I spend an embarrassing amount of time thinking about cooking. It was baking that first hooked me when I was a kid – the endless, delicious things that could be created by the simple act of creaming butter and folding flour. It was like magic. At first it was the sweet stuff, but as I grew into an adult the necessity of putting meals on the table introduced me to the wonders of savoury cooking. Now I can’t help but daydream and plan and sometimes even obsess over the new and interesting creations I can spin with a pan and a spatula. (Unfortunately the effort is all but lost on my happy-with-cheese-on-toast husband and only-eats-white-food three year old – I...
In the last year, we have felt the loss of simple things we might have once taken for granted—whether sitting in our favourite coffee shop, having friends over for dinner, or taking an overseas holiday. But what has surprised many are the feelings of grief over not being able to sing with others in church. From my experience, singing can often feature fairly low down the list of what is important in personal and corporate faith. I’m not at all saying we don’t enjoy the music in our church services. It’s just that, in the conservative evangelical world, the focus is generally on the ‘greater gifts’. However, a regular frustration I have observed on social media over the past year...
A lot of posts I see floating around social media at the moment are reminding me of where we were “this time last year” - and it involves a lot of lasts. Our last holidays, our last hugs, our last days of blissful ignorance. Perhaps we wish we had treasured those things more while we had the chance. A year ago this weekend was the last time I sang in my church, the last time I sat next to (I mean, actually next to) someone in my congregation, and the last time I really experienced fellowship and communion with my brothers and sisters in Christ. God-willing, those things will happen again soon, but right now (at least in my part of the...
