These Lively Oracles

My apprenticeship was a particularly intense and extremely valuable one. I worked for one of the larger and more well known companies in the city at that time and that brought with it the advantage of all the apprentices being rotated around other jobs within the company so as to gain a wide range of experience During the first couple of years everything was overseen by the tradesman. He ordered all of the materials. He checked everything. He monitored everything. And along with that he was teaching us all the things that we needed to know in order to become a competent tradesperson. Soon, as we moved into the last phase of our apprenticeships a subtle change came along. Almost imperceptable at first, but suddenly it seemed as if we were being challenged about out workskills. Any time that I went to the tradesman to enquire about a problem he would turn it back on me and ask me what I myself would do to sort the problem out. He wouldn’t help but he watched as we tried to solve a ...

I have been involved with several different projects over my years of being with churches, projects and christian groups. And, within the context of my faith/life, in all these ventures I only ever tried to be of some use to God and His people along the way. Learning about Him and His church was all I ever wanted. It was never done for money, or gain, or privilege. And the only thing I ever hoped to gain from it all was a sense that I was being useful to God. A lot of the projects went well for their time. And I really enjoyed them. But there came a time when I began to wonder what my purpose was in being there anymore. The initial buzz just didn’t seem to be as strong as it was and things started feeling as if I was getting in people’s way. So, I moved along and found another little project to get involved in. And, again, it ran its course and my time in that project came to an end and I moved on again. So, the projects all ended. And, if I was being honest with myself, I felt...

Many years ago I got the opportunity to return to higher level education. I was an adult by this time and had figured that my days of academia were long gone, apart from the occasional training course related to work. But no. Lo and behold, there I was sitting in a classroom with other like minded adults all eager to start a course of higher level education which would lead to a meaningful, relevant and tangible qualification. The academic year duly progressed along and I found myself at the end of the year ready to sit my exams. I passed them all except one. And this one was the most important one – Mathematics. I failed it. And miserably so. The tutor said that the only saving grace was that my grade was so low that he knew I definitely wasn’t cheating. I wasn’t the only one who failed. Most of the people who failed were mature students who had returned to education after having been away from it for a while. And we were all given the chance to re-sit the exam again. But this...

Over the years I have fitted, removed, and worked on many, many washing machines. All sorts from twin-tubs to automatics. From front-loaders to top-loaders. I have replaced inner drums, replaced outer seals and cleaned out filters. I remember when my family got their first ever automatic washing machine all those years ago. Mum put a wash load into the machine and Dad and I went and got two kitchen chairs and sat and watched the machine go through its whole washing cycle. We sat and watched as the little timer dial turned through it’s program   and the clothes plopped and sloshed their way around the drum as the soapy water splashed against the funny shaped window in the door. Never in the history of mankind have two intelligent men ever been held so engrossed by something so simple as the actions of an automatic washing machine. I thought I had seen it all. Washing machine life would never be the same again. So, we recently bought a new washing machine. And for the ver...

Sadly, on a few occasions in my life, I have had to make a stand for something that I knew I was going to lose out on. But the stand had to be made and the loss had to be taken. Because the fight wasn’t about me. It was about someone else. And I had to go to make the stand, face the opposition, and take the hits so that an innocent party would win. And, boy, am I so glad that I did it. For the person that I was standing in place off won every time. You see, facing fights like these, even if you know that you’re going to lose, is not about revenge, or superiority, or might, or justice.   This sort of a fight is different. It’s about a principle. Win or lose, you have to stand and fight. But, it was also during these difficult times that I discovered new things about myself. I found new strengths that I never knew I had. These strengths were difficult to discover. For they involved a lot of tears, a lot of stress and a massive sense of isolation. I have never felt so isolated...

  When I was a child bicycles were a rarity. Not many kids had them. I used to see old men cycle to work on their old black bicycles with the thumb operated bell and the lights that worked from a dynamo. The lights faded and brightened according to the speed they were riding at. Then one year, everyone got a bicycle for Christmas. I didn’t. We got other great stuff. But during the springtime as the lighter nights came in all the kids were cycling around the streets of the neighbourhood. Then one night my dad came home from work with a bicycle. It was awful. It was of the old type that I watched the older men cycle to work in. It was terrible. My heart dropped. My dad found it laying around at his workplace. It had been laying there for years. It would have been a 1940’s type bicycle with a little dynamo fitted that you had to twist in against the wheel to make it work. It needed new tyres and plenty of oil to free up the stiffened bearings. It looked terrible when s...

Many, many years ago when I was a teenager I used to have to walk along a certain road to get to work. It was a winding, twisty road about half a mile long. And it was uphill all the way to the top. Every morning and evening I walked that road in spring, summer and winter and in all kinds of weather. But my favourite abiding memory of walking that road was that on springtime mornings I could hear a cuckoo calling out. I never saw the thing as it was nested high up in trees on the other side of the road. But on many mornings I could hear its call so shrill and clear as I walked by. Everyone in the vicinity could hear it. Amongst all the varied birdsong this one rang out so distinctively clear. Although I haven’t walked along that road in many years, at that time of my life I would have walked it several times a day, almost every day. But of all my memories of travelling that road it is the morning call of the cuckoo that I remember most. For some reason it very recently came...

During several of my recent bible studies I have become increasingly aware of an ancient document. The “Codex Sinaiticus”.   I had come across references to it many times before but I had never given it much more than a scant thought. Because firstly, it was a very ancient manuscript and secondly, it was written in an ancient and archaic language that I wouldn’t understand. So, what was the point of looking? I decided to leave it to the experts. Now! Let’s skip over to mid-2024 when my wife and I had planned a short holiday to the City of London. We love that city and have visited it many times. At some point in my previous studies I had found out that this ancient document could be seen on display in the British Library in London. So, I decided that it was worth a visit. But before I went I began to read a bit more earnestly into the artifact to see just exactly what it was I was looking at. And what I discovered made me take my thinking of it far more seriously than I had...