Grace and Computers should not be allowed in the same room together.

I'm sitting in the office right now trying to get all the next youth service publicity finished. Why is it that technology works absolutely fine for you until you need it? Every single time I go to print these posters the printer decides to act up, and if it's not the printer it's something else. This time, even though i've managed to get the printer working, the new photo paper we've got is too thick and keeps jamming in the printer. On top of all that the computer I'm using - which Lisa and I named Elmer when it first arrived - seems to be regressing into it's previous geratric fits. Let me digress about Elmer a bit. I have no idea what kind of computer it is or any of the other details but I do know that when it arrived it was the slowest machine alive on the face of the planet. I'm sure I could have got my hair dryer to be more productive than this computer. It would take about 15 minutes for it to actually get it turned on and functioning let alone trying to open a programme....heaven forbid because that would be asking way too much for this machine. (See my hair dryer is more productive because I can dry my hair in less time than that!) Anyway I think the problem was something to do with not enough memory and we finally got around to adding more, however you actually do that, and it's been fine. It was like this computer that was slowly aged and dying had been fully restored to it's youth. Now I'm thinking though, that it was only a mid life crisis, and Elmer has lost his boost of energy and is slowly aging and dying again. Perhaps it's time to make him a new name plate that again says "Elmer: The Geriatric Computer"

Great, now it has quit printing full stop...
The question that now remains: will I be able to finish before the day is over?

Tuesday of this week I was able to take the day off and go to a print course which was a lot of fun. Anna had signed up for this four week course and since she's away in India for a week she arranged for me to take her place. It was lino printing and although what I produced wasn't the absolute best I'd ever done, it was still fun to get away from work for a bit and do something else I really enjoy. One day, I will manage to find time to do more art....one day.....

I had housegroup again last night and this week was much less intense than last week. I have to admit that I've been thinking a lot about what happened last week and a challenging comment from my sister in law (as usual) has also added some fuel to the fire. I suppose if I could sum up the extent of my thoughts in one point it would be this: It's all about people. I don't mean that life is all about people and that I should go out and spend the rest of my time trying to please them, of course the whole point of life is God, but it's also sharing that life with the people around you. As Jason, another leader and friend, said, a relationship with God is not only vertical but horizontal as well. Anyway I guess I've just thought about where I've come from the past few years and how I think I was a bit hard headed at one point and was writing people off from my life because I didn't think they were at the same place I was with God. There's nothing wrong with having high standards, I guess it's just finding the balance between them and grace. Anyway I'm sure I could go on forever but I won't. I'll end here because I really need to get these posters sorted!

I think I ran out of grace for this computer a long time ago!!!!!!!!!