40 Day Challenge Day 20

Half way there!
You still doing this?
Today I want you to read Matthew 14:22-33 (you know you can google it...) Peter nearly always brings a smile to my face. He's the disciple who acts then thinks. On this occasion he gets out the boat to try to walk on the water like Jesus - and he sinks!
I smile at Peter but really I'm jealous of his courage because at least he tries and in the trying manages to do the impossible even if it was only for a couple of steps.
Your challenge for today: Peter tried - think of one thing you could try to be more like Jesus?
Here's to the next 20 days!!

40 Day Challenge DAY 19

Too many words...
Instead, a very, very simple task today: find a flower and feel its petals.

40 Day Challenge DAY 18

It seems like we're always in a hurry. Too much of a hurry to make time and space for the spiritual.
But that spiritual isn't an add-on to life. It's central to it. Take something as simple as washing your hands. How many times a day do you do it? That simple act could become a trigger for thinking of the spiritual. Your challenge for today is this: each time you wash your hands today, think of what your hands have done... who or what they have held... what they've touched. See where those thoughts take you.

40 Day Challenge Day 17

One thing we're never short of is news.
In the papers, on radio or television, there's lots of it around and it's rarely good. Because there's so much of it, it's easy to skip over what it's saying - but the people involved in these news stories are real people, with real lives, real deaths, real tragedies.
Your task for today: take one news story and pray for those involved. For all those involved.
If it's a crime pray for the perpetrator as well as the victim(s) and their families. If it's an accident for the emergency services and police as well as those more directly involved - you get the picture! Don't let the volume of news there is leave you untouched.

40 Day Challenge DAY 16

Read John 5:1-9 (remember you can google it...)
Another healing story. This one talks of Jesus helping a paralysed man walk again. Notice how long the man's been lying by the pool waiting for that healing.
A mere 38 years!
Jesus asks him if he really wants to be healed. It sounds like a strange question but given that for 38 long years the man hasn't managed to find help to get into the water (although presumably someone has been feeding and cleaning and washing him) it's perhaps not such a daft question after all.
That man's story got me wondering about the unhealthy things each of us holds onto. What do we continue to do that we shouldn't - and don't do that we should?
Maybe this is the time to break an unhealthy habit. What do you think?

40 Day Challenge DAY 15

When the sun shines here in the north of Scotland it seems to lift everyone’s spirits. A smile can have the same effect. It can also be contagious. Today’s challenge is a simple one: smile at everyone, even complete strangers, and make their day.

You never know what people are facing as they go about their daily business. A smile could make a world of difference.

40 Day Challenge DAY 14

They say that if you do a thing for 10 days or more, it becomes a habit. Welcome to Day 14 of a new habit I hope you won't kick for at least another 26 days!
There are things that happen to us and around us that can end up giving us sleepless nights - either physically or metaphorically.
Today's task is this: create the opportunity to tell someone what it is that worries you. That can be something that worries you on a personal level, or something that worries you about the wider world.
And as you do, may you find a problem shared is a problem halved.
(And remember God is a good listener too.)