DAVIDDAVE.COM

I am 30 on Sunday… Ha!

But for now, as it’s a Friday evening, I’m going to run around a park with a bunch of youth.

Wimbledon starts today!

I am currently “planning” at home, but kind of watching the review of last year’s Wimbledon at the same time… I am half tempted to stay at home this afternoon and watch the first matches. Of course, I won’t do that…

Instead I have Year 6 classes. They’re all about ready to leave school, which makes for interesting music lessons in terms of rudeness, arrogance and total lack of any motivation to work. It will be a fun afternoon.

Here we go then. I’m back. I think a ten day break was all that was needed. I think it’s a little harsh on myself to refer to anything that isn’t “spiritual” or “godly” content as drivel. It most certainly isn’t. I don’t think I meant that it was, anyway, but thinking about it again, that’s probably how it came across.

This however, if I don’t move on quickly, will be drivel.

So, things have been moving on in the world of work. I have been offered a full-time post at the school I’m at (which I will soon be able to refer to as “my school” rather than “the school I’m at”). It will be teaching music four days a week, and then something else on Fridays. At the moment, my Fridays consist of an hour or so lay-in, followed by writing Bible studies, sermons, youth meetings, and anything else that I need to/want to do for church stuff. That will go, very soon. I’m not sure when, but hopefully* before the summer holiday starts.

This was my one condition, or concern anyway, about coming back to the school next term. I needed to be paid over summer. And I quite clearly voiced that to the head. Consequently she offered me this full-time position. It was advertised internally. Obviously nobody else wants to be the music teacher, so it’s pretty much mine.

*And if my contract (as I expect that is what I shall have!) starts before the summer holidays, then I get paid over the summer holidays. Which will be fantastic.

Interesting. I am not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it is good that I will have a permanent job. On the other hand, it means I will be a teacher. A full-time, proper teacher.

I think it’s going to take some coming to terms with.

The Israelite’s Promised Land was Canaan.

Do we have our own personal equivalents of the Promised Land whilst we’re alive, or is our Promised Land simply Heaven?

, originally uploaded by daviddave.

You may have noticed the occasional vignette and oddly coloured sky slip into a few of my photographs recently. I’ve been experimenting a little with colour and such-like, and I for one am fairly pleased with how things are turning out.

I think it’s possible to over-process a photograph, obviously, and I’m sure some of you may think my recent offerings are OTT. I like them. I’d put them on my wall. And some of the colours aren’t actually that manipulated, just boosted slightly.

What are your thoughts on these, and “photoshopped” photos in general?

What I’m currently thinking regarding blogging/twittering et al:

1) I have not got time to spend thinking about what to blog.

2) I do not want to spend time blogging about stuff that doesn’t really matter, in the grand scheme of things.

3) Again, I do not want to spend time tweeting stuff that doesn’t really matter. There is enough drivel in the world without me adding to it.

John Piper sums up my feelings on this better than I could:

These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.

The other response says: Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.

John Piper

So perhaps I should focus on trying to fill my blog and twitter stream with provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness.

And perhaps then I would be accused of having a “churchy” blog!

But seriously. This is where I want to be, in an ideal world. But the truth of it is, I haven’t got time to spend on working to make my blog like this.

I keep thinking, eventually, something amazingly exciting will happen in my life, and I’ll need to keep posting updates to my blog to keep everyone informed of what’s going on. Things are going on, but it’s not really blogging material, or at least, I don’t want it to be blogging material.

And so there you have it. Until I know that I should be spending time transforming my blog into Piper’s ideals, I will not blog for fear of blogging drivel.

However, my flickr stream is still alive and kicking, as is my photoblog at dave8.com, which will contain small updates on what’s going on.

I won’t delete this blog, as sooner or later I will almost definitely be blogging here again. And when I do, the content will indeed be filled with provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness.

Until then, consider this a temporary goodbye, treasured readers! And you are treasured.