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15th February 2006

Blogging Books

Last year I enjoyed sharing with other bloggers in reading through Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline which I found to be a very rewarding endeavour. Although not quite the same format, Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed will be working through a couple of books over the coming weeks. Since these are books I had already purchased and had sitting on my shelf waiting to be read (with far too many others) I will definitely be reading along and following the discussions with interest. The two books are N.T Wright’s “Paul : In Fresh Perspective” and Eugene Peterson’s “Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places” (see the right sidebar for links) As you may have gathered Tom Wright is practically my favourite writer at present, amd Peterson is very well known for his work on “The Message” paraphrase.

Reading quickly through the first hundred or so pages of Peterson’s book, I’ve found it very engaging, easy to read yet full of depth. His aim is to reconcile Christian spirituality with theology to form a foundation for authentic Christian praxis. This aim is embodied not least in his writing style – the grace of a poet mixed with the precision and depth of a scholar. Among the concepts he’s discussed so far, Peterson discusses how the rhythms of creation are the spiritual milieu in which we live our lives, and how the dimensions of time (Genesis 1Open Link in New Window) and place (Gen 2Open Link in New Window) are fundamental to the Christian narrative and experience. I found his parallels with Genesis and John’s gospel very illuminating, and in particular was struck by his comments on the miracle of birth, a miracle to which I am exposed to on a regular basis yet fail to appreciate at such a deep level.

“Every birth can, if we let it, return us to the wonder of Jesus’ birth, the revelation of sheer life as gift, God’s life with us and for us.” p57

Oh, and I finally discovered what tohu va-bohu is all about! Looking forward to delving deeper into this book with Scot and his fellow bloggers.



Categories : books | 0 Comments

15th February 2006

Tradesmen

Since moving into our house at new year we have had a steady stream of tradesmen through, doing a range of jobs, some minor, some large. Unfortunately as a group they have not left a very positive impression. My experience has been that they have ranged from indifferent, unreliable, and at times incompetent. Just the process of trying to get quotes to get a job done is frustrating enough. Too often the person who gets the job is not the one with the best quote, it’s the one with the only quote, as the others didn’t show up or didn’t return calls. Several times I have been waiting for people to show up to do a job, only to later get a call saying “can’t make it today” often several days in a row. The biggest, and most expensive job – our new $11,000 air-conditioning system – has turned into an ongoing hassle. The aircon is dripping water in the roof, which has created a crack in the ceiling plaster which is worsening. Despite 3 visits by the two disinterested air-con guys they are still don’t seem to be able to give me a definite answer as to what the problem is, and we are still no closer to fixing it. I am getting more and more disillusioned with tradesmen in general. Good service and reliability seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

I am pleased to say we finally got the limestone concrete poured surrounding the pool, and I am very happy with the result. It was a hassle getting the grass pulled out and getting it done, but it was well worth it. At least one of these people seems to have done a good job.



Categories : Personal | 1 Comment