Author: Peter
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On Risk and Honesty
When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out? The last time I took a risk was a couple of days ago, when I wrote in my blog about a time I should have said no. Writing about it felt risky. Not dramatically risky. But still, it was a risk…
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When a Bold Step Was Needed
I have made cautious decisions all my life, which is probably why this one still catches me by surprise. When I was minister on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, there was a persistent idea that surfaced every now and then. There had once been a drive-in theatre on the beaches and, after it closed, one entrepreneurial leader…
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When I Should Have Said No
Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently? When I was in theological college, I worked on weekends as a student minister in a church. My senior minister was very conservative, authoritarian, and very forceful in his opinions. At the time, we were building a…
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When Power Wants Glory
What makes you nervous? What makes me nervous is the old human hunger for power, now armed with new tools. We are living in a time when authoritarian rulers reach for glory without regard for the human cost. Sometimes they collude. Sometimes they turn on one another. Either way, ordinary people are crushed beneath their…
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Letting the Day Wear Off
How do you unwind after a demanding day? First, I come home and take the dog to the local forest for a while. It is not really a forest. It is a park. But people call it The Forest, which makes it sound much more impressive. I throw the ball for her to catch. Not…
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What Now? – John 21
Two weeks after Easter,people were already backto ordinary things. Back to work,back to home,back to the placesthat felt familiar enoughto hold their confusion. Jesus was risen.That much was clear.Eternal life was theirs.But what did that meanon a Monday,or in grief,or when your body hurt,or when someone you loveddied too soon? The disciples went fishing.Of course…
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On Being Rushed
Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind. I froze. Not because I had nothing to say, but because I had no time to let the thought become itself. I had just finished yesterday’s blog and thought I might begin circling today’s, the way I sometimes do. When that happens, I like to…
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One Sunday Morning
Describe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you I met him in Tanzania when I was there with an international team working with the Lutheran church on a project for training preachers. On Sundays we were sent out to different churches around the region, which meant each of us needed…
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Growing Into Leadership
Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow. I have never been drawn to the idea that leadership is mainly about confidence. Confidence can be useful, but on its own it is thin. I have never been a “fake it till you make it” kind of person. When I…
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The Places That Leave Me Cold
What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why? I love visiting new places. Often they are not the places other people expect. I have travelled on every continent, including Antarctica, and some of the places that have most moved me were not the polished or well-known ones. They were places with…
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Respect
Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you. About fifteen years ago, my siblings and I persuaded my parents to write down the story of their lives. Not memoirs. Not for publication. Just the memories and family truths that would otherwise disappear with them. They were reluctant, but they did it. What…
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More Than a Meal
What is your favourite restaurant? I have never been able to answer questions about a favourite restaurant in the singular, as though one place could do all the work required of it. Restaurants are not interchangeable. There are restaurants for celebration, for conversation, for family, for beauty, for comfort, and for memory. To ask for…
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In Ten Years’ Time
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In ten years’ time I will be long retired. People will no longer be coming to my office each day looking for feedback, advice, or a decision. I will have joined the long line of those who have gone before me: remembered by some, unknown to those…
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Between Cross and Coming – Matthew 25:31-46
The temple stood behind them,massive as certainty,stone upon stone,a monument people thought would last forever. And Jesus saidit would fall.Judgement was coming.Not one stone left on another. The disciples saw one mountain.Jesus saw a range—peaks with valleys in between,the temple’s fall,and beyond it,the coming of the Son of Man. The King on the throne.The Judge…
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Five Things That Bring Me Happiness
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness? What brings me happiness is not usually anything dramatic. More often, it is the ordinary things I return to again and again, the parts of life that make me feel most alive. Nature is one of them. I love bushland. Bushwalking is a great source of…
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What High School Really Taught Me
Describe something you learned in high school. When I think about what I learned at high school, I do not first think of subjects or classrooms. I think of people. I think of friendship, and of the strange way those early bonds can work themselves into your life so deeply that you do not fully…
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Learning to End the Day
Describe one positive change you have made in your life The most important changes are not always the ones that announce themselves. Some arrive quietly and only later do you realise how much good they have done. Learning to go to bed earlier was like that for me. It does not sound like much, but…
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The Exercise That Fits
What’s the most fun way to exercise? I’m surrounded by young adults, so I get to see some of the ways younger generations make exercise fun. One student heads into the city for a dance class at the Sydney Dance Company. That sounds like fun. Others are into bouldering, joining niche gyms built around that…
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Inexhaustible
What book could you read over and over again? That is both a hard question and an easy question. Hard because there are many books I’ve enjoyed, admired, and loved for a season. But easy because there is really only one I could go back to endlessly. The Bible, though even calling it a book…
The Afterword 