This coming Sunday, I am preaching/reflecting on Lazarus.  it's a story that I have preached upon a fair few times before, and have, at various points reflected on in some depth.  It was quite tempting simply to re-use some of my past work - especially a reflection that I wrote around eight years ago and shared on this blog.  In the end, I felt that wasn't the right thing to do - not because re-using is wrong, but because I wasn't sure if they went where I wanted/felt led to go.

Anyway, I thought I'd revive them here by links to a couple of past blog posts:

The reflection from the prespective of Lazarus in March 2009

A poem I came across in April 2014

Found this picture today when doing some research for Sunday.  Like it very much. Cannot cover every eventuality, but I don't think that's its aim.

We don't mark 'Mother's Day' or 'Mothering Sunday' in any significant way in our church (nor did we in my last) but we do try at least to acknowledge the diversity of authentic relationships and families that we are each a part of, as well as the glorious 'messy community' (to pinch a phrase someone else used) we are together.

I like to think that I am pretty good at the basics of reducing, reusing and recycling, having done so for the majority of my adult life, and having ben proactive in seeking out means of recycling before kerbside began and/or when it still doesn't happen. 

This post is not about that!

In recent weeks my nearly eight year old laptop has been getting slower and slower and slower, to the point where I was seriously thinking I might need to replace it.  And I still might.

I spent a large chunk of my day off on laptop tidying... removing programmes I no longer use, backing up all the files, and then deleting from the laptop those I am very unlikely to look at.  I even discovered that if I could open up the bottom of it and blow out the dust, it might be happier... so with some trepidation I did that.  In doing so, I realised that is has lost two of its little rubber feet so sits flat on the table, with no air able to flow underneath to help cooling, so it's now propped up on a drinks coaster!

I'm not going to claim that it's like new, it's not.  But it is certainly happier, running faster and keeping cooler.

So, for the time being at least, my laptop lives on!  It still has a way to go to match my Lazarus desktop which resurrected after several 'blue screens of death' and graunchy hard drive, to reach the grand old age of twelve before it was replaced.  And, actually, it only finally went off to the recycling centre this week when I finally, six years later, got round to taking out its hard drive!

I also finally said farewell to a 1970s black and white portable TV that has travelled with me for longer than I care to remember... the cost of adapting it for digital would be unwarranted, so off it went to be recycled, along with a 1980s 'crooklock', a laser printer, a defunct barbecue and various other bits of junk.

It's been a busy week, and although I've been quietly mulling over two/three acts of worship and seminar for which I am responsible tomorrow, I am still in the process of getting any of that onto paper.  I am having lots of fun, really enjoying researching and playing with ideas... even if there's a danger I'll end up with the basis for an MA module rather than a 60 minute seminar along the way.

Probably spending around three hours creating a visual aid for something that will take around ten minutes is a bit OTT... but it's pretty much the way I'm wired.  I do remind myself that 'the best can be the enemy of the good' but I want to ensure people have a good experience, and that can drive me to rather excessive levels of preparation!

So, a quick few minutes distraction to compose a blog post may, afterall, be no bad thing!

This evening I created this 'graph', a bit of fun when my mind went off on a little tangent it found interesting when I was doing some preparation for Sunday's 'Away Day' and a session I'm facilitating on 'creating worship'.  It shouldn't really have the lines, it should just have data points, but the lines enable the pattern, such as it is, to be seen.  As to what it is... well, that'd be telling, but if you know your church calendar you can probably work it out without too much trouble!

Still lots of work to do tomorrow, but it's getting there!