A different form of train spotting

There is a positive about having no cool points left, and that is I can make confessions without any fear of damaging my reputation any further...

With that in mind, here it is: I like train stations. Well, sort of. I like particular types of train stations, terminuses (or is that terminii?) to be precise. This is nothing to do with me being a train spotter, although I have been accused of being that in the past (I'll confess to enjoying travel of trains perhaps a little too much, but have no desire to take photographs of them...), nor is it because of the general collection of cafés that accumulate in larger train stations. That is merely a bonus.

My real reason is summed up by this sculpture in one of my favourite locations. Yesterday, I was in London and my friend asked to meet at St Pancras, and I was more than willing as it gave me a chance to go and look at The Meeting Place by Paul Day that is located in the Eurostar Arrivals lobby, which I feel really sums up what I love. There are a few areas that I'll confess to being a bit of a romantic in relation to, and one is people watching in places where people are reunited. This may be an extension of the fact that I love doing it myself - going to collect a certain special someone or a long since seen friend is such an exciting experience, it's something to look forward to, particularly the moment they walk through the door at arrivals and the embrace that ensues. It's the point where you have the opportunity to welcome the traveller home or to the destination of the journey, and I love it. Furthermore, it is arguably better in the other direction - there have been many a long journey made more than bearable because of the knowledge that someone will be waiting on the other side to welcome you.

And so I have my little bit of pleasure and enjoyment of sitting in a train terminus watching the same moment happen to others. People watching is a fun activity if you know where to look.

Book Review: "The Reason for God" by Tim Keller

Those, like me, who find it hard to shy away from “heated discussions” will more than likely be keenly aware of the difference between winning the argument and pointing people to Jesus as Lord. Many times I’ve walked away from a conversation knowing very well that I’ve spent too much time arguing over questions about Christianity, and too little actually explaining the gospel, or for that matter even preparing the ground for the gospel to be proclaimed. It’s a problem, I feel, that is shared by many popular Christian apologetics books. There are some excellent books explaining the gospel, but my non-Christian friends often have so many questions to sort out before they would even begin to read those. On the other hand, the books that do start to answer these questions can be too limiting. They often present themselves as the the be all and end all in the argument over issue X, and are content to leave it at that. It's like my fiery conversations all over again, never pointing people to the next step.

The Reason for God however, is different. It deals with many of the same issues - “How can you say there’s only one way to God?”, “Can the Bible be trusted?”, “Hasn’t Science disproved Christianity?” - and yet there is a difference in the way Tim Keller treats these issues. As you read each chapter, you begin to realise that his focus isn’t on answering the question and winning the argument as such, but to convince the reader that the reasons for rejecting Christ are not as watertight as first thought. From that point, he then argues that faith in Christ is itself an intellectually honest and compelling way of looking at the world. What stops Tim Keller’s book from falling into the same trap as others is his honesty on the limitations of his method. Even when arguing for Christian faith, he is upfront in admitting that his arguments are “rationally avoidable”, ie. there is a way of explaining your way out of any of the arguments without resorting to stubbornness! As a result, his arguments focus as a means to encourage the reader to stop putting up barriers and to engage with the gospel of Jesus Christ, rather than to land the knock out blow in the argument itself.

For the Christian reader, there is much encouragement to be found in reading this book as an intellectual and compelling defence of the faith that we all share. More than that, it provides a useful corrective and exemplifies how to point to the gospel through our discussions for those, like me, who can get lost in the fog of arguments. For the non-Christian, although this may not be the book that helps them make the final connection that Jesus is Lord and King, it may help them reach a position that they would be prepared to begin investigating more closely the claims of Jesus Christ that they may never have thought reasonable before. A recommended read.

Originally written for the Hall of SMACC, the blog for St Mary's Anglican Cathedral Contemporary in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Everyone knows that three flights are better than one...

Naturally, I've been thinking about flights recently, and I'm well versed in a number of flight comparison websites. Now, of course they're only really useful for long haul flights, where the options of different ways are quite dizzying. For internal flights, such as for my trip back to Belfast, I know perfectly well that the cheapest flight will probably be with Ryanair or Easyjet, and that BMI and flyBe are also worth looking at as an alternative. Still, it's good for a bit of enjoyment to see what the most ridiculous option they will offer will be...

So, if you were wanting to get to Belfast City from Bristol, had £1639 going spare and felt that just under an hour is much too short a time to spend getting somewhere, then you could:

• Fly with KLM to Amsterdam Schiphol
• Change to fly with CityJet to London City
• Then transfer to Heathrow to catch an Aer Lingus flight to Belfast City.

I really dislike Ryanair, but I feel this 8 hour 55 minute work of art is probably taking avoidance to the extreme. In the end, I've booked with Ryanair, and am now starting to feel a little cheap compared to the alternative...

Notes from a quiet year so far...

2010 has been a bit of a year so far. This can mostly be summed up by the fact that many from my church small group have been teasing me about being a world jetsetter. It's true that, although I tend to meander about Europe with a reasonable regularity (this year, despite everything else going on, I've still made it to Prague and have just returned from a school trip to the Schwarzwalde in Germany), my travels this year have been of a more far-flung variety. First of all there was the fantastic return trip to Kuala Lumpur in April. It was great to return to a place that now is firmly lodged in my heart, and my two weeks there had a wonderful feel of returning to family, which made leaving more of a strain than I had first realised. Of course, there was more than one way that statement could be taken - Icelandic geology has never featured so highly in my thoughts, and offered the opportunity to see more of Abu Dhabi than I'd ever really thought I would!

After finally managing to return to the UK, the jokes started with guys at work about finally needing to stay put. I then said I was off to the US in May. They laughed, I laughed, then slowly they realised I was serious. They asked where abouts I was going, expecting my answer to be Boston, New York, Washington D.C. or some other large metropolitan centre. My answer generally involved having to draw a map to try and show where on earth Idaho is... So what causes an already jetlagged man to pack up on another long haul flight to the middle of nowhere?

Well many of you now know the answer. Carolyn and I were introduced to each other in Easter of 2009, through what can only be described as the machinations of my good friend Daniel and his then fiancée, Brooke. Carolyn had travelled to Oxford to see Brooke, and while here I had been summoned (again, I feel this is the correct term) to share Easter lunch at Brooke's host family. It was a pleasant enough time, and I thought she was a nice girl who I could get on with. But nothing could happen - after all she lives in Washington state and I in Bristol. It would never work...

I met her again briefly at the wedding of the aforementioned friends, and again conversation sparked and we talked until the sheer exhaustion of that particular day overtook me - the details of my insanity on that day are enough for another story at another time. However, rather than drifting of our separate ways as we had last time, this meeting led to a series of e-mail exchanges and various comments on Facebook. Over the next few months, this became a regular and established feature, and to use the vernacular, I began to fall for this American lady. She is beautiful, considerate, very funny (in a good way), and we realised we shared a passion for learning and teaching, as well as for travel and things historical, and most of all earnestly pursuing a knowledge of the Lord and a life that pleases Him. So in November of last year we began courting. I'll not lie, it was an odd experience, as in the time that we were courting we only met face to face once, when she came to the UK for her break in February. We were both warned, and in what little way that we could prepared ourselves for, that because of the unusual nature of our relationship, meeting each other as a couple could feel somewhat awkward. I am truly thankful that this was not the case, and we seemed to pick up where we left off, and enjoyed a lovely week together.

We kept communicating for the few months that followed, and I booked a ticket to fly out to the US for the away leg. Over this time, I was able to reflect on the week that we'd had together, on top of letters, e-mails and phone calls that we'd had with each other, and became more and more convinced that I wanted to marry this lady. And so, jetlagged as I was already, I happily compounded that on a trip to the Northwest, and on a bench in the University of Idaho Arboretum, in a section where plants from the Western North America lie beside those from Europe, I asked Carolyn if she would be my wife. I am pleased to announce that she said yes.

For those who have felt left out of the process, I hope this fills in some of the gaps! We are both looking forward to the 28th August which will be our wedding day (God willing) and for the life together that lies ahead of us beyond that. Your prayers for us will be appreciated, and thanks to all who have already offered their words of encouragement and congratulations!