JWJ #154 18:25-28

^18:25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, “You are not also one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”

JWJ #152 18:15-18

^18:15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, ¹⁶ but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in.

JWJ #144 16:28-33

^{16: 28} “I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.”

Denial Is A Dangerous River

Even for a movie, it is a curious and implausible scenario.

Advent Awakening

Advent is a waking up time. In preparation to receive the coming Light, Advent calls us to honesty, self-awareness and consciousness.

Denial #2 (see August 31)

I am not an historian. I find it difficult to remember the date of my own birth, let alone the date of the Battle of Waterloo. But I do believe history has profound lessons to teach those who are willing to pay attention. And, one of the greatest lessons history has to teach us is, to pay attention.

Nicholas Stargardt is an historian. He is a lecturer in modern history at the University of Oxford. He has a special interest in the social history of Nazi Germany including the Holocaust and the history of childhood. In his monumental book Witnesses of War: Children’s Lives Under The Nazis, Stargardt who is the child of a German-Jewish father and an Australian mother, has paid careful attention to the experiences of European children during the Second World War.

Denial #1

I can still picture the scene vividly in my mind. I had been away from home for some years and was back to visit my parents. My mother and I were alone in the car. She was driving. Our conversation edged into dangerous territory when she informed me that a man from the church in which I grew up had been arrested for child abuse.

Disintegration

I have been thinking about Tiger… the golfer, or perhaps now more famously, the man who betrayed Elin. It seems I am not alone in having given some thought lately to the famous athelete from Florida.

But it is not the golf part of Tiger’s life that intrigues me.

Feelings I

It is possible to learn a lot from watching a two-year-old. A toddler is in many ways a miniature of the adult she will later become. One of the things that becomes quickly evident watching a small child is what a powerful role feelings play in our lives.