What makes a person? What makes me, me? For me I’ve struggled with identity for my entire Life – one of the biggest struggles I’ve had over my identity is the one over ‘race’ (now many would consider it strange for a white guy to struggle with identity over race and don’t get me wrong – I’ve never thought I am not white) the reasons being that I was brought up (My mom assisted [...]
It's been a while since i shared about No_bob, the world's most famous stuffed dolphin [can you name any others] who i was going to call 'Bob' [largely due to this amazing Blackadder scene] but then realising that he was made out of material and fluff and would not in fact bob, he became No_bob. When i was a speaker on the youth/school speaking circuit in South Africa i would usually take No_bob with [...]
Wow. Boom. Things just got real people. Having just witnessed Simon Peter's 'Life or Death' declaration of absolute faithfulness to Jesus at the Last Supper, we now have this follow up story where Peter is denying Jesus left, right and centre... until suddenly, the piercing sound of a rooster is heard... Join me as i work through Mark 14.66-72: [For the next passage which sees Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate, click [...]
When Brett asked for some volunteers on this topic I sprung at the chance but it has taken me a while to get some words down as I wasn’t sure what to say or what aspect to focus on or what I really wanted people to get out of this post… To be honest I am still not 100% sure but I hope either way it will challenge you to think deeply about race, relationships [...]
I woke up on election day, my thumbs ready to be inked and itching to say something to challenge people to get up and vote seeing as a friend of mine had just expressed disinterest in politics and thus voting itself. As I lay in bed contemplating if it would be better to sleep the morning away and vote later, my brother sent me a message; a speech allegedly delivered by PW Botha in 1985. [...]
My First Motherless Mother's Day Being a Mother I want to be angry. I usually reserve this day [Mother's Day] as my right to be secretly bitter and jealous. You all go on and on about how great your mother is all day long while historically I would hide in my room with the covers over my head, counting down the hours until it was safe to emerge. I am allowed to do this once [...]
Continuing our journey with Mark as we head towards the end of Jesus' life as He heads for the garden where He will be arrested and then later tried. i take some time to look at what He does or maybe more importantly what He doesn't do - what He says and what He doesn't say, to see where we can learn how we can and should respond in similiar flavoured circumstances:. Join me [...]
This feels like an important part of the conversation to spend some time on and i would love to hear your response to this. You may have seen the article by Princeton student, Tal Fortgang, titled 'Checking my Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege' that has been doing the rounds this week in which Tal [as an 18 year old, good to remember and hold in context] begins by explaining what his problem with [...]
[Disclaimer: while in Americaland, the term "coloured" is a strongly negative term, in South Africa there is a unique group of people who have come from a heritage of different cultures but now have developed their own distinct culture. They are neither black nor white, nor are they mixed race, and they would call themselves 'coloured'.] We’re no different than any other couple. Well, we are. Roxanne is from South Africa and colo(u)red and Greg [...]
i just watched this TED talk by a woman called Mellody Hobson on the introduction of a topic she called 'Colour Braveness' While the focus of the clip is very much from a 'The American Dream' point of view, and so doesn't necessarily have the end point i would focus on [become a CEO of a company!] there are some interesting and helpful points she raises and so it is well worth a viewing... Some [...]