Connectedness or Autonomy? From Should to Could
The right of each individual to be astonishing, amazing, independent and – well, individual – has never been more firmly asserted than now. You see it in the shift in our vocabulary. It wasn’t that long ago when people would seriously ask what they “should” do. There was a reasonable community consensus of what constituted the good and moral life, and with that consensus, there was some pressure to conform and to do the things we “should” do. Today we are more interested in all the things we “could” do – and tend to get irritated...
Read MoreRefresh: 7 Signs of a Healthy Relationship
This refresh post from 22 July 2021 explores the ever pertinent question of what signs we can look for to indicate we are in a healthy relationship. Of course, if the signs aren’t there, we can move into the “what can we do about this?” territory. Hope it’s helpful… 7 Signs of a Healthy Relationship I’ve been asked the question often enough, “How can we be sure our love will last? How can we know if our relationship is more than infatuation?” Many decades ago I was helped to explore the question by Anthony Kosnik’s (ed) work Human Sexuality: New Directions...
Read MoreWhy we need confident humility and humble confidence
It seems counter-intuitive to say we need confident humility or humble confidence, but bear with me. It’s not as absurd as it may sound, and there is more than enough research to confirm that the best leaders are confident and inspire confidence when they are also personally humble. Why are both needed, and does it matter? The word humble has it’s roots in the Latin word humus, or “earth”. To be humble is therefore to be from the earth or down to earth. It helps us to understand the beatitude “blessed are the meek (or humble) for they will inherit the...
Read MoreRefresh: On Being a Progressive Conservative, or a Conservative Progressive
This post originally appeared on 30 June 2021, but given how rapidly Christianity is dividing into different tribes, and how hostile the interchange between them is becoming, it strikes me as being more important that ever. Hope you enjoy the read, regardless of where you are in the range… On Being a Progressive Conservative or a Conservative Progressive Is the world so simple that we can quickly attach a valid label to everyone? We often act as though it is – or certainly we do in the world of theology, where we try to separate between those who are theologically conservative and...
Read MoreBecause regret should be a signpost, not a home…
Some of you have asked how my 30 Proverbs Challenge is going. Others have asked what my next book will be. The answer overlaps in that I hope the 30 Proverbs Challenge (a proverb a day for a month providing wisdom for faith, flourishing, family, fortune and the future) will be my next book. I’m working on several key sayings at the moment, some of which readers of this blog have sent me, so my thanks to them. Today’s proverb gives a little taster of what I’m thinking about. Proverb: Regret should be a signpost, not a home. Most of us live with some regrets. There are challenges we backed out...
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