Anne Witton on mission

Thank You for Saying No

September 6, 2023

I recently came across this poem by Ruth Harms Calkin and thought it was really profound.

Thank You for Saying No

Lord, day after day I've thanked You

For saying yes.

But when have I genuinely thanked You

For saying no?

Yet I shudder to think

Of the possible smears

The cumulative blots on my life

Had You not been sufficiently wise

To say an unalterable no.

So thank You for saying no

When my want list for things

Far exceeded my longing for You.

When I asked for a stone

Foolishly certain I asked for bread

Thank You for saying no

To my petulant "Just this time, Lord?”

Thank You for saying no

To senseless excuses

Selfish motives

Dangerous diversions.

Thank You for saying no

When the temptation that enticed me

Would have bound me beyond escape.

Thank You for saying no

When I asked You to leave me alone.

Above all

Thank You for saying no

When in anguish I asked

"If I give You all else

May I keep this?"

Lord, my awe increases

When I see the wisdom

Of Your divine no.

(Ruth Harms Calkin, from 'Tell Me Again Lord, I Forget')

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Random stuff

Cryptic Bible places quiz

August 10, 2023

It’s time for another slightly less serious blog post, so here are some cryptic clues to biblical place names. Enjoy!

Ms Hathoway, hot drink, Scottish exclamation
Back yard of Cornish project
Cartoon Tom’s companion with runner Sebastian’s surname
Occular portent
An infant meets the first part of the capital
Gymnast Tweddle, Comedian Mr. Mack, edge of a dress
Thank you kebab!
Water in Amman’s country
Go wandering
Country of affirmative head gesture
A clump of earth and a meditative noise
Remains ...

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Random stuff

Identity 3 - Our Christian identity

August 9, 2023

In the previous posts in this series I looked at identity in society and culture and God’s identity revealed to us. In this final instalment we’re going to look at our Christian identity.

What is our identity in Christ?

(i) Uplifting images

These are the ones that are on all the bookmarks, cards and posters. And it’s right that we should delight in encouraging one another with all these wonderful things that are true about us now that we’re in Christ.

Here are some of them:

We are made in ...

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Reflections

Identity 2 - God’s identity revealed to us

June 26, 2023

In the last blog post in this series I looked at identity in society and culture. In this post I want to focus on God’s identity revealed to us.

The importance of names

Pause to think:

What does your name mean?
Is there a particular significance to your name? Did your parents choose it for a specific reason?

In Biblical culture, names (both place names and people names) were very important - you can pick up on some of that from the prominence of genealogies. Biblical names are often really signi...

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Reflections

Have it your way

June 21, 2023

Burger King tells us to ‘Have it your way’. Radio Disney promises to give us ‘Your Music, Your Way’. As consumers, we’re constantly fed the message that we come first – that our world revolves around us.

We are so steeped in consumerism and we don’t even realise it. That doesn’t necessarily mean having loads of material possessions or even wanting loads of material possessions. Rather it means the belief that the world revolves around me. That I am the most important person in ...

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Reflections

Identity 1 - Identity in society and culture

June 8, 2023

In this 3-part blog series on identity, I’m going to be exploring:

Identity in society and culture
God’s identity revealed to us
Our Christian identity

How do we introduce ourselves?

I might say something like, “My name’s Anne and I work with Living Out and the local church. I’m from Manchester originally but have lived in the North East for 23 years.”

Notice how I just introduced myself with my name and what I do. Instead I could have told you that I’ve got an irrational fear of butt...

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Resources

Good things come to those who wait (for bears and God)

June 7, 2023

On a recent trip to Slovenia, my friend and I booked to go with a nature expert to try and see a wild brown bear. We drove out into the forest, hiked to the wildlife hide, climbed the ladder and took up our positions on the wooden bench, binoculars at the ready, to watch and wait.

After the third hour sitting silently and patiently in the hide, I was getting a bit restless. Despite being on high alert, the only wildlife we’d seen was a shrew. I was starting to wonder whether we should have j...

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Reflections

Bench

May 3, 2023

Just for fun, here's a poem I wrote three years ago when my friends gave me random words and challenged me to base some verse on them. So here's 'bench':

Every year we come back here -

look out to sea.

Private memories, shared silence.

He loved it here,

did William.

Who did he think about

when he sat and mused?

What intricacies entwined themselves

in heart and mind?

What puzzles did he turn over

until they were smoothed?

Or maybe we’ve afforded him

an intellectual dignity

that never was.

Maybe he was thin...

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Random stuff

Intimacy with God

May 3, 2023

A visitor to my website recently contacted me to ask “What do you mean when you talk about experiencing intimacy with God? How does it feel being intimate with God / Jesus and is it enough?”

I thought these were excellent questions, so here’s my attempt at an answer.

I guess our culture often defines intimacy in terms of sex, or at least physical intimacy. That’s often what we immediately think of when we think of ‘intimacy’. But I think it’s much broader and deeper than that. It�...

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Reflections

Sin and the sunk cost fallacy

April 5, 2023

I like reading books about economics. One of the things that I’ve always found fascinating is the sunk cost fallacy, “the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.” 1

We all know the kind of thing: Sitting through a terrible film because you’ve paid for the ticket and so wasting time and money, rather than just money; Pursuing a career that...

Posted by Anne Witton. Posted In : Reflections

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