I felt worn down from being ‘switched on’ in my life in Glasgow. I know the ‘right’ answers and I know what I’m supposed to do and say, but were these really my heartfelt convictions about God or just learnt behaviours?! So I set myself a challenge – one I wasn’t sure was entirely within the realms of orthodoxy.

Easter is approaching, the time for death and resurrection. The time to mark the single greatest victory in the history of all humankind: love, light, goodness, truth, beauty and hope conquering hate, darkness, evil, lies, ugliness and despair. Yet the road to the ‘hallelujah’ we sing is not always an easy one.

You’re convinced about the principle to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). You know, more or less, what you need to do. So, the next step is to find that person to get alongside…
‘Hey random person I’ve only known for two weeks, would you like to read the Bible with me?’ you say optimistically.

When I arrived at Westminster Hospital to begin my nursing studies in 1963, I met Celia Goshawk (later Nicholson) who was three years senior to me. Celia invited me to join a Bible study in the nurses’ residence where I was living.

As I invest my time and energy in those I come alongside – through coffee meet-ups, studying the Bible and praying together – I feel for them deeply and I care about their journey.

What do you think of when you think about the perfect space to read the Bible? For me, it would be a cosy armchair in a quiet room, sunlight beaming through the window and a nice cup of tea close at hand.

We don’t need to go very far to see that God has made us all unique. Our faces, our personality quirks, our thumbprints, and our passions are all gloriously different. Our God is the ultimate creative. Therefore, we should live in a society that protects and upholds our dignity and value as fellow human beings.

Picture a doorway, where you are standing at the threshold. In that moment, you are at the point of leaving one room, but you haven’t quite entered the second room. This is liminal space – the in-between time, where you’ve left the old but not yet entered the new.

Jonny shares a childhood memory of experiencing the father heart of God through the pure, sobbing joy of his uncle’s welcome.

The inner critic is the voice that says, ‘Look! You failed again’ or ‘You can’t do that’. It builds on messages that we received in childhood and unconsciously accepted as truth. Then, life’s experiences reinforce these messages, as we see things through our ‘failure glasses’, gathering evidence to confirm the initial message.

The definition of listening is ‘a responsiveness and openness that goes well beyond taking in sound along with an attentiveness to what has been said.’ To listen is to understand.

The definition of listening is ‘a responsiveness and openness that goes well beyond taking in sound along with an attentiveness to what has been said.’ To listen is to understand.