Deiknuo’s blog – the reflections of David Lewis

The world’s deepest bin – a bit of fun

21 October 2009 · Leave a Comment

Making good behaviour fun, with grateful thanks to David Keen for pointing me in this direction.

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Tagged: bin, rubbish

Playing the game

14 October 2009 · 1 Comment

We have all seen in the news recently various items concerning highly paid sportsmen who will stop at nothing to win: footballers who dive to get a penalty awarded to them, or a rugby player who pretends he’s been injured, at the command of his coach, so that he can be substituted for another player. I suppose that the money that is involved in sport leads to the must win at any price mentality that seems to be prevalent in many sports nowadays.

I am competitive when it comes to playing games, but I hope that I would never cheat in order to win. However, recently I have been reflecting more generally on whether my Christian faith comes through in the way that I play games. How important is winning to me? Do I play in what I might call an ethical way?

Let me give you a light-hearted example. Over the last week or two I’ve been playing FarmVille. FarmVille is a game which can be found through Facebook where you are responsible for developing a farm. As you make progress and gain experience you are able to grow a bigger selection of crops and purchase better equipment. You can interact with Facebook friends who also play FarmVille, sending each other gifts and helping in small tasks around the farm.

But the aim of the game is to maximise profits and move up quickly through the various levels of experience. And so the temptation is to farm your land very intensively: your livestock is squeezed into as small a space as possible, and every inch of your farm must be utilised effectively.

I’ve decided, though, that I don’t want to play the game that way. I want to leave space between my crops. I want my animals to have space to move around in. In short, I have decided that I want to farm ethically, even if it is only a game. I may not be as profitable a farmer as some, but that’s fine by me. I’d rather play the game according to my Christian principles!

If you are on Facebook and play FarmVille, do come and be my neighbour, and hold me accountable if I start being too concerned about making a profit!

→ 1 CommentCategories: Entertainment · Internet · Thoughts
Tagged: Facebook, FarmVille

Reading old age

29 September 2009 · Leave a Comment

One of my Anglican friends, Phil Ritchie, who works for the Diocese of Chelmsford, has recently posted this article on the subject of retirement and old age. Well worth a read!

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Tagged: old age, Phil Ritchie, retirement

Ministers’ Fraternal

29 September 2009 · Leave a Comment

We had a good local ministers’ fraternal yesterday, though I wish we could drop the use of the word ‘fraternal’.

I felt a little like the odd one out, being the only non-Anglican in the group. But it was great to spend time with the new rector, and I’m glad to report that his soup is up to the usual high standard expected by fraternal members.

And I’m glad that it seems we’re going to focus more on mission in the months to come. That’s good news!

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Tagged: fraternal

Church buildings: assets or millstones?

29 September 2009 · Leave a Comment

Are church buildings assets or millstones? That’s a question I’ve been prompted to ask because the subject has cropped up recently in conversations I’ve had with various people, and in a couple of news articles I’ve read today.

I’ve heard of a parish church reasonably local to me where the parishioners have been told that the parish can’t afford to heat the church over winter, and so please could they wrap up warm when they come to services. It seems to me that here is a church that is not going to give a particularly warm welcome, literally, over the Christmas period.

Then I was pointed to a news article where a couple who owned property next to their local church were being required, because of some ancient law, to cough up some £230,000 for the repair of the church building. I feel sorry for the church with buildings that require that amount spent on them to keep them serviceable. But it seems Draconian to require the church’s neighbours to foot the bill, all because of some law hundreds of years old.

I’m grateful, where I minister, that we have a great suite of modern premises, used extensively by the community. But having seen our heating bills rise astronomically over the past year or so, and after having to pay a large bill running into tens of thousands of pounds to repair part of our roof, there are some who are saying that the church building is in danger of becoming a millstone around our necks.

It’s great to have a place for worship, for church activities, and for the community to share in. But, looking to the future, we constantly need to be aware of what we saddle generations to come with. Our prosperity might become their ruin.

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Tagged: church buildings

Computer woes

9 September 2009 · Leave a Comment

Although we’ve personally migrated to Apple Macs, my computer in the church office is a PC (only 18 months old, from Dell). But it’s now gone to computer hospital because of a graphics issue.

I hope it comes back in time for the weekend, because although I write my sermons on the Mac, I haven’t got a Mac-compatible printer. I convert and transfer the files, via Dropbox, to the PC to be printed off on Sunday morning. So if the PC isn’t ready by the weekend, I may have problems!

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Technology