms told us to stop being childish.... why do adults play the same game with horrendous consequences? We may be able to rationalise war and endless fighting, but when are we going to learn that Dr Martin Luther King was right when he said that "Love is the only power that can turn enemies into friends". Jesus looked out on Jerusalem and wept saying something like; "When will you learn the ways of peace?" ... lets spend as much effort and money on peace as we do on war.

Married 42 years.

On Tuesday at about 8 p.m. we finally got to celebrate our 42nd Wedding anniversary with a meal out. You get all nostalgic at such times. I feel like I am only in my 40's & 50's most of the time, so I find it hard to believe we have been married that long. As I look back it has been an interesting ride. For eighteen months she was a teacher and I was a plumber... even then we took into our house an alcoholic who ended up taking his own life. Then I began training for ministry and became a University Student, and we became parents. We traveled to Melbourne and studied for four years. We had student ministries while we studied, life was exceptionally busy with preaching, visiting, Sunday School, youth groups on top of very full weeks of study, and another child. We graduated and had a 6 year ministry at Palmerston North. Adopting two mixed race babies was a new experience. (I read a Readers Digest paragraph about a lady who adopted a child then became pregnant and had another. She was asked by a visitor once which one was "hers". "They both are." she replied. The nosy friend said, "No - which one did you adopt?" Without missing a beat the mother said, "You know I have completely forgotten." It was and is like that for us.) We lived for two years in a caravan visiting Churches. We lived in a country village and had a half time ministry for a year. I worked on farms, a shearing gang, we milked goats and grew veges. I worked outside of ministry for two years, when we had a failed "retreat" project and lost a friendship. We have spent something like 22 years in ministry in Dunedin. We fostered a severely handicapped child who really is "our daughter", just like the rest. We have done things like Christmas Dinners, coaching school boy cricket, Adult Literacy, a Drop-in centre, a regular family program, Habitat for Humanity, Industrial chaplaincy, tramping trips, half-marathons, social work and counselling studies, teachers aiding, involvement in St John and all sorts of projects and experiences in between. We have met hordes of interesting people. It has been very challenging almost all of the time. We have found ourselves in situations that we would never have thought possible. We have been stretched to the limit very often. If you have read much on this blog site you know some of the inner battles I have. We have been shown an incredible amount of kindness along the way. Family-wise you worry about your kids, you have ups and downs but we have a family who care about each other and enjoy opportunities to be together. We have never been and never will be rich. Looking back it has been 42 years of traveling with Jesus. Our life has been really rich with meaning, heaps of variety, lots of fulfillment, personal growth and mind and spirit stretching experiences. Today's lectionary Bible reading I preached on was John 10: 1 - 10. It ends with Jesus saying; "I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly." As I look back over the last 42 years, that's how I would describe our life..... If I die tomorrow I could say I have had, by the grace of God, "Life abundant!" ... it has been one hell of a ride!

Exercise: A sad tale... not much exercise and I have put on weight. Yesterday I walked for two hours forty minutes onto Swampy Summit ... a great time. Today I rode my bike into town, walked with my running friend who has a messed up knee, and rode home again.(22k) A good time.... riding home with a strong tail wind and rain chasing me was a good blast.

Photos: Some from my walk yesterday. The top of Flagstaff. Looking at the city as the sun sets and looking back on the track I walked up.... which is what I have done mostly in this post.