Category: Lessons
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This is the Time to Grieve Our Losses
As a christian writer, the temptation when disaster hits, is to get to the illustration. I want to be able to write not only “hard and clear about what hurts” as Hemingway so powerfully suggests, but I also want to write about the redemption of that hurt. I want to be able to write the…
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At Least
There are many ‘at least(s)’ flying around. ‘At least you don’t live alone’ ‘At least you don’t have a pre-existing condition’ ‘At least you still get paid’ Of course, all these may be true. Some of us are more privileged than others, that can be recognised without minimising struggle. Because whether you’re self-isolating, social distancing,…
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Present Tense Testimony
I’ve been sharing my testimony since I was thirteen and I first stood in a church pulpit. On that blisteringly hot day in July 2003, I spoke about the God I serve and the calling I felt. Since then, I’ve been sharing my story in blog posts, seminars, sermons and talks. It’s something I feel…
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Motherhood: The Brutality and the Beauty
The pain. The first look. The exhaustion. The first smile. The relentlessness. The revelation. The brutality. The beauty. The mystery. Ten months in, motherhood remains a mystery. It’s a thousand mundane moments punctured with moments so full of wonder that they steal your breath away. As much as I expected a lot of it; the…
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After Awareness
There are, it seems, awareness days for everything under the sun. A quick google revealed that this month alone there is a World Sepsis Day, a Pension Awareness Day, International Talk Like a Pirate Day and a National Doodle Day. Everything has it’s day; and don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful that lesser known or…
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5 years…
I was going through some old papers today- random excerpts of writing, letters and some notes from the counselling I had when I was eighteen. I was, in truth, very poorly. I wasn’t really convinced that this life thing would be something I could do – I didn’t think it would ever be worth the…
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Trap or Treasure?
Ever since I can remember, I have felt “called” into a specifically “christian” ministry. I toyed with the idea of being a singer and actress for a while, quickly dismissed the idea of teaching primary school children, rejected the idea of nurse because it involved science etc etc. All the ideas I considered were never…
Rachael Newham 