Guilty pleasures?!

I have been reflecting on Sunday nights meeting/service. It was imaginative and thought provoking. (For those not Sallys its probably worth stopping here, as it gets a bit irrelevent). At our corps the Sunday meetings are being "done" by different people at the moment. So Geoff did Sunday night.

We meeting was based around a journey over Morecambe Bay Geoff did a couple of weeks ago. We got a good idea of what happened as Geoff had taken some great pictures.

I have been thinking about the music and songs that we used. They all followed the theme of a journey. We have not sung some of them for an long time. We had "We'll Sing in the Morning the Songs of Salvation". Some very old song called "Over the Sea", even some of the more mature Salvationists did not know this one. Fortunately my 100 year old Grandma did, so we where treated to a solo (She needs no encouragement).

We used the band arrangement for "We'll Sing in the Morning" and it certainly rattles along(good old N.B. for good arrangement). I was left wandering what we where singing about,

We'll sing in the morning the songs of Salvation
We'll sing in the noon time the songs of his love
And when we arrive at the end of our journey
We'll sing the songs of Zion in the courts above

We will be doing a lot of singing if the song is correct. Its an awful lot about what we will be doing not lot about what God is, or what he can do. Will we sing in the courts above, because we sing in the morning and at mid day? (Sophistry). I suppose it's OK once in a while though

The other one was "Travel Along In The Sunshine", which I don't understand at all.

Travel along in the sunshine
On the Kings highway
Travel along, singing a song
Follow Jesus day by day,
Never mind what lies before you
Never mind what others do
Just travel along in the sunshine
On the Kings highway

It has synchopation which makes it more modern than the other one, I suppose. Imust have sung this countless times and not really thought about what I was singing.

If we filled our services with this kind of worship every week, I'm not sure too many new people would understand what it being sung, or how it relates to them.

Are they best locked up in the song book cupboard or is it good to bring them out onto the digital projector and display them to the world/congregation once in a while? I am not sure.

Comments?

Celebrity lookalike I don't know any of my celebrities

Gym etiquette

1. When in the gym always walk around purposefully. Look like you know what you are doing even if you don't. Anyone who looks lost in a gym is a "newby".
2. Never use the free weights. They are for serious very advanced users or stupid people.
3. Never use the weights on the first few days, always make sure you know how they work.
4. If you feel like an advanced user and you are using the weight equipment, always check the weights before getting onto the machine. At my first gym I was shown a particularly complicated machine at my induction. You had to stand inside the machine, unlock the bar and squat with the weights on your shoulders. I of course didn't check the weights on the machine, unlock the bar, went into a quick squat and found I couldn't stand up. I had to ask for help, quietly at first because I didn't want anybody to hear but more loudly as I bacome more desparate. I left the gym that day with the laughter of two muscle bound men still in my ears (I didn't both with the sauna, I was hot enough).
5. Never put your head in front of the water fountain before turning it on. It will always end up in your eye.
6. If you go for a swim make sure you have your swimming hat on the right way. In our gym the swimming caps (yes, you have to wear one) have a band going from the back to the front. "Newby's" always wear them with the band going from ear to ear. It looks more stupid and they seem to be swimming slower.
7. Don't play "He's fatter than me" in the Hydrotherapy pool.
8. If you brush against another bloke in the pool, always reply "excuse me" in a very manly voice.
9. Don't stare and point (or laugh).
10. Check your shorts before getting out of the hydrotherapy pool. Those water jets are very powerful and the water is very warm, you might not notice....
11. When you are in the Sauna, try not to enter into conversation with somebody. (See me for bad example, I can't publish it here.)
12. When you are getting changed, make sure your underwear is ready. It's not good to walk around the changing room "in the snip" (as Windy Millers uncle Guber).

For those that do trut round the changing room ... it's not clever.

Treadmills

In going to the gym I have been giving thought to the treadmill.

Medievel times saw the treadmill operative as work, powering pumps, grinding corn etc.

In the Victorian age the treadmill was used as punishment, men where put on the treadmill to do work with no outcome at all, I don't think they even produced anything.

Now, we pay to use a treadmill, we even pay for someone to show us how to use them. The treadmill today does not produce energy, it uses energy as it needs to be plugged into something, so someone, somewhere is creating energy to make this one work.

My treadmill will tell me how many calories I am expending per hour, how many calories I have spent so far, how far I haven't run so far. I wish it would tell me something useful, like calories measured in terms of fractions of a Mars bars (or other popular confection).

Whilst using my treadmill I have tried to use the time even more productivily (other than losing weight) by listening to Rob Bell sermons (downloaded by my lovely wife, and uploaded to my iPod). But I find myself losing concentration and reading the sub titles to Neighbours on the telly screens in front of the treadmills (I must be really shallow).

I bet they didn't have tellys on the Medievel or Victorian treadmills.(or Neighbours)

Getting slimmer already

We have just joined a Gym. I have been for my induction yesterday and I am keen enough now to go again tonight. Some of my friends have said that I look slimmer already, but I think they are pulling my leg. But I am prepared to ignore the sarcasm.

More of an investment than gambling

I got back to work on Monday to find I had won a raffle, I hadn't entered. My friend put my name into the draw, it was free. So I won a new red football (second prize, first prize was a Coca Cola mountain bike). My friends at work obviously know the Sally Army stance on this, but it was ok because "we didn't pay for the ticket".
Earlier today our learners (I work in a college) did some fund raising for McMillan Cancer. So of course the course tutor has to buy a ticket. I did my best to avoid buying a ticket, because I feel really awkward in these situations.
Well my friend bought one for me, and again I won. This time I won some "tasteful" men smelly stuff.
I'm off to do the National Lottery, if I can get someone else to pay!

Its Grim up t'North

Apparently, on average, people living in the South of England live two years longer than in the North.

Sadly people in the South spend these two years on the M25.

Car crash telly

I am on holiday this week. I got up in time to take Matthew to school and I was getting ready to go into Liverpool to do see my brother-in-law at work. I rarely see day time telly, but I turned it on as a accompaniment to doing the dishwasher. I was watching a programme called "The Jeremy Kyle Show" - with my mouth open. It was all very confusing, but they were not actors and they needed bodyguards on set to keep them apart, and they spoke in "beeps".

This is obviously not intellectual telly, the adverts came on and most of the adverts where for finance companies. The one that attracted my attention was an advert which interviewed suspiciously coherent people about how they couldn't get any sort of loans. They all stood in the rain whilst talking to the camera, but the public behind them did not seem to be bothered by the same rain (funny that).

There was a lot of talk about consolidating loans and securing your loan (which seems to be a good thing, but actually means they can take your house if you can't pay)

At our Army (Salvation Army/Church) we have just started a CAP programme. (see link for more details). The wonderful Gemma is our representative and she visits many people in debt. From my point of view it seems that the banks and financial institutions need to take a more responsible attitude to what they are doing to people lives.