Today has been an emotional day and it’s only 9.15 in the morning. I’ve just finished reading an article written by my wife regarding the terrible start in life our son Zeke had. I’ve also been keeping up with the saga of someone who’s been ripped off in an online transaction (read about it here, but be warned, there is some bad language). I recognise millions of people have so much more to contend with than I do and lately just about any story of powerlessness or injustice makes me think of  ‘fairness’ or more importantly the lack of fairness in the world today. I can’t even watch a simple...

The noise is getting louder each day! The boisterous opponents of the Church are becoming increasingly vocal: ‘All the Church wants is money!’ ‘Fanatics like them cause wars!’ ‘Bunch of hypocrites!’ ‘They don’t know how to have fun! ‘The Church has no place in politics/schools/the media’ Every day the opportunity for Aussies to hear about belonging to a community of God becomes more remote. Every day Mr/Ms Average Australia sees less need to go to Church. And more often than not, the wider Church body has one response: Silence. Do you hear it? In many Churches it’s deafening....

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The often misquoted opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens actually refers to the French revolution, but it came up in a discussion about suffering between three friends as we traveled the Bruce Highway from Caboolture to Kawana. A lady we’d just met was in the midst of a life and death trial. And as we chased the broken white line, we shared our own trials and spoke of the sweetness that can be found hiding beneath the suffering. When I was first married, I experienced my own annus horribilis, to quote a royal someone considerably more famous than I. I was...