I've been having a play with he design features on Blogger this evening, and have cut out some of the defunct content on the website (links, RSS feeds and the like) and have made a few layout changes (sidebar only on the right, not on both sides). I haven't changed the overall look too much at this point - can't cope with too much change all at once!
Today Jake and I were up reasonably early to watch the rugby quarter final. Jake wandered off around the end of the first half - a sensible move, as the writing was pretty much on the wall by then. Despite a couple of late tries, we really never did look like winning, and we didn't deserve to. So, not a particularly impressive 24 hours for English sport, but at least the footballers scrambled a draw last night to qualify for the Euro 2012 championships (even if we didn't manage to keep all 11 players on the field for the whole game).
I walked the dog whilst Nicky finished off today's teaching, and then we went over to a very busy Bluey. I took back the smaller suit trousers, as Nicky had picked up a larger size earlier in the week, and the larger ones are much more comfortable! We had an early tea at Loch Fine, but we didn't stick around very much longer as the crowds were not conducive to browsing.
I thought that I'd leave you today with a brief passage from a book that I finished a few days ago. It is by Philip Pullman and is called "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ". The premise is that Jesus was a popular preacher, but he had a brother (Christ) who chronicled his teachings, and after Jesus' death on the cross, Christ embellished the stories to tell the story that he wanted to tell and which would support the founding of the Christian church.
Anyway, even though in the afterward, Pullman explains very clearly why he is a non believer, there is one passage which I think does a great job of describing what the church should be all about. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, about to be betrayed (by Christ), and he is coming to the conclusion that God is no longer interested, no longer listening.
But, in his prayer, he says this:
"Lord, if I thought you were listening, I'd pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive. That it should not be like a palace with marble walls and polished floors, and guards standing at the door, but like a tree with its roots deep in the soil, that shelters every kind of bird and beast, and gives blossom in the spring and shade in the hot sun and fruit in the season, and in time gives up its good sound wood for the carpenter; but that sheds many thousands of seeds so that new trees can grow in its place."