A long fuse, short memory, thick skin, and big heart

I decided to head down to Coogee beach last week, just to spend the day and relax. I liked it so much, I've been back three or four times since just in the past week, including all during the day last Sunday to do a Bible study and listen to a couple sermons from Justin Kendrick, the lead pastor at City Church in New Haven. One of those visits happened early enough in the morning to catch the beautiful sunrise. The sun rises at this time of year around 6:45am, and the "first light" is about 6:15am, so all of the pinks / reds / purples / etc. happen in that half hour. The pic for this post was somewhere towards the beginning of that span. There were some women doing their morning yoga, a couple practicing boxing, several photographers, and other spectators just watching the sunrise - was a really peaceful way to spend the morning. And it was certainly refreshing.

Perhaps trailing the U.S. by a bit, the coming week marks the last week of classes. Then we have what seems like quite a while before final exams begin. The difference here is my average final is worth about 60% of the overall grade, so it makes the majority of the impression. But the good news is that I should only have tutorials during the week that Josh is here! Which really frees me up, so we can find some things to do in and around the city. Some things I'm planning on so far are seeing the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, the whale watching / camel riding / sand duning day trip, Bondi (and perhaps Manly) Beach (and hopefully the Bondi-to-Coogee clifftop walk), the Royal National Park (with free guided Aboriginal tour), Hillsong Baulkham Hills Campus, horse racing at the Royal Randwick (a must in Australia!), the Vivid Sydney Festival, seeing the sun rise at Coogee Beach, and maybe renting a surfboard to try surfing for the first time (I should be able to teach the basics). That won't be enough to fill up a week, but it's just some ideas to start with. And of course it's all up to what Josh is interested in - but I want to be prepared, so he can make the most of his time here in Sydney.

I heard an excellent sermon today from Glenridge Church, Sandra's church in Durban. It came from Rory Dyer today, a visiting pastor from Pretoria, who's accent wasn't nearly as cool as Sandra's but was nonetheless South African. He gave a good testimony to keeping passionate about God, particularly if you've been a Christian and serving the Lord for a long time (as it tends to be easy to grow complacent). But one of the lines I liked most this morning was that God has "a long fuse, short memory, thick skin, and big heart." I want to be like Jesus, of course, so this gives me concrete ideals to strive towards, and human ideals, in my opinion (he's not saying absolute perfection of character, impeccable purity, etc.). And that's no so hard, is it? Four things, only:

1.) A long fuse (don't grow angry quickly)

2.) A short memory (forget others' transgressions quickly)

3.) A thick skin (don't take offence quickly)

4.) A big heart (love quickly)

That's a good lesson for today, and for always, I think.

#coogee #sunrise