Posts from August 2015

Posts from August 2015

Peer Pressure (take 2)

I came across a cartoon that finally answered an old question that has become the butt of many a joke: Why did the chicken cross the road?  The answer is: peer-pressure.  The cartoon showed a hesitant hen standing by the roadside with traffic flying past.  On the other side of the road stood some feathered friends crying, “Chicken!”  Perhaps that needs explaining to some.  In my teenage years if you were scared to do something that others did, you were…

Peer Pressure

The interviewer asked the man who was celebrating his 100th birthday what the best thing was about turning one-hundred.  Displaying some quick wit for someone his age he instantly replied, “No peer pressure”. We often tend to see peer pressure almost exclusively as a teenage problem.  Big mistake!  Toddlers already demand to have what they see other toddlers possess.  And I recall a church I served where one young family after another traded in their car for a 4×4.  Was…

The Welfare State

In our book club we’ve been reading Theodore Dalrymple “If Symptoms Persist”.  The author is a medical doctor whose territory includes the local penitentiary and public health department.  The author relates stories about some of his patients.  One of his gripes is how some of his patients have come to have a sense of entitlement to live off the public purse.  He sides with the long-suffering tax-payer.  It’s wonderful to be living in a country that subscribes to the ethos…

When things go pear-shaped

I’m not quite sure where the saying came from about something going ‘pear-shaped’.  I googled it – but not much help there; with Wikipedia listing more than ten possible sources.  The term first seems to have been used in the air-force for planes trying to do a loop – that often looked more pear-shaped than circular.  Another suggestion that I could relate to is that party balloons are round when they are blown up but when they deflate they become…

Giving

Only once have I ever preached on the topic of giving – and that was because my elders asked me to do so.  I’ve certainly referred to this matter indirectly on various occasions but it has rarely been a subject that I have addressed specifically.  Only that one occasion comes to mind. The reason for my reluctance should be fairly obvious.  We pastors are the recipients of the giving of our people.  That makes it easy to accuse a preacher…