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Fran Thring

How to stop being late

Fran Thring
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How to stop being late

“Sorry babe, I’ll be a few minutes late. Traffic this morning is CRAY CRAY!”

We’ve all sent the text. You’ve sent the text. I have. We’ve even lied, maybe a little, “sorry had a crazy morning, it’s been going none stop.” Has it really? Or were you just disorganised?

Somewhere in our over stimulated ‘got to be everywhere and do everything‘ world we are always late to things. We leave our friend waiting by herself at the bar. Or arrive at the dinner party at 8pm, instead of 7pm. We get to the movies as the trailers are starting. We all do these things, and occasionally it is a mistake or the traffic but most of the time, it’s not. It’s us. We don’t think things through and we don’t honour and respect the person on the other side of the equation.

It may be a little late for New Year’s resolutions, but perhaps let’s make May ‘not a minute late May’. Or something like that. Make it a month where you intentionally work on not being late. I know, I know – it takes forever to do your hair and select an outfit. Tough. Toughen up and get better, you really can.

Here are some pointers on how to stop being the one who is always late:

Plan from the bottom up

When you sit down at your computer or desk at the beginning of the day make a plan of everything that you need to do for the day. Having a list of everything from the get-go will help you to be prepared and time manage your day well.

Just say “No!”

We don’t have to say Yes to every dinner date, coffee date, meeting request, movie offer or whatever else gets thrown our way. It is better to say No to something you aren’t sure you are going to make than say yes and let everyone down at a later stage. Be firm and keep to your commitments and think through your schedule.

Factor in the emergency

If you know traffic is bad on a Monday, don’t push it and hope that it will be better. Instead leave early and be willing to wait on the other side. If your dinner date is a 30-minute drive away leave 45 minutes early. This way, you will always be either on time or early. You will also arrive less stressed and a whole lot more calm and collected.

Do this bit by bit

You don’t have to become an overnight Nazi. Nope, the key is to try make it on time for one or two things and once you have become better at this then you can try add a few other things into the schedule. Create a list of all the commitments you have in a month and select the top 3 to try be punctual for. The next month you can select another 3.

Set a reminder

If you know you always forget something then set up a reminder on your calendar app or on your phone. If a reminder goes off 15 minutes before the event is due to start then you will be able to pack up and make your way to the next thing in good time.

Factor in the in-between time

Very often we plan our journey around the key information. The train journey takes 30 minutes so I’ll leave at 6:30 to get there at 7. Yes, that’s true. But what about getting out of your house and locking up the gate. What about parking the car and trying to find the venue on the other side. What about the 5 minutes you need to go over your key points before the interview.

Don’t be that person. Let’s rally and change the status. Being late isn’t cool and it isn’t okay. Be someone who is on time, all the time. Stand out as a person who has got their stuff together.

My broken spirit

Fran Thring
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My broken spirit

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.” – Psalm 51:17

I keep on getting this feeling that God is saying to me, “want me more.” And I’m going to be honest here, usually what I do is ignore the voice. I push it aside amongst the other clamouring voices in my head and I say, “yeah but God, there’s stuff I need to do. And I don’t want to give up these other things. I’m sure you’re fine with where we’re at. Right?”

Wrong. This goes on for a while, I ignore God’s quiet tugs at my heart and He persists. Eventually, I get to a place where I can only describe what is going on in my spirit as… broken. The things of the world, all my hustling, bustling and get up and go start to tear me apart and because I am ignoring God nothing is pulling it all together. I start to feel sad more often. I feel disillusioned. The every day pulls me more and more.

Then I do break. I break and I come crawling back to God with my head in my hands and my heart ready to listen. This process can take a few weeks or in my experience, it has taken years. My spirit is broken and I have created a gap in my heart to which the maker of the Universe who greatly seeks my calls can move in to and fill.

We all like to think we’ve got it all together

Isn’t that what we do? I do. I like to think, ‘girl you got this. For real. Watch you go with your awesome time management skills and your big ideas. Watch you go running those meetings and telling those people what they can and can’t do. Look at you with your big career and your many friends. You’re doing well. You got it good’. But do we really? If we peel back the big piece of “I’m fine,” are we really fine. As in fine down to the core of our souls?

I like the happy resolutions in life

We all like the happy resolutions in life. We enjoy the yes, I got the job. I had the baby. I ran the marathon. But what about the parts and pieces which aren’t all happy resolutions? What about the unanswered questions? What about the times when someone hurt you? What about the disappointment which seems to circle round and pass you by year after year. What about that? We can’t skip the pain in life because it is the pain that turns our hearts to God.

Our culture doesn’t value broken-ness

Society doesn’t give you any points for being humble or vulnerable. Nope. Everyone is running around playing a giant game of ‘look at how successful I am’. People don’t gravitate to those who tell them, ‘yeah I’m kinda figuring it out’. People gravitate to those who tell you, ‘yes I’ve got SO many friends and I’m feeling so great about everything’. The media taunts us in a constant game of ‘look how great you could be if you did xyz”.

God created us with a need for him

We just don’t pay attention to how healthy our spirit is. We go on with our lives and we don’t listen to the still small voice. We don’t stop when we should. We don’t surrender because it’s hard and we don’t obey because it requires change. God created us with a need for Him which nothing, no person or thing, can fill. We can run from it, or we can gently give in, surrender and give God back our broken spirit so that He can put it together again.

What is God saying to you?

I can’t tell you what the quiet whispers in your soul are achingly repeating. I can’t make you slow down or listen to them. I can encourage you, with this rare opportunity that I have to drop the ‘I’m fine“. Let go the pretence and turn your broken spirit over to the one who created it.

Some thoughts on passion and career

Fran Thring
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Some thoughts on passion and career

I used to think that there was a roadmap for my life. Now I’ve slowly but surely started to realise that  I get to create my own road map. Of course, there are things you can not change, but many things you can. I used to think that I had to dig through all my hundreds of thousands of passions to find the “right” one. Now I’ve slowly begun to realise that I don’t have to pick only one of my passions, but a life lived well may have many explored passions.

Here are some thoughts on work and passion which I hope will help you as you navigate the rocky road of passion and life and work.

No one has to pick one passion to focus on for their entire life

There is no real evidence that we each have a unique calling which once found will lead to endless happiness and fulfilment. Some people have one strong passion which they find early. Other people have many passions and they pursue each of these throughout life. Some people become well-known at a young age and some at an older age. Don’t measure your life against other people’s and become frustrated because your journey appears different to theirs. Also don’t become frustrated because you feel like you haven’t found your “one unique thing”. As long as you enjoy what you do, you are doing okay.

You can even try to combine multiple passions and turn them into a career. Mixing passions is a way to make your work and skill set stand out. It is also an excellent idea not to over-invest in a single area.

I am a writer, but I am also interested in philosophy, religion, history, nutrition, fashion and so much more. The more interests I have the more I am able to write about these topics so it works quite well!

Don’t feel like you can’t change things

Even if you have chosen one passion and gone for it for 10 years. You may discover that you become bored and your interests change. This isn’t bad, it’s fairly normal. We all like to discover different things in life and mix it up. Don’t feel like you have signed your name on a dotted line if you have selected a certain career choice, there is always a level of flexibility to change and try something new.

The average person has 10 different jobs by the age of forty and there is no reason to think we will be an exception. As a general rule, skill beats enthusiasm every time. And thinking that something sounds exciting, does not mean it will actually form an enjoyable career.

Passion doesn’t make work not work

Passion is a limited source of motivation. It takes a lot of discipline to stick to a single area. There is a big difference doing something for fun and doing it to earn money. No matter what your career or passion is, soon you have to deal with unpleasant clients, taxes, invoices and all sorts of unpleasant administration. Even professional travellers will find that there are things about their job which appear nice but are really quite unpleasant. If it’s a job it has pros and cons.

Even if we find a job that we are passionate about, in a city we love, with a person we adore, there will still be days when we wake up and hate life.

Ask questions: what am I skilled at? What do I have the potential to become more skilled at? What can I do which is practical and which includes elements I enjoy? What will lead elsewhere in the future? The answers to these questions will help you to move forward in your career and work through your various passions.

Good luck trooper. Stay passionate and create value for the planet.

What does it mean to be a woman?

Fran Thring
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What does it mean to be a woman?

Everyone is defining what it means to be a woman. We used to think it was painting and playing piano in a big expensive house. We used to think it was gathering and gardening while the men went out hunting. We used to think a lot of things.

Now we realise women can hunt too. We realise women can be scientists and engineers and Mothers and artists. We’ve let Marilyn Monroe tell us we can be fun and curvy. We’ve let Margaret Thatcher show us we can be brave and forthright. We’ve let Oprah show us we can be millionaires and philanthropists. We’ve let Beyoncé tell us we can be sexy and successful.

Let me ask you, what does it mean to be a woman?

I am a woman. And, I am a proud woman of God. As women, the essence of who we are comes from the Creator. I believe my role as a woman is to reflect God’s beauty. This may, or may not be the trend of the moment. This may or may not fit with cultural expectations, but I believe that long before gender debates my maker defined me when He formed me. He said I was unique, lovely and created to show His beauty to the world.

How do I reflect God’s beauty today?

Every single day each of us is given the task to reflect God’s beauty. This doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, but it does mean we make different choices with our lives. It means we select kindness over impatience. We select care and compassion over anger. It means we are beautiful on the inside and the outside.

Many times, as women, all that God made us to be is stolen and warped. We sell His glorious picture for something so far from what was intended. Or we believe ourselves to be less than what we were created to be.

We believe we aren’t beautiful

Each and every woman is given beauty. The world has taken beauty and stamped it with different colours, but beauty is undeniably a part of who you, as a woman, are. Don’t listen to television adverts who tell you anything different. Don’t listen to images on the internet who try to set some impossible standard. You, as a woman, are beautiful.

We believe that who we are is not enough

This is a big, big lie. So often women think they are not intelligent enough, tall enough, funny enough or whatever it is you believe you lack in order to be of value in this world. You are enough. Just as you are, with no extras added. No plastic, no fake hair, no surgery.

We pull other women down to feel good

We don’t actually feel good when we do this. No matter who you are, if you feel bad about yourself then your hole won’t disappear because you created one in someone else. As women, we need to stop competing and start encouraging. We need to look at our neighbours and pull them up, not down.

Treat your body with respect

If you knew how valuable you were, would you go getting involved with any and everyone who popped onto your radar? I doubt it. Reflect God’s beauty by treating your body as though it is something worthy. Don’t drink large amounts, make sure you exercise and don’t get involved in unhealthy relationships.

True womanhood is living with dignity and excellence. Being a woman is so much more than the clothes you wear or how you wear your hair. True women hood is found in character. The women I know who have exemplified true women hood are faithful and good. The ripples of their faithfulness have touched my life and I believe the lives of many, many more. Rise up and ask God for help to be the woman you were made to be. 

Break out of your bubble

Fran Thring
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Break out of your bubble

We all live in a bubble to some degree – we have friends who are similar to us, family members who think the same way and a workplace which is probably fill with people from a possibly slightly more diverse, but often not dramatically diverse, sector of society.

Our world at the moment is one big hotbed of conflict and disagreement. This is a time of uncertainty and deep division. We are scared and when we are scared it’s easy to believe that other people are different to us to rationalise our fears. This isn’t so.

The idea that another group of people is either better, or worse, or different to you makes it easy to treat them badly. This thinking has been seen across the ages – in multiple world wars, in transatlantic slavery, in colonialism, in genocide.

The person who collects your rubbish bin thinks, feels, and desires similar things to you. So does the person across the globe. As humans, we have to unite because of our common humanity, rather than find reasons to kill or hurt or pull each other down.

The best way to grow as a person and to pull away some of the preconceived ideas you have about others is to break out of your bubble.

Our online world show us what we want to see

Don’t feel like the media which you consume is going to change your view and mindsets. Social media, in particular, is created so that what you want to read is given to you. All the social media platforms which you are a part of are re-enforcing your beliefs. They are made up of images and quotes from people exactly like you. They offer you no counter argument and they challenge none of your negative stereotypes.

We see nothing about global poverty unless we want to

Unless we actually go looking for information about the rest of the world we won’t learn. Issues such as global poverty, war, politics and economics are things that will not come up in your day-to-day life unless you create the opportunity for them to be there. Most of the topics which people discuss are related to things which affect their everyday lives and not the lives of others.

Be aware of your bubble

The best thing you can do to break your bubble is be aware of it. You do live in a bubble, now what are you going to do about it. How can you make some amendments to your life so that you have a healthier view of people different from yourself and so the ideas you hold precious are able to come up with some critique?

Take someone different to lunch

Just do it. Stop being so boring. Take someone who is totally, completing, inexplicably different to you to lunch. Do it for humanity. Do it because you want to break down barriers, do it because they are different, but really – they aren’t that different. Do it because you will learn a lot about them, and also a lot about you.

Read trustworthy news sources

I’m going to say this like it is: “you need to get off Facebook and read something which teaches you more about life and other people.” I don’t know what your favourite kind of media is – radio, online, or newspapers. Regardless, make sure that you are reading things which help to expand your mind. Facebook doesn’t do that. People magazine doesn’t do that. Your favourite television series doesn’t do that. Your gossiping friends and neighbour don’t do that.

Breaking the bubble means living a life which is less self-focused. It means taking the time to get to know other people. It means letting go of things which your parents have told you and even your friends. It means sometimes standing up in front of people to defend others because they are pulling them down when they don’t have to be. The second greatest commandment in the Bible is to “love others as you love yourself.” Have a think about that and consider what it means, for you, in your everyday life.

Talent is overrated

Fran Thring
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Talent is overrated

When I was at school all I ever wanted was to be good at everything. I wanted to be prefect. I wanted to be friends with the popular kids and I wanted to get A’s for every class. I thought I deserved all of this too.

When I got to University I soon realised that being smart in your High School and smart in your University are two very different things. Now the pond was that much larger and the level of intelligence required to be the best felt very intimidating and unattainable. Really, I was being silly. You don’t need to be the best. You just need to be YOUR best.

After University and out in the “real world” I’ve learned that nobody cares if you were head girl. Nobody cares if you got 85% on your final year Maths Paper. GRIT. Grit is what you want and grit is what you need. What is grit – mental toughness and the ability to push through.

The 4 C’s

You will need these in order to be gritty.
Confidence – You have to believe in yourself or nobody else will.
Challenge – embrace new opportunities instead of resisting them.
Control – you must understand you have the power to shape your own destiny.
Commitment – you must set goals and then work towards them.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence means you don’t get swung around by your emotions. You know when and how to use and manage them. This means:

• Not being a perfectionist.
• Having a work-life balance.
• Not being easily distracted.
• Being empathetic.
• Knowing your strengths and weaknesses.
• Being self-motivated.
• Setting hard boundaries.

Lack of Entitlement

We all deserve to be happy and successful but that doesn’t mean we’re entitled to it or that it will come easily. You won’t be handed a successful career, relationship or enterprise because you are awesome, you’ll have to be patient, work hard and earn it.

Flexibility

Things in life almost always don’t go according to our personal plotted plan. We have to reroute many times in the process in order to reach our goal along the way. If you want to do well, often you will need to change direction, change your role or skill set, pick up some extra shifts and be flexible enough to come up with new solutions to problems.

Learn from the past but don’t stay in the past

You can’t change the past, but you must learn from it. It is what it is and dwelling there never brings it back. Pick up the pieces and move on because new things are on the horizon.

Stay Calm

Angry or overly emotional responses don’t help you in business. Nope. Sorry. Keep it together. Learn to manage your stress with insight and maturity. Be calm and collected and you will deal with situations fair easier.

Don’t Complain

It’s normal to vent at times, but once things have been said then you need to pick yourself up and move onwards. Complaining gets us nowhere. Keep it to a minimum.

Have a Sense of Urgency

Don’t sit back and let things sweep you along. Be the wave, get up and create an impact. Businesses don’t build themselves and careers don’t create themselves. It’s all on you-boo.

Are Consistent

“It’s great starting a business, but can you keep it going? It’s great to talk about mental toughness, grit, and perseverance … but what do those things actually look like in the real world?,” – James Clear: author, entrepreneur, and photographer.

In a word, toughness and grit equal consistency.

They’re Grateful and Appreciative

Innovation is born out of scarcity. Instead of looking at what we don’t have, we need to learn to look at what we do. Where can we cut corners? Where can we increase sale? Who can we contact? Who we haven’t contacted?

Remember grit is all up to you – it’s what will determine a lot of your success and it’s free. Don’t look to talent all the time. Look to God, let him develop the things inside you which we call “grit” and be brave.

God I prayed, where is my blessing?

Fran Thring
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God I prayed, where is my blessing?

About 3 months ago I started noticing that I had this attitude of “But I deserve this,” and I think God showed it to me so that I could work on it and change it. I hadn’t been aware of it before then and I really, honestly had been struggling with disappointment because I wasn’t getting the things I wanted from God, although I was praying for them. When I noticed this attitude in myself I suddenly realised that I had things backwards and it was me, not God, who needed to change some things.

Perhaps you have been feeling the same? Perhaps you feel like you pray to God but he doesn’t answer and it makes you mad?

Human nature likes to paint God as a vending machine

It is our human nature to WANT. Always. To want a lot. And if we believe in God we automatically come to Him with an attitude of “God, I am a human and this is what I want from you.” The problem here isn’t that God won’t help us with our human wants and needs, but rather that we come to Him with everything the wrong way around. And then we end up angry at Him.

Not all of our prayer requests come from a good place

A lot of our prayer requests are focused on things which make our earthly body and mind happy rather than our spiritual nature.

For example:

“God, I really want a spouse so I can feel loved”

“God, I do not have the same lifestyle as my friends, where are my blessings?”

“God, I really want you to deal with this person at my work because they make me angry all the time”

We see our situation through the eyes of the earth but God sees it through spiritual eyes. He looks for character and people who trust Him regardless of whether they get what they want. Try to see the situations in your life through spiritual rather than earthly eyes.

Living right before God is important

We can’t sin and do silly things to displease God and then ask where our blessings are.

If we ask God, “Why?” it should come from a place of rational enquiry rather than a place of anger or resentment or because our expectations and wish list were not met. A lot of the time we make dumb decisions and we do not follow God’s ways of doing things. Then, when we mess up, we complain because God hasn’t answered our prayers.

Again, we do not need to be perfect, but it is clearly written in the Bible that our prayers are more powerful when we live righteously and that with obedience there is a blessing.

We know how to ask but we do not know how to trust or be patient when we do not receive

It’s weird but sometimes we end up not only lacking faith that we will receive answers to prayer, but also upset at God because He hasn’t answered them.

If God doesn’t answer our prayer immediately instead of being upset we should accept that He has our best interests at heart and that He has reason we can not see or understand at the moment. Following God is about trusting Him no matter what we see or feel in this world. It’s hard but it’s worth it.

If we feel uncared for, unloved and unheard then we feel like God isn’t real or worth following.

The enemy would love us to feel uncared for and unloved by God because then he can create a wedge in our hearts and separate us from God. He can make us live in that place where we second guess God and where we question whether or not He is real. Don’t listen to any voices which say God doesn’t love you. Or that you are not infinitely cared for.

Gratitude and humble appreciation keep us from becoming self entitled

Rather than expecting a whole bunch of things from God our attitude should be to be grateful for what Jesus has done already. The joy from knowing God and his work in our lives should inspire us to remain calm when we do not get what we want.

Spend 5 hours a week learning

Fran Thring
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Spend 5 hours a week learning

I remember the first time I tried to go skiing. I was with my friend Amy, up in the Vermont Mountains on the Eastern side of the USA. It was icy. My nostril hairs were frozen, my hands were pink and I really didn’t see how people found the experience “fun”.

What was even worse was that Amy knew how to ski. Her family had had a ski holiday in Europe a few years back and she had learned at least the fundamental basics. “I’ll teach you,” she said. “It’s easy!” She took me up one of the slopes and we stood at the top of that long icy downhill and I was terrified. “Just do this!” she whisked down the mountain and stopped a few metres from me. I took a hesitant step forward and fell nose first into the icy snow. “Oops!”

We tried again and I fell again. Clearly going up a mountain without any idea how to get down it wasn’t a good plan. The experience made me very nervous about skiing and it was a good few days before I was willing to try it again. When I did, I got an instructor, started at the bottom and graduated my way up the slope. Once I had the skills and confidence I found I was fine to navigate it. Yay!

Acquire a skill base

We’ve all been told to chase our dreams and don’t do a job you hate and you were born to do it or go for gold. These things are true but they negate the learning curve which needs to take place in order for you to become CEO of your company or a world-famous sports player. Anyone who wants to be good at something needs to take the time out in their everyday life to keep growing their skills and learn more. At least 5 hours a week is the recommended amount.

Here’s how:

Reading

Leaders are readers. Mark Zuckerberg reads 1 book every 2 weeks. Mark Cuban reads more than 2 hours a day. Bill Gates reads 50 books a year. Reading expands your skills base like non other. It’s the best way to access lots of quality knowledge on a subject and grow at what you do.

Reflection

How can you make things better? Where in your life do you need to improve? What is the next step? What good ideas do you have to move things forward? If you don’t spend time reflecting then your life ends up looking the same and never improving. Take a step back and ask yourself: what do I want and want can I do to take me one step closer.

Experimentation

Learning is no good if you don’t apply it and try. If I had learned all about skiing but I hadn’t been willing to get out there and go on the slope then it would have been one big futile exercise. Once you have obtained the knowledge you need to go out there and do something with it. Apply it. Try something new.

Results: Improvement

You’ll find that your 5 hours a week made a big difference. These 5 hours make the other hours more focused, intentional and productive. These 5 hours expand your brain and your thinking. They allow you to rise above others in your niche and stand above the competition.

We should look at learning like we look at exercise

We always think that for a healthy life we need to eat our greens and go to gym. We do! But what about our brain. A healthy life requires an active brain which is constantly learning and growing.

You don’t need to have all the skills upfront for your dream, rather instead of jumping into the deep end (like I did with skiing) take a long-term approach. Put in the time to learn and grow your skill base and you’ll find you’re a pro in (almost) no time.

Is it possible to believe in God and evolution?

Fran Thring
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Is it possible to believe in God and evolution?

I recently met a woman who had pulled her child out of school. “They are teaching him evolution,” she said. I understand where the women was coming from – we should be teaching our children about many theories and allowing them to make their own decisions. We should be encouraging our children, and indeed ourselves to look into the bigger questions regarding our existence and do something about them instead of just “going with the flow.”

What does the bible say about how the world was created?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis is the book in the Bible which describes how God made the world. It describes how he planned and purposed life and us, humans, in that life. This book helps us understand why evil is in the world and it helps explain how Jesus came to fix this.

Many people read Genesis and aren’t sure if it’s literal. They have also heard all about evolution at school or in their University. On face value evolution seems to make sense. It’s backed by Science and all our education systems are in support. If you believe in God can you believe in evolution too?

Jesus quoted genesis

When he was talking to the Pharisees about marriage, Jesus confirmed the Genesis account of creation:

“From the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6, quoting Genesis 1:27).

Jesus wouldn’t have quoted the Old Testament Scriptures like this if he didn’t think they were true. He didn’t refer to it in the way one would something lyrical or poetic.

This makes us believe that if Jesus believe the scriptures and we believe him, there must be an element of truth here.

Genesis is reference by others in the Bible

Not only is Genesis referenced by Jesus in the Bible. The accounts in Genesis are also repeated by many men and women of truth and character throughout the book. This helps to add to the repute of Genesis and what is said about how the world came to be.

What do Christians think?

When we look at the biblical account of creation in Genesis, we see order and purpose. We see a force behind everything. Compared to the explanation God gives, much more faith is required to believe the theory of evolution, which depends on random chemicals reacting by chance to produce the incredibly complex chemical systems in all life, from single-celled creatures to the enormously intricate human body.

Many Scientists are also still looking for the missing links in the fossil record which would result in the greater proof for their theory that everything was devised from natural selection and failed mutation.

At the end of the day it is up to you what you believe about how the world is created and why you are on this planet. Don’t just believe what people say and the system throws down your throat. Think about it for yourself. When you involve a God in creation you automatically say that our lives here have greater meaning than just living and dying.  You have a hope. You have a sense of more than just this.

Let Africa Rise

Fran Thring
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Let Africa Rise

Every time there is a soccer match, or a moment of national importance I take a look at the crowd of people singing with their eyes closed and their hand on their hearts.

“Lord, bless Africa

May her horn rise high up

Hear Thou our prayers

And bless us.”

And indeed the good Lord has blessed Africa. Africa has a large quantity of natural resources, including diamonds, salt, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum and cocoa beans, but also woods and tropical fruits. Much of its natural resources are undiscovered or barely harnessed.

Slowly I believe we are starting to see Africa rise. There is no shortage of economic growth in Africa. Six of the world’s ten fastest growing economies of the past decade are in sub-Saharan Africa. This is inspiring and I believe this is the story that we as Africans need to be inspired by and the kind of stories we need to tell.

You know who inspires me more than any rich celebrity? The African entrepreneur, the man or woman who is working hard to make things, who is walking miles to sell their goods, who is thinking of new or better ways to find customers and create an income. This person embodies the true spirit of what is African.

Who branded Africa as barbaric and hopeless? It certainly wasn’t us.

In the documentary Framed (you can find the trailer here), a lecturer in a University asked a group of American students what words come to mind when they heard the word Africa: “poverty, rape, AIDs, war, Ebola, and malnutrition,” were the answers.

Wow. Africa is home to over 900 million people. Tragedy is part of our story, but it’s part of a much wider and more complex story. Why has the media created an image of Africa as a continent to be pitied, full of problems and in desperate need of a rich white saviour? Where are the stories of vibrancy, community and business?

African’s don’t need handouts

Every year, trillions of dollars is given from Western Countries to Africa (and other areas) in the form of Foreign Aid. And it seems like such a noble thing to do, but this aid creates a dependency of Africa on the West. Year after year, despite huge donations, the aid appears to do little to change development trajectories.

Listen, there are lots of arguments for and against foreign aid, and I don’t know all the answers, but the main critique is that handouts block the incentives and opportunities of poor people to make things better for themselves, their neighbours and their own country.

Africa doesn’t need handouts. We need the world to shake off the idea that we are without agency. We need empowerment and we need assistance as an equal.

God bless Africa, and hear her prayers

As Africans we are people of spirit and faith. We pray for our children, we pray for our nations and for our continent and we believe that God sees and hears these prayers. But let us not only pray and ask God for help, let us also take responsibility for the blessing of hands and minds which God has given us.  Even if that looks like starting a business or learning a skill or changing your ways. Let us truly rise up and make the continent great.

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