Author: Ben Clapton

I'm a violinist, teacher, composer and arranger from Ellenbrook, Western Australia. I love my family, coffee, AFL and running.

My Redeemer Lives

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith

Biblical Truth

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favour.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter”. So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The LORD be with you!”
“The LORD bless you!” they called back.
Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is that?”
The foreman replied, “She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now except for a short rest in the shelter.”
So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have willed.”
At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “Why have I found such favour in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother–in–law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
“May I continue to find favour in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls.”

Ruth 2:1-13 (NIV)

Musical Offering

Ben’s Offering

A wonderful reading, full of meaning in our lives. We could take a look at Ruth, but she has a whole book devoted to her, so I’m going to look at Boaz. What a wonderful example for us in our world. We read that he’s a land owner — a boss, you might call him — and he treats his workers well. He comes out to greet them and says “The LORD be with you!” and they greet back “The LORD bless you!” He treats his workers well, and they treat him well.

But there’s more. He notices this foreigner working behind the men. Not just any foreigner, but a foreign woman. She deserves no attention according to the culture of the day, and has less standing that one of Boaz’ servant girls. Yet not only does he seek out who she is, but offers to treat her as one of the servant girls, well above her standing.

There’s a lesson here. Keep an eye out for those we might forget, those we might normally look over, and treat them with a care and love that puts them above what they would expect. And do this not for gloating, not to share in any blog, or newspaper, but do it for the glory of God.

The musical offering today is one of my favourite songs — My Redeemer Lives — performed here by Hillsong. Personally, I preferred the version played by a group of my mates, but this is pretty awesome as well. Would love to hear your comments.

The Lord is my Shepherd

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive

Biblical Truth

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Psalm 23 (NIV)

Musical Offering

Ben’s Offering

Perhaps it’s just because I haven’t been paying as much attention as I should have been, or perhaps it’s because I got complacent thinking I knew this psalm, but I can’t remember having ever noticed the last two verses of this reading. It’s really inspiring. I especially love the line “my cup overflows.” It’s something that I’ve reflected on a bit recently, and has been a continuing theme at Floreat. “God is more than enough.” When they raised $12,000 at their fete up on last year’s $7,000 – “He is more than enough.” The more I discover about my wonderful girlfriend, the more that makes me love her – “He is more than enough” When I worry that I might not be able to put together a sermon for the upcoming youth service – “He is more than enough.” Trust in the Lord, and what will happen? “… goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

What a wonderful setting of the 23rd Psalm. The 6th movement in John Rutter’s Requiem, a musical setting of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, it was completed and first performed in 1985, but this movement was originally written in 1976 as a separate anthem. It’s got a wonderfully calm setting – the oboe playing its wonderful pastoral role, and some wonderful harmonic painting.

New design

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life, Uncategorized

Regulars will notice that I have another new blog design for my site. This is due to my previous hosting arrangements coming to an end and me being required to find new hosting. In the end I decided to go with wordpress.com, as I’ve always used wordpress blogs, and it is far cheaper and more reliable than anything else on the market.

I haven’t decided to go with the custom css package atm, so am stuck with the themes available – but they seem really good, and a lot less work for me. So it’s all good 🙂

Design might change over the next little while as I figure out what’s best for this site, and what direction I’m going to take it in. But for the mean time, enjoy.

Denying your God

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Tonight I went to a WASO concert, featuring Richard Mills’ new composition The Passion According to St. Mark. It opened with a Canzon by Giovanni Gabrielli for brass, which was really good, and then we heard Vivaldi’s Motet for soprano, string and continuo In furore iustissimae irae, with Rachelle Durkin singing. Never have I had a vocalist captivate me, but Ms. Durkin sang with such passion, and her body presence showed an absolute knowledge and love of the music. It was also rather beautiful to see a human side where just before the start of the Mills, she had an “Oh my god, did I really just do that” moment where she knocked over her glass of water, with quite a loud clunk as the glass hit the floor, and water spilled towards the first violins. But she took it in her stride, composed herself, and sung brilliantly.

There was one part of the Passion that interested me in particular. Mills has interspersed the Gospel narrative with selections from various sources – psalms, old testament writings, and writings of prominent religious figures such as Hildegard von Bingen. One quote caught me particular:

I am not your God,
If you have not denied me once, twice,
If I have not heard you complaining or doubting my existence.
I am not your Love,
If you have not rejected me often.
For what then am I worth to you,
If you were always sinless?

That was written by Abioseh Davidson Nicol, a Sierra Leonean academic and poet, amongst other things, and was taken from his book African Easter, Good Friday: The Wounded Christ.This was placed right after Peter had disowned Jesus three times, and it caught my attention for a few reasons.

I’m sure I’m not the only Christian to have doubted the existence of God. But it’s something that we as Christians don’t really talk about. It’s almost a taboo topic – you can’t let your faith falter. But it happens. I’d like to think that despite being slightly musical and creative, I’m also kind of logical in my thinking. And I’ll admit – there is almost no logical reason to believe in God. You can’t really see, touch, taste, hear or smell God in our traditional understanding. If I weren’t to believe in God, I wouldn’t have to worry so much about trying to be Good in every aspect of my life, I could try other things that I might be interested in. I’ve felt these things, and I’ve been tempted very strongly sometimes. Life would be so much easier if I weren’t a Christian – that’s what it feels like sometimes.

But, then I remember what has happened in my life. And while I might not see God in our traditional understanding, I can see God’s work in this world. I can’t feel God with my Hands, but I know that I have felt his presence in my life, in a way that is difficult to explain. And I think that is part of why some people find it hard to understand Christians.

Over the past couple of months, as I’ve gotten to know some of my girlfriends friends, I’ve noticed a lingering argument between one of her friends, and someone else that he knows. He’s an outstanding fellow, strong in his faith, and often posts comments or updates to that effect. I’m really excited to see what he can do in this world. His friend however, through a few posts that I have read, whenever he posts something exciting that he’s experienced, she tries to tell him that he can’t have experienced it (though, not quite in those words). I think the problem is that she is trying to bring Logic to an argument that isn’t about logic. And while experience is a great teacher, and we would love to share our experiences with those around us – often it won’t work unless we allow it to happen to them. And that’s tough – telling them what’s happened in our lives won’t help them, even if we would like to bring Christ into their lives.

I think what I’m trying to say is that we, as Christians, aren’t just following the flock, aren’t just following the traditions of our parents. We have thought about these things – and if you as a Christian haven’t really questioned whether God exists, then perhaps that’s something you might like to explore – and we’ve decided that our belief in God is well founded. So when someone asks us to open our minds to the possibility that there’s no God, we can proudly say “I have, I thought about it, and I truely believe that God exists, that God is active in my life, that he/she/it loves me, and that they Love you too – whether you like it or not!”

The most effective child web filter

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Bit of a claim. It is said that no child web filter can be 100% effective, and I would say that this probably isn’t fully effective, however it does a lot more than any other filter on the market, and whats more – it’s absolutely, 100% free. But more on that later.

One of the big topics of discussion at the moment is the Australian Government’s Internet Filtering plan. One of the biggest problems, despite the possibility of it being used to restrict access to material that the Government objects to, is that the filter itself is highly ineffective, less so than many commercially available filters – which are themselves less than perfect.

Many of these filters, while blocking many sites, will allow a large number of sites through. How many? Well, let’s assume that most filters are around 99% effective. That sounds like a good number, right? In January 2008, a Netcraft report suggested that there were 156 Million websites. In March 2009, Netcraft reported that there were nearly 225 Million sites, an increase of 9 million sites from the month before. If your censorship software is 99% effective, that’s 2.25 Million websites that can possibly leak through your software. What’s worse is that if there were about 9 million new websites every month, your censorship software cannot possibly keep up with the large number of new websites containing material you might not want your children seeing. Sure, they might eventually get added to the filter software, but eventually is not really good enough is it?

Filtering software – safe as condoms

Recently, Pope Benedict said in an interview that the distribution of condoms in Africa can lead to the increased spread of HIV/AIDS. Despite being attacked by the French Government, aid groups and much of the Western Media, he does have a point – he just said it the wrong way. There is an AIDS epidemic in Africa, there’s no denying that. And condoms can help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. However, what the Pope was trying to indicate was that if condoms are distributed freely as a way to try and curb the epidemic, it will only make people think that it’s safe to have sex, if you’re wearing a condom. Now, condoms can break, and are ineffective if used incorrectly. So it is idiotic to think that a condom alone will prevent the spread of AIDS. Also, with the more condoms in the area, the more likely people will be having sex. Simple numbers here – let’s say that in a sample population, 100 people have sex with no condoms, and of those, 2 people contract HIV. Now in a similar populations where condoms are freely available, 1000 people have sex, and 10 people contract HIV. Now the percentage is less in the larger population, but more people have HIV.

Now, unlike the Pope, I’m not going to say that we shouldn’t have condoms. However, they can’t be the only measure. We need to use the Pope’s suggestion of behaviour modification, along with the availability of condoms, to fix this problem. Teach them that sex can be a risk best left alone, but if you’re going to do it, be safer about it.

Now how does this relate to internet filtering software? Simple – Internet filtering software fails because it gives a false sense of security. Install the software, and then you can allow your child to roam free on the web, because the software will block all the sites that you don’t want them seeing, right? Wrong! As I’ve already pointed out, an unacceptably large number of websites will still bypass your filter, and I don’t want to be the one you come complaining to when they do (though I would find it slightly odd if you did, as I have nothing to do with the software).

The most effective child web filter – YOU

Just like condoms alone will not fix the HIV/AIDS problem in Africa, Internet Filtering Software will not protect your child online. It is your responsibility to protect your child, and to do that in regards to the internet, you need to supervise them. When first introducing your child to the internet, you should sit alongside them at all times, allowing them to do what they want (or suggesting sites for them to go to), but just making sure they don’t click on anything that looks suss. Later on, you don’t need to sit next to them, but you should stay in the same room, just to keep an eye on them.

During this stage, internet filtering software on your computer should be a given. More than likely nothing will come down while you’re looking at legitimate websites, but there may be the odd advertisement or false link that you might not catch. The software is a backup – to catch those things you miss. Remember – mostly, you don’t see porn on your computer unless you request it.

Covert monitoring

When they get a bit older, and you can trust them more, you can let them use the computer without you being in the room. However, should you still want to watch over them, just to make sure that they are doing the right thing, installing TightVNC on the computer, and have the server running as a service on the computer might be what you want. TightVNC is a program that allows you to remotely connect to another computer and view their screen. You can set it up so you have complete control, or vision only. In this situation, I would recommend vision only – don’t want a stray swipe of the mousepad or an accidental keystroke to alert them to being monitored. Buy a cheap laptop like the eeepc and set up a wireless network at your home (make sure you secure it so no-one else can log in and steal your internet). From there, whenever they use the internet, whatever you’re doing, you can log on and view them.

Other options are logging programs, to see what they’re looking at and checking anything that looks suss.

All in all, the Government’s plan to censor our internet is the worst possible choice – it will make us think that the Government will protect us, when in fact is is giving us a false sense of security. It is your responsibility to protect your child – not the Government’s – so give your child that time. Surely it’s time well spent!

A Week in the life – Friday through Sunday

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Well, while I would’ve liked to have posted every day through the weekend, it was so busy, I don’t think I got the computer turned on between Friday and Sunday. Three full days has me sitting here on Monday, trying to remember what happened.

Friday started early, as it normally does, with me leaving home at 7.15 to get to Thornlie Christian College to teach by 8.30. A full day of teaching follows, finishing at 4.30. From there I started the drive to Floreat to help out with their youth group. Dinner along the way, and an agonisingly slow drive up the freeway (normally at that time, it’s quite clear, but was packed on friday). Got to the hall, and got to spend a bit of quiet time with Liesl before needing to help set up for “Gross Games” – which is literally what it sounds like – games that are gross. We had passing cheezles cheek to cheek with peanut butter on our cheeks, searching for tic tacs in milo using only our tongue (and faces still covered in peanut butter), fishing for lollies in cold spaghetti using only our feet, my personal favourite was the twister where each of the dots were covered with condiments – mustard, tomato sauce, blue jelly and gherkin spread. Of course, this turned into a food fight by the end of it where everyone got very messy. It was good fun.

After youth group, and dropping one of the youth groupers off home, I allowed another one to drive my car for a bit. He’s learning to drive, and doesn’t get much time behind the wheel. He was a pretty safe driver, just a few things to watch out for, and as I get more familiar with him, I’m sure I’ll let him drive a bit more. After surviving that, I popped over to Liesl’s to spend a bit of time with her, before heading back home.

Saturday started early again, as I had said I would be at Liesl’s at 7.30am. Waking up at 7.15 put a stop to that, and she was appreciative of the few minutes of extra sleep I gave her. But we needed to be off early, going to a breakfast with the Chrysalis community that I’m involved in. A good opportunity to meet up again, and Liesl got to meet a few faces that she’ll be seeing when she goes on the flight in July 🙂

Then it was off to another event to see our mate Paul shave his hair. Me shaving Paul's hairI was the inspiration for Paul participating this year, so of course I donated and got to shave his hair. It was a great event, and he raised over $1000 for the Leukaemia foundation, as well as some money for the men’s ministry at his church (proceeds of the Sausage Sizzle and Cans etc).

Then it was of to the main event, per se. It was only 11.30 by this stage, so we’d barely got through the morning. Now it was time to head over to Adventure world. I hadn’t been since I was in year 5, so it’s changed quite significantly. The reason for going was to meet Liesl’s sister whom she hadn’t seen in 18 years. Being only 19, it was like meeting her for the first time.  It was good to meet her and her daughters (15 and 17), and they seem like great people whom I hope to get to know well over the coming months and years.

Adventure World was great fun – I did some things that I haven’t done before. I think my favourites are the water slides, though I did have fun on the Rollercoaster (first time in quite a while being on a rollercoaster), and also the Powersurge, spinning me this way and that. I would’ve tried the Rampage, but wasn’t feeling the best after the Rollercoaster/Powersurge double.  I think I won’t make it so long between visits, as there’s a few things that I’d love to do still – the Rampage, Bounty’s Revenge, the Go-Karts, and a few more trips down the Waterslides.

In the evening, Liesl hosted a “Wii and Singstar night” where we played Guitar Hero World Tour, Wii Sports, and Singstar. A great night, and a fun way to spend time with friends, but I started showing the effects of two long days, and Liesl insisted that I crash in the spare bed. After everyone left, around midnight, I got to the spare bed, and was asleep within minutes.

PizzaSunday, and an early start. I left Liesl’s place around 7.30 – before anyone else was awake – in order to get back to my place, have a shower and breakfast, and get off to Church for the music. There I was informed that bible study would not be on, making it a full month since I’ve been, but it did make it possible for me to attend the evening service at Floreat. In the afternoon, I headed off to Caversham House, where Liesl’s best friend, Tanya, was hosting a Pizza Picnic event for her work. We had a great time, eating some lovely pizza, and chatting and stuff.

After a brief rest period watching some Scrubs, we headed down to Floreat for rehearsal for the Worship band before the service. The service itself was great, and was good to be able to share fellowship with both my churches in the one day. Dinner with a small group of us after the service, then back to Liesl’s for more scrubs and prayer time.

So as you can see, a pretty full weekend, and it’s no real surprise that I was quite tired, and didn’t have time to write any blogs. But we’ll see if I can put another one up tonight as reflections of my week.

“Shoot-em-ups” don’t kill people

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Bit of a controversial header there, but I believe every word of it. This comes from a news report on ABC on-line with the header “German gunman a ‘keen shoot-em-up gamer’” which says within the report “”We seized his computer yesterday evening and analysed it… On it are games that are typical for someone carrying out a mass shooting,” [Police Chief] Mr Michelfelder said.”

Sorry, what? Games that are typical for someone carrying out a mass shooting? It’s quite obvious what type of games he’s talking about. the “Shoot-em-up” games which are very popular. Take for example, the games available for multiplayer on 3FL – a gaming site which I visit due to its association with my ISP. We have:

  • Battlefield 1942 – a “3D World War II First Person Shooter”
  • Call of Duty – also based in World War II
  • Call of Duty 4 – based in the “near future”
  • Call of Duty: World at War – based in World War II
  • Counter-Strike
  • Counter-Strike: Source – Tactical Firstperson shooters
  • Day of Defeat – Team based multiplayer First person shooter
  • Enemy Territory Pro – Free Multiplayer FPS based on the Wolfenstein games
  • Left 4 Dead – where you are one of four survivors fighting off hordes of zombies
  • Team Fortress 2 – FPS video game, slightly more cartoony than the other games mentioned
  • Team Fortress Classic
  • Trackmania Nations Forever – A Racing game
  • Tribes 2 – a sci-fi FPS
  • Warsow – a multiplayer competitive FPS game

As you can see, only one game that is not a “Shoot-em-up” as the media would have us believe, though to be fair, there are many games here which I would not describe as shoot-em-up. Many of these games require skill, timing, patience, accuracy, and covertness, and are not the jump in and hold the trigger down type of game. However, the media would have us believe that any game of this type is the type of game that a mass-murderer would have, and lead the public into making the assumption that these games breed killers.

This is an outright lie, and should not be even promoted as a thought.

There are millions of gamers around the world who play First Person Shooters as their preferred games. Back in February 2008, Playfuls.com reported that 1.2 million copies of the FPS Unreal Tournament 3 had been sold for both PC and PS3, and this was just prior to the release of this game in Europe. So of course, you can expect more sales from Europe, and with the recent update and Titan Pack, Steam was offering a sale on this game, so you would expect even more sales just recently.

So we have millions of people that play FPS games. Yet, only a very small minority of these gamers ever do something outside of the game. It wouldn’t reach 1%. It probably doesn’t even reach 0.01% of all gamers.

Now I’m not saying that what this guy in Germany did was right. It’s a shocking thing, and I wish that it never happened. And I’m not going to say that FPS games may have played a minor part. We will never know for sure. However, the reason that most FPS players don’t go on massacres is because they are mature enough, and well enough in the head to understand that IT’S JUST A GAME. We do it to relax, we do it to entertain. I love gaming, and though I’m not very good at them, I really enjoy first person shooters. However, I could never hold a real gun – I’m a pacifist at heart. And I’m sure that the majority of gamers will never go on a massacre, and will be just as disgusted and appalled by this tragedy as anyone else.

The fact of the matter is that there were other factors in this guys life that lead to him committing such an atrocity. There were factors in his life that we may not know, things happening in his brain that he may have shared with no-one. It’s a shame that he felt this was the only way to solve these issues, that he couldn’t see another way, but gamers should not get blamed for this.

As Christians, we should be praying for the families of all involved, working tirelessly with those at risk individuals, and caring for and loving everyone that we meet, showing them that there is more to life and that it’s worth living.

A Week in the Life – Thursday

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Thanks to not having to work today, I enjoyed a lazyish morning. I watched a couple of Stargate episodes, then after lunch, did some work on my budget. While I had the cash to be able to cover my speeding fine, I decided that I really should try and recover the money if I could. So I decided that taking a bit of money from my various cash spendings each  month (things like Discretionary, fuel and clothes) then I could slowly (over 10 months) save up the money spent on the fine and also membership to the youth orchestra.

After I’d figured that all out, I went to pay the fine, do some banking, and pick up a couple of books for one of my students. There’s three music stores in Perth that are worth visiting – Zeniths, Theo’s and Tempest music. I rarely go to Tempest, as it’s south of the river, and not in my usual driving range, and often is more expensive than the other two. Zeniths is where I prefer to go, as it’s a bit easier to find what you’re looking for, but Theo’s often has better prices. Bit of a toss up really. Today, I had to visit both Zeniths and Theos, as Zeniths didn’t have one book, and thankfully, Theos did (and didn’t have the book I got at Zeniths).

Then some teaching, a few lessons, and then had dinner with my wonderful girlfriend’s Nanna and Pop. They are the most awesome old people, so it was awesome to spend some time with them and hear a few of their stories. After dinner, my gorgeous girlfriend dragged me shopping (I allowed myself to be dragged quite willingly hehe) to go shopping with her for youth group tomorrow. Gross Games. I’m not quite sure what I’ve got coming for me tomorrow, but it shall be interesting to say the least.

So, for tomorrow – Teaching all day from 830 to 430, then youth group at night. Now, want to write another post, reflecting on a news article I just read, then a bit of reading then sleep. Watch for a new post shortly.

A week in the Life – Wednesday

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Work again today. But unfortunately, on my way there I got picked up for speeding. Now this is odd, as my beautiful girlfriend calls me a “Grandpa” driver, because I always do the speed limit. So how’d I get pulled up? School Zones. Now I admit, I was in the wrong. I hadn’t seen the signs, and as such, believed that I was doing the speed limit, but I should’ve been paying more attention. School Zones are there to ensure the kids are safe, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I’d killed someone for going that fast. So while I don’t like it, and I’ll have to rework my budget for a little while, I’ll take the fine.

Meeting at work today, team meeting, making sure that we can all work together as a team. It’s tough when we work different days, not sure of everyone’s role, so it was good to clear that up. Other than that, bit of work on various stuff, including fixing a laptop that was not recognising USB devices. That was fun.

Came home for a bit of relaxation before teaching, and a bit of watching some NBA clips on youtube. Then my dearest girlfriend came over to discuss a bit of stuff. It’s so wonderful having her, because we’re both passionate about our faith, and we make time to pray together. Today, it was specifically about some issues that have come up in our lives, but we also make sure to do it when we don’t have those troubles and everything is just peachy. It’s lovely to be able to trust someone so much to share all your worries, your misgivings and more with, and then to be able to offer them up to God for help.

Tomorrow, normally I would have work but that was moved to this morning, so a bit of a lazy day. I should try and get to the doctors – been avoiding that, and need to get back to the Gym. Teaching in the afternoon, and dinner with my gorgeous girlfriend’s nanna and pop. Should be a good day. But now, I think I have some time to waste with God, read a few chapters of the books I’m working through.

Wasting time with God

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

As part of my work, I have to upload the fortnightly e-mail newsletter. The text gets sent to me, but I have to do a bit of formatting to make it look good. In our latest edition, one heading grabbed my attention – “St George’s Cathedral invites you to waste time with God.” A series of events at the Anglican Cathedral in Perth, inviting you to come and explore spirituality. I attended one just recently, a talk on Spirituality and music. Most fascinating stuff, however, I’m finding that the style of worship that appeals to me and enhances my soul, is no longer in the anglican tradition that I am familiar with, so as such I probably won’t attend many sessions unless the title really interests me.

But this idea of “Wasting time with God” really caught me. What a wonderful idea! I’m guessing that if you’re like me, sometimes you really want to just waste some time. It might be finding something to do instead of watching tv, or my personal favourite, spending time on Facebook. You might have a few minutes before you need to leave home for school but not enough time to get anything done. You might just need a break from whatever it is that you were doing. We all need these breaks that allow us to “waste time”. Often we’ll go to things like Facebook, twitter, or other things. How wonderful it would be to make a conscious decision that instead of wasting time on things like Facebook, you instead decided to waste time with God?

Got 1 minute? Say a prayer about something on your mind, or thanking God for a wonderful day, or thanking him that you can talk to him any time of the day. Got 5 minutes? Read through a Psalm, or choose a verse from Proverbs and see how it may relate to your life. Got longer? Read through a chapter from one of the books of the bible. I’ve recently decided that I want to make a concerted effort to read the bible, not just in my daily devotions, but actually reading a book of the bible from beginning to end. It’s a lot different to getting the readings in my devotional, where you just get bits and pieces. By reading all the way through, you get some context to what you’re reading which is awesome.

Anyway, if we start spending our wasted time with God, surely our lives will start to improve, as we live and learn in Christ, it can only be a good thing to waste time with God.