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The problem with American

  • 19 March 2017
Last week, on my flight from New York back to Sydney, I binge watched Season 1 of The Newsroom. It’s a series created by Aaron Sorkin, the guy behind The West Wing, with Jeff Daniels playing Will McAvoy, an anchorman on cable news. In the opening scene of the series pilot, Will is on a panel with a Democrat and a Republican at a university, when a student asks the panel: “What makes America the greatest country in the world?” The question triggers an epic and rousing outburst from Will, who dresses down both major political parties and rails about why America is no longer the greatest country on earth. “But it could be”, he then says in softer tones. That first season of The Newsroom aired in 2012, before Donald Trump ever campaigned for president, promising to “make America great again”. Coincidence? I doubt it.
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Re-entering the darkness

  • 18 January 2017
I wasn’t procrastinating – I actually wasn’t planning on ever reading the book. It was going to be one for the mantelpiece, to adorn the bookshelf. After all, I spent a year working for the organisation founded by the author, so I didn’t just know the content – I was living right amongst it. It was a surprise, then, how much the opening chapters of The Locust Effect moved me. Two months back on board with International Justice Mission (IJM), now in Australia, and we’ve talked on a number of occasions about vicarious trauma. I’ve shared with my colleagues some of what I went through that year in Bolivia. They’ve shared about how advocating against cybersex trafficking has had a toxic personal effect on them.
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From Advent to Adventure

  • 7 December 2016
It’s the second week of Advent and I’m not really feeling it. Generally speaking, people slide easily into one of three distinct categories: (1) those who absolutely love Christmas; (2) those who find Christmas super stressful; and, (3) those who are indifferent to Christmas. I love Jesus but I am planted firmly in the third camp. So I scour the season, I scour Scripture, both for magic and for logic.
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Crazy Baptist Girl

  • 11 October 2016
Apparently among some of my classmates, I had a reputation as the Crazy Baptist Girl at school. After…
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Re-entry. Still from the movie Gravity.
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367 days after re-entry

  • 27 September 2016
Ten years ago, a lady named Debbie asked me if I was studying Spanish because I wanted to be a missionary in South America. At the time it was a seriously long bow to draw - I in fact had no better reason for studying Spanish other than Age of Empires and the Spanish national football team. Once I started learning the language, I discovered how beautiful it was to the ear, the mind, the tongue. But even then I didn't have any particular interest in Latin American culture. I had even less interest in becoming a missionary. Debbie and I are unlikely to cross paths again, but what she said turned out to be rather prophetic.
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How to grow ambition

  • 13 September 2016
I grew up with a lot of positive reinforcement and believing in Jesus has both shrunk and supersized that. On the one hand, ambition can be a bad word because it implies arrogance. I have become less self-effacing, more confident, over the years, but I doubt anyone I know would describe me as ambitious. There is still this idea that ambition is a cut-throat attitude, seeking to elevate yourself regardless of the cost to others. Um ... not me. But y'know what, I am ambitious. And I'm going to start owning that.
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Daniel in the lion's d
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Which Bible expat are you?

  • 29 August 2016
Thought I'd share something different this week. Here's a quiz for anyone who's ever lived abroad. Which Bible expat are you? Below is a quick questionnaire about your experience overseas. Each response links to one or more people from Scripture.
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Don’t give up on perfection

  • 23 August 2016
I am not a perfectionist. Not in the traditional sense of the word - I decided a long time ago that it was too difficult and painful to live that way, that I wasn't going to be needlessly harsh and demanding on myself, trying to get everything right down to a tee. But I am, in my own way, a perfectionist. Deep down, I still believe in and long for perfection.
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Pieces of heaven

  • 2 August 2016
"How can you not like dumplings? They're little pieces of heaven!" Okay, so this post isn't really about dumplings. But I'm going to talk a little about dumplings to launch into some thoughts about the little pieces of heaven on earth, the fragments of eternity around us.