Where Life and Faith Meet
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4Ü #231

The Thinker

23 March 2006

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WASSUP - Beauty in simplicity

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity

Plato

What are you doing right now?

That is before I interrupted you.

Does it have any
 beauty?
  style?
   harmony?
    grace?
     good rhythm?

If not, maybe you could consider what it would look like if you picked up that task and introduced some simplicity.

Have fun

Andrew

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INSIGHT OUT - Missed the point

There's a passage in John's gospel (Jn 21:) where Jesus asks, "Simon Peter do you love me?" Jesus asks this question three times and Peter gets upset that Jesus keeps asking when his reply each time is, "yes, Lord you know I love you."

A closer look at this passage reveals a very interesting twist.

Jesus asks the question "do you love (agape - an unconditional and self sacrificing love) me?".

Peter responds, "yes, I love (phileo - best friends / mates love) you."

Peter missed the point all together, he didn't answer the question.

But then, just maybe he didn't miss the point.

Maybe, Peter had just come to a new level of honesty in his life (this came after a series of significant failures) and he was not prepared to answer the question in his usual flippant way.

Peter offered his best reply yet, "Yes, Lord you are my best mate," knowing that even best mates let each other down.

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OUTSIGHT IN - The Thinker

Rodin's lonely thinker sits lost deep in thought
Contemplating questions for which the answer is a mystery
Leaning forward bracing the weight of thought in his hands
Clothed only by an idea

Yet the thinker cast in bronze
Can not think
Bound by an idea of thinking
Stuck in a thinking rut.

If only thinking could be moved from the stump of a dead tree
Where the thinker lived thinking rather than thought
Where the loneliness of an idea could find a friend
Where the mind might find it's home.

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SEE YA SUNDAY - Part 2 - A life forever changed: A changed mind

While change is happening all around you it seems that the things you so desperately want to change are impossible: to loose weight, to change an attitude or habit or to change the grief or sorrow of our hearts condition. Can I really change and be changed? Is there any hope for the kind of change that I really want to see happen in my life?

These are the kind of questions that we'll be exploring over the next three weeks.

This Sunday morning - A life forever changed: A changed mind 8.30am & 10.30am

Bread & Wine - 9.45am - Weekly Communion

March 26th at 6.00pm - The St Columba Institute of Life and Faith
The Institute of Life and Faith will operate during the school terms offering a wide variety of courses and seminars

Thanks for this time to chat.

Andrew
St Columba
Where Life and Faith Meet
andrew.norton@stcolumba.org.nz

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It's free but don't steal

If this is of help to others, you are welcome to forward it. This e-mail letter is 97% original - 3% cut and paste & 100% fat free. 4U is copyright to Andrew Norton. That means you can't cut and paste it and call it your own (that's stealing). I'm happy for it to be used but please refer to the author.

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LAST WORD - Nothing more difficult .

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.

Napoleon


© 2008, St Columba Presbyterian Church, Auckland