We're ready to stun Barca...

...according to Steven Gerrard, as quoted in the sports headline of the Liverpool Echo earlier today. Man was he right! Playing Barcelona in their Nou Camp stadium is a big deal, current champions of Europe, favourites to hold on to the title and supposedly the best team in the world. But what does all that matter to the mighty Reds! Gutted that I wasn't able to get to see the game and had to be content with listening on the radio. Barca scored an early goal and it sounded like they then battered us for the rest of the first half, until 2 mins before 1/2 time when Bellamy equalised. 2nd half sounded like we were very organised and just didn't give them a look in, and actually missed a few chances ourselves before Riise scored the winner. Both our goals were supposedly helped by poor keeping / defending - BUT WHO CARES!! Typical that the goals were scored by Bellamy and Riise - the 2 players at the centre of last weeks stupid headlines.

"A quite sensational result" according to the BBC website, "one of the most stunning results in their proud European history" says the official LFC website, "a famous win...in most impressive fashion" according to Sky Sports. One very happy Liverpool fan sitting here - just hope we don't implode and get stuffed back at Anfield in the 2nd leg in a couple of weeks!

Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith

Great book all about how boring we have a tendency to make our Christian faith seem, and the need to recapture the adventure and excitement of a childlike faith. Very readable, lots of very perceptive and challengingly true comments etc., and various quotes might well appear on this blog from time to time. At the start of each chapter he quotes short verses / poems / stories etc. that he picked up from elsehere. Let me share this one with you:

Life is tough. It takes up much of your time, all your weekends, and what do you get in the end of it? I think that the life cyle is backward. You should die first, get that out of the way. Then you live twenty years in an old-age home. You get kicked out when you're too young. You get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You go to college; you party until you're ready for high school; you go to grade school; you become a little kid; you play. You have no responsibilities. You become a little baby; you go back into the womb; you spend your last nine months floating; and you finish up as a gleam in somebody's eye.

Sounds good to me!

Life's struggle...

Following words were shared with us at morning prayer earlier today:

Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world rather than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me.

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Piercingly true words - I feel like this guy knows me!

I'm the man! I've got it sorted, my priorities are right...

...according to a guy who shook me profusely by the hand as I stood with a glass of beer watching the last 1/2 hour of the England v Scotland game on the opening day of this years 6 nations rugby.

This was something else that I meant to post a comment on last week and never got round to it with everything else that was going on. But what happened was that while the 1st 2 matches - Italy v France and then England v Scotland were being played Lisa and I were on the Eurostar travelling to Bruges. When I realised at Bruges station that I was still in time to see some of the England game I was very keen to get straight to somewhere showing it, before going on to check in at our hotel, and Lisa very graciously agreed. So a taxi driver dropped us suitcase and all, at the 'Irish' pub pictured below, and in we went to a pub full of folk shouting at the TV - all English and Scottish accents, not another language to be heard. Anyway, dumped our bags, went to the bar to get a drink, and then the next thing I knew this English guy was shaking me by the hand and paying me the above compliments. Why? Because I had just arrived somewhere and gone straight out on the 'lash' without even going to our hotel first! He seemed seriously impressed. Ever wonder where the stereotypical images of 'Brits' and maybe especially 'Brits abroad' come from?!!!!! I had only gone there like that because of the rugby - honest!!

My week...

Sat here feeling a sense of relief at having got today over with! This last week has been a bit of a blur - in fact I can't believe it was only this time last week that Lisa and I were travelling back from Bruges. Since getting back last Monday night I've finished an essay on the theology of baptism; done some reading and prepared an essay plan on what Paul means by 'righteousness of God' in Romans; prepared and preached a sermon at one of my attachment church's for a 9.30am service on Sunday, as well as preparing and leading all of a more informal service at my other church at 11am on Sunday - both on the one Sunday as the vicar is away for 1/2 term; attended various lectures and done bits of reading for them; and then today had supervisions based on the theology of baptism and righteousness of God work, as well as a pastoral seminar for which I had to read someone elses essay and give feedback to them about it. Busy few days - hence the lack of much meaningful entry on this blog!

Amidst all the busyness though I did take a few mins out last week to enjoy Ridley in the snow:

and also at the weekend to watch the England v Italy and Ireland v France 6 nations rugby matches. Not much to say about the England game really - victory as expected, but a bit of a 'nothing' game and performance, very uninspiring stuff. Kind of expected that really, after all the silly media hype after the Scotland game the week before - why do things get built up so quickly on the back of 1 game? Anyway, the Ireland game was a different matter altogether - what a match! Lisa and I were so gutted when France nicked it with that try at the end, but on what I've seen so far Ireland and France are head and shoulders above the other 4 teams this year. Still not convinced that anyone can really challenge the All Blacks for the World Cup later this year though. In other sport - great victory for England in the cricket one dayers down under, especially after the awful time they had been having. The less said about football, and especially Liverpool the better!

With the lack of time over the last few days, not had a chance to say about our weekend away in Bruges. Really enjoyed it - beautiful city and well worth a visit, and getting there via the Eurostar from London to Brussels was so easy. Burnt a lot of sole rubber wandering round the city and its sites, enjoyed a boat trip on the canals, enjoyed a tour of a brewery and drank some very good Belgian beer, had a couple of really nice meals out, bought some good Belgian chocolate and beer home with us, and stayed in a really nice hotel. Great time! See a few of my photo's below:

A church in trouble...

For anyone who is wondering, this is for real - I took the photo myself! Worrying isn't it? Not the sort of message I want to see in church doors!

Men's rest rooms...

Carrying on the cribbing from others, I came across this from the Ship of Fools website via Simon's blog. Made me laugh so much I had to crib it! It's a sign that was placed on the wall of a mens toilet at a church in America:

Now, after that slight distraction back to my essay on the theology of baptism! Very busy at moment - but very much looking forward to a short break in Bruges at the weekend.

What does it mean to be British?

An interesting quote someone told me they heard on radio 4 recently:

It's to drive a German car to an Irish pub then have a Belgian beer after which one would have an Indian curry or a Turkish Kebab. Then go home and sit on Swedish furniture watching American tv programs on a Japanese made television.

and yet the same programme also said:

The worst thing the British fear = anything foreign.

Spot a slight contradiction?!! What a mixed up (or messed up?) society we live in. Why do people fear diversity? I'm all for all of the stuff in the first quote! Slightly simplistic take on a complex issue, but as a basic principle I want to be part of a society that embraces and enjoys variety and diversity, not one that is scared and suspicious of it.