Today is one of my favourite Sundays of the year – Superbowl Sunday!
Every year I stay up and watch the game – despite the kickoff being anywhere between 10pm and 2am (depending where the game is being played.) This year I’m hosting my first Superbowl party – should be a fantastic night!
I’m looking forward to the game this year, it should be an outstanding shootout between two dominant offenses. I’ve tried to settle on the side of one of the teams, but I just can’t pick one team in thie game. On the one hand, the New Orleans Saints have a very romantic, compelling reason why we should support them – it’s their first Superbowl and they’re playing for a city that is trying to rebuild itself on the back of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina a few years ago. On the other Hand, the Indianapolis Colts are looking for their second ring in 4 years, and they have one of my favourite NFL players at the helm – Peyton Manning.
There are countless articles on the internet worth reading about this game, and its not even happened yet! At the bottom of this post are a few that I think stand out and give a good insight/ overview of what to expect tonight. You can also follow thing on twitter by watching the tag #SB44
Will you be watching? Enjoy the game!
Peace Out
Good links:
NFL Superbowl website
Social Media and the Superbowl
Factors to watch out for in tonights game
Will the Colts Superbowl experience be an asset?
Video: 10 greatest players without a Superbowl ring
Folks, please pray for my family.
just over 8 years ago, my Mums elder brother died of cancer, last April, my Mums younger brother died of a heart attack. Last night, my Mums Mum died in her sleep. That leaves just my Mum and my Grandfather on that side of the family. This is a hard time for all of us, but especially for the two of them. My Grandfather will now be living alone in a large house that just a year ago housed 3 people.
My Granny has been ill, but had looked to be getting better, so, while not completely out of the blue, this is still a bit of a shock!
Peace Out
Wanting to share another song today, this time by the band ‘One Hundred Hours’, without doubt my favourite Christian Band to listen to. i’ll go into that in another post, for now I just want to share these words with you:
“He is good He is faithful
He is kind He is patient
He is loving He is wise
And He was willing to make the sacrifice
So we will come
And worship with our lives
If you are weary
There is a rest here by His side
If you are broken
There is healing by His side
If you are hungry
There is truth here in His life
If You are thirsty
There is love here in His eyes
He is good He is faithful
He is kind He is patient
He is loving He is wise
Lord You were willing to make the sacrifice
So we will come
And worship with our lives
Come let us adore Him
Come let us bow down”
CCLI Song No. 4262169
© 2004 Thankyou Music (Admin. by Kingsway Communications Ltd)
Tori Sheppard | Tre Sheppard
Peace Out
When I’m in my office working, I love having music playing – always my itunes collection on shuffle. Today the song “On my Bones” came on, by an artist called Kendall Payne. As it was playing the words struck me, how many of us feel that life batters us, that life wears us out? How many people use these as reasons to turn away from God rather than as reasons to seek him out?
“What these years have brought me
What these years have taught me
Heartache and fame, a chance to change
A hope to be stronger
That beauty can smolder
A stage and a curtain, that nothing’s for certain
Oh these years have been hard on my bones
What this world has brought me
What this world has taught me
Senseless spinning, never tie instead of winning
Ice cream for licking, the clock’s always ticking
No one is free, someone must have a key
Oh this world has been hard on my bones
All this time I’d been seeking my own
Oh this road has been hard on my bones
What this love has brought me
What this love has taught me
Patience in battle, who’s in the saddle
Joy and despair, that I really do care
Uncertain desire the risk in going higher
Oh this love has been hard on my bones
What this God has brought me
What this God has taught me
Passion and grace, how to stand in one’s space
Laughing at lilies, what truly fulfills me
Death on a cross, it was I that was lost
Oh this God has been life to these bones
Oh this God has been life to my bones”
Peace Out
This weekend I’m heading to Pitlochry to be a participate in a Church of Scotland initiative that looks to help young adults connect with the Church and most importantly, with God.
This initiative has been on the go for a couple of years now, we had a weekend away in Alnwick in 2007 and various day events since.
It should be a good weekend for those going. We are expecting around 40 people I believe, many of whom I’ve known for a while, some of whom I’ve never met! There are various workshops happening over the weekend as well as time just to hang out with each other or with God. Plenty of time and space to reflect and be refreshed.
I’m quite excited about this weekend for 2 reasons: firstly, Linda will be there. Linda doesn’t always go to these kind of events, so it will be great to have her there and have her meet some of the folks I work with on these things. Secondly, I’m running a workshop/ worship time based around photography. I’ll blog more about that after it’s happened. But, here’s a rough idea of what I’m doing. the idea of the workshop is that its a creative response to God. The workshop will start with me explaining the thinking behind the idea and then giving them some space to refelct, pray, listen for God. I’ll have some Bibles open at the Psalms, this is an activity purely based around worshipping God through capturing images that a) inspire us to Worship b) are of things that inspire us to worship c) are of something that we think God is speaking to us through or about d) perhaps just something that feels right to capture, even if we’re not sure why.
I love that I have the opportunity to lead people in an activity that has blessed me so much over the last few years.
For me, photography is all about connecting. With people, places, events, whatever. I’m still in the infancy of exploring this idea of using photography to worship (something different to using photos in worship I think). If you have any thoughts/ inspirations/ advice please share it!
Peace Out
Chris
People amaze me, they really do.
There’s been a tragedy in Haiti. How have you responded? Have you pledged some sort of donation? Gone out to help? Said ‘thats a real shame’ and then thought nothing more? another response?
I’m a member of a photography forum where Haiti was mentioned. Some of the responses shocked me. One response asked ‘why should the UK donate anything’. Another asks why even bother to donate any money/ help – their reasoning being twofold: We’ve been putting money into Africa for years and the problems still exist; and Haiti has been run by incompetents for years so why should we jump in?
These are responses from 2 adults in a seemingly civilized country? What happened to looking out for your neighbour? I wonder how they’d feel if their country was devastated and the world stood back and said ‘We can’t help, we have our own problems, deal with it yourselves’.
Please don’t be like these folks, have a heart and show some concern for the people of Haiti, sure they’re not the only ones suffering at the moment.
Check these sites out for ways that you can help, and, if all else fails, pray!
http://www.dec.org.uk/
Jonathan Blundells Blog post
Peace Out
Linda and I went to see John Hillcoat’s version of “The Road” this afternoon. I wasn’t that impressed. Perhaps it was the mood I was in, but then, none of the 6 in our group were impressed. It was a very depressing film (I won’t go to much into it, don’t want to spoil it for folks who wish to see it!). There is an unknown catastrophe that leads to a father and his son trekking across America seeking to find safety and a better chance of survival. Along the way they come across various dangers: weather, gangs of cannibals, lack of food and the worst parts of themselves. There are a few parts that are very hard to watch, either very gory orI’m sure if you had the mental tenacity to watch it a few times it would make for an interesting study of human behaviour – it just didn’t float my boat!
Like I said, its a very depressing film, which very much fits the story, there isn’t much in it that suggests the director/ writers expect much humanity to survive with the remnants of humanity – I feel for the lack of hope displayed there. It is one of those films that makes you wonder how you would react in that situation and also makes you hope you never have to face that situation!
Have any of you seen it? What did you think? Are you thinking of going to see it?
Peace out
Chris
Well, it’s a few days in, but it’s still early enough for me to wish you all a happy new year!
Traditionally, this is the time of year that people reflect on the year just passed and the year ahead. Who am I to break with tradition? I thought I’d start with looking forward first, reflecting will take more than one post!
I’m expecting this year to be a challenging year, work will be getting busier (in a good way) and I’m looking to push myself to be better at everything I do – being a husband, photography, my job, being a friend. It’s also going to be an exciting year. 2010 marks Linda’s and I being married for 5 years. To celebrate, we’re going on holiday to Canada for 3 weeks in September, which we’re both very excited about! I’m a bit suspicious of ‘New Years Resolutions’, mainly because I’ve never been good at keeping them! But then, usually I’m the only one who knows them so there’s no accountability! So, I thought this would be a good place to air my intentions for the year:
.To be more regular on my Blog, not having 3 month gaps!
.To stick to my 365 photography project
.To push myself in my photography so that I can see a marked improvement between now and the end of the year
.To be a more helpful husband
.To be more assertive – not pushy or nasty, but more sure of myself
.To be better at keeping in touch – I let too many people down last year by being pants at keeping in touch
what are your intentions for the year?
Stewart Cutler is up in Aberdeen with us today taking the blue Horizon staff and some of the board through some social media training.
At the moment we’re talking about blog, everyone is setting up a wordpress and account and having their first go at blogging.
It’s been an interesting day so far, I look forward to hearing their comments at the end of the day after we’ve done even more with them!
So, I’ve not been very active on here recently, things have been getting quite busy at work. The joys of my new job, don’t get me wrong, I’m loving it, but it’s very full on!
Anyway, for a while now I’ve been wanting to expand beyond just having a blog, so I decided to take the plunge! I’m able to do so thanks to my kind friend John Orr (also my ex-YF leader from many moons ago!
I’ve not yet made all the changes I’m planning on making, but I’m quite chuffed with what I’ve managed so far! I’ve had to learn more than I expected already just to change the photos in the bar at the top!
Anyhoo, I’m planning on getting into a better routine of updating my site now, need to make sure I make time for it!
Peace out