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More than meets the eye

The iPad. The device that changed everything if you believe the hype, and it is a nicely engineered piece of kit. But iOS is still limited in my view. I’ve always said that I would love to own a Mac alongside my PC’s but the cost is currently somewhat prohibitive. An iOS device doesn’t appeal though. The devices themselves are gorgeous but the operating system leaves me cold. I love the Widgets and flexibility of Android, and admire elements of the ‘metro’ design language used in Windows Phone 7 and in the forthcoming Windows 8. iOS’ use of a purely iconised display just doesn’t work for me (before Apple lovers start pulling out the voodoo dolls, please note that I am purely expressing my personal preference :-D)

Despite the OS, I love the idea of tablet computing – and have been for a long time now. Android phones have been my joy for a couple of years now and despite some mixed press, the tablet offerings using Android 3.0 (honeycomb) impressed me. There’s since been 2 more updates so we’re now on 3.2 and that has resolved many issues and added loads of new bits. In the coming months we’ll see Android 4.0 (ice-cream sandwich) launched, and that will answer a lot of the critics hopefully.

The thing about tablets is that they suit the majority of my computing needs, and also various other requirements I have – such as easily carrying around my song and music books when I go playing my guitar. I still need a pooter for my major graphical and video work but a tablet does fit the bill in probably 90% of situations.

So I’ve fallen for an OS – it’s time to decide on a device. Some are really cheap and tacky, whilst others are overpriced and a mixed bag of features. But wait, what’s this. Appealing directly to the kid in me suddenly appears the Asus eeePad tf101 – or better known as the Transformer 😀

Continue reading “More than meets the eye”

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Patience, trust and faith

Patience isn’t a natural state of being – I’m pretty sure of that. In fact I would be really surprised if anybody could convince me otherwise.

I’m willing to accept that we’ve become less patient, especially within the “fast food society” of which we are a part, but patience in itself does not seem to be a part of our inherent nature.

  • Take the Israelites marching through the desert, along with many other times – impatient.
  • The disciples showed regular signs of impatience when with Christ.
  • The Jewish people in new testament times – impatient… expecting Jesus, the Messiah, to be the all conquering and swift-bringer of freedom and fulfilment of prophecy.

You can see it all throughout history, not just in scripture and our current materialistic society must surely have come from some foundational human nature because it cannot have come from nowhere.

Patience is therefore, as far as I can tell, a discipline and something we need to learn and develop. It’s also something that can be tested, pushed, stretched and broken. Moses, for example, knew the trek through the desert would be a long haul but he still fell into impatience at times.

Much as I truly believe I have personally grown in this area, it’s still something that I struggle with and I can easily fall into impatience when the stakes are high. It’s something that I’m daily having to battle with right now.

As I think of it – impatience strikes me as being that tipping point between faith and human realisations and pressures. Where we are right now is a time of stepping out in faith, but the risk from a human perspective (in terms of the effect it could have on our family, our finances – in fact, our lifestyle) feels so great that there are times when that 100% faith in what God has in store for us is overshadowed by our human fears and concerns.

And that leads to impatience.

We want answers now. We want an end to the uncertainty. We want to *know*, not to wait.

Of course, that’s not faith. That is human emotion. The see-saw doesn’t always balance. Faith doesn’t always tie up with our human feelings, no matter how much we have grown or developed.

So what’s the answer when we struggle with impatience and cry out to God for immediacy? I wish I knew fully or at least, I wish I knew how to apply it. I think we need to be honest about our struggles, telling God that we are struggling. We need to ask for more faith, and more patience. And we need to push through.

I may be completely off the wall here, but reading some of the New Testament I could even believe that the human side of Jesus came through in exasperation and frustration sometimes – and that isn’t that far removed from impatience is it? (To clarify, think about when Jesus went to pray and the disciples slept – he got frustrated that they couldn’t stay awake. When calming the storms, his response to the disciples was almost as if to say “why can’t you see it yet” – sounds like a small bit of impatience in my view)

I hope that last paragraph doesn’t cause anybody any offence. Feel free to pull me up over it – but then again, maybe you can understand where I’m coming from.

I need patience, lots of it. I need it now – which is always the irony in these situations. All I can do is try and put it into practice and pray that I see a breakthrough, either in my situation or in new depths of patience.

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Book Review: ‘Split Second’ by David Baldacci

Title: Split Second
Author: David Baldacci
Genre: Crime/Thriller

Storyline: Guarding a radical political candidate, Secret Service agent Sean King is distracted long enough to allow for an assassin to kill the protectee. Several years later fast rising Secret Agent, Michelle Maxwell, is lead agent for a candidate who is kidnapped. When dead bodies start turning up to unravel Kings new life, the two disgraced agents join forces to unravel the web of lies, murder and vengeance.

Review: This is the first of the King & Maxwell series of books although not the first that I’ve read and it’s always interesting to see how a story begins. I realise a lot of people will have started here and moved through the series but I tend to pick books up when I see them on offer and give them a try so can’t always guarantee going 1.2.3 😉

Baldacci is a great storyteller, writing in a smooth and easy manner that means your focus is on the characters and the plot rather than deciphering the overly-clever style that some authors can use. He’s also an author who doesn’t resort to sex and swearing to sell the story – I struggle when a book is full of F-bombs for no reason. Seriously, if I met people who swore as much as some of the characters in some books I would probably choose to go deaf voluntarily!

There are twists and turns aplenty in this book, and you are never fully sure who to trust or where to focus and this makes for a really enjoyable ride.

I’ve now read 3 books by Baldacci and have to say that his books are definitely going to be a permanent feature of my bookcases from now on. 🙂

Score: 4.5/5

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Book Review: ‘Killing Hour’ by Andrew Gross

Title: Killing Hour
Author: Andrew Gross
Genre: Crime/Thriller

Storyline: After his troubled nephew is found to have committed suicide Dr Jay Handler is drawn in to a legacy of murder, torture, manipulation and betrayal – plus buried secrets in his brothers past. Convincing anyone that there was more to this than meets the eye pushes him to the edge of sanity and threatens everything, and everyone, he loves. Can he piece it all together, is there a deeper and darker truth, and just how far back does all this go?

Review: This is the fifth book from the bestselling author, and the third that I have read (you can read my review of ‘The Blue Zone’ here) – and it’s always interesting to see how an author develops, especially after having co-written with a prominent author such as James Patterson. Andrew Gross is definitely not a Patterson clone and writes with a very fluid and addictive style. One of the joys with Patterson novels is that I can’t put them down and I just devour them, this is proving to be very true here.

With a tragic foundation in the real-life death of his bi-polar nephew the author draws us into a tangle of lies, deceit, murder and the lasting effects of a long-dead cult. You can’t take anything for granted and there are surprises all the way to the last page of the book.

The characters are well-rounded and you are drawn in very quickly, finding yourself caring about Jay and his family whilst also despising and cringing away from the odious cult leader. It’s this depth of character that really provides the flesh and identity for the skeleton of the story, and it’s this emotive connection that marks Gross out as a real standout talent in the ever-crowded genre (not that I’m complaining about the depth and variety of authors that are out there at the moment – it gives a load of variety and ensures that there are always new ideas and new stories to read)

The flow of the story is at a pleasantly fast pace, not too fast to rush by and give no detail but avoiding the slow, procedural, drudge that some authors can slip into as they flood you with more detail than is needed. The twists and turns are a mix of the anticipated, the expected and the complete shock. If it were possible to be made to jump whilst reading a book then there would definitely be some moments in this book.

If you are a fan of Deaver, Patterson et al then you will find this an easy book to get into – but a hard book to put down.

Score: 4.5/5

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Music Review: ‘10,000 Reasons’ by Matt Redman

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Title: 10,000 Reasons
Artist: Matt Redman
Genre: Worship

iTunes / CrossRhythms / Spotify

Tracklisting:

  1. We Are The Free
  2. Here For You
  3. Holy
  4. 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)
  5. Fires
  6. Never Once
  7. Where Would We Be
  8. We Could Change The World
  9. Magnificent
  10. O This God
  11. Endless Hallelujah

Review: When a prolific songwriter like Matt Redman releases a new album, a lot of people sit up and take note. With songs like “Heart of worship” and “Blessed be Your name” becoming regular features in churches, conferences and house groups alike, there is always an air of expectation and anticipation.

‘Facedown’ found it’s way into CD and MP3 players across the world and is widely seen as his best album to date with ‘Beautiful News’ and ‘We Will Not Be Shaken’ providing good, solid tunes but nothing as ground-breaking as the prior live project.

So along comes ‘10,000 Reasons’. Recorded live at the LIFT conference in Atlanta this is a completely focussed album of worship, praise and back-to-basics music that picks up where ‘Facedown’ left off – and as a sequel it is just as strong, if not stronger.

If you’ve seen Matt live in recent months, be it at the Big Church Day Out or at other events, then you’ll immediately know some of the songs with the opening track providing one of the most addictive hooks in recent years (my youngest lad calls it the “oh oh song”) and making it impossible not to sing along in true hairbrush mic style. “Here for you” continues with the anthemic sound, and is best know as the title track of this years live Passion conference release.

Moving away from the up tempo and livelier tunes we then get into the meat of where Matt has truly impacted lives – the intimate, worshipful, deeper songs. There are so many to chose from but the four that have really struck me personally, and have made me pick up my Yamaha guitar, are ‘Holy’, ‘10,000 reasons’, ‘Never Once’ and ‘Endless Hallelujah’ – each of them featuring choruses and lyrics that you will wake up singing, hum through the day and go to sleep with them ringing through your mind. No bad thing really!

‘Never Once’ has hit me especially at this time and really speaks into those difficult situations we all face every now and then – but never face alone. The title track is almost hymn-like and I find myself never wanting it to stop… singing “Bless the Lord Oh my soul” long after the music faces (see what I did there)

I could go on to discuss all the tracks but there really isn’t a need and I am sure that every person will find their own favourite tunes resonating where they are as they listen to the CD.

Simply put all I can say is that you should get this album as quickly as you can – you won’t regret it.

Score: 5/5

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhUaqP-CQVY&ob=av2n[/youtube]