Big Sy's Blog

My future wife the rock legend....

Ruth's still in her charity fun day clothes and pretending to be the next Richie sambora..... Oh lord, my life is complete!!

Boyd's Stag

Yes grant I can post to my blog :)

The organ (for Steve)

Here you go steve!!!

I hate weddings!!!

Weddings........

The happiest day of one's life apparently!! Now don't get me wrong I'm highly excited about mine but the planning is horrendous. I've currently got a sore head from all the preparation considerations!!

I've also noted that having an iPhone gives my blogs a more SMS text feel. I'm not sure I like it!!

Convincing Andy

Tonight I tried to convince andy to buy an iphone. I'm not sure it worked but at least I can blog!!

The return

So I can blog on my iphone!!! Awesome!! Totally lovin this new feature so my thoughts and general moodiness can be shared with the world!!

I haven't posted in ages so hopefully we can correct this, till then, bye!!

Menpleasers

No not the Nelly Furtado song! But what Christians can become so easily when they put themselves first before God. Are we seeking to please men rather than the Lord? I was talking to Kwame a colleague in the office here about integrity especially in studying.

For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ

Who do we seek to please? We live our lives in complete dedication and thankfulness to the one who saved us from the pit of Hell...Do we live in thankfulness to him, like a neon sign pointing the way to the truth? Or do we let our standards slip..... do we let our integrity slip so that we dont stand out as much. Its like a colured map of say Africa, if we coloured it in we wouldnt know where the countries start and stop. We have no boundaries, nothing to make a difference from one place to another.

As Christians whether we like it or not we need boundaries and when we seek to please others who think its ok to indulge in acts that damage integrity or honesty or justice then we are putting rags over our princely cleanesed garments. We are preffering to stand in a place where sin taints us and changes us bit by bit. We are meant to shine in the darkness but I know that I've let the dim my light.

Part of me wants to talk about the things that I feel ruin my integrity, what i've become lax in and what i've let change me, but it would sound judgemental. But see those things running through your head? Yeah that's the ones, they are what i'm talkin about. We know they're wrong, we know we shouldnt do them but we do, just to be accepted. Just to feel like one of the gang, or get that promotion orfurther yourself in the quest to be well off. It can even happen in church where we bend what God wants us to say so the congregation likes us more.

Maintaining integrity hurts. It hurts bad, but we're called to be odd for Christ. Why does our idiosncrasies change us? Because we give into them. We let ourselves warp and controt to fit the mould those around us want us to be in not what God has called us to be. Ruth often tells me to be me, the guy she fell in love with, supposedly I have a shred of integrity kicking about in there and thats what she loves. But it changes and it contorts.

We'll be accountable to the one who loves us and saved us from sin, accountable for the state of our integrity to Christians and our fellow man. I was given a lighter from Malta by my mate Mike, its awesome, a real cool fire toy lol Its like a Zippo one, its just a lovely ornamental gift but the kids saw me playin with it and asked if i smoked. They changed their opinion of me, that simple act of messin about with a lighter caused children to look at me differently, my halo became that little bit duller. Its not that i'm awesome and saintly but one of the Jesus' that child looks up to at camp for that week is a little less like Jesus in their eyes now.

Things are pure to the pure, but if we do it in darkened corners away from the public light, does it protect our integrity?

I hate the cheesiness I despise the schmalzy americanised tone, but would you do it in front of Jesus? We are told to give extravagant worship and refrain from being men pleasers there, but in our daily lives do we please others more than God? I think we do and its time to re-evaluate.....

Honey! I'm home!!!

Oh....my...word...... . Its been 104 days since my last blog and I'm still sober (just!) Well I kicked the blogging habit back in March and have been doing quite well but it seems that people have been checking out my page in the hope there might be something new and interesting to read! I think i need to come back to the land of the living after my very long sabbatical of epic proportions!

Now there have been some wild and spurious rumours floating about regarding my absence on the old blogging (and general conspicuosity) front! I would now like to put it to rest that I have not

Died.....

.....travelled back in time to complete my PhD..........

 

.......nor ran off to join a lovely exciting new cult!

(note I said new!)

On the otherhand LOTS has changed! I've now a beautiful girfriend who looks are only matched by her intelligence and wit, and thats all been going rather well! I did mention her last time but as i didnt really know her I couldn't have let my mouth run off with me! (As it usually does!) So now I think its time for you to meet the lovely Ruth (if you haven't already....she says i'm rubbish at introductions!). She's 23, and works in an estate agents, you'll find out more as time goes on :) but needless to say I'm pretty over the moon and its lasted 3 months now! I'm kinda in shock to be honest.

But i've been super busy too, not stopping for anyone, its been a pretty crazy time actually! I've been working on reports for Queens, finishing my year at Ulidia and just generally been under a pile of books! But at the end of this crazy second term, i've been shattered. I'm a bit concerned i've run out of steam! That's never good! Its been wild, i just have lost all motivation and buzz for my work and its making me become quite concerned.

You all know i took on the work out of a sense of calling and now that motivation is dropping I'm worrying I'll fail in what i'm called to do. So any ideas for getting over it would be appreciated! All answers on a postcard!

Well look all i wanted to mention was that Blogs are back! I better back into the way of it all and work hard! I'll be back over the weekend for more updates of what has become known as the "black hole period" of 104 days!

S

The Winds of Change...

So I havent updated my blog in weeks! As i settle down to include my latest entry I've been thinking back to my mental month of March! I posted on the blog a while ago, Pete McK's thoughts on "Whirlwinds,"  it really blew me away! (Excuse the pun!) but not only that it made me think about when God was going to bring a whirlwind to my own experience/life.

That came a few weeks ago...

No one's seen me, heard from me, xboxed with me, drank much coffee with me or generally had a radar bleep because i've been so absoloutely snowed under.

The PhD is ticking along at a rate of knots, when i say ticking its counting down to an explosion of nuclear proportions lol, we might just get a bit Jack Bauer on it and save it seconds from disaster!

The school front began this month with a general inspection. Cue Sy bricking it and getting himself all ready only for Mr Inspector man not to come anywhere near him! Why are you complaining I hear you ask!?!  Because I was a hero and had my entire broom cupboard sparkling and ready should any demonic inspectoral force come a knocking! (Its not that inspectors are demonic, its just we teachers find the whole experience a little distressing!). Anyways my special needs work is great and I'm working away on that in the background!

Oh! I also had camp! Camp was fantastic! The usual kids all came back for the craic and we had some new ones too. It was based on Big Brother and all went swimmingly. However Sy had burnt himself out by the end of the Saturday night and was totally wrecked from 9pm that evening until he went home the next day. It might have been the fact that he's doing too much! But 5 kids became Christians and thats always cool. I hope our kids really keep going with God when they go home.

And then there was Warick! What a mental experience! So i'm going to a congference on SEBDs (Social, Emotional and Behavioural Disorders) in children and its in England and I dont want to go. People i dont know, etiquette I dont know and just general hassleyness! Anyways, God introduced me to a lady who was very cool. I basically knew there was another person from NI coming over and to be honest i never gave much thought to it, i was worried about me being on my own but also that maybe this person wouldnt want me hanging around just because we had a similar accent! Turns out she's from really close by me! She also works as a Spec Needs teacher in the school round the corner from mine and is so enthusiastic about my PhD work! God really helped me by letting us meet, and now i've got my very own PhD mum lol. Its cool :)

Warwick was a very interesting joint in that even though the climate is kinda the same and it wouldnt look out of place at home, the whole feel of the place is very different. It sounds wierd but you can almost feel the secularism of the area/nation and its feels quite Godless to be honest. I just know that if I had to live in England, it wouldnt be great, I'd just have to muddle on. There is SUCH a difference between the two places. It makes you appreciate Ireland so much despite the bombs and the bullets and the goin's on.....

God has been teaching me LOADS lately! Its quite freakish how he's working in my life and helping me reassess ideas, concepts and issues around my personal theology and how i practically live my christian life. He's made me see my church is my home and I shouldnt feel the need to run off around other assemblies but to stay and be committed no matter how infuriated i sometimes feel.....

I've been thinking about trust, hearing from God, feelings and such. I suppose it brings me to the real crux of my mental march....girls. Lol

I know, I know, McLean and his women! Like a dog chasing cars, once he gets caught up with them he doesnt know what to do! Actually thats how Gary's Lightbody's dad saw him when he was a teenager and it gave Snow Patrol the inspiration for Chasing Cars supposedly. But yeah there's a girl, and she's awesome! I'm not going into too much detail but I think its safe to say she's got beautiful looks and a really sweet and Godly personality. But despite all this lol "Girl X" as we shall call her has had Mr McLean up, down and round and round and inside out! She's challenged my religious beliefs, she's challenged me to get a grip on reality and trust God more, she's just been used so much of God to wise me up and help me connect with the real world instead of getting hung up on all the rubbish that makes Sy tick!

There's nothing going on of course and I really must stress that, but yeah, anyone who can make me think differently and challenge my views really intrigues me!

So all in all there's an update and some changes afoot. As i say often enough of late, God is up to something, i dont know what it is, there's a blowing in the wind. I think its a wind of change. Maybe it'll blow through me and blow me clean again, maybe i'll change direction and course.

I dont know but to be honest I dont want to miss it, God's doing something cool and I want to be right in the middle of the Whirlwind

Brutal Honesty and Sparks

This is Jools.

Jools is my mate.

Jools writes a blog too.

It is very informative.

Well! Two for two Mr Hamilton! Although I haven't written from my own thoughts recently I'd add another gem from your blog! Its pretty awesome, i'll update the comments too as time goes on and see what other are reacting like. I'm still pretty blown away by it all! In fact its rather odd that I finished reading it and my friend Ryan from Aberdeen (hey there mate!) sent me a text saying "Apparently, you can't start a fire without a spark....."

Maybe someone has found the spark...

-Sy

Brutal Honesty From A Young Adult

This is a piece of writing I came accross while surfing on some hints from friends - I think I actually know the young adult who wrote it, but I'm not going to pry. it is brilliant however. And it is provokative ... as someone who tries his best to preach faithfully often, I suspect I don't provoke enough ... but this will provoke. So be warned.

It is simply a young person - late teen - talking about faith in this world ...

Well, Here it is...
I Go to church...yet I party...

I say a prayer...yet i scream obsenities...

I sing to hymns...and shake my ass to hip-hop

I reach out to people who need it...I reach out for a towel when i'm piss drunk puking my guts up...

I've read the bible... i've read Cosmo...

...After looking at that list... i look like some bipolar, hypocritical jackass....

But its all true, and I don't go to church to be fake, or meet people, I go because it's a place where other people or 'only humans' can go, to be a part of a group of not-so-moral minds, with one common goal...to have a better understanding and grow as a community under the name Jesus Christ.

I've been to A LOT of churches, a lot of youth groups, with many different youth pastors...most of the time, finding the same thing time and time again...(in the moviephone voice)'If you give your heart and soul to Jesus Christ, and accept him as your Lord and Savior, you win..........(drum roll please)......ETERNAL LIFE!.... and then there's the small print..."you must agree to living your life 110% devoted to Jesus Christ, be nice to everyone, never hate your life, always volunteer, be charitable, never curse, give to the needy, love life...love yourself, love jesus..."

It's not so much that Christianity isn't about all those things, but throwing it all out there at once... is like interviewing for a job in india... You've got a lot expected of you but you aren't gettin' *^%$ in return... I could be totally off pitch here... I would be more than happy to listen to any other opinions that might be out there.... Maybe I am just looking for an excuse to continue living the life I'm living without the judgement, which is a possibility, but I also think I have a pretty legitimate 'excuse'....

I call them my mentors, you might know them by other titles such as, minister, pastor, journalist, teachers...all leaders in the church i attend... Every single one of these people, are aware of how my friends and i live my life...but unlike what you would assume, these people don't lecture me, force their personal beliefs on me, try the good ol' intervention, or excorcisms...no...not at all... in fact... they do the exact opposite, they invite me into their homes, not to discuss my life's problems or religion, but to get together as friends and buy paperview movies, and play uno, and eat really really good homemade taco soup, they ask us over and over again to babysit their children...that's right they trust us with their kids...and then i realized... my idea(a common one) of christianity was all wrong...One of the main focuses, i believe, is not to make everyone the same, or follow all the same rules, or believe the same things...but maybe to express love to those who are least expected to be loved, to give a dollar to someone who is expected to waste it, but to at least have faith in them to use it for what they need, and maybe having that faith alone will show them something more than lecturing or preaching....maybe knowing that someone in this world is rooting for you is enough to give you a chance, and the drive to take that chance and run with it.

"He who is without sin among you, may cast the first stone"-John 8:3-11
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," - Romans 3:23

I think this young person has said some things which are very important - actually I think the way they are said express some important things ... so one question to anyone who is uncomfortable - is your discomfort an ethical or a spiritual discomfort? And which answer do you think Jesus cares more about?