Sharing some thoughts

There's a story of a man who attended a function trying to meet a very famous celebrity. He dressed up in his best suit hoping to be noticed. However when the celebrity turned up he didn't move towards any of the people dressed up for the visit but instead he went to a really badly dressed beggar at the back. He spoke to the beggar for a little while and then moved on. The celebrity was appearing at another function the following day and the man who wanted to meet him thought perhaps that if he dressed up as a beggar, he too would be noticed. Sure enough when the celebrity came in he walked straight towards the man and whispered quietly, 'I thought I told you yesterday that you didn't belong in here dressed like that, so get out !' The man had tried to transform himself to be noticed but the transformation didn't lead him to where he wanted to be... There's also a story of a time when a Pope was visiting a hospital. On one of the wards where people were

There’s a story going back to the 11 th  century about King Henry III of Bavaria. Apparently he got fed up of life as the king and he decided to join a monastery. The Prior who met him there explained that one of the main pledges he would make would be one of obedience. The King said he was happy with this.  And then the Prior dropped a bit of a bombshell and told the king to go back to the role that God had given him. He did and when King Henry died a statement was written: "The King learned to rule by being obedient."  Calling can be a really strange thing – there’s another story about  a small boy returning from church one Sunday who  said to his mother, ‘I’ve decided that when I grow up I’m going to be a Vicar’. The mother replied that that was very nice, and asked him why he had decided that. The boy replied, ‘Well I have to go to Church on a Sunday anyway, and I think it would be a lot more fun to stand up and talk than to sit down and  listen’ ! And a coup

If you could pick any word to describe yourself what would it  be ?  Maybe you would pick nice, maybe smiley, maybe grumpy, maybe beautiful, strong, clever, amazing, maybe  modest ! How we see ourselves may be quite different from how others see us. This rang true to me the other day when I realised that it is very easy to judge other people and build up an image or impression of them which is completely wrong.  Ian showed me a clip  of a little boy who was in a shopping area with his football. He was playing football on his own when a man came up and started playing football with him. The man was brilliant and the little boy had a great time. When they had finished playing the man aut ographed the football, took off a wig and moustache and the little boy was in awe when he realised that the man was  Christiano  Ronaldo. How  amazing ! Image is brilliant and it can cause all sorts of surprises - from famous people doing ordinary things, to  the people asking, 'don'