The Eleven O’Clock: Tea, toast, and Dublin, 1798 Thursday 26th June, 2025

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1. Where am I?

2. What am I doing?

3. What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

1. Physically at my desk, writing and enjoying a brief break, armed with a colourful mug of Tetley tea and munching two pieces of buttered toast. Mentally, it’s dawn and I’m alone on a horse en route to Dublin in May 1798 in the form of an Irish girl with a lot on her mind.

2. Thinking. As the character, mostly thinking, dispelling anxious thoughts by forming a detailed plan of action. As the writer, weighing up what it must be like for this fictitious character to be caught in a combination of competing loyalties, and facing a very uncertain future. And wondering whether all this writing is some unconscious form of autobiography; whether the characters we form can ever be truly ‘not me? Perhaps, through our imaginations, we do invent original creations that are not us, in order to dis-cover who we truly are?

Feelings. There are times when you become immersed in a character’s mental, emotional, or spiritual state. As yet, this character isn’t pondering spiritual matters, but is thinking deeply about the various moral dilemmas she faces – one step removed from the spiritual? Her romantic feelings towards the protagonist are embryonic and subject to her other dilemmas. Whatever feelings she may have lie hidden, held just below the surface. Maybe by 11.30, I’ll be there.

I’m also aware of just how tasty the rescued bread has turned out to be when toasted.

Licking my lips.

Back to 1798.

The Eleven O’Clock ix Prosecco, Trump, and Tehran Wednesday 25th June, 2025

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1.        Where am I?

2.        What am I doing?

3.        What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

1.        At my desk, on the landing, at home

2.        Multitasking – fielding texts from daut 1 and genning up on Iran’s theological/political stance and pondering the wisdom of Trump’s ‘cease fire’.

3.        Thinking

As indicated above, I’m swinging between a conversation with daughter 1 and a deeper quest to understand the theological rather than political stance of Iran that forms the foundation of the Iranian Revolution. To begin with, daughter 1. It began with a text from me asking my Prosecco expert how many bottles are required for 30 adults x 1 drink upon arrival at a party and ended up discussing how many bottles Daut 1 can safely carry riding pillion on a Yamaha 750 as she journeys down from KT6.

Whilst many will rejoice at the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Iran, I am less ebullient. This could be more than a blunder by our strange friend Mr Trump, and may represent a moral vacuum lying at the heart of the Western World, similarly to its blind and deaf policy towards the Nazi Party before the outbreak of WWII.

WWII claimed the lives of 80 million souls and 6 million Jews. Had we acted decisively in the 1930s to oust Hitler, many would still have died, but far fewer, I would argue.

I fear my children and grandchildren will look back on this moment in history in the same light. Iran has been pruned, but it will grow back, fiercer, stronger, more virulent, and waiting for an opportunity to gather strength from nations it has beguiled to continue its aim – the destruction of Israel as a prerequisite for the return of the 12th Iman, Mahdi, a Messianic figure to herald a world-wide Caliphate in which world there is no place for a Jewish State, in fact Israel’s existence is the final obstacle to the return of the Mahdi, and therefore must be destroyed.

I am not in favour of war. It is abhorrent. But sometimes it is necessary to excise an evil presence as with the Nazis in Germany and its ally, Japan, in the East. Delay cost the world an enormous loss of life.

So…at 11 o’clock this morning, I was pondering the lack of wisdom of Trump’s ceasefire.

Feeling: quite calm, a dispassionate approach to a serious issue that may yet engulf nations further afield than Iran/Israel’s immediate neighbours. And less anxiety at the prospect of the housewarming, now that the quantity of Champagne/Prosecco available for guests has been resolved.

The Eleven O’Clock viii Bread disaster?Tuesday 24th June, 2025

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1.        Where am I?

2.        What am I doing?

3.        What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

1.        Kitchen

2.        Attempting to rescue a bread dough – I forgot to add yeast

3.        Thinking? I’m thinking, is there no end to my incompetence? In a rather blasé, over-confident manner, I blended my two types of bread flour, added olive oil and my secret ingredient to the warm water, but forgot to add yeast. Have had a go at adding yeast/warm water afterwards. I doubt it will work. It’s a fail-safe recipe until human frailty takes over.

Feelings? Apart from a slight sense of disappointment and curiosity about the ‘rescue’ (time will tell), my thoughts and feelings have been caught up in preparing an Amazon order full of party paraphernalia, so thinking and motivation are more apparent than emotion. Although social anxiety is waiting in the wings, and occasionally makes an untimely entrance on stage to remind me of all the things that could go wrong.

Somewhat surprisingly, the dough is rising! So, one presses on…with bread-making, party planning, and all the rest of the TTD (things to do) list. Some of its items are written down, whereas others, unwritten, including the latest developments in the Jerusalem/Tehran/Washington conflict, are not. These thoughts take time to settle within, to create thoughts, and thoughts to create prayers. We often say what goes up must come down; it’s equally true to say what goes in must come out. I wonder if you have found that to be true with the Middle East, the impact of everything since the Hamas attack until now has gone into your heart. I wonder in what form it has come out?

The Eleven O’Clock vii Dinosaurs in a Graveyard Monday 23rd June, 2025

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1. Where am I?
2. What am I doing?
3. What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

1. Congresbury – St Andrew’s graveyard

2. Traipsing round St Andrews church, orchard, gardens, and graveyard with two grandchildren. E is pointing out the letter E on gravestones and asking deep questions, and JJ is content distracting himself with important tasks such as lifting up flower holders and looking through the holes

3. Apart from debating within myself, what are the appropriate boundaries to put in to show respect for graves, and yet encourage grandchildren explore, I am having to try and explain ultimate questions of life and death as well as play ball and crack open apples to see if the pips are white or brown. Everything is oriented around the grandchildren.

4. Feelings? Bit worried at one point that I will run out of ideas to entertain E & JJ and they will inevitably get tired, bored, hungry, and irritable. Saved by noticing a text from mum saying food and drink in the bag. Sense of relief as I dug out breadsticks, apples, and – apparently – a very hungry dinosaur. Life is simple, really. When you are two or three.

The Eleven O’Clock vi Cheddar Baptist Sunday 22nd June, 2025

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1. Where am I?
2. What am I doing?
3. What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

1. Third of four rows from the back of Cheddar Baptist on the left-hand side

2. Listening to a sermon with one ear and trying to decode what the preacher was trying to convey, in general and personally

3. In terms of the sermon, his aim seemed to be to distil a common theme from three very different bible passages: how to maintain our differences, as believers in Christ, without withdrawing from society, even if it means not conforming to the values and beliefs of society. True freedom. So I’m trying to decode his more poetic way of communication in contrast to the more expositional teaching I’m used to.

Feeling. It’s nearly 3 months since I moved to Winscombe. Every so often, I get waves of ‘the new boy’ syndrome. This morning was like that. After the service, I was involved in a number of conversations, but at 11, social confidence was running on empty.

p.s. U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities overnight. It was coming. Maybe the potential for that conflict to spill over into other nations is on all of our minds, even if it’s held at the periphery of conscious thought.

The Eleven O’Clock v Dublin 1798 Saturday 21st June, 2025

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1. Where am I?
2. What am I doing?
3. What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

1. On the landing, at my desk, windows open

2. Apart from typing this, I’m eating two pieces of toast – jam and marmalade, downed with a cuppa Tetley

3. I’m thinking about writing. To do that, I have to do some time-traveling, back to Dublin in 1798 in the smouldering pre-uprising heat of the Irish rebellion. And within that context, to move person A and person B around. Writing, I have found, is more like watching a film unfold in real time than planning too far ahead. By the end of today, or maybe early next week, I may have discovered how the novel ends, but for NOW, by now I mean the Tuesday after Easter 1798, person A has to brew some coffee on a riverbank and greet his work colleagues as if nothing is out of place. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Beyond Dublin, there are other thoughts, some continuous, but all are relegated to wherever the back of one’s mind lurks.

By the end of today, or maybe early next week, I may have discovered how the novel ends

Feelings? Not entirely settled. If the writing goes well, I will be absorbed in that other world with its feelings, its hopes, dreams, horrors, fears and so on. Until then, the things that may retreat to the back of my mind are not there yet. Mild anxiety in various forms over organising a social event next Saturday. Also a surprising burst of Strava joy that informed me that I had run far faster than I had thought earlier this morning to avoid the heat later in the day.

The Eleven O’Clock iv Not Filling a Kettle Friday 20th June, 2025

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1.        Where am I?
2.        What am I doing?
3.        What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

Post Four:

1.        Home.
2.        The literal answer: deciding it’s too late to fill the kettle, get wallet, phone, Amazon Return package sellotaped, sandals on, ready to walk to the PO and then to local barbers for 11.30 cut.
3.        Partly thinking how mundane today’s post will be and whether it’s OK to divert from a strict adherence to 11 o’clock on the dot? Replacing ‘deciding not to fill a kettle’ with describing my ‘fields and footpaths’ walk earlier in the morning. All that did serve to remind me that I don’t spend all my time in my rational mind, thinking, but, like Mary the mother of Jesus, and like all of us, I suspect, I also ponder things in my heart.

Feelings. If we are body, soul, and spirit, then ‘feeling’ can be through our physical senses – and I was feeling hot; it’s a muggy morning. Or we can ‘feel’ with our emotions – and I was on a fairly even keel. quite tranquil. Or we can ‘feel’ or sense spiritually – and I think, spiritually, I was taking a nap, having had an earlier workout listening to another Inspired podcast with Simon Guillebaud, this time interviewing Shane Taylor, an ex-violent man, often in prison, who was transformed after, in his words, Jesus walked into his life.

Tragedy in Eden

Thursday.

The glory of the Lord appeared today
In the form of forked lightning
And thunder
Coconuts fell all morning
Rebounding from the ground
All our creatures hid in places
I have never found

As evening fell, flashes of light
Lit everything up
In purples and white light
Wisdom spoke warning us
Of taking canoes out
On the river
But courage spoke also

It was Havilah that we paddled
To see the gold
Illuminated from inside and out
Soon, bathed in a yellow hue
Absorbing and filling us with strength
Eve scooped up the river water
And drank its light

Friday Morning

Eve returned early from
A morning stroll, eyes wide open
Rain fell, drenching her hair
The clouds, closer than normal
Looked disturbed
In her hand, a red peach
Dripping with juice and rain
I took the second bite

Friday Evening

Everything was familiar and yet
Distorted, the soil dustier
Eve’s forehead creased, and mine
A strange fear knotted
And knit us closer
It wasn’t love, knowing we could
Never re-attach the peach

The glory of the Lord appeared
Not as before, but
With tears and strange words
He walked away
Pulling our wooden canoe
For safe storage ‘Until…’
But we couldn’t hear the words

The Eleven O’Clock iii Thursday 19th June, 2025

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1. Where am I?
2. What am I doing?
3. What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

Post Three:

1. Home, in the kitchen.

2. Kneading dough – half wholemeal/half white bread flour + secret ingredient. Washing up & making cup of tea, white no sugar

3. Various overlapping thoughts playing in my mind, bit like a jazz band, each taking turns for solos. New lounge carpet fitted yesterday, so am thinking about next steps. Also listening to the story of Emma Scrivener, an ex-anorexic sufferer, on Inspired podcast with Simon Guillebaud. Earlier this morning walked/ran from Winscombe hill to Crook Peak and back listening to the podcast, so thoughts are rippling out during the day. During that walk/run had an unusual burst of re-imagination about Eden, amused how deep our preconceptions are – there’s no red apple in Genesis. Nor, as far as I know, is there any art that depicts Eden in anything less than a sunny day? I feel a poem brewing.

But how do I feel? Quite light. As if I have freedom of movement, like a fish in the sea. Thursdays have, since last September, been a tutor-oriented day. Morning and afternoon prep for 3 hours of 1:1 Chemistry. But now A-Level and GCSE exams are almost finished, I’m like a puppy off the leash, even if ‘freedom’ means the freedom to attack neglected chores. And eating fresh bread with butter and jam.

The Eleven O’Clock ii Wednesday 18th June, 2025

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1.        Where am I?
2.        What am I doing?
3.        What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

 Post Two:

1.        Ripley Antiques and Coffee Shop in hot & sunny Axbridge
2.        Sitting outside on the square, suncream on, waiting for food and drink for L & A & me
3.        Various scenarios about the house I have looked round with L&A e.g. refurbishing costs…feeling that they need to act quickly or someone else will nab it. Lurking behind this conversation are some deeper notes: personal rumblings, and international concerns connected to Israel/Iran

The Eleven O’Clock

Each day for the remainder of June, I’ll post The Eleven O’Clock and aim to answer the following three questions in short sentences and/or very short paragraphs.

1. Where am I?
2. What am I doing?
3. What am I thinking about and feeling?

Of course, I would welcome any comments, humorous, poignant, serious, or otherwise.

Post One:

1. Physically, at my desk at home, in Winscombe. Mentally, in Dublin, 1798.
2. Writing a tense scene for the sequel to my debut novel, due out later this year.
3. Thinking about the plot, how to get everyone from A to B, and their innermost hopes and fears. This has the delightful escapist side-effect of temporarily delivering me from giving undue attention to personal thoughts or feelings.

A Meditation on ‘Speaking the truth in love’ Ephesians 4v15

This is one of those verses in the New Testament that seems to attract a lot of comment…and humour. Humour, of course, because we all know when ‘speaking the truth in love’ misfires and is off kilter, when the truth is not spoken in love at all…but with barely concealed rage, or as a justification for gossip.

And then there’s a relatively recent distant relation to this verse as trotted out by embittered campaigners: ‘speaking truth to power’. Various supposed heroes of this variation are enlisted to bolster its image: Martin Luther King, Ghandi, and Nelson Mandela. But too often speaking the truth to power is accompanied with an undertone of aggression entirely absent from St Paul’s much-quoted phrase, either in its original context, or as a stand-alone aphorism.

Can we peer behind the jokes or the falsifications to find the true meaning of the original phrase?

First, love. Love includes a genuine desire for the good of the other, that they might prosper and grow and be enriched in life in all ways. Into that context, truth can be spoken. Genuine concern for the state of the other, what they are seeking, searching for, longing for, their hopes and dreams and fears; into that truth may be spoken.

However, if that love-motor is not running smoothly, it may not be sensible to assume any truth can be received; we need to be wise about what to say and what not to say…and when. The embittered campaigners above I was referring to, in their frustration and tears, long since abandoned any concern for the personal impact of their critical remarks, sledging, or banter. Their only concern is the success of their campaign and imposing their values on their opponents. How easy it is to fall into this trap.

Secondly, truth. Jesus spoke hard truths to the Pharisees: ‘You hypocrites’; ‘Blind leaders of the blind’; ‘Whitewashed tombs’ and so on…but he did not abandon his love for them. His heart was not hardened but soft, even if his words were sharp. It was, after all, to Nicodemus, who came to him at night, that Jesus shared his teaching on the need to be born again by the Spirit.

Love is a two-way street

Love is a two-way street. How much easier it is to receive ‘truth’ when we know the other person is speaking out of concern for us and not from some disguised form of self-protection, self-promotion, or self-interest. Jesus epitomises all that can be said about love, allowing his opponents to arrest, disfigure, and crucify him. Even on the cross, two indications of how much love was still in his heart were his cry, ‘Father forgive them, they know not what they do!’ and his request to John, his closest friend, who had abandoned him, to take care of his mother, Mary. No bitterness, only love. God will always raise up such.

The original context of the phrase in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, ‘speaking the truth in love’ is about our journey to maturity, ‘that we may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ.’

This verse is directed at believers. At disciples. Are our L-Plates ever removed as disciples? Five decades have passed since I found Christ or he found me. Mine are still attached. More so than ever, I am aware that I have barely begun to decode the depths of that four-letter word L.O.V.E.

Not just a walk

Gills and a gaping jaw
Caught in a fishing line
The creature’s freedoms
Consigned to memory

Impaired, struggling to rise
Oxygen-depleted blood
Baptised in despair,
Will, sapped to the core

Suspended between
The depths and the sun
Turning and twisting
On an axis it didn’t choose

And so it was as I trudged
Up Sidcot’s shaded gullies
To the nettle-bound radio mast,
Distractions, undoing and

Dulling the beauty of the
Horizon-wide, sun-soaked
Somerset Levels and St
James’s spire seeking heaven

Half a flock of sheep
For company in the shade
Looking on helpless to
Unthread the tangled line

Later, within a hymn
In a deluge of Spirit
My heart sings songs
Of untethered joy

Now I remember
The moss-covered walls
The poor arthritic ewe
A golden field of barley

And the soothing crunch of
Of gravel underfoot
On the final leg
Home

Shortcuts? There Are No Shortcuts

I wonder if our mental attitudes for getting from A to B alter as we progress from infants to teens and on to adulthood…and then to older-adulthood?

In the pre-SatNav, pre-smart-phone era of my teens, I was the navigator for my mother behind the wheel in our second-hand Fords, traversing the width of England and Wales from Kent and back home on various family holidays.

In my hand, I usually had an American WWII Gazetteer – my dad having been a Colonel in the US Army. It was a superb road map with all the A & B roads and white tracks accurately drawn.

The M2 was avoidable, the M4 hadn’t been opened fully, and the M25 was but a dream (nightmare?) so all but a few roads had remained unchanged.

I became adept at finding the shortest route, even if that meant the exhaust dragging dangerously on the ridge of grass occupying the middle of a minor road. Shortcutting had become a life skill.

Except that, in life, there are no shortcuts. From the Jews traipsing around the desert until a generation of faith and obedience took over from the shortcutters, to most (all?) men ignoring IKEA instructions, or athletes resorting to taking illegal substances to rescue a fading career…we all know the foolishness of taking shortcuts and acknowledge the wisdom of the less glamorous side of life: patience, planning, attention to detail, the slog, adopting a ‘marathon not a sprint’ attitude to life.

I’ve yet to meet many writers who rub their hands with glee when it comes to submitting work for line editing with all the amendments and corrections that ensue, or various steps (e.g. ISBN numbering) before publication…and that ghastly word ‘marketing’…I apologise for even mentioning it. I can feel collective ACW spines shuddering away.

So, here I am, sitting in yet another North Somerset café, sipping a decent flat-white, bemoaning a lack of cooked cheesecakes, with a laptop and time on my hands to WRITE…not slog through line edits, ideas for book covers, or steps towards publication or marketing.

But the passage of time has taught me to be more patient and submit, meekly, to the process.

I’m astounded by the work of line editors (shout out to Liz Carter) who, essentially, have the skill to make our best efforts look as if we’ve studied English Language to degree level – Respect!

I look back to my younger self – always trying to get from A to B by the shortest route in the quickest time – and can still see the joy in it, but I can also see the bodged kitchen units, the lack of revision before exams, the avoidance of emotional intelligence at times, and the fruit of taking shortcuts. Disaster.

No, bring on the horrors of all the writing process, from inspiration and ideas, from ISBN numbers to inventing marketing strategies. I’m ready.

Originally: Shortcuts? There Are No Shortcuts

Outsourced Love?

At each dawn chorus
Lewis Gwyn Knowle’s will stirred
Stiffening muscles and sinews
Grimacing against the strain
Of his unstilled bones.
Lewis, expressionless
Stood under a steaming shower
Devoid of thought
By sheer habit,
To wash the night away

It is always thus: cleansing
The pure emerge, brighter,
Hair and eyes sparkling
And if not so,
Then steady at least
Ready for the day’s toil
Whilst the memories
Of but a day ago are rinsed
Away to another world
Outsourced so we can be clean

In this green and pleasant land
Rid now of satanic mills and
Plumes of foul-smelling smog
A land of coal mines in cold storage
En route to carbon zero,
Environmental eyes sparkle
And if not, conscience quelled,
Guilt is outsourced
To another world
So we can be clean

And if we behave so
Does not God but wilder?
That Will forged in eternity past

That heavenly corporation
A nuclear fire of spirit
Outsourcing the spotless Son
Sluiced somewhere
Outside a city wall
Beyond the satanic mills
Of synagogue and temple
Like some blackened commando
Baptized in our grime
So we can be clean

So, Lewis Gwyn Knowle,
I wonder if imprinted
In some recess of mind
Whether you, imago dei
Whatever satanic foulness
Clings to you, hear a voice
Commanding your eyes
To look upon your clean
Transfigured self,
Made of the sunrise?

Book Review: Secrets about Life Every Woman Should Know by Barbara De Angelis

‘I heard a loud sound like an explosion and my car began to careen wildly out of control. One of my tyres had blown…I just froze and thought ‘this is how I am going to die’, then the strangest thing happened…’

 Yes, I hear you loud and clear! Why, Mr Stevens, are you reading a neo-New-Age self-help book for women?

The answer is simple; I borrowed it from a friend who thought I might find it interesting and who made the point that although its primary audience is women, many of the principles also apply to the other half of the human race.

If you’re looking for a book that applies wisdom to the human condition, you will, I am sure, find some useful, even very helpful, chapters in Secrets.

It is tempting, when reviewing a book like this, to critique its underlying philosophy and spiritual beliefs (and I will, later, reflect on this from a Christian perspective), but I’m going to steer this review in a different direction.

Imagine you’re in a cinema, the lights are dimming, and the introductory music for a film is starting. You might adjust how you’re sitting, check your drink and food, offer your Maltesers to your friends, and sit back, beginning to relax. Around you, you are aware of flashing lights from phones being switched off, the noise of a crisp packet, a few words, even the silence. After a few minutes, however, the world around you begins to fade. Eventually, you are so captivated by the film that it appears to be the only reality. You have moved from being an external observer to a participant in its drama. You are fully engaged, absorbed, and reacting mentally and emotionally with the characters and the tensions in the plot.

This, to some extent, was my transition reading Secrets.

At the start, I took notes as a cool academic critic. Later, as various chapters and thoughts matched my experience, I relaxed and moved from analysis to absorbing parts useful to me; the sections that ‘spoke’ to me.

De Angelis employs some positive-thinking aphorisms that made me warm to her message, for example:

‘Obstacles won’t dissolve until they teach you what they came to teach you’

‘To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest’

Even Shakespeare – that great observer of human behaviour - gets a mention:

‘We are trampled most often by forces we ourselves create’

De Angelis constructs ‘Secrets’ around ‘Ten principles for total spiritual and emotional fulfilment’ and whilst my inner British-ness baulks at the more flamboyant and typically American ‘Total’ claim, her ten principles form a tight structure upon which she hangs her arguments and wisdom.

(A passing note – I’d love to know if the author deliberately chose Ten to go up against Moses!)

A summary of the Ten Principles:  1. Everything You Need to Be Happy is Inside You   2. The Purpose of Life…  3. Change is Inevitable   4. Obstacles are Lessons in Disguise   5. Make Your Mind Your Friend   6. Fear Will Steal   7. Love Yourself   8. Relationships are Mirrors   9. True Freedom   10. Love is The Answer

Personally, I found chapter 5 very helpful, but not so much chapter 7, though I could see the point she was trying to make.

So, to the Christian critique.

If you’ve spent time in church, you will recognise that all, bar one, of the chapters could be used (or may well have been used!) as sermon titles or alluded to within sermons. Who doesn’t agree that Fear has a way of eroding our confidence and stealing joy?

In short, De Angelis brings much excellent psychological sense, in a very accessible format using great illustrations and life experience (such as the blown tyre incident) to Secrets, but her premise, as outlined in Chapter One, does not sit easily with the Christian perspective regarding the relationship God has with man, and man with God. Her neo-New Age belief in the interchangeability of terms such as God-The Universe-Force, and her emphasis on self-fulfilment left me wondering what she would make of the New Testament, and, specifically, what Jesus tells us about God and His recipe for human happiness.

If being challenged about the human condition, the psyche, or soul, which is undoubtedly her area of expertise, is what you are looking for, I can thoroughly recommend Secrets as a thought-provoking and well-written offering.

But if it’s pneuma (spirit) – a spiritual foundation for life you’re after - the New Testament would be my first recommendation.

If you stumbled

If you stumbled over a diamond
What would you do?

I’d try not to jump up and down
I’d hide it in a shoe

A shoe! I’d sell it, be rich
Uncork the Champagne!

Oh! No! I’d rather keep it
And gaze on its light

Could I see it, my friend?

Only if you bend down
From such a great height

That I could not do
It’s beneath me to kneel

Such a shame, my friend
To the humbled, it’s revealed

Echoes of II Corinthians 4 v6-10

Faith spelt differently

It is a mistake to think of Jesus as a religious version of Superman, powered up differently, maybe, but powered up nonetheless.

The miracles, healings, and deliverances all seem to be works of power as if the Son of God, was powerful in himself, operating with spiritual power, not Kryptonite.

Jesus did have a source of power, the Holy Spirit, which he promised to the disciples:

‘You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you’ Acts 1v84

The problem is not that this is untrue, but that Jesus modelled a life of deliberate vulnerability to his disciples like a good apprentice, for them to copy.

Three chapters in Luke’s gospel: 8,9, and 10 illustrate the point.

In chapter 8, Luke describes the ministry of Jesus. In chapter nine, Jesus sends out the twelve disciples in like manner to do what they’ve seen him do, and in chapter 10, this is extended to seventy.

The verses below may be familiar, and been struck by the outcomes – often miraculous - of Jesus’s ministry and the disciples. Quite rightly. Miracles are hard to ignore. The gospel writers did not omit them!

Miracles are hard to ignore. The gospel writers did not omit them!

But we’re taking a peek behind the scenes.

In one memorable phrase, Jesus described his lifestyle after returning in the power of the Spirit from the temptations, ‘The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head’ Luke 8 v 58. After early success preaching the gospel in Galilee, he was rejected in Nazareth and relocated to Capernaum,

‘Leaving Nazareth, He came to dwell in Capernaum’ Mt4v13

Moving house is stressful at the best of times, but Jesus’s departure was forced upon him by the congregation of his home synagogue, who had become so angry that they turned on him and tried to push him off a cliff!

And, after the initial welcome and success in Capernaum (e.g. the paralytic lowered through the roof), he rounds angrily on Capernaum, ‘Woe to you…Capernaum’ Mt11v23 and has to leave once again, as at Nazareth.

Jesus had become an outcast

The disciples had witnessed the power of the miracles, of course, and the preaching, but also the stripping away of all the traditional forms of support: a roof over one’s head, family, who thought he was ‘out of his mind’ Mk3v21, and synagogue. He had become an outcast.

‘Now it came to pass, afterward, that Jesus went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God and the twelve were with him and certain women who had been healed…and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susannah and many others who provided for him from their substance’ 8v1-3

No income – he folded his carpentry business.

No home – he had to leave his house in Capernaum.

No guaranteed supply of food, clothing, or shelter.

Open only to the welcome of others, like a sparrow finding a place to call home (Ps 84v3) amongst all the competing needs of other sparrows and wildlife.

In chapters 9 and 10, Jesus extends this twin walk of power and vulnerability to the twelve and then the seventy,

‘Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases and sent them to preach the gospel and heal the sick…’Take nothing for your journey, neither staff nor bag nor bread nor money’ Luke 9 v1-6

‘After these things the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them two by two…carry neither money bag, rucksack, nor sandals, and greet no one on the road but whatever house you enter first say ‘Peace to this house’…’ Luke 10 v 1-12

They were instructed to stay, preach the gospel, and heal the sick, if welcomed, but if not, to wipe the dust off their feet and move on

In Philippians, Paul writes that Jesus, though equal with God, made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, he came in the likeness of men…he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For the apostles and the seventy - and by extension, us, - whatever status we may carry, we may also find ourselves called to walk the path of deliberate vulnerability, not using any status to build the road in front of us, however legitimate that manipulative approach may be.

Paul speaks about this as an apostle:

‘If we have sown spiritual things for you, should we not reap materially? Others do, nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel’ 1Cor 9 v 11f

Like Jesus and the disciples, Paul was open to and dependent on the welcome and gifts of others.

We are not the rich ones with something to give. We are voluntarily poor with only the welcome of others and the power of the Spirit as our source. We are likely to suffer rejection as much as a welcome, and be like Jesus, be a ‘man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’ one moment and ‘anointed with gladness above his fellows’ the next.

The emotional impact of a life of deliberate vulnerability is recorded in the gospels. Not only is Jesus not invincible, unlike Superman, he is not serene, as if one step removed from this world, living in a Zen state of perpetual calm. His lifestyle took its inevitable toll.

1. At the synagogue in Capernaum, when he healed the man with a withered hand, the people were offended because he performed the miracle on the Sabbath. Mark recorded ‘He looked around them with anger, being grieved at their hardness of heart’.

2. Though his emotional response to his family thinking he had gone mad ‘out of his mind’ Mark 3v21 is not recorded, it is not beyond reason to imagine the sadness He must have felt, even if tempered by his faith

3. Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit, Luke 10 v21. Again, we have no details, but it’s hard not to imagine smiles, laughter, singing, and dancing.

4. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and Lazarus

5. In the garden before his arrest, ‘He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death’ Mt 26v37,38

6. After the resurrection, just as when he sent the disciples out, He appears and says, ‘Peace to you’. Just as before. Vulnerable, open to being welcomed, or not. We take it for granted that the disciples greeted Him because we know how the story ends, ‘while they still did not believe for joy’

The kingdom of God is not about food or drink, the best worship band, the most generous offerings, a large staff, or staging successful conferences. It turns out to be a willingness to be vulnerable and open to the welcome or rejection of those we meet, whilst having faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. Anything else follows on.

Deliberate vulnerability and faith in the power of the Spirit? It was the Lord who called the twelve and the seventy, it will be the Lord who calls us to a particular path. There is no manual.

Some work this out through everyday existence in the world, others go on a mission, or tread the Camino, or are called to ministry.

Paul again,

‘Gladly I will boast in my infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong…that the power of Christ may rest upon me’ 2Cor12v9,10

Hangover…don’t shout

My head doesn’t belong
It’s an object
On top of me
Full of low-level pain

Somewhere underneath
Like a child behind a sofa
I’m in the room
But not fully

Up before dawn
Sleep is the language
Of a foreign land
Parts of me are dormant

Black coffee
With brown sugar…
…I can’t see colours
My eyes are closed

Speech is on hold
Thought is slowed
In my subterranean self
All is calm

1 Corinthians 12-14 The Love Sandwich

These three chapters elicit little curiosity from nominal Christians who think Christianity can be summed up as kindness to neighbours, dismay from Evangelicals who believe in the inspiration of Scripture but apparently not the inspiration of believers themselves, and child-like delight amongst Charismatic Christians who can be like children unwrapping gifts at Christmas.

And then there’s Paul’s statement about women keeping silent in church, which needs to be faced.

And the middle chapter, Love.

Paul is one for building arguments with a strong foundation or premise, and he does this in the opening verses of chapter 12.

‘You were Gentiles carried away to dumb idols, however you were led, but I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit’

Previous to their conversion from paganism, the Corinthian believers were used to ‘being led’ by a spirit and ‘carried away’ by such spiritual experiences. They have since abandoned their idolatry to believe in God through Christ and received the Holy Spirit.

Instead of any previous spiritual manifestations, Paul is reminding them that their heartfelt revelation and confession of Christ can only have come about via the Holy Spirit revealing the truth concerning Jesus.

That’s the foundation: that true believers are inhabited by the Holy Spirit.

He has stated this in earlier chapters of the letter, picturing the church as the temple of the Holy Spirit and, indeed, every believer’s body as a temple for the Holy Spirit.

The question then arises: how does the Holy Spirit manifest His presence in the church and in individual believers? Paul goes on to describe gifts and ministries that should be present in the church and the life of individual believers:

‘There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and differences of ministries but the same Lord’

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are then listed: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healings, miracles, prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. And it is clear from 1 Cor 14 v 26 that Paul expects to see these gifts manifesting in the church when it gathers together.

‘Whenever you come together each of you has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, an interpretation…let two or three prophets speak…’

In my childhood, I was taken to the local Anglican church. The congregation consisted of ‘nominal Christians’ who, if they had any true faith, it was considered the Christian faith to be an entirely private matter. From my admittedly limited viewpoint, they were there ‘because it was Sunday’ rather than due to any deep convictions. The Creed was recited, but was it believed? I doubt it. Consequently, there was no evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in terms of the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Two miles from the Anglican church stood an Evangelical church that preached that when the canon of New Testament was completed and the apostles had died, the ‘perfect had come’. As a consequence, the gifts of the Spirit were for the early immature church, but now that we have the Scriptures, there’s no need for childish gifts such as speaking in tongues and prophecy.

‘We know in part and prophesy in part, but when the perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away with. When I was a child, I spoke as a child…but when I became a man, I put away childish things’

This argument and its corollary – opposition to the baptism of the Spirit after conversion – effectively put up a No Entry sign to the gifts of the Spirit. Consequently, there were no manifestations of the gifts in their church services and gatherings.

A further two miles from the Evangelical was a Baptist church.

The pastor and elders had all experienced the baptism of the Spirit many years after their conversions to Christ, some during Billy Graham’s crusades in their youth. Along with thousands of other believers in all denominations, having been baptised in the Spirit, the plurality of gifts and ministries of the Spirit began to manifest in individual believers and during church services.

Paul, in writing 1 Corinthians has had to tackle various issues within the church of immorality, division and party spirit, and ‘free for all’ chaotic worship services, in which believers were manifesting the gifts e.g. speaking in tongues and prophecy but, as with their inability to wait for others before eating, were all speaking in tongues and/or prophesying at once.

Paul’s analysis of their practice around the Lord’s supper and the chaotic use of the gifts was a lack of spiritual maturity and love.

He had already been blunt:

‘Brothers, I could not speak to you as spiritual but as fleshly, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food…and even now you are not able to receive solid food. You are still fleshly…there are divisions among you’ 3v1-3

Paul’s recipe for correction was not to stamp out the gifts any more than a parent would permanently remove toys from a child, but to keep directing the child to enjoy the gift at the right time…and tidy away! Moving beyond the analogy of children and gifts is the instruction to use the gifts not for yourself but to build others up, to build up the church:

‘You are zealous for spiritual gifts but let it be for the edification of the church…desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues but let all things be done decently and in order’ 14v12,39,40

These three chapters are a Love Sandwich. Chapter 12 sits at the heart. It is often quoted at wedding services and is a beautiful description of the love we all need and all need to express to others.

So…next time you feel your heart thumping because the Holy Spirit has revealed something to you to share in the form, for example, of a prophetic picture or a prophecy of words or a song, it will be because the Holy Spirit is about to bless someone else – or your whole church. It is an awesome thing, really. Whilst it may be exciting, thrilling even, for you to initially receive the gift, the gift is actually only in your hands temporarily, it is to be passed on.

Like throwing a bouquet at a wedding, someone will catch it!

Occasionally, you may know who to address a gift to e.g. a word of knowledge, but in the context of a church service, it is less likely. Throw the bouquet!

Lastly, if this has not been within the orbit of your church experience, ask the Lord to reveal the truth of what the scriptures say and how to handle any revelations that come with love in your congregation.

______________________________________

PS ‘Let women keep silent in the churches, they are not permitted to speak but are to be submissive’ 14v34

Whatever your interpretation of this verse, please bear in mind that Paul has already stated in chapter 11 ‘…every woman who prays or prophesies…’ therefore, the verse in chapter 14 cannot mean a blanket ban on women speaking in church!

The best conclusion I can draw is to consider the context: Paul is attempting to bring order to chaos. It looks as if their gatherings were chaotic. If there was food, the Lord’s supper was being dishonoured as one group would eat before another. And spiritual gifts were being manifested with little attempt to ensure that everyone could hear and benefit. It had become a free for all. Within that context, maybe the women in the church had grown so frustrated that they’d grouped together and were using the time to talk to each other. Whatever the truth is, it is clear that Paul is not banning women from exercising gifts or ministries such as prayer or prophesying.