free.

"I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free." - Rosa Parks

[barrykjackson]

The Gospel of Grace

The Gospel of Grace

[barrykjackson]

45

I am not where I wanted to be, where the young version of me dreamed I’d be at this stage of my life. I’m fatter than I wanted to be, poorer than I imagined I’d be, not in the vocational position I dreamt about being in, and there are people I’m not as close to anymore as I’d have liked. The reality is that while I imagined a future I wanted, I didn’t necessarily plan my life to ensure I moved…

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[barrykjackson]

Leaning Forward

We humans live ‘leaning forward’, bent towards arriving at the place that we truly long for. We tend to understand humans/ourselves as thinking beings. “I think, therefore I am.&#…

[barrykjackson]

Our Greatest Threats

The New Testament Scriptures tend to give religious people, often known as the Pharisees, a relatively hard time. And we follow suit, frowning and shaking our heads at them as we read.

 But they serve as a reminder of what we can become if we do not regularly face our own humanity; we risk becoming guardians of a standard, rather than ambassadors of ‘The Way‘.

Piousness, pride, and a sense of…

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[barrykjackson]

A spoken word/poem about Easter Good Friday by me. Whats so good about Friday? What is so good about friday? A man died that day, I know you don’t care, people die everyday. But this man was…

I wrote this a while back. While I believe we know the power and significance of Good Friday in light of Resurrection Sunday, the poem is written from the angle of the cost paid on Friday itself. 

[barrykjackson]

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.

C.S Lewis

[barrykjackson]

My son. 

Marahau, Abel Tasman. 

[barrykjackson]

Our lives move in the direction of our strongest thoughts.

Craig Groeschel

[barrykjackson]

[barrykjackson]

A Christmas Poem

“I didn’t wake up to the sound of kids excited to see what’s under the tree.

I didn’t wake up next to my wife ready to bless the kids with our gifts.

I didn’t wake up having to entice the teenagers to get out of their beds so we could open the presents before church.

I didn’t wake up to the sense of excitement and joy lingering in the air.

There was no laughter, no smiles, no hugs, no sound that…

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[barrykjackson]

I

Though I have failed, I am not a failure.

Though I have made mistakes, I am not a mistake.

Though I have been judged by many, forsaken by some, lied about by a few, I am not rejected by one.

For all the things I have done well & for all the things I have not; I am still enough, I still have value.

Not because my efforts suggest so, that reality has been made public enough, but because Jesus has…

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[barrykjackson]

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King Jnr

[barrykjackson]

When things fall apart or don't go to plan we can either stay stuck in our dejected and depressed state or we can let our downcast disposition become a mobilising force for a new becoming.

Greg Burson

[barrykjackson]

New Zealand. Wind, rain, clouds, hills and valleys. 

[barrykjackson]

If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.

Mother Theresa

[barrykjackson]

Somewhere amongst the Hooker Valley - the slow (ish) lonely walk across the bridge. 

[barrykjackson]

Mates. 

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” - Sir Rannulph Fiennes