Lent 2025 starts today, and with it a period of reflection. This year I’m trying something new: combining scripture and the outdoors for some reflective, prayerful walks. My plan is to do at least two a week. Today I started with Psalm 51. If you aren’t familiar with this one, it’s a psalm of repentance.Continue reading “Lent 2025: Honest as the Night Sky”
Tag Archives: be honest
Coming clean – lent 2023
The story of Joseph and his coat of many colours is probably one of the best known in the bible. It was made into a musical with classic songs like Any dream will do and close every door to me, and an Elvis-like Pharaoh. The story starts with a family of 12 brothers from 2Continue reading “Coming clean – lent 2023”
40 day challenge day 20: It’s not fair!
Yesterday I wrote about shame and how it can cause us to hide. I wrote how shame isn’t from God and basically isn’t a good thing (understatement…) I’m aware that not everyone will have a problem with shame, but I also think it is something that can creep in without us realising it. Maybe itContinue reading “40 day challenge day 20: It’s not fair!”
40 day challenge day 19: Feelings Inside Not Expressed
This is the post I wanted to write yesterday but ran out of time. It picks up on the first song I posted on Sunday. The chorus says is about how we say we’re fine when we’re not. The song talks about how we present one side to the world which isn’t necessarily true toContinue reading “40 day challenge day 19: Feelings Inside Not Expressed”
40 day challenge Sunday bonus
As I found out last week, the 40 days of lent don’t include Sundays so I don’t have a long post today. What I do have are 2 songs which I really connected with when I first heard them. The songwriter, Matthew West, uses real people and real experiences to influence his songs, and theContinue reading “40 day challenge Sunday bonus”
Hunting for God: Worship weeks 2 and 3
Who knew that exploring the discipline of worship would be so challenging? Ok, to be fair the clue is in the word ‘discipline’, but it’s another of those things that people don’t really teach about. If you worship together with others, everyone just sort of does it. If you entered a church (pre-Covid) you wouldContinue reading “Hunting for God: Worship weeks 2 and 3”
Hunting for God: Prayer week 4, and a new challenge
This is the last week with prayer as the focus. I don’t mean I’m going to stop praying (in fact, in the last couple of days I’ve found another book with some helpful thoughts), but the book I’m following by Jo Swinney (God Hunting) does 4 weeks, then focuses on a different discipline. Last weekContinue reading “Hunting for God: Prayer week 4, and a new challenge”
Hunting for God: Prayer week 3
After three weeks I do feel like this has been a useful hunt for me. Each week I’ve come to this point and feel like I have something worth sharing. I’m aware this is a hope blog, so what I’m hoping is that anyone reading this will see how my hunt for a deeper relationshipContinue reading “Hunting for God: Prayer week 3”
Hunting for God: Week 2 feedback
So, apart from this being a day late, I also confused myself with the titles! This is what I found after the second week and what I plan to do for the third. First goal: find someone to pray with. I had a really good conversation with a friend about how hard I find itContinue reading “Hunting for God: Week 2 feedback”
Hunting for God through… Prayer
Apologies, yesterday’s post on what is a spiritual discipline didn’t get uploaded. So here’s the short version: My understanding is that spiritual disciplines are like building blocks in a growing relationship with God. If you were an athlete you’d have exercises to help you train, and artist of any sort has different techniques to practiceContinue reading “Hunting for God through… Prayer”
The Reason for my Hope Blog 