While speaking to someone recently and as she shared with me some of the challenges in her life which she has had to deal with for some time now it was obvious that what she craved for in the midst of her situation was peace and contentment. Peace means different things for different people, and we often fiercely disagree about how to achieve it. Are there places where we can find peace? Can you have peace even in the midst of the challenges of life? Is peace to do with external influences on your life or is it something you receive from beyond your own being?

This peaceful photo is the view from the front of my house which is on the Island of Harris. The house is named in Gaelic “Tamh” which is translated peace/tranquillity.


The cottage is a holiday home http://www.harrisselfcatering.co.uk/  which I let out to visitors to Harris. The isolation and the scenery certainly provide the setting for an experience of peace and tranquillity.


Many have made similar comments about the sanctuary of Cathcart Trinity Church. http://www.cathcarttrinity.org.uk/ They find a peace there be it as they sit in the silence or during a worship service. I am sure that many have places where they long to be when life gets frantic and out of control….a place of peace.

But that’s the problem isn’t it? If our peace & tranquillity is associated with a place, then we have to be at/in that place for us to experience its therapeutic effect. If it is to do with relaxation techniques we have to be engaged in them. But what if peace, real lasting peace is to be found in a person? What if the words Jesus once said to his followers “My peace I give to you” is really true? A peace that is independent of places and our circumstances in life – a peace that is found when one is in a relationship with Jesus Christ may just be worth considering and investigating!

Is Steven Hawking an undercover Christian?

This was a very interesting theory put to me today by an agnostic. You'll have to wait until I have time to write the bases of this person's theory up as I'm out tonight...... so WATCH THIS SPACE!

A new dawn breaks

Well folks this is it! This is my toe now dipped into the waters of blogging.....how deep it goes and where it goes who knows. That's what I find so exciting about life - because there is always more to life than this - I mean more than just what we have right now. Take today for example. Here i am embarking on something new...something I've thought about for some time but.......well....I never took the risk or tried it out. I know a lot about blogging and even know people who blogg. I read widely on the subject and it facinates me. The potential, the buzz and excitement of comunicating with folk across the globe. A whole new world opening up to me. You see, we can never really know what something is like until we try it out. We can know something about it second-hand from someone else, we can even know a lot about it - BUT! - until we try it for ourseves it just remains a theory or something we can only observe from a distance thereby missing out on the possibility of there being more to life than this!
I suppose the whole of today is going to be like that. I've a service to take this lunchtime at Cathcart Trinity Church http://www.cathcarttrinity.org.uk/ in Glasgow where I am a minister...oh I've taken many of these but every one is different because I just don't know what God is going to do there today...He's surprised me so often in the past and He'll do the same today...and I'm excited!
Tonight I'm in  a Football Quiz Team at a charity event in aid of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers  http://www.carers.org/ and I'm going to meet lots of folk I've never met before. I believe that football legend Alan Rough of Partick thistle and Real Radio fame is going to be there. I'm representing a team from another important charity Revive MS Support http://www.revivemssupport.org.uk/ and who knows - we might win!!! Revive do a great work and we host one of their outreach clinics in our church every Friday. They too have many fundraising events planned as can be seen from their web site. Do you think that there could be more to life if we took advantage of the opportunities that present themselves to us every day? I'd like to hear your opinions so be like me - get blogging!
It's a great privilege to share my first blogg with you all - welcome to moretolifethanthis.