2013-2018
As I mentioned in my previous post, in the last couple of years I’ve been on a journey of deconstructing my faith. The ways I looked at the world, the ways I understood my faith, God, religion and what that meant for me have been totally ripped apart. Safe to say it has been, and still is, extremely painful. The glass box shattered, my foundations were gone, in many ways the faith I had grown up with was dead.
Through my youth I was what I call a super Christian. I went to every Christian event I could, from festivals to prayer nights to worship conferences. All the music I listened to was Christian, I was involved in as many church activities as I could fit in my calendar, played in the church band, sang in the choir, lead in the youth group, the list goes on. I was so passionate about Jesus, so on fire for my faith and so excited to tell everyone I could about the ‘good news’.
If you hadn’t noticed it’s that time of year again. The trees are up, decorations are everywhere and all over the world people are buying presents for their loved ones. In amongst the parties, food and festivities, there’s a story that we like to tell. Whether we are religious or not, whether the story is the centre of everything we believe or just a fairytale, we tell the story of the birth of a child some two thousand years ago. The child who would grow up to become one of the most famous figures in history, a rabbi named Jesus, who came to bring hope to the world.
So often we look for certainty in this world, we want facts and answers and black and white. But in reality the world is full of colour. We look to science for understanding of the world around us, but any physicist will tell you that our understanding of the universe is extremely limited. There are so many things we don’t understand, so much that we still have left to learn. The world is full of mystery…
Recently, I spent a week in Jerusalem. As far as holidays go, this one (I like to call it my pilgrimage), was one of the most interesting, intense and insightful trips I’ve ever been on…
A few years ago I was at a Christian youth festival, working with the detached team. As part of the week, we ran a debate night called “Grill a Christian”, where anyone could come and ask questions to do with faith and life; we would do our best to answer and talk about them. One girl stood up towards the end of the evening and asked the question “Can I be gay and Christian?”…
They say London is the loneliest city in Europe. Studies suggest over 30% of Londoners feel lonely in what is the third largest city in Europe. And it’s not hard to see why…
There’s something about coming together that makes us stronger than when we are on our own. As you may know if you follow me on Twitter, I’m a massive fan of the Marvel Universe, particularly the Avengers franchise…
Who am I? That’s a question I’ve asked myself a lot recently. In the midst of losing my job, travelling the world, falling in love, trying to break back into the music industry, making some amazing friends and having my heart-broken; my whole life seems to have changed in the past few months and I’ve been left with this question burning on my mind. Who am I?
Bleary eyed, we got off the coach after the nine hour journey from Berlin to Amsterdam. It was 5am and the only place we wanted to be? Bed. By the time we made it to the centre of the city, after trying to understand the ticket machine (and realising we don’t speak a word of Dutch), it was 6am. We went in search of breakfast. We realised that nowhere in Amsterdam is open for breakfast before 7am, so decided to explore the city. With no wifi, mobile data or any idea where we were going, we somehow found ourselves in Amsterdam’s infamous ‘Red Light District’…
