Got an old bike?

I used to cycle a lot. Well around 120 miles a week, but that is a long time ago. I actually came to cycling quite late, never having a bike when I was a kid. At university I learned the skills to ride by buying a bike and getting back on it every time I fell off until I stopped falling off!

Sadly my cycling days are long gone, mainly due to a knee that reacts rather painfully to the stop and start routine. Oddly I can ride a bike at the gym without problems, but on the road eventually my knee complains and I have to stop. So my bike sits in the shed along with Anne's and two of Ally's bikes.

We're moving soon and I have been thinking that painful as it would be, it's time to get rid of these bikes and clear some space. But I didn't really want to throw them in a skip. Today, while I was looking at something else I came across an organisation that takes old bikes and reuses them in Africa. The main collection point is on Colchester, just an hour away from me. I think I've found a new home for my precious Raleigh tourer!

Bicycle Aid for Africa sounds like a great idea, and they don't just want your old bike, they are interested in bike tools and general workshop tools. If I'm honest I could probably supply a complete small workshop if I took the time to sort out all the tools I've inherited and bought over the years. So maybe a few spanners and hammers might find their way out of my garage and into a more regular place of use.

If you have an old bike, don't throw it away, consider instead donating it. The website has a list of UK-based bike recycling charities if you're not close enough to one of their own collection points.

Who'll be next for a big bailout?

Here's a headline I would never have expected to see:

Porn industry moguls seek $5 billion bailout

You've got to laugh really, otherwise you might just, well, really laugh I guess. 

First it was the banks, then the car industry then small businesses. Where will it all end we might have been thinking. Well now we might know. Perhaps, if this means the demise of this particular big business, then the economic downturn isn't all bad news at all!!

The headline came from this article.

And now our best guess

I'm not sure what to make of yesterday's pre-budget speech by Mr Darling. What has always worried me about this government is its consistent over optimistic assessment of economic growth. I seem to remember previous budgets and pre-budget reports announcing growth that never materialised. On the other hand, ideologically, the alternatives are not very attractive.

Not that I assume that all that has gone wrong in the economy this year is because of this government and this government alone. There are decisions that were made in the early 80's that must surely share some of responsibility.

The question for those of us who say we trust in God is how exactly do we express that trust in times of economic turmoil. Jon Ortberg, in the talk I watched yesterday, spoke about three expressions of faith: public, private and core. The public expression consists of those things we say we believe but that aren't true. For example, Herod told the Magi that he too wanted to visit the new king, but that wasn't his intention at all. 

Secondly he talked about private expressions of faith. These are things we think we believe but when push comes to shove it turns out that we don't truly believe them at all, or at least don't act upon them as we ought. Peter's denial of Jesus is an example of this. When Jesus tells the disciples that he is going to be arrested and they will all desert him Peter says, "Not me, I won't desert you." But he did.

The third expression of faith are our core beliefs. These are the things that truly shape our behaviour. According to Ortberg we can never deny these core beliefs, we will always act in accordance with them. 

The goal of maturing faith is to align our core beliefs with those of Jesus. When it comes to facing economic uncertainty I suspect our core beliefs about money and financial security, about the kingdom of God and whether we do or don't worry about what to eat and wear will come into clearer focus.

Perhaps Alistair Darling is over optimistic about future growth, perhaps his plans will plunge us into the worst national debt crisis history has ever seen. Perhaps not. I don't know, but what I do know is that if my core beliefs are truly aligned to those of Jesus then my perspective on these things will be different. I'll still question the wisdom of government at times, I'll still seek to steward my finances wisely, but I won't lie awake at night worrying about it all. 

At least that's my intention.

Understanding History

I'm not a great student of history, never have been. But I don't know if it's as I get older or just as I understand more about the world around, but I'm increasingly interested in understanding history, particularly 20th century European history.

On our recent trip to Barcelona I was intrigued by the presentation of Catalonia's history and the strange gaps as they seemed to me. The complexity of European history seems quite daunting, but worth at least a little dip of the toe in the water. 

So, does anyone know of a good book, or have any suggestions about where to start?

Heroes

Must be the day for finding stuff about Christians and compassion. Here's another video that came via an email from Jim Henderson of Evangelism without Additives

Unfortunately the code doesn't work to embed the video in this blog post, so you'll have to follow the link and watch the video there. Just click on Maria Ruiz. All the people nominated are great adverts for selfless commitment to others, the kind of thing you'd expect more of the church to know for.

Maria has been nominated as a CNN hero and you can vote for her if you want to via the CNN website.

CompassionArt

I read recently about Compassionart in an interview with Martin Smith, but wasn't really paying attention to release dates but a friend sent me the link to the site this morning and I wanted to post it here.

Who votes for whom?

Every four years we get to watch the American Presidential elections from afar and wonder at the processes involved and the apparent polarisation of voting patterns focused on single issues. I suspect that politics is neither more nor less complicated in America than it is here at home in the UK.

There's no doubting that among many Britons, Barack Obama is seen as the man for the job. In fact he's the most popular candidate across Europe. In a recent survey of British attitudes towards the candidates Obama would win the election by a landslide if Britons voted. (I'm sure there is some relief in the States that we don't get to vote!) Why might this be?

Well, according to the same research, Britons are more liberal in their voting strategies than Americans. Here are some figures:

In other areas there are big differences. 7% of Britons would not vote for a divorced person (compared with 30% in the States), 23% would not vote for a gay or lesbian leader (compared with 43% in the States), and 20% of the British public would not vote for a political leader who was an atheist (compared with 53% in the States).

There's some encouragement for me in these numbers, albeit possibly a little odd for me to say so. I'm encouraged because the statistics about British voters suggest that we are less likely to focus on a single issue than I thought we might be. On the other hand the survey does not discriminate between how Christians (evangelical Christians particularly) compare to the general population. Having sat in various political pre-election meetings and listened to the questions Christians ask, I suspect that there's a lot of single issue focus to many an evangelical vote. And that bothers me.

It bothers me because I'm concerned that some of those single issues are not the issues that matter to God. He's probably a little miffed that many people don't give him the recognition he deserves for his creative work in establishing the universe, but I suspect he doesn't see the teaching of creation in the classroom as a truly important political issue. I may be wrong.

On the other hand he does care about the poor and those who suffer injustice. Micah 6:8 ring any bells? Or what about Luke 4?

So I just wonder how different our elections would be if we sought to discover who had the policies that we believe would best fulfil God's heart for justice for the oppressed, the poor, the alienated and marginalised. I wonder how different foreign policy might be if we asked, "How can we help you?" rather than, "Why can't you be just like us?"

My prayer for all American voters is that they will take their responsibility seriously and vote with their hearts and minds engaged with those things that matter most to God. I know no single candidate will ever have the monopoly on these things and, dare I say, just because they express faith doesn't mean they will have it right by default either.

And when our election comes around, I hope that we too will look with fresh eyes at the choices we will have before us.

Store Open

 

The "Fifty Thousand Shirts" store is now open on the website. If you are still thinking of signing up for a shirt just use the 50K logo on the right.

50,000 shirts

I was having a quick look at fiftythousandshirts this morning to how the project was going. Over 500 people have already signed up to buy a t-shirt, yours truly is #501 and a couple of friends from church are in the 550's.

They need to reach 2001 before they can start printing. So, if you were thinking about signing up and haven't got around to it, then let me encourage you to visit the site and pledge your support. The sooner they reach 2001, the sooner people will begin to see the shirts and hopefully that will give the idea a bigger profile.

Why did I do it? Well I could just have written a cheque or made a credit card donation via a charity or some other vehicle. But I thought this was a really innovative idea and I wanted to encourage Steve's imagination. I may never meet him, but there's something about the simplicity of his plan that appeals to me. That's why I've chosen to add our names to the wall and pay the international shipping to support this project.

Aid for China's Earthquake victims

If you have been wondering how you might register you concern for the victims of the China earthquake and donate, you might be interested in this.

A red credit card

If you are tired of collecting points on your credit card that are, by and large, quite meaningless, you may be interested in the American Express Red card. 

1% of your spending goes to the Global Fund to fight AIDS/HIV. 

Now I know that some things are gimmicks and I know big business altruism makes us all sceptical. but it's worth a try at the very least.

If you are unfamiliar with (Product)Red you can read more about it here.