JC's helper: My wife was wrong...

Monday, November 7, 2011

My wife was wrong...

Just a few photos from my evening bike ride.

I rode down the boat harbour wall to watch Kayakers. Dunedin's new stadium is in the background.

Some guys working late doing a new sign on the exterior of the stadium. Rather them than me in that cage up so high. I saw them there early in the day too.

This road has been blocked for a while but I think people were moving the barriers to suit. The lumps of concrete have been added. I REALLY don't think they want the road used.

I often write about "my" Mount Cargill. Here it is from down at the CBD level. It is on the northern outskirts of Dunedin. It is the lump with the radio tower on it. The second lump to the right is Butters Peak.

I had a good day off today. We went up town for morning tea and did some shopping. I bought a hard drive and a fancy new multifunction power tool. In the afternoon I did some gardening and in the evening went for a bike ride. This is where my wife was wrong. (It happens from time to time ... I don't always tell her when she is wrong.) She said that there was no wind. It is often very calm where we are. Because of this when I was contemplating what I would do for exercise she suggested that I go for a bike ride. I got on my bike but when I got out onto the harbour road I discovered I had a stiff tail wind which meant a head wind on the way home. I usually don't enjoy pushing into a wind on the return journey when you are already tired, but tonight I did enjoy getting out on my bike. Because I filled my day up with shopping, digging and biking I have not thought much about work, it has been a good switched off day. I had a phone call around lunch hour which I had to respond to and as part of that the lady wanted me to name a time when she and I could get together this week. I said I would email her my diary. I got to thinking about the week ahead. I am going to struggle to find time to fit her in! I thought my week was easier this week? I'll have to rob Peter to pay Paul again. I looked for an evening when I could do some more digging or climb my mountain. I discovered I am out for four of the next five nights. It is a full on life I lead. We have had three phone calls today from people booking in for our Christmas day community dinner. We also had one from a person wanting to volunteer. The silly season has started for us, but I will enjoy it. It will be our 23rd Community Christmas Day Dinner.

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The Blog's title

I am a Workplace Chaplain to the NZ fireservice.

At the firestation every time one man sees me he yells, "Here comes JC's helper!". I guess I am happy to be called just that... "Jesus' helper". I am a follower of Jesus.
A a quote from Dave Andrews in his book, "Not Religion but Love".
"Being a devotee of Jesus is not a matter of subscribing to a certain set of dogmas, obeying rules and regulations, and getting others to subordinate themselves to them.

The essence of being a devotee of Jesus is to live in sympathy with God as Jesus did; feeling the throb of God's heartbeat, and teaching our hearts to learn to beat in sync with the love that sustains the universe.

It means developing our capacity to sense intuitively what causes love pleasure, and what causes love pain, and doing everything we can to enhance the pleasure, and diminish the pain."

I love this charter.

The Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.