Notes from the Journey - Blog #Random

Running Late. Running Low. Running Away?

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 15:14:16 +0000

I haven’t been running much lately. At least not the way I want to.

I was doing really well with my running last year. Most weeks I was out 4-5 times and I was fitter than I’d been for years. I was on track for a new PB for 10K in January and have even signed up for my first half marathon in May 2026.

As we set off for a week in Jamaica (I know, such a hard life!) I brought my running shoes, even if I knew heat and safety on the roads would not be conducive to running. I did manage one time on a treadmill, which reminded me how boring it is to move for a long time and never getting anywhere. On a stop-over in London, I was out running twice ignoring jet-lag and was encouraged that my fitness hadn’t dropped.

And then… life happened

Turned out I hadn’t just come home with a tan, but also shingles. A quick Google confirmed what my body already knew: running wasn’t recommended — and even if it had been, I didn’t feel remotely up for it.

A week later I had a planned minor surgery, and was told not to exercise for a week or so. Then came a mountain retreat: beautiful, yes — but hilly roads, poor sleep, and everything else meant no running there either.

Three weeks passed. Shingles had calmed, surgery had gone well, and there was technically no reason not to get back out. Except… long days, busy evenings, study, deadlines. Then the temperature dropped. Then it rained. Then it was Christmas. Now it’s a new year.

And I still haven’t gone running.

I wonder if this is where some of us are in our faith journey too. We were committed, involved, growing — genuinely enjoying church life and finding meaning in it — and then life happened.

Some years ago, it might have been Covid that got in the way — but it could be almost anything that takes our time, energy, and focus. None of it bad. Just life — and plenty of it. We tell ourselves it’s only for a while. We’ll be back to our good habits — back to church, back to prayer, back to what is important to us.

But then something else comes up. And then something else.

Of course, we still think of ourselves as Christians. Still see ourselves as part of a church. But if we’re honest… it is becoming more theory than practice.

As I sat with all this, I began to see three patterns — or maybe stages — we might find ourselves in. Different places on the same journey. Maybe you can recognise yourself in one — or more —of these.

Maybe you’re the one who used to run — but somewhere along the way, you stopped.

Somewhere along the way, you stopped. Nothing dramatic — just life, drift, a few missed Sundays that turned into months. And if you're honest, your daily life with Jesus probably isn’t quite as vibrant or regular as it used to be.

Of course you haven’t renounced your faith. You still believe it matters. You still believe that faith should be lived out in community — that church is important. But life has happened and somehow you got out of the habit. Of course, one day you will get back into it — or so you tell yourself.

The real question is not what you ought to do, but who do you want to be? And will what you are doing — or not doing — take you in that direction?

‘One day’ is dangerous. It keeps us in a kind of fantasy, while slowly moving us further away from where and who we want to be. Maybe that is why the Bible tells us that ‘today’ is the day of salvation (2. Cor. 6:2).

So why not text a friend from church and ask if they’re around for a coffee after the service next Sunday? And if that feels like too big a step, just ask if they’d like to meet for coffee some other day. No pressure. Just connection. Just today.

Instead of thinking“one day”, ask yourself:

What could I do todaythat would bring me closer to who I want to be?

(And don’t fall into the trap of saying you’ll do it tomorrow. “Tomorrow” is just another way of saying “one day.”)

Maybe you’re not just a runner — maybe you’re actually running.

You’re active in your faith, engaged in your local church, showing up and doing well. That’s good. Really good.

But maybe now’s the time to look around and ask:

Who’s missing?

Who used to sit near you, serve with you, chat over coffee — but hasn’t been around for a while? Why not give them a call or send a message? Suggest a coffee, a round of golf, watching a game — whatever fits your relationship. You might hesitate, not wanting to come across as pushy. But chances are, life just happened to them. And your simple invitation might be the nudge they’ve been waiting for.

Oh, and don’t leave it forone day!

Maybe you are still running — but for how long?

Paul warns us that“if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall”(1 Corinthians 10:12).

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have stopped running if I’d had someone to run with — even just once a week. Knowing someone was waiting for me, counting on me, would have “forced” me to put my shoes on and get out there.

But really, it wouldn’t be forcing. It would be helping — helping me to keep doing what I actuallywantto do.

So here’s the question:

Who are you sharing life and faith with in a way that keeps you going — especially when life happens?

There are many ways to build that kind of connection. But simply attending a worship service — even every week — probably isn’t one of them.

If no one comes to mind, what could you dotodayto change that?

Join a small group. Serve on a team. Start a discipling relationship. Ask someone to mentor you.

Don’t just assume you’re standing firm.

Take heed — and take action — so that when life happens, you won’t fall.

And now, it might be 1^st January, it might be below freezing outside, Liverpool might be playing soon, but now I am changing and going for a run. I’m doing it today.

And then again tomorrow.

Because I don’t want to just think I’m a runner.

I want to be one.

Sunday Frustrations

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 17:42:35 +0000

Today is Sunday and I am frustrated. I suppose it shouldn’t be like that, on the Lord’s day, but I can’t help it, I am frustrated, really frustrated.

Before you get all worried (or excited), I am not going to have a rant about this morning’s worship service. While training to become a Salvation Army officer our principal, the later General John Larsson, told us how the favourite Sunday lunch for some Salvationist was ‘Roasted Corps Officer’, but I am not going down that route. My frustration has nothing to do with this morning’s service – especially as Lisbeth and I was leading it!

It does have something to do with John Larsson, though. When we came home from the service I decided I wanted to look something up in his book ‘Spiritual Breakthrough’. I went up to my little den to pick it up from the bookshelf – and the unthinkable happened: I couldn't find it! Or rather, I couldn’t locate it. You have to understand that I have a few books, and they are not just placed in any random order. There is a system. The books are organised either by theme – Leadership, Evangelism, Discipleship, Holiness etc. – or maybe according to the author, if I have several (i.e. more than just 3) books by the same author. In this case it gave me a couple of options where to find it, but I couldn’t, and here the frustration begins – somehow the system was not functioning.

Realising, or maybe I should say hoping that the system could actually be working, but the book just placed wrongly I did the normal thing, began to look through all the books, shelf by shelf, book by book, sensing my frustration, now mixed with a slight touch of desperation, growing by the Billy (IKEA shoppers will understand). Finally, after even have looked through the section on Bibliographies, Psychology (Lisbeth’s books) and Legal Thrillers, I had to accept the unacceptable; I did not know the whereabouts of one of my books. So now I sit here, deeply frustrated, because as you will understand (or maybe not) not being able to find a book, or much worse, the thought of having lost a book, is really deeply frustrating in and of itself, and even more so when you need to look something up in it.

I know I am not supposed to multi-task, being a man and all, but my mind apparently doesn’t know that. At least, as I was scanning through the books, a thought popped into my mind and began to develop into a question: What if it was the Bible I needed to look something up in? What if I needed guidance in a specific matter, and then couldn’t find it?

I know that nowadays I could just turn to my phone and open a Bible app, but this was not the issue. The Bible is not primarily a reference book, nor a book you seek out when you need guidance (bear with me, don’t cry heretic just yet). You see, in reality, in many situations where we need guidance from the Bible, we do not have time to look for it. As our Corps Officer said a few weeks ago (in another context) what good is it if we raise our hand and sing ‘Great is the Lord’ if we on the way home shake the middle finger of that same hand towards a person driving like an idiot on the cyclist path? If you had time, you could look in the Bible for advice as to how to react, and maybe you would read we should love our enemies, or that we should let ‘everybody know how gentle and gracious are’ (Phil. 4:5) – but by then you finger will have been waving at the guy for an awful long time.

I guess the Psalmist understood this, not driving like an idiot on a bicycle, of course, but that there often is not time to consult the Bible before decisions has to be taken, or reflexes just happen. ‘ I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you’ he writes in Psalm 119. I suppose you can paraphrase that and say that the Bible does not belong on a shelf, or in an app on our phone, it needs to be internalized, to become part of us so, in the words of Timothy Keller, "We so immersed in God's written Word & truth that we are trained to choose rightly in cases which the Bible doesn't speak directly".

Still looking for the book, my mind kept working, or maybe it was the Holy Spirit that was working in my mind? At least I realised this was about much more than not sinning or choosing right. I was reminded of an instance many years ago. We were a group of pastors from Randers (look I up if you don’t know where it is) going to a conference together. As we stopped to pick up Ove, he was not ready to leave. He had a valid excuse though. During the weekend he had torn his Achilles tendon while playing badminton, and now had his leg in plaster from sole to thigh. It had taken him so long to get up and dressed that there had been no time for breakfast, nor his morning devotion, he told us. It took quite a while to manoeuvre him into the passenger’s seat of the Ford Fiesta, but as he settled in and we got off, we were included in his morning devotion. He sat there, with a cup of coffee in one hand, a piece of toast in the other, and quietly, but joyfully, quoted one long Bible passage after the other. He was not reading; he was taking out of his heart what he had invested in getting into his heart.

I have never forgotten that incident, and today I was reminded not only of that, but challenged as to where the Bible sit in my life. With all the technological help we have now a day, one can easily find a bible verse, even if one has no idea of where to look for. It will, however, probably make little difference in our lives. The Bible, the word of God, need to be internalised, to become part of us. In that way, it can be not only a ‘light on our path’ (Psalm 119:105), but be used by the Holy Spirit to form us into what he wants us to be.

I think it was C.H. Spurgeon that told, that if you wanted to make a preacher humble, you should ask to his prayer life. Same could probably be said of many of us when it comes to internalising the Bible. As I was reminded of this, there was, however, no hint of condemnation or judgement. Rather, a reminder of the promise that when we do meditate on the word of God we will be like ‘a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither’ (Psalm 1:3). The word of God is the seed, which the Holy Spirit can take and grow in our lives, and the more seed the more potential for growth.

It is not (just) about not sinning or choosing right, it is much more about knowing Jesus, about doing our part, so his Spirit can form us into being what he wants us to be and equip us to do what he wants us to do. So, let us get the written Word of God of the shelf, out of the app, and into our hearts. Let, as Paul encourages the Christians in Colossae, “the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives” (Col. 3:16 The Message) and experience that when we plant the seed, also here, God will give the growth.

PS!

I any of you have borrowed ‘Spiritual Breakthrough’ by John Larsson of me, could I please have it back?

I am beginning to doubt I believe in God

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 06:21:43 +0000

I am seriously beginning to doubt whether I believe in God.

Airing such doubt probably is not good career advice for a Salvation Army officer - but as I strongly oppose joining those two words (officer and career) and believe an ‘officer career’ is an oxymoron, I need not to worry on that account. (You can read more about this he re)

However, I better explain before you either report me to the General or call a prayer meeting.

Let me tell you a little, but true, story:

We were interviewing for a temp position as secretary to the Chief Secretary (played by yours truly), due to multiplication in the family of my normal secretary (read: maternity leave). The candidate in front of us was very qualified and the interview was mostly to make sure of the right ‘chemistry.’

“How will you manage to work in an organisation that is so overtly Christian as we are?” we asked. She did not stop to think for a moment but answered straight away: “That will be no problem at all, I believe in God,” and she then continued before we had time to react “or Buddha, or Muhammed or whatever one choose to call him.”

To our credit, we kept a straight face and, as far as we were aware, did not in any way let it tell we probably had a slightly different understanding of ‘God’ than the candidate. She was not hired, but the story is an illustration of what is causing my doubts. For many, including adherents to the Christian faith, ‘God’ is being used to express faith in a ‘higher being’ - not clearly defined and impersonal. For many, such a belief carries with it, or can lead to an understanding that it makes no real difference whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew or any other expression of faith because ‘it is the same god we believe in anyway.’

I do not believe in an impersonal, undefinable ‘higher being’, in a god that for all intents and purposes just is a common designator for some kind of religious belief. As Christians, we believe in the one and only God, creator of heaven and earth, that has revealed himself to us through the god-man Jesus Christ.

Fast forward to another meeting, this one a Sunday morning worship service I attended a while ago. We were welcomed in the ‘name of God’ and the name of Jesus was not mentioned before we made it to the sermon, and there only briefly. I am not sure Jesus was even mentioned in any of the congregational songs. Now, I am not suggesting that the leader of the meeting adhered to the impersonal and diffuse understanding of God mentioned above, but it was not clear - and that is exactly the issue and what is causing my doubt. When people speak about 'god', I doubt what they mean, and whether I believe in the god they are referring to.

As Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, no one gets ready for battle, if the trumpet does not make a clear sound (1. Cor. 14:8). If we only profess faith in ‘God’ thenwe are producing a muddled, unclear sound, with ‘no distinction in the notes.’ It might be less offensive than proclaiming Jesus, it might create less resistance or ridicule, but as it often is the path of least resistance is not the right path to choose. and in this case, it is even a dangerous path.

John warns us that ‘every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God’ and then goes on to say that such a spirit is ‘the spirit of the antichrist’. I am not in any way saying that every time we say ‘God’ rather than ‘Jesus’ we are denying Jesus, but when we begin to almost exclusively talk of God and not mentioning Jesus, then we are getting awfully close.

We believe in Jesus, not just as an undisputable historical figure, but as the Son of God. We believe that ‘whoever has seen the Son, has seen the Father’, that Jesus is the only way to God, and that whoever has the Son, has the life. So let us 'make a clear sound' and not give any reason for doubt or confusion. Let us lift up the name above all other names, the only name given us unto salvation: Jesus, and see that as he is lifted up, he will draw people unto himself.

And in that, I do not doubt at all.

What is the date of your latest circumcision?

Thu, 09 Mar 2017 07:57:49 +0000

My Dad used to tell a story, which supposedly is true, of a Norwegian officer visiting a corps in the UK. It was the days of Salvation Meetings, and during the prayer meeting the officer felt led to approach a young lady in the hall and enquire as to the state of her soul and asked: “Are you shaved today?” The story did not say what happened afterwards, partly because my Dad always was laughing heartedly at this stage.

It could appear that the heading of this blog falls into the ‘Are you shaved?’ category – when one, with the best of intentions of saying something good, relevant or even clever, makes a mess of it and even displays one’s own ignorance. However, that is not the case. I full well know, although not from personal experience, what circumcision is, and my questions still is “What is the date of your latest circumcision?”

The question actually is not mine; it popped up in my mind as I was reading my Bible. I am reading through Acts and this morning it was chapter 7 which tells the story of Stephen – reciting the story of Israel to the people, who responded not with throwing rotten apples and tomatoes, but stones at Stephen. It was not the story that provoked the reaction, Stephen was sharing what every Jew knew and had heard many times, but his conclusion: “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!”

They knew the story, they lived and re-enacted it as they gathered for their religious celebrations during the year, and yet, for all their observance of rituals and rites, Stephen, ‘full of the Holy Spirit’, saw right through it and looked at their hearts. All the males present ‘wore’ circumcision as a sign of the covenant between the Jewish people and God – and yet they were ‘uncircumcised’!

It is so easy to fall into the rot of religious routine, to have gone through all the right events and stages, to ‘wear’ the right clothes, badges or even trimmings, and yet be ‘a stiff-necked people’ or, and that was how I was challenged this morning, a stiff-necked person.

Stephen specifically pointed out the hearts and ears of the people as uncircumcised: Not open to listen to the Spirit nor willing to be moved by his love, compassion or purpose. It is so easy to end up resisting the Holy Spirit, when we have ‘un-circumcised ears and hearts’. The danger is that it is not so easy to realise it is happening – because we are not open to listen or be moved.

Physical circumcision is a one-time event, spiritual circumcision must be a re-occurring experience – we must, as Paul encourages us in Ephesian ‘Continually be filled with the Spirit’ or else we risk becoming a people with a glorious history, smart and good looking and gathering for wonderful celebrations – and yet stiff-necked and unmovable.

Are you circumcised today?