Tag Archives: Mission

Jesus Christ Superstar

Posted in Life, Practicing What I Preach by

Jesus Christ SuperstarI’m not sure that if Jesus had started his ministry today I would have followed… and it worries me.  I would like to think I would, but I am just not sure… in fact I am a little worried I would have been just another Pharisee blinded by religion… Don’t get me wrong I haven’t changed my beliefs at all, I am still a Christian and that hasn’t changed, but a few weeks ago, when Dave and I saw Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar I was really challenged about how Jesus would appear, behave and move people if he had come now, rather than 2000 years ago and I actually found it really scary.

This particular version was a re-imagined or updated version of the musical, set now, and it was confronting.  The 12 disciples and Jesus were portrayed as working class revolutionaries… their slogan was ‘Follow the 12’ and the they looked almost like the ‘occupy movements’, they were different, radical and in some ways extreme.  The thing is I am a rule follower, a go with the flow kind of person, someone who does the right thing because that’s what you are supposed to do… even when breaking the rule won’t hurt anyone… it’s just the way I am wired.  I figure that rules are there for a reason, so I follow them, some people think that’s a bit boring and it probably is, but that’s ok… I like the order and clear boundaries it gives me.

Often when I watch the news, from my relatively comfortable position in life, I see things like the occupy protestors and understand their motives, but wonder if creating a tent city and fighting people is the best way to go… I often dismiss passionate protestors as crazy and go about my business with out much thought.  Now I don’t think Jesus would have been a law breaker… or fighter… most of the time, his teachings are about love for God and love for each other… but I can see why Llyod Webber has made this link… they are counter cultural, not letting the powers of the world dictate the way of the world.  Now in the musical, Jesus didn’t damage property or people, he was the same as I imagine in bible times, doing his father’s work where ever he went, changing lives, and healing the hurting, but he was peaceful.  But when I think about social movements of today, even great social movements like fair trade and anti-traffiking my response is at best underwhelming.  I am happy for these things to change, but I am not passionately seeking out ways to make it happen… just passively waiting for it to happen without me…  and it makes me wonder if it were Jesus, would I just ride him off as a loony?  Wait passively for the him to change the world around me? Or be annoyed because he was rocking the boat I was quite happy traveling in.

To be honest I am actually glad that I was born now rather than back when Jesus was around… and that even though I know Jesus is coming back, I already know and believe in him… and I would like to think that by his grace I would recognise him when he comes… I don’t have to um and ahh about whether or not he is the real deal because I already know that to be true… but it also challenges me to think about how Christlike my life actually is?  Am I still more of a Pharisee with my rules and regulations, or am I open to change when it is in love and equality… I don’t know… but it’s got me thinking.

Um… I’m an Adult…

Posted in Exercise, Faith, Life, Top 10 by

I know I have mentioned this a few times now, but it turns out I am an adult, despite the fact that it’s been this way for longer than I would like I am still not sure when it happened, or what on earth I am supposed to be doing about it.  I have realised lately that I tend to have a ‘wait and then’ or an ‘after that’ idea about adult things, which probably isn’t helpful.  What I mean by that is I think I am in denial, so instead of just embracing life for what it is, I am waiting for things to happen or change until I start something or try something, you know, waiting for the perfect timing, perfect conditions or perfect situation.  I make plans like after I get married I will… or when I have a full time job I will, or once I am feeling a little more settled I will… and I am slowly learning that this perfect timing, is never going to be here.  Maybe I will never fully feel settled until I start doing some of this stuff, and the more I put things of the harder they seem to obtain.

I am beginning to think that maybe this is what being an adult is actually about… Learning to make do with some times less than perfect situations and embracing life whether it’s ready or not… taking the risk.  The thing is I have always been a procrastinator, especially in big decisions and I tend to panic about whether or not I am making the right choice, the perfect choice, the best choice… but so often I hear people say just take a risk, what’s the worst that could happen, well let me tell you I can come up with a lot of worst case scenarios, but perhaps there is room for both.  I don’t think I am supposed to be waiting my life away, only making decisions I am 100% sure about, but at the same time I don’t want to be making crazy irrational choices, I think there has to be a balance, but I also definitely think that I need to start just doing things, getting into it and turning my life into what I want it to be rather than just waiting till it all falls in place… which let’s face it is never going to happen.

I know in the future, perhaps not so distant any more, there will be lots of crazy situations and decisions to make… like where to buy a house, how we save to buy a house, when to start a family, what we teach our family, where I go with my career?  These are all questions that frighten the pants off me, but they are all things that eventually I will have to face.  But I think for now I will just start with a few things to make me and my marriage better… small, probably not that risky decisions that I just need to embrace and run with… just start doing, no questions and no excuses, before I miss my chance and regret it.

Luckily for me lots of people want to do this too… and recently with the help of wordpress’ ‘freshly pressed’ blogs I have come across a few handy hints to get me started in particular a blog by Tom Basson called “16 Tips to Simplify Your Life (and Increase Your Productivity)”and a blog by Palm Trees & Bare Feet called  “my listy list 5 ways to enhance night time and morning wake up” check them out… So below is a list of a few things that I am going to start with today to help me get organised, stop me wasting my time and helping me to a better version of me.  A better friend, a better wife, a better Christian and a better human.  I am listing them as statements, promises to myself and you I guess, that way they are no longer just suggestions… but hopefully reality…. Are you ready, I’m not but here it is anyway:

1.  I will turn off all technology 60minutes before I go to bed… this one is huge for me but I am addicted to my iphone, the television, my computer, music and all things technological, so I have to give myself some boundaries.  I am going back to the old school alarm clock because I actually don’t need my phone next to my bed all night…and just in case there is an emergency, please call our landline or Dave…  This leads me nicely to number 2…

2.  This one is straight from Palm Trees & Bare feet… I will get up in the morning like I’m ripping of a bandaid… I hate getting up in the morning, I love my bed and I love just lying there being cosy… but no longer… on Weekdays… when the alarm goes off I get up… no questions, no grumbling… just up.

3.  I will Plan my week top to toe so that I can be organised and get everything I need to done… including time to rest.  Over the years I have wasted a lot of money on tables and stationary designed to help me be organised so it’s time to dust it off and use it.

4.  I will exercise at least once a week, I know it doesn’t seem like a challenge, but I have 100 excuses as to why I can’t, I’m tired, the weathers bad, I’m busy… too bad so sad… I will do it anyway

5. I will eat one sit down meal with my husband each week… again it doesn’t seem like a challenge but it’s surprising how little we see of each other most weeks… so I am making it a priority.

6. I will do my devotions at least twice a week… seriously these last three seem like they should be easy, but they aren’t they are hard, because they are easy to push aside… so its time to make this a priority too… I would like to think that I would actually do this more often than twice, but I am constantly telling my clients to make SMART goals, specific, measurable, achievable,  realistic and timely, so its about time I started doing it myself, setting goals I can actually achieve, rather than pie in the sky dreams that I will just be disappointed I can’t reach.

So there you go, that’s my list for now…. I might even give them their own page so I can keep you updated about how I am going, but with or with out their extra page… I am doing adult things, making decisions and setting goals… look at me go… I am unstoppable.

It’s Time…

Posted in Exercise, Family, Life by

It’s time for me to get my butt back into gear, to get my exercise on… seriously, its time…

Now for those of you that know me, will know that I am not very co-ordinated and that I have a weakness for food, and these things have often gotten in the way of me keeping fit, but a little while ago, somehow I managed to break this cycle… granted I had the massive incentive of my wedding, but it worked and I lost a lot of weight and got a lot fitter and healthier, and I think, although it sounds corny… I was happier.  I was proud of my achievements, and while I still wasn’t supermodel material I had come a long way… but the wedding is over… and now the incentive is gone… well not all of it, but definitely most, and unfortunately over the last little while I have put on a few kilos… I think sometimes when it gets out of hand it is called the marital spread… So it’s time for me to go back to that exercise enjoying person that I somehow became before the wedding.

The thing is though, I don’t actually mind exercise… I am just not very good at being consistent with it.   Over the last year I have tried a whole heap of different things… Zumba, Tae Bo, Step, Aquarobics, Netball (#GoMixedNuts), Running, Walking, Walking really long distances, and all work for a little while.  In fact, I tried to find a blogs where I had spoken about me succeeding in exercise and while there are a few about me and exercise, I don’t think I would call any of them a success.  I am sad to say that most of them are about good intentions that I never followed through with…

There is one about me stacking it at basketball

There are a few about SYG (no.1, no.2)

There is one about me joining a gym… that I never really attended

There is even one about me starting to train for my 2nd half marathon with Jana… which in the end Jana finished… but I failed to even sign up for.

But it’s time to try again, because I need to do something… I don’t want to go back to where I was before, fat, unfit, miserable and super duper self conscious… I want to have energy and fit into clothes the first time I try them on… I want to be happy with my body again, and I want to prove to myself that it wasn’t just a phase… that I can sustain it, before it all becomes just a distant memory.

So I not really sure what I want to do, or where to even start… but I have a set of Zumba and Tae Bo DVDs and a half used prepaid Zumba class card… so I think I will start with that… I think the hardest this is actually just doing it… So here is my promise… tonight… after timbrels I am going to go back to Zumba… this is very frightening because I have heard from a reliable source (the guy that takes my money each week, who also happens to be a friend of my sister in law) that my old Tuesday night Zumba lady is gone and the new one is hardcore… but I think I just need to bite the bullet… so tonight, I will try to remember to take some photographic proof that I can post… accountability… the great motivator…

Ok… here we go… it’s time

Mission: SMS Rescue… Part 2

Posted in Life by

So here is the update… but if you have no idea what I am talking about, you best go back a few days and read part 1

I went home and attempted to fix my iPhone myself, but no such luck.  I found out later I had come pretty close, but just not qutie there.  So instead of resolving to tears… again, I decided that it was time to bring in the experts… or should I say Geniuses… so tonight, Dave and I (Dave had to come coz I told him I needed for moral support) have sat at the ‘Genius’ bar at the apple store for 3hours trying to get this problem fixed.  And I am very pleased to say that after a number of attempts at restoring, clearing out some files and then a final restore, I now have all my messages back.  Well not all, truth be told, I lost the SMS’ I had received since the 19th of July, but I figured that losing a week of SMS’ wasn’t so bad if I got 18months worth back, including all my nice little keepsakes from our engagement and wedding.  So while Dave may not agree, I am pretty sure that the hours spent in the Mac store tonight and those afterwards at home backing up all my SMS’ in pdf format, were hours and time well spent.

Anyway, I figured… perhaps as a celebration of all that I have got back, I would share with you one of my favourites message threads from Davo… (oh and I am the green writing… the one with all the cool, nerdarific, pictures)

Mission: SMS Rescue

Posted in Life by

I am shattered.  Seriously upset.  On Sunday my phone had a small melt down and has deleted all of my messages.  Now for most people this wouldn’t be a problem but I am a message hoarder.  In fact back in the good old days when inboxes only held a limited number of messages, I had little books which I would copy the messages into so that I could keep them forever (and yes I still have the books, and probably more embarrassingly I often flick through them just to see what I felt was important enough to record forever).  But with my iPhone, I stopped the habit, because the messages are stored conversationally, they weren’t in order for me to write out.  I had also been told that it was impossible to ever completely delete things from my phone, so naively I just left them there unprotected and now they are gone.  The thing is though I have only had my phone for 18months, so normally not that much stuff would have happened in my life over 18months and I could probably just get over it.  But in the last 18 months massive things have happened including getting engaged and getting married and all my favourite texts over this time are now gone and this makes me really sad.  I know that is ridiculous, but I am actually really really sad about the thought of them being gone.

Here is the thing though, knowing how hard it is to actually delete data on an iPhone, part of me believes they are still there… so the computer nerd in me is determined not to be defeated by this silly little phone.  A about a week ago, while backing up I lost a whole heap of photos, but after a few tears and some investigative research I got my pictures back and I am really hoping that I can do the same with my messages.  I am not holding my breath, but just in case I have stopped backing up my computer and my iPhone (only temporarily) in the hope that I can rescue my texts from an old iPhone sync… so tonight (I hope) I am going to start mission ‘sms rescue’ a stealth operation to retrieve lost data…

I will let you know how I go.

Wish me luck.