Phils focus

As a child I read ‘The Magicians Nephew’ by CS Lewis. For the uninitiated, the story tells of how Aslan, the Great Lion, the Son of the Emperor Over the Seas, created the land of Narnia. He does so by singing it into existence. He walks across a dark and barren landscape singing as he comes. Those who witness it realise that every beautiful note and chorus in someway corresponds to stars suddenly appearing in the black sky, grass springing up underfoot, trees and plants and birds and animals emerging from the ground, or rivers and waterfalls bursting forth. This scene was beautifully and forever burned into my imagination well before I read the creation story in Genesis, and so I simply overlaid these images as I read the relevant parts of scripture. Aslan then goes on to charge the talking animals with responsibility to take care of this beautiful new land that he has just created, warning them not to return to dumb and witless ways, or they would lose the power of speech become ordi...

Local Transformation Story You wouldn’t recognise our local park from 10 years ago as it had fallen into disrepair and suffered from neglect. Julie became a trustee back then and together with a host of brilliant local hero’s they have transformed it into a thriving hub of diversity and community celebration which thousands more people now access. It is such a joy to see life being enjoyed in each corner of this small but perfectly formed park; Brilliant children’s water park, an incredible edible greenhouse, the fabulous Cat Cafe (initially launched with help of the legend that is Rebecca Maddox), bee hives, bandstand live music and a farmers market most weekends, sports areas, tennis courts and so much more. It has been an amazing blessing to us to watch the park revive and flourish. During our sabbatical we spent much time just sitting here enjoying nature (Sir John Betjeman declare it ‘a strangely beautiful place’) listening to excellent live music, chatting to neighbours, frien...

On Friday I took a day out for silent retreat down at Ashburnham. I encountered the Lord in the car going down and experienced a rich fellowship with him throughout the day. I began the journey in the car by imagining the Lord in the passenger seat next to me. I was intent on paying attention to what he was doing, how he was sitting, where his focus was, etc. Initially he looked slouched and almost ready for a nap. He made some comment about taking the wheel whenever I was ready, which made me laugh. I told him of the tension I was carrying in my body and the fact that my thoughts were all over the place. He suggested we do some breathing together. I thought ‘ok, I’ll focus just on driving and following Jesus’ breathing, and think of nothing else for at least three minutes. Fail  I could barely go two breaths without slipping into thoughts of something else. I could not immerse in the process. So the Lord said. ‘Count to 100 breaths as we do this. ’  The adde...