Life's been feeling like a bad game of monopoly for a while now. Fines, payments, bad luck, disproportionate rent and not much else. Finally though, it seems I'm turning a corner. A totally unexpected gift of £100 from a friend. "Insurance company balls-up in your favour. Collect £218.25." I've even managed to stay out of jail. Call it luck, karma, whatever. I reckon it's evidence of God's provision. My prayers have been little more than plaintive letters to my solicitor recently. I might not be on a huge spiritual high, (although a good week at Soul Survivor and a decent job offer would probably put me there,) but at least my prayers are becoming thanks for services rendered. And the new football season has dawned too. I wonder if the grace of God will extend to promotion for Emmanuel Lightning?

More changes!

After weeks of procrastinating, trying to overcome my natural technophobia, I've had another fiddle with the blog template. The result is the new "what's in the CD player" section in the sidebar. No simple piece of code to copy and paste this time, but it was still fairly easy and painless. And now, through this little insight into my musical tastes, you can see how effortlessly cool I really am. You lucky people.

My CV

I don't know if anyone who reads my blog is in a position to offer me a job, but just in case, my CV can be found at the following websites:

www.totaljobs.com
www.jobsite.co.uk

I'm still waiting for an offer that doesn't involve working on commission or sitting through 17 years of training before I earn anything.

Leadership Principle #2

Naughty boys make the best leaders. Apparently. I was confidently informed of this last week by an up-and-coming Christian leader of my acquaintance. His point was that people who naturally "kick against" ideas and people they disagree with are more likely to stand their ground under pressure, more likely to attract a following, and therefore make strong leadership figures. In secular terms, I can see the truth in this. Benito Mussolini would, for example, be a case in point. But is this true of Christian leaders? Can those who are exhorted to be humble and see themselves as the servant of those they lead hold to this philosophy of leadership in good conscience? Is this just an example of a high-profile Christian justifying his poor behaviour in earlier life?

Let's be honest. I've always been a bit of a goody-twoshoes. The most rebellious thing I ever did was flicking a chunk of my eraser at my german teacher when I was 13. (Yes, Mr. Harlow, if you're reading this, it was me. Sorry.) So is there any hope for an introvert intuitive leader? Can I still hope to command people's respect with a more cautious leadership style? Winston Churchill, I'm certainly not. But I really don't want to be Ian Duncan-Smith either.

Leadership Principle #1

I was reminded last week that the most important characteristic of a leader is his or her relationship with God. Somewhere along the line I'd forgotten this, but the more a leader tries to run things themselves, the less room there is for God to work through them.
It was rather galling to be reminded of this with only a month left working for the church, but something tells me this won't be my last experience of a leadership role. This principle may still serve me well in the future.

It's been a month since my last post. High time I added to my collection of rambling thoughts. So why the lengthy break in the rambling? Well, for the past ten days my church has had a second attempt at Soul in the City, and I was jointly coordinating it. This hasn't left me much time for anything else, except eating, sleeping and wondering what I'd do when I got my life back. In fact, what with preparations for SITC, there hasn't been time for much more than this for the past six weeks or so. Anyway, excuses over.
So, since my last post, this is what you've all missed:

• I was offered an interview for a very tempting communications job with a charity
• I was informed by this charity (very apologeticlly) that funding for this job had fallen through and that I should probably seek alternative employment
• Jo and I have begun seriously considering some rather off-the-wall options for our future
• I found myself being given a (hopelessly tongue-tied) phone interview for the position of Customer Services Officer for a high street bank
• I've also had some very enjoyable time away and been reminded that I really don't need to worry about anything, because God is in charge of my future
• And finally, my application form for next year's London Marathon has arrived. Another winter of early morning 6 mile runs, niggling achilles tendon problems, giving up alcohol and boring my friends by moaning about all of these beckons

Hopefully, now SITC is over, I'll be able to post more regularly. My first aim is to see whether I can post my CV somehow. I don't know whether anyone who reads my blog would be interested or capable of employing me, but it's worth a try...