Travelling with Gershom

Just a quick note between flights...I am in Frankfurt airport for the first time, and I have two words for you: German sausages. Juicy, savoury, and crisp, with rich brown mustard on the side. That's the greatest. Two more words: self-disinfecting toilets. Flush, and an arm slides out over the seat, releasing a cleanser as the seat rotates clockwise 360 degrees. And that's the latest. Note to self: see if this technology is available for home. And if I can import sausages...

An article in this morning's Arabian Business electronic newsletter discussed the upcoming auction of licence plates in Abu Dhabi. Interesting reading, about the selling of "special" number plates for your car, with the proceeds going to charity. Here is a picture I took in Abu Dhabi a few months back, of a Rolls parked in front of a hotel: (Yes, it is actually a Bentley and two Rolls-Royces, but stop quibbling!) The center vehicle has the licence plate 5; here is a somewhat blurry enlargement for proof: This plate was purchased at auction last spring for a record-setting AED25,200,000, or C$6,917,380.43, at today's exchange rate. Similar auctions have been held throughout the Gulf, but nothing has come close to this. How much for an old orange NFLD plate, I wonder?

I recently stumbled across the blog of Andrew Jones , who has written a compelling article on "offensive language and the emerging church movement" in which he argues that what people find offensive varies across time, place, and culture. What I find interesting is the context: people who are finding their way to God, and the response of the mainstream church to them, who they are, and where they are in their spiritual walk. I was reminded of a friend who was relatively new to the church, especially a church of the evangelical Protestant variety. She would invariably use the name of God as a means of emphasis, in a very Newfoundland manner, with such phrases as "God, that was horrible" or "God, it was wonderful seeing them again". Having struggled with swearing during my own time looking for God, I was a little uncomfortable with this (as mild an oath as many consider it these days). I considered discussing this with her, but fortunately a more mature f

I just finished reading The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan (his earlier book Your God is Too Safe was also excellent). A pastor on Vancouver Island, he offers a considered, gentle, and scriptural perspective in his writing. The Rest of God is about the Sabbath, about Sabbath-taking and Sabbath-breaking. Rather than dictating what Sabbath is or must be, Buchanan examines his own journey in becoming a Sabbath-taker, and provides hints and practices for us so that we can enter into the rest of God. Buchanan invites us to explore this call, and to taste and see that it is good. As overly busy modern people, it is easy to dismiss the Sabbath day as an archaic practice that doesn't consider that we have to work six or seven days a week in order to complete our assigned tasks. And we often get caught up with our failure to get something done, or at least I do. I look at my responsibilities at home and at work, my to-do list that gets longer each day, my languishing PhD studies, and I fe