Waste disposal

 There were three instructions on this bin and together they caused me a problem. I was more than ready to dispose of my rubbish considerately and carefully and happy to try it without touching any of the bin's surfaces, however my attempts at doing it from a 2 metre distance proved repeatedly futile. 

If the bin had been open to the elements I am pretty confident I could have achieved my goal in three or four tries. My problem was that the fixed lid for stubbing out cigarettes, seriously reduced my target area. It was quite a windy day and and my empty paper cup proved prone to drift.

I'm sorry to admit that on my eventual successful considerate rubbish disposal, I might have been slightly closer than 2 metres from the bin although I don't think anyone still watching would have blamed me.

Sometimes we find targets difficult to hit. There seem to be too many stipulations and we don't have the time or the patience to fulfil everything demanded of us. I think one of the reasons I love Christianity as a faith and Jesus as a person is because he removed the need for me to get rid of my rubbish by following a set of impossible rules. He just took the rubbish off me and dealt with it. 

Changing your title.

I recently decided to change my blog title. It took me til 2.00am but I finally found out how. The problem now, is that this is the title to the blog that says I can't change the title.
Change can be both exciting and daunting. I changed to a red jumper the other day and then saw a photograph of me wearing it. I would have returned the jumper to the shop immediately but I had worn it. I know people who have worn jumpers for one evening and then taken them back to the shop. That is wrong, However it is completely understandable if they look as bad in their jumper as I did in mine. The other reason I couldn't take it back to the shop was that I picked a printer up whilst wearing it and poured black printer ink all down the front of my new red jumper. Black printer ink is difficult to remove.
In 2013 I have made a mess of many things. I wont go into detail or this will cease being a blog and turn into a very long book.  Some of the things were easily remedied or easily forgotten some of them weren't.
As a Christian I believe in forgiveness and a new beginning. A New Year tends to be a time for looking back as well as forward but can I encourage you to especially look forward. The past is gone. The red jumper is a lesson learned, I don't need to rehearse it or repeat it. I am about to go out. I might buy a blue jumper. Blue is my favourite colour and generally speaking I look slightly less huge in darker colours.
I wish you a happy new year. My wish will probably not come true. Some happy things will happen and some sad things will happen. Some successes will occur and some failures will occur. As I write this I am reminded of some verses in the Bible written by Paul to the people who lived in Philippi, 

  
"All the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ - God's righteousness.
I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself.
I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back."