Live a Big Life

Jan
10

Releasing dreams

by andy

I have a simple vision for my life: to see a generation living the life it was made for. To get there, my mission in life is to unlock potential and resource others: to facilitate the birth of hopes, dreams and schemes – vision – in each and every person who crosses my path. It’s a big vision and an impossible one, but the best visions are impossible because impossibility leaves room for the supernatural – and then who knows what may happen.  So far in my life I have had glimpses of what it is to embark on my

Jan
7

Life in the grey areas: a question of interpretation

by andy

Those with strong religious or political beliefs can be very quick to tell you what they believe. Christians, in particular. Many will tell you with such vehemence and surety that it’s tough to imagine they could possibly have got it wrong. But what is the basis for this belief? Interpretation. Or, more accurately, an interpretation that fits their paradigm for living. If only life were that simple: find an interpretation that fits how you want to live your life, and declare it de facto reality. If only that could be so. Really? Would you really want a life like that?

Jan
3

Life in the grey areas: blurred edges

by andy

I was playing around in Lightroom and Photoshop this morning, trying to see if Adobe had any tricks up their sleeve to help me mask my woeful inadequacies as a photographer (and they do), and as I tried different filters and settings I was struck by the effect of applying a true black and white effect. It made me think about how much detail can be lost when our perception is limited to only two solid colours. Black and white – true black and white, where the only colours are literally black and white – can be quite striking to

Dec
31

Life in the grey areas: tick box salvation

by andy

Does salvation boil down to ticking the right boxes? Does it amount to a set of ‘right beliefs’? If it does, can someone point out the boxes that need ticking and the beliefs that are ‘right’, please?  I have sat in rooms and been told that I don’t believe the right things. I have had church leaders tell me that I don’t tick the right boxes. I have even been accused of peddling a false gospel. My beliefs are wrong, my boxes unticked and my gospel false because I don’t meet the criteria these people set: a criteria that I

Dec
28

Life in the grey areas: 7 days, 7 years, 7 billion years, does it matter?

by andy

At the risk of getting totally flamed, I am going to stick my neck out and say that the ‘7 day creation’ is about the most unhelpful story there is in the Bible. Why? Because many not-yet-believers I talk to can’t get past it; they don’t believe God created the earth in 7 days, and so they don’t believe in God . But you know what? I’m not sure I believe God created the earth in 7 days, and I’m not sure it actually matters.  There are many grey areas to be found in Christianity , and many Christians do

Dec
22

Life in the grey areas: who is God anyway?

by andy

Before you start reading, watch this…  OK, Ricky Gervais is an atheist and he is actually taking the piss in that clip, which is from his live show ‘Animals’, but as far as I am concerned it is a brilliant and humorous way of illustrating just how we can never fathom God .  How many Christians do you know who talk about God in absolute terms, like they have a complete understanding of who he is? I know a few. But here’s the thing, the very nature of a creator-created relationship is that the created can never know as much

Dec
20

Life in the grey areas: journeying towards common ground

by andy

One thing I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable with is the idea of instruction.  Let me qualify that a little. I am not suggesting that we don’t need to learn stuff. I am not suggesting that we can’t be taught stuff. What I mean by that statement is that we need to move away from the ‘teacher-pupil’ relationship we find in so many churches, and towards a relationship more akin to ‘guide and traveller’.  The fundamental problem, at least as I see it, with the whole ‘teacher-pupil’ approach is that it denies discussion and prevents discovery . In such a relationship

Dec
18

Life in the grey areas: finding certainty in uncertainty

by andy

As an accountant, a project manager and a strategist, uncertainty is my enemy. It undermines infrastructure, derails plans, and hinders involvement. As an accountant, project manager and strategist, certainty is my friend. Certainty allows me to put forward proposals, to secure funding, to develop plans. Certainty is a thing to be craved, nurtured and embraced. But as a sold-out follower of Jesus, the reverse is true.  It is that tension between the compartments of my life that has led me to a place of unbearable internal friction, and in recent months I have realised that the only way to deal

Dec
16

Life in the grey areas: discovery lies in the question

by andy

Conrad Gempf’s brilliantly titled book ‘Jesus Asked’ shows how much value Jesus placed in questions. He knew that people don’t find truth in answers, they find it in questions. Jesus asked what he wanted to know. He didn’t need to, He had the answers already, but He wanted to hear the answer spoken to him; He wanted to lead people to their own discovery of truth. Jesus knew we live in grey areas, and He knew we can’t handle the truth, we need to discover it piece by piece, little by little, one truth at a time.  So if that

Dec
14

Life in the grey areas: you can’t handle the truth!

by andy

‘A Few Good Men’ is a movie that on one level is very, very bad, but on another is very, very profound. As I have been contemplating truth, it’s elusive nature, and our pursuit of it, I was struck by just how profound one particular scene in that movie is. Before you read the rest of this post, just take a couple of minutes to watch this: OK, before you start bouncing up and down, this is not some new development in the Davinci Code: I am not suggesting Jesus was a Marine with a gun who guarded a wall

Releasing dreams

Life in the grey areas: a question of interpretation

Life in the grey areas: blurred edges

Life in the grey areas: tick box salvation

Life in the grey areas: 7 days, 7 years, 7 billion years, does it matter?

Life in the grey areas: who is God anyway?

Life in the grey areas: journeying towards common ground

Life in the grey areas: finding certainty in uncertainty

Life in the grey areas: discovery lies in the question

Life in the grey areas: you can’t handle the truth!

Who I am

What am I?

Why a Big Life?