Hopefully he will be receiving lots of cake decorated with FiddesPayne dragees or some such as he celebrates his 65th birthday.

Various more erudite Baptists than I are posting their greetings, for example here, here and here.

It's my day off, I'm at home, my theology books are at church, so I can't fulfil the challenge to quote Paul verbatim, but here are paraphrases (inevitably with a bit of interpretation) of two things that have stuck with me...

On atonement:

How far down the chasm will the good shepherd go to rescue the lost sheep?  As far as hell?  Yes.

On church meetings:

Sometimes it is the minority voice that expresses the mind of Christ.

Paul's writing is not always easy, but it is always worth working with.  From him I learned my understanding of trinitarian perichoresis as divine dance.  From him I learned how to root complex doctrine in pastoral concern.

I have marvelled at Paul's ability to (in his words) slide a fag-paper between someone's view and his own in a way that affirms each.  And I still cherish the day that Paul said, as he opted to leave a presentation I was doing saying "I've just realised, I heard this in Prague and it's very good".

Too often we save praise for eulogies... instead of speaking a 'good word' during someone's life time.

I'm not going to be one of the academic Baptist theologians now or ever, but I value Paul's work immensely and wish him a very Happy Birthday with lots of scrummy cake and a bottle of his favourite tipple!

Yesterday among the visitors at the Gathering Place was a minister friend from Wales.  I only found out he was coming a couple of hours before we met, so no time to panic over my exegesis or whatever.  Good to see you C!

Over the weekend I had emails from two of my Girlie Rev friends wanting to meet up at Assembly.  One meet is now almost sorted in the afternoon before Assembly starts and the other will hopefully get slotted in soon.  So looking forward to seeing you D and L.

This morning yet another minister friend sent me an email saying she is visiting two ex-Baptists (now C of S) and can she call in to say hello when she is in Glasgow.  For about a decade people used to confuse us for each other... no more, I suspect, as finally our hairstyles are substantially different!  Can't wait R.

And I have the luxury of staying with another of my wonderful minister friends and her husband for the duration of the Assembly... time for some good chin-wags, plenty of marmite (yum) and late night laughter for sure.  Thank you J & T

Oh yes, and at some point this week I will have my monthly breakfast meeting with my local C of S colleagues... have we decided where yet?  Looking forward to it D,R,F.

As I merrily type this in to my laptop, it strikes me how context driven this is... I have identified almost as many women Baptist ministers here as there are in the whole of Scotland.  Maybe this is partly why I'm happy - sometimes it's nice to be part of a bigger minority!

Not a lot to report today.  It's one of those days that has an end of week, end of month, end of season feel about it.  With no service to prepare for next week, the active work load is down a bit, but there is plenty of admin stuff to keep me out of mischief.  I think having cranked up my workload almost back to where it used to be, it just seems very strange to have a quieter few days in prospect.  All of which means I may actually desist from posting rather than simply writing any old twaddle that enters my head.

Of course, every time I say that I then come up with a zillion ideas to post...

This time next week I will be getting my bags packed to head off to the Baptist Assembly in England which is taking place in London over the Bank Holiday weekend.  Having had to miss last year's, I am looking forward to catching up with what is happening 'down south' and meeting up with various friends who I get to see only at Assemblies. Usually by now there is a fair amount of blogging going on, people preparing their 'bingo' cards for the cliched expressions, attempting to predict which hymns/songs will/won't be sung but this year the web is strangely quiet.

Anyway, if you are going to be there, I hope we'll get a chance to say hello at some point.  I have mixed feelings about this years format (and location if I'm totally honest) but I am just glad to be able to be part of it once more.

Today's PAYG was based around John 6 and Jesus as the bread of life, but it made reference to John 10:10 and life in all its fullness.  The speaker said, in a lovely Irish accent, words to the effect of "Jesus said you'd have life to the full, so do you?"

That gave me pause for thought.

I often wonder quite what we mean by 'fullness of life', being more convinced I know what it does not mean than what it does:

Fullness of life does not equate to longevity

Fullness of life does not equate to wealth

Fullness of life does not equate to health

Fullness of life does not equate to success

Fullness of life does not equate to acclaim

Fullness of life does not equate to marriage

Fullness of life does not equate to family

Fullness of life does not equate to happiness

Fullness of life does not equate to busyness

Fullness is more about quality

Fullness is more about maturity

Fullness is more about mystery

Fullness is more about transformation

Fullness is more about love

Fullness is more about community/ies

Fullness is more about rolling with the punches

Fullness is more about choosing life, joy, hope, faith, laughter, friendship

Fullness is more about never quite getting there and always finding more to discover

I find myself reminded of the once popular prayer that ends "I asked God for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things"

My life is pretty full - a diary bulging with meetings, events, conferences, holidays - but I hope it is also characterised by full-ness which is quite definitely a qualitative rather than quantitative measure.