Category: God
Pizza….. from scratch
We trudged out of the lift and into our home. I was a bit tired. She was exhausted. 17:30. Shower. Change. “I’ll make dinner tonight honey. You need some rest.” Her warm smile made my day. “That’ll be great! What are you making?”. I paused as the wheels inside my evil mind started grinding. “Pizza……. from scratch”. The twinkle in her eyes was genuine – a mix of excitement and curiosity. I shrugged my shoulder. “Promise”. She snuggled into the bed. I closed the window curtains, turned off the lights, switched on the AC and gently shut the door. 17:45. I swung into action. JJ had overheard the conversation (that eavesdropping crazy 11 year old!) and would be my partner…
June 2021 – A Personally Signed Sneak Preview
Isn’t it amazing that in June 2021, the second wave will probably stabilise and come down. Isn’t it amusing that a man will be everywhere, taking credit for showing the world how to control corona. Isn’t it humbling to see a photo, a punchline, a slogan and an e-printed signature on the certificate that you will need to show everywhere in order to travel, get admission and move on in life. Isn’t it paradoxical that the certificate that will have the handwritten signatures of the people who worked the hardest in the pandemic is only needed to enter a graveyard, cemetery or a crematorium.Or is on a paper summary that chronicles how your life was saved – a paper that…
My Five Favorite Versions Of Christmas Hallelujah
The original ‘Hallelujah’ by Cohen was musically brilliant and has a deep, but somewhat confusing story behind it. A rather lesser known band called Cloverton rewrote the lyrics to make it a Christmas story and thus was born Christmas Hallelujah. It’s one of my favourite Christmas songs – the mix of amazing music, song writing and lyrics results in a musical story that gives goosebumps. Here are my five favorite versions of the song. I’m starting with my most favorite version. 1. Kaylee Rodgers and the Killard House School choirIt’s hard to believe that a shy little girl with autism and ADHD could deliver the best version of this song along with a choir of special children from the Killard…
Hope – A Rose Blooming Among Dry Thorns And Leaves Sprouting From Dead Branches
The rose plant that I have in a pot perched on my balcony is a story of survival. It flowered, grew, withered, sprouted and just about survived. But it’s time had probably come. The branches were withered and the leaves were dry or unhealthy. I was willing to let go of it. I did the occasional pruning and deadwooding, but not regularly. I watered it nonchalantly almost everyday. It didn’t look heàlthy and its days seemed to be numbered. But it had its own plans and over the last few days a small bud appeared on a delicate branch. I saw 2 bright new twigs with leaves sprout out of drying stems. For unseen by me, my mom was carefully…
Walk on Water
Kids dish out the deepest of theologies when you try to crack a joke at them. During the KPTR Christmas program, rains played havoc but we still managed to pull it off. The kids loved it because they could splash along in the puddles as the program went on. There was this one long puddle that they kept running on. I caught one of them (about 7 years old) and said, “You can’t walk on water. Only Jesus can!” I was sure he’d laugh and enjoy this joke. He gave me a piercing look. “I can walk on this puddle. But if there were waves and wind, only Jesus could walk.” I accepted defeat!
Five versions of Little Drummer Boy that hit you hard this Christmas Season
Little Drummer Boy has been around for ages. There is quite a bit of uncertainty about who wrote it and who composed the tune. Most people agree that it was written by Katherine K. Davis in 1941. The song lyrics are probably based on an old Czech carol. The first available recording is by the Trapp family in 1951. The unique vocal drum sound in the song (pa rum pum pum pum), gave it the name “Carol of the Drum” at the beginning. There are literally thousands of versions of this song – from Acapella to Heavy Metal to Pop to Kid Songs to Worship numbers to just about every conceivable genre, variation, beat and music video concepts. I’ve probably…
Seven Christmas song performances that rocked my socks off
Here’s a list of 7 performances of Christmas songs that get me totally in the Christmas mood every December. I’m just talking about performances/videos and not necessarily the meaning, lyrics and music. 1. Hallelujah Christmas by Kaylee Rogers and the Killard School choir. This is my favorite for 2019. The original Hallelujah was written in 1984 and was not a religious song, although it addressed this philosophically. Cloverton rewrote the song a few years ago integrating the Christmas story into the lyrics and this is my favorite song for the year! There are multiple renditions of the Hallelujah Christmas. One standout is this version sung by a child – Kaylee Rogers and her school choir of special children. Kaylee herself…
How to meet THE SUPEREST HERO
It’s called many things – The Message, The Sermon, Sharing God’s Word, Preaching, etc. I was asked to do this during the Sunday School Christmas program. After coming up with many excuses, the ultimate excuse came when I started developing a painful mouth ulcer on the lateral margin a week before the due date. Having dealt with bad throats and coughs on the weeks I lead worship (which always miraculously stopped on Sunday) I accepted Gladwins challenge and God promise of healing and plunged into preparing a message. It was difficulter than I expected to get the flow, even after the thoughts and topic were finalised. Since the children were using a Superhero theme on most of their programs, I…
No Longer 18
I’m no longer 18. I can feel the difference. After decades of celebrating my 21st birthday, the strain on the bones, tendons, joints, muscles and ligaments is obvious. Every time I submit an ID document or fill in a form, the fact that I’m from the previous century hits me hard. With my bank balance smaller than my slim waist, my retirement seems too close for comfort. So how do I cope with the huge void that is created as my youth creeps away to give way to greyness, baldness and presbyopia.* My friend zips around in a BMW as he takes us to his beach facing holiday apartment. And me? My trusty Hyundai Xcent is smaller, but has taken…
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