Just today

Being on sabbatical should be rewarding, the hard thing is figuring out what the reward looks like! Today was a nice day, a day of pottering around finding things to do. For example I went to the timber yard to talk about the wood I need for a project I have in mind. Tomorrow I'll probably put in the order so that I can actually make a start on the famous blanket box I said I would make. The only problem of course is that in my mind it is a beautiful piece of handmade furniture, carefully crafted. The reality is that it might not be, but I won't find out unless and until I build it. So I need to take the plunge.

 This gets me thinking about life and church. Take my swimming. Two years ago I couldn't swim. Not a stroke. When asked if I swam, my answer was simply, "Only vertically." A few months ago I was really quite frustrated because I still hadn't worked out the breathing technique to enable me to swim any reasonable distance without having to stop and stand up. Then all of sudden, on holiday, I began to swim with my head up. Not good for the back, but something that everyone else made look easy. And now I can do that too.

So today I went for a swim and as I swam I thought to myself that if I can swim with my head out of the water and swim with my head under the water, then breathing is just a matter of timing. Having wandered up and down the pool a few times doing this rather erratic breathing pattern a thought struck me. If I could swim with my head out of the water on breaststroke then I should be able to clear the water to breath on front crawl. So I tried, and it worked. Timing was not all it could be, but it worked.

So is there a point to all of this? You tell me. It's just that sometimes I get the feeling that as Christians we don't keep going as much as we should. Just as people we probably lack perseverance, and what we sometimes lack in perseverance we make up for in timidity. The swimming thing is immensely frustrating, but I just have to keep getting back in the water and trying again and again. 

I don't know whether that means that there are some things about which I have been too timid or others about which we've been too ready to give up, but there are things to do and things that will just take courage and discipline to do.

I wonder, is faith a matter of courage and discipline amongst the more obvious things?

Apart from deep, philosophical thinking, I spent some time today reconditioning my Dad's old try plane. It says Stanley on the frog, record on the blade and Bailey on the main body. It was either put together form parts or these three companies worked together. I might see what I can find out. Just in case you were worrying that was taking my time off too seriously!