Coupla minor legends in the making here.

L - R
Chris Baird (Fulham & Northern Ireland)
Dave Wilson (Crescent Church & Norn Irish)
Chris Brunt (West Bromwich & Northern Ireland)


Got to meet these two at a Nationwide sponsored Q&A session last night. Two sound guys like, and following recent performances, will probably never have to buy a pint this side of the border for the rest of their lives!
I only had one question, and I messed it up at the start, so managed to offend both! Both took it well though!

Dave: So Chris, you're a great player, with a real ability to see potential plays and putting the ball into space. Sorry, I mean you Chris Brunt. Not that you're not good either Chris, you're fantastic on the back line...
Chris Baird: Oh thanks very much!
Dave: Sorry! Chris BRUNT, these past Euro Qualifiers have shown that you have a real powerful shot as well. When you going to stop hitting the woodwork?
Chris Brunt: Yeah I know, it's actually the same question my family keeps asking me after every game...

Priceless.

Ain't gonna hold back

I am unhappy today because I am trying to be mature about my financial situation and realise that I cannot do everything. I am the type of person that bank managers love, because they know I will always owe them money so I ain't ever going to leave them.

I am quite a passionate Norn' Iron fan, and seek to attend all home games, but my bank account this month is similar to my digestive system following an attack of dysentry: completely empty. So the figures are suggesting I can't go and get tickets for next Wednesdays game against Bulgaria. But that doesn't necessarily mean I won't go and do it. I love to watch my country play, and hate missing games, so I'd rather push myself further into debt, skip meals, and run out of loo roll, just in order to indulge one of my passions.

When I think about this, and how I get excited in the build up of the game, how I sing and scream my lungs out at the games, how I wear my shirt, how I hold nothing back from going completely buck mental. I can't really describe it, t's probably a bit of mob mentality, a sense of belonging, a misplaced sense of national loyalty etc etc. However I can't help but realise that I am nowhere near as openly passionate about my faith as I am about the Green & White Army. Why? Why can't I scream and shout that knowing God has changed my life? I am worth nothing on my own, but now I am priceless in Him? I fail to show my love for God on the outside, despite my passion for Him on my inside.

I've been listening a lot to the Tim Hughes album, 'Holding Nothing Back' lately, and especially the title track. I'm tired of holding back my passion, for whatever reasons that I throw up in front of myself. God gave everything for me, so why shouldn't I give my everything for God?

Calendar

I would love to give an extended update on what's been happening the past few months, but I don't have time presently!

As I am in a new office with lots of calendars, I have one which gives wee wise words and an interesting fact about the day.

Today's is rubbish so I've decided to share one from a two weeks ago.

Date - Did you know that on this day (7th Jan) in 1990, they closed the Tower of Pisa to visitors because it had leaned too far? I certainly didn't.


Wisdom - The main thing is to make history, not to write it.

I am already feeling wiser and more intelligent. I hope you do too!

The last 5 weeks

So what have I been up to the past 5 weeks I hear you ask?
Let me tell you...
1. My birthday

2. A trip to see my cousin in Bristol

3. A trip to Cambridge & Royston




4. A trip to London

Then all my usual workings and social engagements have kept me pretty busy. But it has been good, no, FANTASTIC, catching up with friends and family. To me, they're what makes life great! Laughing, crying, eating, chilling, talking, shouting, seeing, visiting, travelling, playing, punching, drinking, worrying, debating, arguing, joking, messing... all these things are infinitely better when you're doing them with other people!

Superheroes

So I went to see Spiderman 3 last night, and I was fairly impressed. Mindless escapism for two hours with the summary of the film as such:

• Peter Parker gets selfish.


• P.P allows revenge to consume his soul.


• P.P. goes all emo for awhile.


• P.P. finds himself, and saves the day.

I don't think I've ruined it for anyone by my concise summary, and I still think you should go see it!

But it did get me thinking. Who is the best superhero? In the world of superheroes? Spiderman? Captain America? The Fantastic Four? (Do they even count as superheroes when there's four of them?!)

It's kinda strange, because all superheroes are really just everyday people, who are given gifts. Whether this is through some horrific scientific blunder or a radioactive spider, they were all just like you and me to start with. Except one. Superman. He's not one of us, yet he came to Earth and has struggled his whole life to fit in, while saving people that he has no duty or reason to save. A superhero struggles to become one of us, rather than one of us struggling to become a superhero.

Which is what Jesus did. He was the Son of God, with power and might beyond our understanding, and even when people saw it, they still couldn't quite believe it. Yet He became one of us, and lived like us, and struggled like us, yet there came a moment when He had to rise up and save each and every one of us though it would cost Him his life. And His power was still so amazing and infinite that He rose from the dead, having paid the sacrifice that we should have paid. Hallelujah.

Definitely the only true Superhero.