Life

Yes, it's pretty obvious isn't it, I've been pretty busy recently. Last week was particularly bad - I was really struggling and was grateful for people picking up some of the slack. My own diagnosis, which I still think is right, is that I was on a bad downward spiral: I was tired, which led to me experiencing culture stress pretty acutely, which led to more tiredness. Spending Saturday in London last week helped somewhat, though not perfectly. Nonetheless I thankfully seem to have recouped some of my energy reserves. The workload this week hasn't changed but I seem to be dealing with it better. Worked every single night this week! I'm beginning to feel like an investment banker. Well. Pre-credit crunch anyway. And without the money. Though there's heavenly riches yada yada. :)

I'm going to make my debut next week! Am speaking for 10 minutes on who is Jesus to a fairly disparate group of non-Christian international students. Writing this talk has been really hard. It's all about being selective as to what to include and what not to include, having to monitor any cultural presuppositions from creeping into the text - that's harder than you think! - and trying to find the right pitch for it. I have absolutely no experience of preaching evangelistically. Nada. Not even in a training context. So pray pray pray!

I've been reading through Ephesians with a younger Christian, and have found it both hugely enjoyable and challenging. It's been fun digging into a book I haven't looked at for quite a while now, and exciting to watch him grow and discover things he's never seen before. (Ephesians 1:9-10 anyone? Or chapter 2, a huge favourite of mine?). Quick aside: Max Turner in New Bible Commentary's pretty useful. But I'm also thinking through how to help him see for himself how the Bible speaks into his particular situation instead of me giving him canned answers. And more and more I'm beginning to see that if I don't allow God's Word to preach to me, I'm going to have a really hard time helping anyone do the same for themselves.

Day off tomorrow! Looking forward to it!