My odd philosophy - God speaks in things that make you go 'hmmm...'

When I was preparing my sermon on John 4 for the WPCU pulpit swap, I found myself making links back to John 1 (which I'd preached on the week before) and John 3 and John 9, inspired by the comnmentaries I'd used, as well as echoes of the John 1 sermon I'd just delivered at the Gathering Place.  So imagine my joy when today I looked at the lectionary gospel passages for Lent and they include... John 3, John 4, John 9 and John 11, each of which is fantastic.

I now have a Lent outline based on encounters with Jesus.

I am happy for many reasons, not least that after an in depth study of Matthew 5 (which I am loving) it will be nice to take a different tack...

Lent gives an opportunity to try something a little different, so just maybe I will!

When writing my sermons, I always reckon that preaching is about 100 words per minute, wpm.  This allows for lighthouse sweeps of the congregation, pauses and a bit of space for asides.  The organiser of the confernece I am due to speak at has stressed over and over that 'the average human speaks at around 100 wpm' which contradicts any figure I found on an internet search, so maybe New Zealanders, like those from the south west of England speak especially slowly...?

My conference paper, after hefty pruning and editing is now roughly 3200 words - which would be 32 minutes on the 100wpm basis.  Last night I tried reading it aloud  ~24 minutes according to my clock: gosh, that seemed rather fast at about 130wpm.  So today I tried again and got ~25 minutes, a little slower but still substantially quicker than suggested.  I then hinted around random programmes on my laptop and found the one that you can use to record - excellet.  So I recorded it and listened back - the pace seemed fine to me (but then I've lived in Glasgow for a few years now!), and at 26 mins/~120 wpm would appear to be in the 'normal' range according to t'internet.

So I am reasonably reassured that I won't do a mega overrun on time, phew.

Plus it means, I suppose, I could probably upload the recording at a future date...

So, not only is my conference paper now done (well there is one phrase I might still alter at the last minute) the list of people who want to read or hear it is getting lionger and longer!

Some of the interest is, I am sure, the kindly support of friends either who have/had cancer or are minister types but there does seem to be some more general interest, the latest addition to the list being my hairdresser!  All spruced up and ready to go to NZ now, no more sheep dog look for a week or two.

I am not entirely sure how the IPR and copyright works out with something that will published within conference proceedings - but I might pick up the suggestion of my hairdresser and consider presenting it (or a version of it*) to a local audience too.  Watch this space.

* the paper uses anonymised examples that would be immediately recognisable to a local audience and so might not be suitable, without serious editting, for such use.

That's it.  Conference paper finished.  Very chuffed.

Just seen the set of abstracts and some really interesting papers to look forward to - and some intriguing pairings of papers/presenters.

Now I can just concentrate on the final travel plans...

As part of my preparation for Sunday I have been researching the origins of the phrase 'marching to the beat of a different drummer' - seems the version I was told in Sunday school about 35 years ago was decidedly iffy, but the core message obviously stayed with me!

All the thinking brought back to mind the once popular song ''Different Drum', which, thanks to the wonders of Google I can tell you, was released around 1968 (sites vary!) by Linda Rondstat and the Stone Poneys:

Listening to it again and reading the lyrcis reminded me of my indepent twenty-something self :

...All I'm saying [is] I'm not ready
For any person, place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me...

Given its date, I suspect there may be an allusion to 'free love' over against commitment, but the words reminded me of my younger self who was happily single and following the beat of a different drum from many friends who were marrying and starting families.

All these years later I have no regrets, I still follow a drum that few would choose or accept, and for me it is the right one.  I guess that's ultimately what matters.

Nice to hear the song again anyway!