Ye of little faith...

What good is a man
Who won't take a stand
What good is a cynic
With no better plan Ben Harper, Better Way

What good is a cynic? I would describe myself as cynical. I can't help it. I think most British people are. According to one friend, it's a result of us being 'bruised and damaged idealists', never the same after 2 world wars. Whatever the reason, we're a miserable nation. Now, I don't mind being cynical. It's part of me, and I quite like me. But what good am I without a better plan?

I was eating lunch today and Ben Harper's music video came on the TV and that lyric really struck me. The song wasn't even supposed to be on. The presenter had announced a Flaming Lips song, and it's title came up in front of Ben Harper's face. What good is a cynic with no better plan.

This week we have been hosting 31 Canadians (if any of you are reading this, thank you SO much!) who are associated with Agape (Campus for Christ as it's called) over there. If I'm honest, I was a bit nervous about them coming and being a burden and a pain to look after. In reality, they couldn't have been a bigger blessing. They came with expectation, faith and positivity, blowing my cynicism out of the water. Over the course of the week 8 (EIGHT) people decided to follow Jesus for the first time. That's more than I've heard about directly for the last 4 months.

It's easy to be pessimistic about our culture, the spiritual climate and lame Christian attitudes (myself included). And there are somethings its good to be cynical about because it may well drive change (and if you've got an hour maybe I'll share them with you). But there is a better plan, and if I don't have one, God certainly does. For all of us.

I'm learning.

Forget-Me-Not

So, after the rather problematic loss of my keys last Thursday, I have finally decided to compile a list of things my absent minded nature has caused me to misplace. I was going to do this two weeks ago, when another Thursday (these days seem to be bad for me) mishap involved the loss of my wallet on a bus. But the keys put me over the edge.
I told my mum I was going to make this list and she told me not to bother because I'd only lose it. But I feel it's gonna be pretty safe if I post it on the net...

In no particular order:

1. Keys (retrieved when person who's house I left them at discovered them several hours later)
2. Wallet (retrieved when kind person(s) handed it in to the police who used ingenious methods to contact me)
3. Phone (retrieved when man who ran a retreat centre found it in the muddy puddle I'd dropped it in)
4. Dropped at an Electric Six gig (Incredible, incidentally) (lost forever...)
5. Leather jacket, containing wallet (left in toilets at Vienna airport, and retreived when hours later (without me realising it was actually missing), my uncle whilst waiting to pick someone up heard my name on the PA).
6. Passport (retrieved when person sitting next to me on the plane found it where i had left it and chased after me)
7. Leather jacket containing minidisc player - left at a hotel in the country where I'd played a gig. Remembered the morning after and due to Christmas holidays back home, wasn't able to pick it up for a month
8. Wallet insert containing drivers license, student cards, free train pass and other important documents (retreived when the random person who picked it up recognised me in the street from my picture and gave it back to me).

Notable near miss: During the Three Peak Challenge, whilst changing trousers at the end of the Scafell Pike climb, I left my wallet, phone and keys on the roof car. Then got in the car and we drove off. I remembered roughly half a mile later. By some miracle, the car roof had a lip to it, and the things had all got trapped there.

There it is. I'm sure its incomplete and will definately be added to in the future. If anyone knows of any magic cure for the absent mind, I'd love to hear it.

Edit: So I forgot about the favourit jacket I left on a train, the jacket I left in a swimming pool changing room containing my favourite hat, a favourite sweatshirt left in a gym, the hoodie left on the meadows, the football boots also left on the meadows, and the beloved Buff, left somewhere....All never to be returned

Baa.

Well, I haven't read much poetry recently, hence the distinct dearth of such postings over the last 3 weeks. Instead I have been working like a bandit. (Although, do bandit's work really hard??)

Anyway, this link has to be shared. Thanks to Red and Josiah for the tip.

The Fainting Goats