Musings

This morning, I tweeted that I was not religious, which appears to be contradictory to the rest of my tweets and blogs where I regularly mention God and the Bible. It is not my intention to speak against any particular church or denomination, but I just want to express my personal thoughts on religion and being religious. The word ‘religious’ has a negative connotation for me. It conjures up pictures of people who are weighed down by obligations they must fulfil to appease some god or deity. The word itself comes from the Latin ‘religare’ which means ‘to bind fast’ in the sense of ‘place an obligation on’. Christianity has been included in the world religions which I find rather unfortunate as the Christ of Christianity was not religious himself. Religious Christianity abounds in our world today because there will always be a layer of society who love to ‘bind fast’, dictate, command, abuse, intimidate, dominate, exploit and quite simply do exactly the opposite of what Christ himse

God has given me so much joy this morning as I worship Him, especially through the words of Psalm 30. How David rejoiced in the living God! Likewise it is my privilege to kneel before the Ancient of Days. Verses 2, 11 and 12 are particularly true for me. Joy really is the serious business of heaven, as the great C.S. Lewis stated. Psalm 30 A Psalm. A Song at the dedication of the house of David. 1 I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O LORD my God, I cried out to You, And You healed me. 3 O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. 4 Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. 5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. 6 Now in my prosper

I love this song because it is so peaceful in the midst of a mad world. It is my experience to have found rest in God. Do not get me wrong, I love life and am delighted with the living, but it seems to me that man very often destroys the tranquility by creating a gaudy bubble of emptiness which bursts so very frequently. The emptiness and transience of life make me desire to build on a lasting foundation. God offers real peace and rest. I start each day by thanking Him for that real, deep serenity which will last forever. Matthew 11 v 28-30

It is always intriguing to observe which concepts and words are difficult to translate from English into a foreign language. As I currently find myself in the Republic of Macedonia, the wrinkled forehead, grimaces and rumblings of linguistic indigestion from deep within prove that it is not always easy to express everything in Macedonian. Sometimes where we have an adjective in English, Macedonian will use a preposition with the gerund/noun e.g. there is no adjective for' chewy', so it is expressed 'for chewing'. 'Creamy' is inadequately translated 'with cream'. Sometimes where we use Latin/Greek derivatives, they just spell out the object with words: e.g for 'funambulist', they say 'dancer on a rope'. However, more often than not, they too will borrow the word e.g 'cacophony' is 'kakofonija', 'ventriloquist' is 'ventrilokist' et al. One is never sure, though, if the Latin derivative is commonly known. Ob

When I first came to Macedonia on a visit in 2001, I found this little country so intriguing and breathtakingly beautiful that I happily accepted the invitation to return for a longer period. That ‘longer period’ has now extended itself to several years during which I have had many enriching, memorable experiences. I thought it might be interesting to jot down a few observations about the difference in culture. I appeal to my Macedonian readers not to misunderstand my intentions. What I have observed are customs and habits which are as normal to you as breathing and sleeping, but to someone from an entirely different culture, they are both interesting and noteworthy. It is always thrilling for me to explore how various nations function and it is nothing short of a privilege to experience a foreign culture first-hand. Hospitality Macedonians are a friendly, hospitable people. I do not know how many times they have almost literally killed me with kindness. Indeed, I have often