20+ years since I started preaching, I am constructing any portfolio to be recognised as a local preacher in the Methodist Church.
One item asks questions about how we talk about "salvation", and as a result I found myself digging out the dissertation I wrote for my BA Hons. in 2010!
I haven't re-read it all the way through in a very long time, but am "self-referencing" in the portfolio piece, so want to make sure it's somewhere accessible for those assessing the portfolio to read!

But the real question is:  Would I write the same thing again?

Here's today's revelation, which I came across in my reading:

Contemplation is the action of be present in the temple.

"contemplation (n.): c. 1200, contemplacioun, 'religious musing,' from Old French contemplation and directly from Latin contemplationem (nominative contemplatio) 'act of looking at,' noun of action from past-participle stem of contemplari 'to gaze attentively, observe; consider, contemplate,' originally 'to mark out a space for observation' (as an augur does), from assimilated form of com-, here probably an intensive prefix (see com-), + templum 'area for the taking of auguries' (see temple (n.1))."
www.etymonline.com/word/contemplation

Part one, of what I'm sure will be thousands of confessions of bad habits I have... And why this one is making me think about worship.

This one isn't about my inability to regularly update my website, nor my consistency with producing coherent thoughts or words. It's not one of those deeply personal issues to do with toilet seats or nail biting. This one is all about books.

Even then I'm going to have to narrow it down, otherwise we'll be here all day. I'm not here just to confess my tendency to turn down corners of pages instead of reaching for a bookmark, nor my habit of buying books based on recommendations knowing full well that my "to read" list is more than long enough, nor my tendency to start umpteen books at once.

This one is about my inability to finish a book...

Chapter three of my fictional work.

Chapter one and chapter two are available to read if you need to catch up

Chapter two of my trying my hand at fiction...

This is assuming you've read "Dystopia: 'Day One...'"

Here's a little something I've started.
I'm not sure it's really my thing, but I decided to try my hand at fiction.
Over the next few weeks I'll upload the opening chapters of a dystopian piece I've started.

Be gentle with me!

The premise:

It's a first-person diary account of a man who becomes obsessed with the notion that he is the central character of a story he doesn't know the plot to. He is fixated with dystopian fantasies and reads himself into the plot. The diary starts as therapy following his release from an asylum, as he is believed to be recovering.
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Lucy is in Narnia and is hearing about Aslan for the first time:

“Is he – quite safe?”
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”

Later on, once Lucy and Susan have been reunited with the risen Aslan, they play. The have a romp in the fields:

“Whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind.”

Every year I try and read the same book, though I have slipped up since having children. I’m currently on my third copy because I’ve lent it out so many times that the previous copies have either fallen apart or been stolen (God knows who you are!).

Every time I’ve read it I’ve had a pencil in hand and things have jumped out at me, and every time I read I find myself guilty of not letting the impact I experience whilst reading to sink in for longer afterwards. Personally I blame my memory, but in reality I’m just boring.

The book is called “Dangerous Wonder” by Michael Yaconelli, and from the very first time I read it, it spoke to me.

Subtitled “The Adventure of Childlike Faith”, the blurb reads as follows: