In my defence, I was too busy fumbling in my wallet looking for my Dobbie’s card. And social distancing had so spaced it out so I hadn’t even noticed it. It was only when the checkout person told me that I realised what I had done: I HAD JUMPED THE QUEUE. To be a queue-jumper, as you well know, is about as low as you can get. At least if you are English. It was the Hungarian-born journalist, George Mikes who observed: “An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an order

“Just stay close to me,” said my father as he hurled himself into the solid wall of supporters. It seemed impossible but somehow he managed to get us some sight of the match, which England won by the only goal scored. It’s Saturday, 11th April 1959 and my father has taken me to Wembley for the oldest international fixture in football. But our special train from Lime Street is somehow late and we arrive after the match has started. I have one overriding memory of the day,

“Coincidence,” mused Albert Einstein, “is God's way of remaining anonymous.” In which case, for me yesterday the Lord showed his hand twice. The first coincidence was in the ‘being in the right place at precisely the right time’ category. I had just arrived at the Burscough waste recycling centre at the very same time as John (who gets this blog); he had come to deposit a large and heavy metal storage frame. Clearly he couldn’t manage it by himself and so he had taken th

Me: “Jesus, why do you respond to a question by asking another?” Jesus: “Why do you think?” It’s always encouraging when you are excited by seeing a familiar Bible passage in a new light, especially when it is from the lips of Jesus. And thanks to the Holy Spirit and to Bible scholarship, that is often my experience. I even come to expect it. For there’s an electric charge running through scripture. That was certainly the experience of J B Phillips. He commented “Tran