God helps me

In the past I've got home from a long day at work, tired, having talked all day, and wanting to crash, yet knowing that in 60 short minutes I'll need to have got changed, tidied the flat, put on some music, cooked a meal, and be ready to socialise, make people feel welcome, and lead a lifegroup as friends arrive after great days, bad days, hearts broken, hearts on fire. So I pray. He helps. In those situations I'm not surprised.

Other times it's the end of a long week of work and some people are going to the pub. I know I should go and socialise, but maybe I don't want to. In those situations I haven't prayed. But why not?! God cares about those situations too.

Today was a lifegroup day (though not at my flat); he helped.
Next time a work thing happens, I'm sure he will too.

New and shiny

I'm gonna try to pick-up blogging again over on Tumblr!
It's easy, they'll be short, and lots of links to other things.
But it'll be a blog (of sorts).

Check it out

Stories not statistics

Stories are better than statistics. Disclaimer: I studied maths and work with numbers.

Today I read lots of statistics, and a story. The story stuck in my head.

Read these statistics from water.org:

• 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies
• 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
• People living in the slums often pay 5-10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city.
• An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.

Now compare that to this video of Justin Zoradi tellig his story of "These numbers have faces":

What stuck with me is the stories, the specifics.
To me the statement "one person will die because they can't even get access to clean drinking water in a city" is more powerful than if you change the number to one million.

We have to start by understanding a small problem well, by letting it affect us, by letting it change us.
Statistics don't change people. Stories do.

A statistic is one story affecting more than one person.

Verses that strike #001

"For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God."
Romans 2:28-29

A reminder to seek God and his favour, not man's.

Jonah and Jesus

Today I was reading Luke 11 and for the first time ever, I think, I understood that bit about Jonah: "for as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be to this generation."

Before I didn't have a clue what that meant; diddly-squat. How was Jesus like Jonah?

Jonah didn't really give any signs to the Ninevites (the whole fish thing was for Jonah not the Ninevites). They were an evil bunch, he came along and told them death was coming, and they repented. Simple. A simple warning from a foreigner changed the darkest city. So when the Ninevites hear that you heard the full blown Son of man talking, and still didn't repent, well... they'll condemn you. 'cos they were so much worse, and only heard Jonah, but you heard the Son of man.

Funky new (mobile) website

This website hasn't had a funky new update, but a few big mobile sites have. I'm gonna talk about: Facebook, Twitter and Tugenda Bible (I know it's not popular, but I made it so I get to advertise it).

1) The facebook mobile website wasn't very good. There was no way to access events, no way to view a wall-to-wall, and overall, a cut-down experience. Instead was using the official app (on my HTC Desire), but my phone has limited storage space, so I was forever having to delete app-data! With the updated website I don't use the app, instead using the website; it's great! On the main page I can see: 1) any new (and recent) notifications, 2) my news feed and 3) if I have any messages. All on one screen.

2) Twitter. I've only just seen it today, but they've changed the mobile website. It feels less like a mobile website and more like an app. It feels much faster, and it should have me using it more.

3) Tugenda Bible. Up until the weekend there was no mobile version of this website, and I was contemplating making an Andoid App (no doubt inspired by The Apprentice). Realising the steep learning curve required, I decided to stick with HTML in the browser, particularly with the growth in HTML5. So if you have a mobile, have a look at: m.bible.tugenda.com. There are still a few bugs, I want to make it more app-like, but it works, and gets rid of those verse numbers which so often get in the way when reading the bible!

What do you think? Seen any good mobile websites?

Reminders

Yesterday I was reminded by a friend of a dream I hadn't thought about for at least twelve months. It was great, yet I was shocked I'd forgotten about it for so long.

These two cycles overlap and stimulate one another:

• Share dreams --> talk about dreams --> remind each other about dreams --> ...
• Remember your dreams -->Fulfill your dreams --> ...

43 things is an online version of this. I've just remembered I have an account, and it hasn't helped much in fulfiilling them over the last few years (I haven't used it), but it has just reminded me about some of my dreams (/goals/plans).