Before connecting with the Uniting Church, I spent a few years working in the outdoor education industry. In that industry, we dealt daily with risk – and with exploring what happened, and what could be learned by our behaviour when we are in a risky situation.

In fact one of my jobs in the organisation was to ensure that the real level of risk was as low as possible, while ensuring that the perceived level of risk for the participant remained high.   We wanted our participants to feel at risk as they paddled, hiked, climbed or abseiled, while ensuring we did everything we could to make certain there were no accidents, or that consequences were minimal or acceptable.

The theory of course, is that how we behave when we believe danger is imminent has a lot to say about who we are….and can allow us (if we will let it!) to learn to manage ourselves differently both in risky and everyday circumstances.

In the church today we also talk a lot about risk.  We proclaim our willingness to be risk-takers, and innovators. We use phrases like ‘risking the way of Jesus’ and want to ‘risk exploring new ways of being church’. Continue reading →

Formula One motor racing is something that fascinates me.  Speed, power, control, passion.  In a parallel world I’d be driving for Ferrari…..but that’s a story for another day.

This week, one of the biggest stories in the history of Formula One has broken – and it has something to say to us (well, to me at least).  Even if you’re not interested in motorsport (and why wouldn’t you be? 😉 ), hang in for this one.

Last year at the Singapore GP, Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jr crashed.  Those who follow F1 will know that’s not that unusual.  As a result of the incident however and the resulting stoppage to the race, Piquet’s teammate Fernando Alonso was ‘luckily’ able to skip up the order, eventually going on to win the event. Continue reading →

Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt has done it again – smashing the field at the 2009 World Athletics Championships and setting an astonishing world record of 9.58 seconds for the 100 metre sprint.  After his stunning performance at the Olympic Games in 2008, there is no doubt that Bolt is the best sprinter in the world today….and arguably of all time.

What makes the story fascinating is that Bolt was never supposed to be a sprinter.  Apart from the fact that he always dreamed of playing cricket for the West Indies and only came to running later in his youth, conventional wisdom is that the fastest sprinters are shorter and stockier athletes – those who can get up and running quickly.  Short distance sprinting is widely understood as a race of acceleration and coaches were were grooming him as a 400 metre runner to take advantage of his stride length.

Bolt has single-handedly re-shaped the sport.  He isn’t the quickest out of the blocks and often trails his rivals to the 40 metre mark.  Once he gets his 6’5″ frame upright and to top speed however, he has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to run past, and then away from his competitors.

I find it compelling to watch a man do what he is supposed not to be capable of doing – to see someone challenge convention and re-write understanding.  All that, and he’s spectacular entertainment.

Many years ago in a letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote of God’s tendency to do the same….to use the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the weak to shame the strong, the things that are not to nullify the things that are. Now I’m not saying Bolt is foolish or weak, but his achievements remind us to put less weight on convention and expectations, and just get on with our mission, calling or purpose.  God will take care of the rest.

There is a growing sense that winter is on the wane and spring is just around the corner.

Early seasons flowers are starting to appear (don’t ask me what they are called – but they are colourful and pretty!), the sun streams in my office window with just a smidge more warmth than the last few months and days are lengthening steadily.

I’m sure the last vestiges of winter are yet to vanish, and we’ll have some bleak and cold days yet….but they signs are there that the days of winter are numbered, and ahead lies the glory of spring.

In Tasmania, we’ve learned that the seasons impact on more than just the plant life. Continue reading →

16 stages are down.  Just 5 remain.  The favourite has pulled clear of the field after a stunning burst of speed on the climb to Verbier in the Swiss Alps.  With the end in sight, all seems well in the world.  We all know how things will play out from here.

Or do we? Continue reading →

Yesterday I wrote about the riders competing for the General Classification victory at the tour.  About how they have to be on deck every day, whether it’s riding safely with the bunch on the flat stages, or battling there direct opponents on the high mountains.  A GC rider has to be a jack-of-all trades – strong on the flat, exceptional in the mountains, and particularly gifted in the discipline of individual time trial – the only stages in the tour where each rider is completely alone against the clock without the support of team mates.

Elsewhere in the tour, there are a number of other competitions going on.  This is a race with more than one winner. Continue reading →

The tour de France, as I said earlier, is a race over 21 stages, and 3500 kms.

For those trying to win the general classification (the overall tour victory for the rider with the lowest total accumulated time), every stage counts.  There can be no bad days, no lazy days trailing the stage winner home by many minutes.  Every stage, every second counts.

And yet, it seems, some stages count more than others.  Right now the tour is in one of its transition phases – three days in a row of what are identified as flat stages, with no high mountains or particularly difficult climbs.

For the GC (general classification) riders these days are about staying in the peleton, not crashing, not having mechanical failure and, mostly, about not making mistakes.  On these flat days there is nothing to be gained, and everything to be lost. Continue reading →

I reckon Jesus would like the Tour.

While the headlines are all about Contador, Armstrong, Evans and Schleck, the true grit in a race like the tour often is demonstrated by a very special group of riders called the ‘domestiques’.  Domestique is from the french for servant, and describes the group of riders dedicated to the success of their team leader. Continue reading →

Riders in the Tour de France (remember….the reason I’m tired and cranky this month!) spend a lot of time cycling in a peleton – from the french word for ‘herd’.  A peleton is like a moving, living, breathing animal, snaking its way around the roads of France.  In it are 180 individual cyclists, moving, riding, racing as one.

So why do it?  Why not leave the front of the peleton and ride off to victory and glory? Continue reading →

I’m going to be tired and grumpy for the next three weeks.

It is of course not my fault.  The blame lies fairly and squarely at the feet of the organisers of the Tour de France for putting their event on in such a different time zone, and of course I also partially blame SBS for telecasting the whole race live.  21 consecutive late nights gets me every year. Continue reading →