Month: October 2013

Ever been whisked away? Margaret Johnston reflects on letting go and trusting others to lead the way.

To celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary and my 60th birthday, my husband wanted a surprise party to be arranged for me and I had made it clear that a holiday away would be best  for both of us. So, a surprise holiday it was to be. And I was about to discover what it was like having no control over a future event.

Our history is rich with courageous acts: from deciding to make our lives together in the first place, to leaving our homeland behind and coming to Australia, living in mining towns,  moving overseas to Malaysia, and back here as a fly-in fly-out family. Having found ourselves in some weird and wonderful places, I was very aware of what this ‘surprise holiday’ could  mean.

I recall being told once upon a time my name, translated, means ‘reckless bravery’. Is that why? So I ask. No, it’s because of my involvement with emergency services and disaster  response. Ah, but what has courage to do with that?

While away on holidays I have heard the Word and took notice of the context. A young girl shot because she was going to school was called brave. A woman swimming from Cuba to  Florida without a shark cage was called brave. A bystander jumping into the sea to help a person who had fallen off the rocks; a rescue crew responding to a road accident; fire fighters  responding to bush fires; a young child suffering a terminal brain tumour; a kayaker trapped on an island by a crocodile; a solo bicycle rider travelling around Australia on roads shared  with B-triples; someone walking across the Great Sandy Desert to raise funds for cancer research… the list continues.

Sick of turning the other cheek? Dianne Jensen explores what it means to forgive and to be forgiven.

Rev Julie Nicholson is known worldwide as the vicar who couldn’t forgive. The Anglican priest stepped down from her position because she was unable to forgive the suicide bomber who  had murdered her daughter at Edgware Road tube station in London in July 2005. She could no longer speak the words of reconciliation which were fundamental to her role.