About four years ago, I read on a friend’s blog ’101 reasons to be cheerful’. The list was wide and vast, not confined to the either the sacred nor secular, and a simple, but powerful reminder that Christ is Lord over every aspect of our lives.
So here’s mine. 101 reasons to be cheerful. In no particular order, (just in case you thought that I value Cadbury’s more than Redemption) and not seperating the sacred and profane (because Christ, the Lord of all, has redeemed all of me, not just the religious bit [but that might have to wait for another blog...]).
1.Joggers
2.Toto
3.Back to the Future
4.the people around me that don’t humour and tell me that they ‘know what i mean’ when it’s quite clear that no even I know what I mean
5.gmail
6.OneLondon
7.Stuart Allen
8.the New Jerusalem
9.three cliffs
10.jenny’s housemates
11.i-tunes
12.expiation
13.knowing that God’s got it planned
14.standing on top of Merthyr Tudfil five weeks ago, hearing about how Aslan truly is on the move
15.the two men I’ve been best man for
16.textual analysis
18.my brother
19.Orange Wednesdays
20.Guthrie
21.Genesis 50:20
22.Orange squash
23.The occasional email saying ‘I’m praying’
24.Dad
26.Mouthwash
27.Atonement (the reality, not the film)
28.24
29.The Scarlets
30.My bride to be
31.scratching
32.Grace (through which this entire list comes to me)
33.my mate Rhodri
34.Cadbury’s chocolate
35.A neighbour (relatively speaking) called Nat
36.That day last September when the Spirit convicted me of pride and arrogance
37.Hearing
38.passing GCSE maths
39.The guy who in the name of discipleship took me down a dark alley and gave me a hiding for the glory of Christ
40.UCCF
41.TheProGnosis boys
42.my DAB radio
43.Ventalin
44.The West Wing
45.Post-its (Jenny’s getting me into them)
46.David and Sheila Arthur (the very lovely couple that have invited me into their home)
47.Timothy Keller
48.PG
49.Poached eggs on toast
50. a car journey 8 years ago when I first heard the gospel
51.the historicity of the gospel
52.Redemption
54.Louie Theroux
55.The Cross Centred Life
56.Lynx
57.The ‘Free’ project
58.Bob Letham
59.TimeGhost
60.Read,Mark,Learn for Mark
61.The Alpha Course
62.Trinity College of Music CU
63. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3XqKjAY1bI
64.Intimacy with the Father
65.Athlete’s foot cream
66.ESV Study Bible
67.The brazilian guy I’m in college with that loves Christ and inspires me to love him too
68.The new Batman films (though maybe not cheerful…)
69.The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
70.Cufflinks
71.A welsh missionary to Peru called David James Morse
72.Grand Slam ’08
73.My mum
74.God the Holy Spirit
75. www.lovefilm.com
76.”I KNOW that my Redeemer lives…” (even though the exegesis confuses me, I know it’s about Jesus, and I know that he’s alive)
77.people who mock this blog
78.“Ieuan Evans making ground on Underwood… can he get there before Jonathan Webb..? YES HE CAN!”
79.Dick Lucas
80.Preacher and Preaching
81.praying with relative strangers
82.Grama
83…not by works
84.pistachio ice-cream
85.team Wales
86.Bach
87.Once coming across a composer called Bachhoven and totally thinking that the lecturer was having a laugh
89.Schumann
90.Satbucks
91.Gwynn Williams
92.The Passover
93.a txt mssg frm jnny
94.Sunday mornings – eggs,rest,bible
95.The Incredibles
96.Schwarzenegger’s 1977 documentary called Pumping Iron which truly has to be seen to be believed
96.Ecclesiastes, which tells me it’s ok to not be ok
97.Water in the tap
98.the old man in North Wales that designed the reading scheme I’m using
99.actually, any icecream
100.Kayaking
101.The two who are letting me marry the most precious thing in the world to them.
My God is Lord of all. Every good and perfect gift comes from him and he’s infinitely better than this list, or anyone’s list will show. I need to make this list, to force me into seeing that things are not always as gloomy as my negative, cynical mind tells me.
In light of number 77… LYNX!
A very interesting list, glad it’s not in order.
However, I did notice a lack of EMW? Could I suggest you replace it in number 29?
It’s definitely good that you put that clause in about it not being in a particular order since your wife to be (30) comes in later than her house mates (10)! I’d think you’d need marriage counseling before it had begun if it weren’t for that clause!
Nice to know that texts from me made the list as well (93)!!
Oh and 63 was hilarious! Made me very cheerful!
BTW, Arnie looks buff in that shot. Oh the ravages of time.
They might not be in order of importance, but they were almost certainly in order of appearing in your head (unless you have a very strange way of making lists).
I think you still have quite a lot of explaining to do, young man….
How was making lists not on the list?
You can mock gentlemen… incidentally, 77′s actually mocking theproGnosis (particularly our pretentious capital G), not just this list.
one minor alteration, I’m not at all thankful for satbucks, but starbucks i am a fan of.
incidentally, i met someone today who told me that after reading the list he wants to make his own with his wife, next time they’ve got a long car journey. Mission accomplished, let’s look to the Giver.
No.10 – not amused you thought of that before no.30.
No.38 – truly a miracle having seen that you count with your fingers.
No.101- i’m sure my 2 sisters would have something to say about that.
No.1 – specifically the pair o joggers your amazing fiance bought for you for christmas?
thanks for making me more thankful.
I have a tear in my eye after that comment….sniff….thanks Jen
I like 8, 20, while 61 and 62 could make a good combination…..and we need to have some chats about Narnia. I’m excited
G
Interesting