more about nothing

Just thought I'd let you know, that I've just gone through and edited all of the posts to do with AFL. All posts relating to AFL now have a prefix of [AFL] in the title of the post - a kind of warning system for those who don't really want to read about AFL (what planet are you from anyway? haha).

But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't read it....I'll be watching you!

Hmm...doesn't that sound like some old movie? Ha ha

This weekend is the battle of the birds, over at Subiaco. I'm praying and hoping that the Crows get up and beat the eagles into the ground, but it's probably not likely...and I know that Bruce is nodding in agreement here...

Please crows? Let's break the eagle's perfect record...

I found this interesting site today.

Refreshingly honest, I thought : )

In the light of all that has been happening lately, you'd never guess what we've been studying at life group (I've mentioned this before...)

GRACE!

Yes, Grace.

Needless to say, I wasn't thinking very graceful thoughts after I got home last night, but then God challenged me: "Who I do love more, Paula? You, or the person who robbed your house?"

How do you answer that, except with the truth.

And the truth is that God loves us all equally, and distributes grace just as equally.

Not fair huh?

Well I guess that's why it's Amazing Grace

There's been a (pleasant, unexpected) increase in visitors to my blog - WELCOME!

I hope you enjoy your time here - please feel free to leave comments or ask questions; and, let your friends know!

Paula

Last night I got home from work and started to cook my dinner, when I looked towards the laundry & garage doors - something wasn't right.

Half of the door to the garage was on the floor.

We'd been burgled.

My immediate reaction was one of confusion, as nothing downstairs had been disturbed - apart from the destroyed door, the window they smashed to get in, and slight damage to my flatmates car. However, as I went upstairs and looked into our bedrooms, I was beginning to get angry. My flatmates room looked like a whirlwind had gone through it. My room had also been looked through, but thank God, nothing had been taken from my room. However, my flatmate was not so lucky. Her jewellery was taken, as was her new digital camera and her money box.

The police came, however the fingerprint people had already gone home, so they should be there now, as I'm typing this. Hopefully they find what they need.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep too well - the slightest noise had me jumping through the roof : )

It just occured to me that there may be some people who read this blog who have no real idea about what I've been discussing the past few days. Sorry for that - you'll be relieved that it's a seasonal obsession, and it should be over by September - or earlier, depending on how my team goes.

Just a basic overview of AFL for all you people who should know better:

AFL (Australian Football League, not the american AFL) is the sport that God created to be played in heaven. I think that's why they can jump so high to mark the ball.

The football is similar in shape to a rugby ball, though more elongated, and rounder at the ends. It's quite a skill to be able to bounce these things while walking and to get them to return to you.

The game is played between two teams on an oval - at each end of the oval are four posts - the centre two bigger than the outer two. If the ball is kicked between the two big posts (without being touched by anyone), your team scores a goal, which equates to 6 points. If the ball is knocked through the middle two poles (by either team), it's referred to as a "rush behind", and you score a point. If the ball goes through the two smaller poles on either side, your team scores a point. It's a game of running, bouncing, kicking, tackling, and it's fantastic to watch - either live or on TV.

There are so many rules that I'm not going to try to explain, because I know that I'll get them wrong, so if you need more information, go HERE.

Hmm. Sunday morning, I was up on stage, blissfully unaware of what was going to happen to me when I went to sit down.

As I was walking off stage, a friend of mine started making stupid faces at me, and pointing his finger at me. Somehow, I managed to interpret what he was saying as "ha ha the bullies bet you!". This man was the same man I'd been harrassing the weekend before because the Crows bet the Swans (the team he and his wife support).

I'd conveniently forgotten that he follows the western bulldogs, and that the crows were playing them on saturday. I confirmed my fears via my handy wap-enabled mobile during the service (don't look so shocked - I know all you with palm pilots aren't really taking notes for the whole service) - the crows had indeed gone down to the bulldogs. I was suitably humbled.

Not too humbled though - port still lost, as did the swans :)

Well, my car's fixed, with thanks to some fantastic friends.

However, this morning, when I went to unlock the door to get in the car, the lock decided that it wasn't going to work! Now that's bizzare, because my lock is easy to open. Anyway, I unlocked the passenger side and unlocked the door from there.

At least I know my car's harder to steal now! ha ha

I think I should get my car painted a nice shade of lemon, because that's what it's been for the past few months.

Yes, it's broken down again.

Either God's telling me to buy a new car, or He's trying to teach me patience and reliance on Him....hmm probably the latter.

Praise God for my friends though: one of my friends is fixing up my car (it's a relatively simple problem), and another has just bought a new car, so she's lent me her old car until mine is fixed :)

Now I don't generally believe in omens - but as I told my friends who came with me to the footy, I believed that the crows were going to win, as two flew over me as I was on my way to my car to head to sound check @ church, whereas, I didn't see any swans :)

How beautiful was yesterday afternoon? I went with a couple of friends and spend yesterday afternoon sitting in the sun, in a crowd of 30,478 people, watching my team run all over the swannies!

Final score (for those interested!):

..........................................Q1...........Q2...........Q3.................Q4

Sydney Swans ............. 4.2.......... 7.5.......... 9.8............ 11.13 (79)
Adelaide ......................... 4.3......... 6.5......... 10.11........ 18.12 (120)

Well after all the melancholy doom & gloom that I've been sprouting the past week or so, I finally have some good news!

My friend Sam is engaged, and he and his fiance are getting married in November! Yay!

Yay!

Well, this sunday, myself and some girls from my life group are heading off to the SCG to see Swans V Crows! And, we should get back just in time for the evening church service. How good is that!

Now...we'd better win, or I'll look quite silly sitting there in my crows colours...!

Sorry! More game info:

Crowd: 44,807 @ AAMI Stadium

Favourite quote by commentator: "The crows seem to be playing A-Grade football, while Port seem to only be managing C-Grade"

My response to the above quote: "Yeah, well that's because we're better"

Current newspaper bylines: "Crows unleashed, Power turned off", "Crows thump Port"

NB: If you're an NRL supporter, this post is not for you :)

From hismethod.com:
"- Adelaide Crows: The Crows are scavengers, known for their vulture-like behaviour, a metaphor more akin to death than the "giver of life".
"- Port Adelaide Power: In Mark 5:30 Jesus says "At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him." He never said He wanted it back."

Well Bruce, they may be "scavengers", but but the Power seemed to have left Port as the MIGHTY CROWS gave them the flogging they deserve!

I was shocked to flick to channel 9 on sunday afternoon to discover that they were showing "Showdown XVII" - otherwise known as Adelaide v Pt Adelaide @ AAMI Stadium...and so my Sunday afternoon was planned for me!

Because I live in Sydney, or NRL territory, I was pleasantly surprised that channel 9 had seen the light, and decided to show this fantastic game between the two South Australian sides.

And what made it even better? Probably the fact that we pretty much doubled their score for the whole game - they'd kick a goal, we'd kick two.

How much better can a sunday afternoon be?

FINAL SCORE:
..................Q1...........Q2.............Q3................Q4
Crows.....3.2 (20).....9.5 (59).....13.13 (91).....18.16 (124)
Port.........1.1 (7)......5.2 (32).......7.5 (47).........8.8 (56)

I've been quietly, slightly, depressed over the past few months (if that makes sense!), and I've been trying to figure out why. If you don't know me, I can be quite melancholy and introspective, which sometimes isn't a good thing :)

I think I've finally put my finger on the problem.

I've now been living in Sydney for just over 2 years. However, before I moved here, I'd lived in the same town for 22 years - and that includes attending the same church for that time also. I was heavily involved in ministry and leadership from the time I was 10 years old until 3 months before I moved here. In the last year or so of attending my old church, something wasn't sitting right in my spirit - I felt uneasy and on the "outer", but at the same time I believed that my relationship with God wasn't the problem - there was something going on in the church that was wrong - I believe God was giving me discernment to protect myself. I believed that whatever was happening was going to be revealed sooner or later, and I really felt in my spirit that I needed to get out of that environment, as I was feeling quite stifled. So I had decided that come the new year, I was either going to leave the church (and go to another), or leave town.

Circumstances happened, which meant that I was given the opportunity to move to Sydney - my preferred new home! However, as I moved here, things were gradually getting worse in my old church. Before I left, sunday attendance averaged around 200 per service - at the most, we'd get 250, which is great for a small town. However, things were happening, people were leaving the church - and not just your "fly-by-nighters" - foundational members of the church were leaving, and going to the church down the road.

And then, late last year, it seemed as if God said "right that's enough! I'm going to show you all what's been going on" - and the reverberations hit far and wide! Due to the treatment that he was receiving (and definitely not due to misconduct), the Associate Pastor resigned. An elderley friend of mine needed to confront our Senior Pastor about certain issues - and after the meeting was so stressed that he had a stroke, which left him in a rehabilitation hospital for the next 6 months, relearning how to do EVERYTHING. Circumstances led to the Senior Pastor being stepped down from all forms of ministry and being asked to leave the church. The church is now being run by another church, and has a "temporary" senior pastor, who's job I do not envy at all.

It's even to the point now, where a friend of mine who was leading a ministry has been stepped down for "moral" reasons, and he's the last person that I thought that would happen to.

It's like seeing "the deeds that are hidden being brought into the light". (I'd put the scripture reference there, but I can't remember where it is!)

It's truly breaking my heart. I can only imagine how God feels about His church.

My whole family is still in attendance at that church, so I'm fully aware of how it's been over the past few months. Mum and dad both say that things are slowly getting better. If there's any goodness to be found in this whole debacle, it's that my parent's faith is stronger than ever, and the church now has a solid core of people who are committed to following Christ, not neccesarily following the Pastor.

But some days, I still just want to sit down and cry for my old church. It wasn't until I started attending my current church that I realised how legalistic and "super-spiritual my old church was. Hopefully, that will all change, and that the church will become one full of Grace and Mercy - without that, we cannot truly show the love of Christ to our world.

Adrian Rowse used to be lead singer for the band Corazon back in the 90's. Now he's gone solo, and has got his own site, and blog to go with it.

The other day, he added this post to his blog, and I found it so fantastic, that I decided to include it hear.

It seems like there's been a lot of "death" in the past week, and I think it got to me - hence the lack of blogging. First there was Paul Hester, then Terri Schiavo, then my friend Mr Hess, then the Pope! Although I only knew one of them personally, the first two deaths were, ultimately, preventable, which annoys me no end! Especially when people like Mr Hess and the Pope, who both had/have so much to give, but life is taken from them due to illness.

I've been wondering about my reaction to Mr Hess dying. I'm not as upset as I though I would be, but then maybe it's not yet real to me, as I'm away from where it's happening. I think it might hit me more when I go home next and realise that he's not there for me to go and visit. But at the same time, he'd been ill for the past few years, so maybe I'd already accepted that he might die before I see him again?

An interesting spin on Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn"

I can guarantee you'll laugh :) (don't sue me if you don't!)