Perth Time Freeze 2008

May 31, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
26 Comments

freeze.jpg

Time stood still in the centre of Perth today.

For three minutes dozens of people froze in Perth’s Murray Street Mall. Three very wet minutes.

On a day when rain bucketed down, strong winds buffeted the metropolitan area and thousands of homes were left without power, a group of locals headed into the middle of the city to take part in a time freeze.

The idea was to meet for a briefing in Northbridge before heading into the Murray Street Mall for the freeze. Right on midday, with a quick blast on an air horn as a signal, the assembled masses suddenly froze positions.

After three minutes there was another blast of the air horn and everyone just moved off.

Emily, James and I took part while Pauline took photos. I was giving last minute instructions to the children when the horn went off, so that’s how we stayed for the next three minutes.

The video shows the whole episode. It’s not as clear as it would have been if Perth had put on one of it’s better weather days. You can see people moving around for the first 90 seconds of the video then you see those taking part suddenly freeze.

I scanned the crowd as much as I could but I didn’t spot anyone older than me. At 44 I reckon I was the oldest participant. There was another family involved with younger kids than ours.

My only disappointment, well OK, apart from the weather, is that I didn’t get to see the reactions of those passing by but I’m told that it was very effective with many people wondering what had just happened. I’m guessing my the sound of screaming in the video that at least one child found the whole thing a bit overwhelming.



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No one appreciates me

May 30, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
7 Comments

I’ve been hearing a little about people not feeling appreciated or valued recently. I wonder what it takes to make you feel appreciated.

Is it a touch on the arm by someone close?

Is it hearing someone saying “well done”?

What about other people enjoying something you’ve created, like a good meal or a work of art?

Do you feel valued and appreciated at work? What does it take to make you feel that way?

Is it about being given greater responsibility or your supervisors taking your ideas seriously?

Do you feel appreciated when your company gets recognised for a job in which you’ve played a major role?

Is it about receiving awards or bonuses?

How do we know we’re appreciated? And if we crave that sense of appreciation and value for ourselves, are we ensuring that we let other people know that we value them?



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Reading the instructions

May 29, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
6 Comments

iron.jpgHow long has it been since you’ve bought an iron?

Pauline’s been together with our old iron longer than she’s been married to me and we’ve been married for well over 15 years. She tends to treat things very well so they last a very long time.

Of course irons don’t last forever and it was finally time to get a new one so she went out and grabbed a bargain yesterday. The thing that amused me was the instructions they provided. Pauline pulled the iron and the instructions out of the box. The instructions initially looked like just a small piece of paper but they folded out into something roughly the size of Japan.

How could there be so many instructions for an iron? As far as I’m concerned the instructions should be simple.

1. Plug in iron.
2. Rub over clothes.
3. Unplug iron.
4. Wear clothes.

I suppose there would be all the details of how to operate the steam settings and what heat to select for what kind of material but I do think that we make life over complicated sometimes.



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BlogStars

May 28, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
2 Comments

Yes, you can make a lot of money from blogging.

No, I’m not making anything from blogging. 🙂

Great to see blogging, and these bloggers in particular, getting some mainstream media attention.

You can find their blogs at ProBlogger, Snippets of Life and Rambling Thoughts. Neerav also writes the very entertaining Road Less Travelled.



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Shhh! You can’t say that.

May 28, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
18 Comments

shutmouth.jpgI stumbled upon a very interesting blog post recently. It was at Anne Jackson’s blog, FlowerDust.net.

The post, Keeping Your Mouth Shut, simply asked people to share some of the things that they don’t feel they can say in church or to other Christians.

At last check there’s around 180 responses from people with everything from plain old whinging to some revealing comments about the fear of being vulnerable.

I think it’s essential reading for anyone in church leadership. I don’t care how wonderful you think your church is, there will always be people who feel they just don’t measure up and they feel powerless to express their doubts. Anyone who thinks that no one in their pews is thinking some of these things is kidding themselves.

Surely the church should be a place where we can be open and honest in sharing the highs and lows of our journey.

There are humorous comments like this:

That comb-over really does need to go. Someone might lose an eye on a windy day!

And this:

That sometimes when there is a dramatic pause in my message, and I look like I’m waiting on God to give me something really powerful to say, I’m not. In reality I’m just wondering if I zipped up my zipper before I went up on stage.

To heartfelt messages like this:

I currently feel NO connection to God when I pray or read the Bible.

And this:

When I say “I’ll pray for you.” I don’t usually mean it. I have been a Christian for 27 years and I still don’t understand the point of praying.

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Today we took a closer look at the things we don’t say in church and discussed some of the reasons we’re not as open as we should be.

You can hear our discussion by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

Are there things you feel you can’t say in church or to other Christians?



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