Wednesday Wisdom

Under Pressure by Robyn Weir   For this week’s Wednesday wisdom, I’m going to chat a little bit about pressure. I would love to say I volunteered for it but its more realistic to say I was assigned it because anyone who knows me, knows that one of my mottos or catchphrases in life is  “diamonds are made under pressure”, although to be honest, that has always been more of an excuse for my procrastination but here we are. So let’s gets started… Pressure is something I guarantee everybody has been through in their life or will face at some point. It may have been just a passing moment or something that has stayed with us for a long period of time. For me, I have felt pressure I would say most of my life. And I know some people are watching this and thinking “Robyn, you’re only 24 what have you had to be stressed or feel pressure about” and you know what that’s very true, I’ve been very blessed in my life and a lot of people have been through a lot worse.  For me pressure has...

Stepping Out by Stu Armstrong, who is  currently  training for ordination I remember one year at Summer Madness there was a boy in our group, let’s call him Ryan. There are a few things you need to know about Ryan. Ryan was nearly blind. His eyesight was awful. Most things were just fuzzy shapes until you got within about a metre of his face. He had almost no depth perception. Ryan was brave, adventurous and confident. Undeterred by his eyesight and always up for a challenge. Ryan was also an idiot. He was wonderfully intelligent, but lacked any and all wisdom or common sense.   Some of you will remember that across the street from Glenarm Estate there is a little play park and some public toilets by the beach. One morning, Ryan went exploring. He somehow managed to make it off site, cross the road without getting squashed and found his way to the play park.   Now, there is one final thing you need to know about Ryan. Ryan loved parkour… …or at least the idea of park...

  Light Written by Andrew Norrie, Youth Worker At this time of year Light is quite a big thing, or maybe more so the lack of it. The nights are getting darker sooner and the mornings are taking longer to appear. The darkness is slowly consuming the light and in some respects over powering it. We get up each day knowing that soon there will be more darkness in our daily lives than light.  However we know that in a few months time the light will make a come back and start to consume the darkness. Days will get longer and eventually there will be more light in the day than darkness. As seasons change this is our reality year in year out, yet the same can also be said for the spiritual side of our lives. With the one exception once we let the light in, it stays.  The Bible tells us in John 1:5 " The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." You see as Christians once we let Jesus into our lives, he takes up residency in our hearts, we belong to the ...

Blurred Vision Written by Julie Craig Wearing a mask and goggles has become part of daily life for me over the past few months. Sometimes I practically forget that I’m wearing them, but then every now and again something happens that that reminds me they’re there. And if you’re used to wearing glasses I’m sure you’ll recognise the feeling of taking your glasses off and realising just how dirty they are.   It can get a bit difficult when I’m trying to speak to patients as it’s hard for me to make out what they’re saying and hard to see out of my smudged and steamed-up goggles, and I’m sure it’s hard for them to make out what I’m saying.   But it did remind me of something that the Christian author Chip Ingram described when he talked about how we look at things through a warped mirror. You know the kind of mirror that I mean, one of those fairground ones that makes everything look out of shape, and depending on what way you look at it, it’ll make things look wonky in some diffe...

  DETERMINATION Hubert Scott - Youth Action Team

  Everything’s Changing Written by Andrew Norrie, Youth Worker Change is everywhere, it’s one of life’s certainties. Yet for many of us, change makes us feel uncomfortable, fills us with worry and what it will mean for us. For others change doesn’t bother them, they embrace it with both hands and jump straight in.   I personally find myself in the middle of these two attitudes. On one hand, I love new opportunities and exploring new ways of doing things. Yet on the other, I dislike the uncertainty and I spend hours worrying about how that may look for us. One of the biggest changes I love is to see the change God makes in the lives of each and every young person I get the pleasure of working with.   Over the last few weeks, we have experienced that late September heatwave that ushers us into the winter. Within hours it felt like we had gone from shorts and t-shirt weather to woolly hats and jumpers. I don’t know about you but this is one of those changes that catches me o...