 |
|
 Charlie Knox26, m, resident of spa, northern ireland, a thinker, who tries to be real, enjoys the company of nala(left), indebted to jesus for his grace and instruction in life and whose, amongst other things, studying sports science at UUJ. enjoy rugby a whole lot! |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, March 29, 2006 Ouch  I loved watching some of the diving last week on TV. The people doing it are nuts. The top board they go off is twice the height of the top board at Lisburn and Castlereagh and i know they are wild scary! The thought of belly flopping off a 10m board is unthinkable. Even a slap on the calves would kill. posted by charlie | 4:54 PM | Did you know FATLAD was an acronym for the Counties in Northern Ireland??? Try it. posted by charlie | 4:52 PM | 2 Finals, Second place both times! Final 1: High Schools Cup: Ravenhill The lads at school made the journey to Ravenhill yesterday to play the final of the High Schools Cup. They had high hopes of de-throning the cup holders, Dromore, after being seeded first and knowing they had a strong team on paper. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. It was 3 a piece at half time and with the wind on their backs in the second half, hopes were high of a victory. However, a Hinch penalty that bounced off the uprights and two well taken Dromore scores separated the two teams and allowed Dromore to retain their title. It was hugely disappointing result for the boys...they'd thought about this day for years and trained hard to try and make it happen. Of course things will swing round for them. There was a lot of talent on the team and I'm quite sure several of them will have good careers ahead of them. Final 2: Sport's Science TAG rugby tournament: Jordanstown A few taking the rugby elective on our course arranged a wee TAG tournament amongst our class today so I rounded a few folks and entered a team. It really was a lot of fun. We sailed through the group stage winning all our games, we then took on the lecturers in the semi's and won by one point, which came as the last play of the game! Unfortunately the final didn't go as sweetly and we ended up losing 4-3, again a score in the dying seconds being the difference! But not to worry..it was a great day...the weather was superb, we had lots of fun, my hammy's held up and we all bonded a little more!!!!! posted by charlie | 4:32 PM | Friday, March 24, 2006 Give Blood in Ballynahinch next week! Sessions on Thursday 30th and Friday 31st, from 1.30 - 4.00 and then 5.15 - 8.00. I think it's hard to justify not doing it and it is a very rewarding activity. Pain is minimal. And to cap it all you get a free drink and a bicky at the end!!!! posted by charlie | 12:44 PM | Wednesday, March 22, 2006 the list of quality myspace music was growing so big i thought i'd make it a permanent feature. it should be somewhere on your right. posted by charlie | 8:11 PM | Tuesday, March 21, 2006 Fasting for lent? Fast from discontent. Feast on gratitude. Fast from worry. Feast on God's providence. Fast from complaining. Feast on appreciation. Fast from unrelenting pressure. Feast on unceasing prayer. Fast from self concern. Feast on compassion for others. Fast from personal anxiety. Feast on eternal truth. Fast from discouragement. Feast on hope. Fast from endless noise. Feast on purposeful silence. Fast from problems that overwhelm. Feast on prayer that sustains. from the grace lent blog posted by charlie | 12:33 AM | PE and Spirituality In our Physical Education class today at Uni we were discussing some of the aims and objectives of PE and the justification of it's place on the National Cirriculum. As part of this we had to look at the overall aim of the NC (below) and say how we felt PE served each of the goals. 'To promote the moral, spiritual, cultural, mental and physical development of young people and to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.' NC AIM It wasn't hard to see how PE lends to physical development....co-ordination, balance, agility, flexbility etc etc; mentally good PE definiely encourages people to think, make decisions etc; morally it teaches , amongst other things, about the values of fair play, of both winning and losing well; culturally it teaches us that participation in sport is a massive part of popular culture whether that be playing, spectating or watching TV; but when it came to spiritually the class kinda got stuck. No-one could really come up with much regarding how PE promoted Spiritual things. Even the lecturer seemed to struggle with what the word actually meant. Personally i was interested in a few things.... 1/Why had this word 'spiritual' been given such a key place on the cirriculum? 2/What did those people who included it, understand 'spiritual' to mean? 3/ How did they see it would be worked out, even measured in a school context? 4/ Knowing that the cirriculum was written a number of years ago and probably under a fair bit of church influence, would the word spiritual still be included if the cirriculum was re-written. ie. would it still reagrded as an important part of the 'whole individual' by the majority of people in our society? 5/ Where could PE and spirituality meet? To most of my questions i have yet to find any answers but i will probably try and sus some of them out when i get a chance. Regarding the last question though, i did put a little bit more thought in......partly because i attempted to answer it ad hoc in front of the class during the lecture and didn't feel i quite captured what i was thinking. When i got home i visited dictionary.com and it give me this..... spir·i·tu·al 1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. 2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul. 3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific. 4. Of or belonging to a church or religion; sacred. 5. Relating to or having the nature of spirits or a spirit; supernatural. This helped to affirm some stuff i'd been thinking on the way home. I suppose alot of people, regardless of faith background have had experiences in sport that gave them a buzz, something untangible, a feeling of 'being alive', a connection with something bigger than themselves. I reckon some could connect sport with a sense of destiny, a sense of 'moment's that won't be repeated, moments of ecstacy or awareness, moments of freedom, again that are all untangible. Most have offered a prayer or two regarding the outcome of a fixture that is important to them!! Personally as a Christian, it was slightly easier to make connections. I believe God created me. He created me with unique talents and abilities that sport allows me to outwork. He has given me the gift of a functional and healthy body and continues to sustain it day by day..without this, sport would be impossible. He has also created other people and allowed me the privelage of getting close to them, allowing me to play on teams and feel the bonds that sport allows between people. I suppose what i'm saying is each time I play sport I am experiencing God's provision, his gift of life...each time I play there is the possibility of an encounter with Him. Eric Liddel's words in Chariot's of Fire came to mind thinking about this....He said, ‘God made me fast and when I run I feel his pleasure.’ Sadly for some PE and sport have done little to foster a healthy spirituality. Enforced cross country run and regulation PE kits that embarrassed many despite the fact that everyone had them on will have caused many to curse God, elitist PE operations where you were de-valued unless you played a particualar sport or were of a high level of ability will not have helped people's view of God through sport. The list could go on..... Well, in a few years i'll hopefully get the chance to earth some of this stuff. Part of my job as PE teacher will be to contribute to the spiritual development of young people in my care through the medium of sport and exercise. Today has reminded me of the opportunities and responsibilities of such a task. posted by charlie | 12:24 AM | Monday, March 20, 2006 All ye locals. Ballynahinch High school are on their way to Ravenhill this year again! They play next Tuesday (28th) afternoon in the High Schools Cup Final at Ravenhill. Not sure what time KO is at. Keep eyes on the local press. Much Hinchian support would be appreciated!!! posted by charlie | 10:41 PM | Imminent Spring is in the air. You could smell it this morning. Sharing such sentiments in Uni i was told that this sense was a 'rural' thing. Whatever the case i look forward to it's arrival. Clocks forward this saturday! posted by charlie | 10:37 PM | Friday, March 17, 2006 Paradox I hate getting up early, but I love being awake in the mornings posted by charlie | 12:08 AM | Friday, March 10, 2006 Plot your course at 43 things. posted by charlie | 12:51 PM | Tuesday, March 07, 2006 Some good lenten reading! posted by charlie | 11:29 PM | Box set madness! Unlike certain others I'm not a particuarly big fan of box sets. It's not that I dislike them but more to do with the fact that other than Band of Brothers none have grabbed my interest. However i must confess that a box set drew me into some impulse buying last week.  Preparing for a talk on fears for a church in Ballymena i remembered about B.A. from the A-team and his fear of flying. This quickly led to a image search on google for Mr T and then on to Amazon to see what A team products were available. A quick search brought up the Season 1 box set offering 14 episodes for only £14.97 (57% off). Despite the current lack of finances and against all better judgement I hunted down the Visa card and bought it!!I watched the first two episodes today and wasn't in the least disappointed with my purchase. It explained all about the individuals that make up the team - their character, their skills etc - I found out that BA means Bad Attitude -something i didn't know before. Watching their first mission brought back many memories.... the showers of bullets and not a single person dead or even wounded, the tank like vehicle constructed out of virtually nothing in some delapadated hut, Murdock's humourous outbursts and Face's convincing charm. Still 12 episodes to go. Moderation is the key. posted by charlie | 10:39 PM | First title under the belt!  My boys picked up their first piece of silverware last night winning the final of the U14's Coummunity Cup in Armagh. It was a real tight game against old rivals Monaghan and my heart was in my mouth for most of the second half. In the end we won by 2 points beating them 12 -10. It was a special moment when the final whistle went! Full match report here. posted by charlie | 3:32 PM | My mate Dave Farmer got to go curling...very jealous!! posted by charlie | 3:31 PM | Friday, March 03, 2006 A toilet moment 'Friendship is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all others.' I had one of those epiphany moments in a toilet yesterday. You know one of those moments where something you know moves from your head to your heart and releases some emotion. And the simple thought was just one of gratitude for the diversity of friends i have. I mix in quite a few different circles, each made up of unique individuals and each rubbing off on me in different ways. I suppose i just found myself in that short moment thanking God for that fact...that my life is enriched by so many different people.....It reminded me to keep my heart open to each person that i meet. I'm reminded of a Brennan Manning quote ' You are one of the never-to-be-repeated ways that God has chosen to express himself in this world'. posted by charlie | 12:27 PM | A book Free of charge  This arrived in from Wesley Owen yesterday. The archbishop of canterbury has recommended it as his Lenten book. It's tagline 'Giving and forgiving in a culture stripped of grace' really grabbed me. Looking forward to getting into it. posted by charlie | 12:21 PM | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||
