New England Puritan Samuel Sewall sat on the court of judges who condemned nineteen innocent men and women to be hanged as witches during the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. Once the trials were over he realised his heinous mistake and begged God and his community for forgiveness.

Despite being weighed down with the knowledge that he had sent innocent people to their graves, he turned his life around to champion a number of human rights causes. I’m sure that he continued to regret what he’d done but he didn’t let his past control his future. Samuel Sewell became a campaigner for a range of issues that put him at odds with prevailing thought. He was a strong voice against slavery and spoke up about the rights of women at a time when community views were very different to his own.

Samuel Sewell refused to let the mistakes of the past stop him from living a bold and fruitful life. He repented and then began again. He didn’t allow his past to consign him to a life of regret. His early mistakes could have crushed him but instead he found forgiveness and worked to make his life count.

Are there things in your past that are holding you back from life? Have you let your past rob you of your future? Is regret crippling your life?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and Vice President elect of the Baptist World Alliance. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

I recently spoke to Ross about Samuel Sewall and what we can learn from his life. You can listen to our discussion by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

The life giving message is that we are never beyond redemption. We can’t just pretend that past events didn’t happen but we can move boldly into the rest of our lives, able to make a significance difference to the world around us.

Maybe today’s the day you need to take Samuel Sewall’s lead by seeking God’s forgiveness, turning from the past, and walking with God towards a brighter tomorrow. I’m more than happy to help you take that step. If you want to know more about turning things around, feel free to visit my contact page for my email address and get in touch with me.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• September 17, 2008 — Unforgivable Sin
• October 15, 2009 — School Chaplains get the thumbs up
• September 12, 2009 — Mark Seaby endorses Jesus All About Life
• September 7, 2009 — Father’s Day 2009
• August 10, 2009 — Home Sweet Sweet Home

Swedish scientists have discovered that long life and good health have nothing to do with a man’s education and everything to do with his wife’s. Men married to smart women live longer — simple.

Pauline’s not only very beautiful, she’s very clever. I may well live forever.

While the article goes on to say that it’s pretty much down to smart women being able to control healthier diet and exercise choices for their blokes, I reckon that there’s a lot more to it than that. Being married to a smart woman has plenty of benefits. I love being married to someone who’s intelligent, funny, caring, capable, generous and quite simply adorable in every way.

On top of that, research has already shown that simply being married is a good head start to living longer.

The Office for National Statistics has published definitive proof that married couples live longer, enjoy better health and can rely on more home care in old age than their divorced, widowed, single and cohabiting peers. – TimesOnline

I know that research and statistics can prove just about anything but I can assure you of one thing, while I fully intend being around for many years to come, even if I were to drop off the perch tomorrow, I’ll leave this earth a better person for having known and loved the incredible woman I’m privileged to call my wife.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• October 7, 2008 — Romancing your spouse
• July 16, 2009 — Can living together lead to divorce?
• March 10, 2009 — Characteristics of a good marriage
• February 24, 2009 — The Building Blocks of a Good Marriage
• December 12, 2008 — Sweet Sixteen

Unfriend the term used when you delete someone as a friend on a social network like Facebook or Twitter.

I must admit to unfriending people from time to time. When you get started on something like Facebook or Twitter it’s easy to say yes to every friend request but after a while you realise that as in real life, you should choose your friends more carefully.

While I know that anything published online can end up being read by more people than you intend, I still choose to limit those who I invite into my world. I guess that this blog and my Twitter tweets are open to the world while the stuff I put on Facebook is a little more private. I’ve got almost 500 Facebook friends which is still a lot but a while back I did unfriend a bunch of people because I simply didn’t know them in any way.

What’s your “Facebook Policy”? Do you open up your Facebook to the world or are you very selective? have you had to unfriend people? Did they know about it and if so what was their reaction?

Other posts you may enjoy:

• September 3, 2009 — Is social media here to stay?
• October 15, 2009 — When Facebook Bites
• June 18, 2009 — Vincent
• March 30, 2009 — The Power of Twitter
• February 28, 2009 — Things I hate about Facebook.

It also made conditions trickier for a magpie that I’ve encountered a few times in recent weeks. I’ve never actually seen this magpie but I’ve heard it tap the top of my helmet when I’ve gone past a particular area on Willeri Drive in Willeton.

It mustn’t have taken the wind into account today because that tap was backed up by a fair bit of force. I heard it and felt it today. Magpies provide a very good argument for the wearing of bicycle helmets.

If you’re new to the idea of swooping magpies, it’s what these birds do to supposedly protect their nests during the breeding season. They will sit high in their tree until they see you and then they’ll fly towards you at a rapid pace. They use their sharp beaks to do whatever damage they can as they swoop at you as many times as they can until you leave the area.

This particular magpie is rather cunning in that he only attacks from behind. He’s a stealth magpie.

At least maggie season should be over soon.

I know that birds need to protect their nests and their young. I’m very protective of my family too. I just wish the magpies would understand that cycling past at 35 kilometres an hour does not mean that I’m about to stop, get off my bike, climb their tree and harm their family.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• November 16, 2009 — Tour de Perth 2009 Results
• August 21, 2009 — I’m No Hero
• June 1, 2009 — Perth Cycling
• April 16, 2009 — One more reason
• January 15, 2009 — Riders Choice Perth Criteriums 2009

Burning Man has been described as an annual experiment in temporary community, dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance. It’s about people finding a way to ‘find themselves’ and to get in touch with their own brand of spirituality.

A lot has been written about Burning Man since it began and it has spawned a number of similar festivals.

So what are people finding in Burning Man that they’re not finding in the established Christian church? Rather than dismissing a festival which seeks to create community and an opportunity for participants to express themselves, maybe we should be learning from Burning Man.

So what are the main principles of Burning Man?

Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience. – Burning Man

It sounds like an incredibly empowering event. While there are a number of elements of Burning Man that I couldn’t embrace there are some very attractive aspects to the festival.

So what can we learn from Burning Man?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and Vice President elect of the Baptist World Alliance. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

A couple of weeks ago I spoke to Ross about the Burning Man festival and what we can learn from it. You can listen to our discussion by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

Other posts you may enjoy:

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I’m looking forward to working with Gary again at the Perth Criteriums which will be held in early February 2010.

Big congratulations are in order for all the cyclists, organisers, officials, volunteers and sponsors of the event. There was some exciting racing in the elite competition, backed up by some excellent support events on the Sunday.

Here are the final overall General Classification places in the Scody Tour de Perth.

Women’s Elite Competition:
1st Ruth Corset
2nd Ellen Van Duij
3rd Simone Grounds

Men’s Elite Competition:
1st Travis Meyer
2nd Graeme Brown
3rd Richard Lang

Full results for every stage are available here.

I spoke to one of the organisers of the Tour de Perth, Matt Bisset, on my radio programme last Thursday morning in the lead up to the event. You can hear what Matt had to say by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post. Further details are at the official website.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• January 15, 2009 — Riders Choice Perth Criteriums 2009
• November 18, 2009 — Magpie Season
• November 13, 2009 — More on the Tour de Perth
• August 21, 2009 — I’m No Hero
• June 1, 2009 — Perth Cycling

An Australian academic has just made a pledge to give away half of his lifetime earnings. Dr Toby Ord reckons that his days as a student weren’t too bad so he’s going to continue living like a student so that his money can help make the world a better place.

Dr Toby Ord, a 30-year-old ethics researcher with the Future of Humanity Institute, has agreed to give up 10 per cent of his annual salary, plus any yearly earnings above £20,000 (AUD $35,631).

Dr Ord says if he lives like a student, he should be able to give away around £1 million (AUD $1.78 million).

“My student years were not extravagant, but were immensely enjoyable, with the chief enjoyments such as reading beautiful books and spending time with my wife and friends costing almost nothing,” Dr Ord said. – News.com.au

That’s a tough act to follow but it really does raise the question for each of us of what we are seeking in life. Are we seeking better relationships and simple pleasures or do we still run after material goods? We might say that money doesn’t buy happiness but do our lives back that up?

I love the fact that Dr Ord has picked up on the fact that the things that give him the most pleasure and give life greater meaning are not things that money can buy. I do wonder why so many of us keep chasing things that we know will never make us happy when the opportunity to enhance our lives and the lives of those we love are already within our grasp.

I need to be honest and say that I couldn’t give away half my yearly earnings. I’m not on an academic’s wage. In fact, my wage looks very much closer to the amount that Dr Ord has agreed to restrict himself to using each year. Out of that money our family supports a number of worthwhile causes yet I have to keep asking myself, should I be doing more? Our standard of living is still extremely extravagant compared to those I’ve seen in places like India, Haiti and Dominican Republic.

The good news is Dr Ord doesn’t expect us all to cut our earnings in half. He’s launching a site called Giving What We Can, encouraging us all to examine what we can be doing to alleviate the suffering of others in our world.

One of the great things about giving money away is the freedom that it gives. It says that my money doesn’t control me – I control my money.

If you do decide that you need to use the resources you’ve been given to create a better life for others there are many organisations doing great work around the world. Let me encourage you to check out Compassion. I’ve seen their work first hand and I seen the proof that the money donors give makes a world of difference. You can visit Compassion Australia or the Compassion International site.

So what do you really value? Think about what truly matters to you, examine the way you’re living, and see if the two match. It’s a challenge we all need to face.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• April 25, 2009 — Compassion Bloggers in India
• December 16, 2008 — 7 Days 7 Dollars
• April 20, 2008 — Breaking the cycle
• April 12, 2008 — New Hope in Dominican Republic
• April 15, 2009 — Remembering Ada

I know that some people are confusing the Tour de Perth with the Perth Criteriums but they are separate events. (I know that becuase I’m getting quite a few hits on this site from people looking for ‘Perth Criteriums’.) The Perth Criteriums will be held again early in 2010. While the Tour de Perth involves one criterium, there’s a whole lot more to it.

Tour de Perth will bring first class cycle racing to the streets of Perth on Friday evening and across the weekend.

Western Australia’s premier road cycling event, the Tour de Perth, will have a new beginning in 2009. The Tour’s four stages will take in high profile central city locations ideal for spectators and media coverage. A highlight will be strong competition between teams and individual competitors from across Australia to take out the National Road Series.

There’ll be local, interstate and international cyclists battling it out for honours over the three days.

I spoke to one of the organisers, Matt Bisset, on my radio programme yesterday morning. You can hear Matt’s explanation of the event by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

There’ll be a number of cycling related events happening around the tour, including a Festival of Cycling. Details are at the official website.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• November 16, 2009 — Tour de Perth 2009 Results
• January 15, 2009 — Riders Choice Perth Criteriums 2009
• January 29, 2008 — Perth Criteriums Photos
• January 29, 2008 — What’s your passion?
• November 18, 2009 — Magpie Season