I always struggle with praying for myself or for 'my' church, it seems selfish and not quite 'right' somehow.  At the same time, when I pray for others, I always feel that in so-doing I accept the repsonsibility to act, to 'be' part of the answer rather than expecting God to magically (miraculously) fix things.

Today, I again cleared the snow from the steps and paths font and back of my 'close' and then gritted them.  The snow seems to be thawing, so my hope is that getting rid of it, and hopefully the paths drying out before sun down, we will avoid icy surfaces.  And at least I've done a little bit to help myself get out to church on Sunday, and others get out wherever they need/wish to go.

Clear roads, operating buses/trains and an open church for Sunday, please God... and I'll keep doing my little bit to help!

It snowed again - you wouldn't know I had cleared the paths yesterday, and no-one has done them yet today!

The sun is shining, and we have had no snow for a few hours now... maybe it will stay that way (no cars, buses or trains moving though).

I sent out a round robin message to church folk this morning just to check everyone was OK, and I have had some lovely replies, including people who offered to run errands for anyone who might need it, and the above photo from E who said 'me buried in the snow'.  E has a truly amazing sense of humour and is inspiring just by being who he is.

At the moment we are still hoping to go ahead with our baptism service on Sunday - if your theology allows for selfish prayers, maybe you could ask that the roads would be open and trains/buses running by then...

Today has been a bit of an odd one - not a 'snow day' in the sense of a 'day off' due to the weather, but a day in which the impact of snow on others has affected my day.

This morning I had to take Sasha to the vet for more tests - the roads were abnormally quiet as it seemed that, by and large, Glasgow was closed. The vet was open, and insisted I had a cup of tea and a warm before venturing back in to the snow!

Once I got home, I reckoned it was probably my turn to clear the snow from the front and back steps and paths... which I actually quite enjoyed doing. At the time of typing, four hours later, you could be forgiven for thinking I hadn't done it as new snow has fallen.

In the last hour or so, snow has managed to adhere to all the windows, acting as a sort of net curtain.  The photo is of a 'sun catcher' cross that is taped to my office window with snow behind it.

I have some ideas noted down for my sermon, but as yet they haven't coalesced into sentences... hopefully they will tomorrow.

One way and another, it hasn't been a very productive day, but I am sitting in the warm counting my blessings.

I've just printed off the handouts for the fourth and final meeting of our 'Baptism Preparation Group'.  I am looking forward to exploring with them some thoughts around the temptations and the transfiguation of Jesus, and how these stories speak to our own lives.

It has been a truly wonderful few weeks - people who come to the scriptures without the 'baggage' of western thought or preconcieved notions of what it means. Some people for whom the supernatural is very real, others for whom it remains a new concept.

The month has flown by, and it's hard to believe that next weekend is 'it' - a wonderful service that we have planned together, with partipcation by people from every continent and many nations, in a church with which we have a very special connection, because they planted us 135 years ago!

I find myself in the strange place of feeling both that I will miss these gatherings and that it will be nice to get my Saturdays back! (How selfish is that?!)  One of the things I want to do this afternoon is to look at the 'what next' for this group... I really want to go one exploring scripture with them, because their freshness is so energising, and their questions so interesting.

My sense is to take a break now until Easter - the remainder of Lent is pretty busy one way and another.  But after Easter it would be good to draw in a few more folk to share in this journey of discovery - hopefully midweek and in an evening!

Meanwhile, I look forward to a great afternoon.

I have loved this hymn for the greater part of twenty years (eek!) and will be introducing it on Sunday morning, so if anyone who reads this stuff wants a heads up, have a watch/listen here...