How to live a meaningless life #2

One thing utterly puzzles me on The Apprentice - how do they get ready in 20 minutes, having been woken up in the middle of the night? I never look as coiffed and immaculately dressed as the Apprentice candidates, even when I've had a normal amount of dressing time. Seriously, do you want to wear three-inch heels when you'll be running all over London trying to sell boxes of candles?

Interestingly, this week [SPOILER ALERT] there's an Apprentice first, when a candidate effectively fires herself. Lindsay didn't do very well this week, and when accused of not doing well, she agreed. She made no arguments; she mounted no defence. She just agreed that she wasn't up to it and said she shouldn't be in the process. I admire anyone who's willing to be that honest. I imagine it was a relief.

But the real question this week is... Who pays £35 for a scented candle? Seriously???

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Halloween

It's that magical time of year again - that one night when my small neighbours knock on my door asking for sweeties. This year, I'm properly prepared: I have two pumpkins (I wanted five, but decided to be thrifty), a big tub of sweets and a tube of 100 glow sticks. The sweets are my concession to popular demand; the glow sticks are an attempt to represent light in darkness (a symbolism which will doubtless be lost on the kids). I'm seeing the pumpkin as my main opportunity to communicate something of my Christian faith to my neighbours. One year, while I was at theological college, Halloween fell on a Sunday. The new housing estate church I was assigned to met in a church hall on Sunday afternoons and many of the congregation were unaccompanied children. I googled 'Christian pumpkin carvings' and guess what - there are a lot of ideas out there, America being a country which is big on Halloween and big on Christianity too. I decided to carve a simple f...

Only connect

Last year on Ash Wednesday I attended an ashing service at St Paul's Cathedral. The service focused on confessing our sins and asking God's forgiveness. During the service a berobed priest made the sign of the cross in ash on my forehead. I thought this was pretty cool and refused my husband's request that I rub it off for the train journey home. Then we ran into an old work colleague of mine and I felt rather stupid. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is all about sin and repentance - 'sackcloth and ashes' and all that. But I wonder how many people in the UK today identify with the idea that they are sinners in need of forgiveness? My final year dissertation at theological college focused on the dilemma of how to call to repentance people who do not think they have anything of which to repent. I certainly didn't think of myself as a sinner when I first started exploring Christianity. I knew I wasn't perfect, but hey, who is? I have hea...

Do not fear

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Coffee Theology

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