Category: Everyday Life
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Owning the Keys Means Every Vocation is Spiritual
People sometimes speak as though pastors and missionaries do “spiritual” work, while everyone else merely has an ordinary job. Martin Luther rejected that distinction. Every Christian has the same baptism, the same Gospel, the same faith, and the same standing before God. Christians have different offices and different work to do. All these vocations are…
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Without Forgiveness Relationships Die
I talk to a lot of people about relationships. Marriages, parents and children, boyfriends and girlfriends, in workplaces, families and friendship groups. So many people are struggling with relationships here in Manchester and elsewhere. One massive reason is this: So often people don’t want the relationship to get better—they want to get even. The Bible…
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Even Manchester’s Mayor Wants a Job in London
You are drawn to success. We all want comfort, success, glory, prestige. And temporal kingdoms offer that. Throughout history there have been “great cities,” climbing to the sky, offering a tower to commune with greatness: Babel, Nineveh, Babylon, Rome. And, of course, here in the UK—London. Andy Burnham once said: “[politics] has been too London-centric…
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Optimal Inefficiency
All the pressure is on to be efficient. Hit the tickets on time. Get on top of AI. Don’t fall behind. We’ve all heard that things can be either fast or good or cheap, but not two at once. Modern Manchester wants all three from you at the same time. But not only is embracing…
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A Robot Monk Is the Perfect Buddhist
The first ever robot monk was released this week. But that’s not as crazy as it sounds. In many ways, a robot is the perfect Buddhist. Because Buddhism of whatever flavour—Zen, Tibetan, Western—isn’t religion in the true sense of what religion is. Buddhism is a collection of mind techniques, with an option mix of philosophical…
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Man City. God’s Goodness. Your Body.
Why would a Christian pastor start a football club? Whether it was the regular smell of blood and mud, or the festered boredom of mass unemployment, I don’t know. But in 1880 something moved the Reverend Arthur Connell, and a small group of volunteers in his church, to start St. Mark’s football club. East Manchester…
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Your Work Doesn’t Count—That’s Why It Matters
Everything you do has value. All of us have “vocations” which are our roles and states in life. Any aspect of your life where you have opportunity to relate to others, serve others, make the world a better place are your vocations: being a son, daughter, father, mother, husband, wife, friend, neighbour, and (of course)…
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You have nothing to prove
You feel pressure to succeed. To perform. To deliver. There are obvious reasons for that. You need the pay check. Bills don’t pay themselves. But that’s not the main reason it feels so heavy. None of us in life wants to be a failure. All of us want to be something. And that’s why for…