SIMON PHIPPS

  5 MINUTE READ We are now well into Lent , one of the two great fasts in the Christian Calendar ( along with Advent ). Lent is the time when we contemplate Christ’s sacrifice, along with Christ’s 40 days of temptation in the wilderness. When we give up things for Lent we find ourselves tempted in similar, yet far less extreme, circumstances (Let’s be honest, who wants to hang out in the wilderness by themselves for 40 days and eat and drink nothing; I can barely handle giving up chocolate!). Much writing during this time consists of looking at the temptations of Jesus, and how Jesus overcame them as a template for our own overcoming of temptations. But in this post, I do not intend to look at the traditional views, but rather to look at the differences between how Matthew and Luke told the story of Christ’s temptation and what we can learn from these differences. Let’s look at them now. Why Differences are OK We do not like to discuss differences in acco

If you have been looking for new resources to learn from – whether whole books or short articles or if you just fancy some bite-sized learning then this post is for you. Here are some things that I have learnt this month. I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) – Brene Brown - Book * I highly recommend this book * – if you haven’t read it, then buy it or borrow it. Brene Brown is a world-renowned researcher on shame. I was first exposed to her work through her amazing Ted Talks. In this book, Brene introduces us to her research on shame and defines what shame is. What is Shame She starts by differentiating between shame and similar emotions, such as guilt and embarrassment. One of the most powerful parts of this book for me was the difference between shame and guilt. Brene describes it like this: Imagine that you have just cheated on a test, you leave the exam feeling guilty. Your internal dialogue runs like this: “cheating is wrong, I should not have cheate