The life of Dr. Martin Luther King was all about hope—and not just hope for a better day or an end to suffering, but also hope that our human existence has meaning and possibility beyond our present situation. This hope is in God, who makes things new and with whom “all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
In the Old Testament, God’s people wanted a mighty Messiah to come and change their oppressive circumstances. They were deeply disappointed when that didn’t happen. But that was a short-sighted view of hope. Our hope cannot be in circumstances, no matter how badly we want them to change. God’s people experience oppressive circumstances in the same ways that others do. They get sick, they are victims of violence, and they get killed in accidents, in war, and, in some parts of the world, by hunger.
Today, if our hope is only in a change of circumstances, we will always be disappointed. That is why we hope in God, who has continually, across the span of human history, revealed himself as a God of newness, redemption, and transformation. He is a God of possibilities who sees far beyond what we can think or even imagine. How amazing God sent a Savior not just for the people of Israel but also for the Gentiles. He came to save the world—and that includes you and me. Hallelujah!
The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope. — Romans 15:12
Let’s Pray
Yahweh Root of Jesse, during this new season of 2022, please draw us to you, give birth to new hope in me. God, show me how you can make all things new including my life. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
“I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.” (Ecclesiastes 7:26 NIV) Solomon most likely wrote the above verse from Ecclesiastes in his later years. Who better to write about the enslaving nature of sexual sin than the man who had hundreds of wives and concubines? The scripture tells us that Solomon’s love for foreign women eventually led to his plunge into idolatry. Chasing sex, he allowed these women to lead his heart astray: “his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God” (1 Kings 11:4 NIV).
In the verse above, the woman can be used metaphorically as sexual sin in general. As in the first few chapters of Proverbs, Solomon here also warns people to steer clear of sexual sin. Those who do not will be ensnared by it. Regardless of gender, sexual sin can enslave people when they give it an opportunity to do so. It is the type of slave master who does not release its victims once they are ensnared. It seeks to consume every area of the slave’s life.
Today, remember, God created us to have dominion over the earth and to subdue it. At the fall of Adam and Eve, the devil usurped man’s dominion and was given the power of death. When Jesus died and rose from the dead, he took dominion away from the devil. And now those who believe in Jesus rightfully inherit that dominion over the earth, the forces of evil and sin. Paul explained in Romans that we are not to allow sin to reign in our bodies. We have dominion over sin and have the freedom to use our bodies to please God.
…so use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.” Romans 6:13-14 (NLT)
Let’s Pray Yahweh, thank You for dying in my place on the cross and rising from the dead. Father, thank You for winning back dominion for us over evil, sin and death. God, help those of us that struggle with sexual sin, we confess all our sins to You and repent asking for Your total forgiveness, in Christ’s Name! Amen.
The traumatic aftermath of a miscarriage, even an early one, is an empirically proven, statistically significant trend.
Miscarriage and grief are both an event and subsequent process of grieving that develops in response to a miscarriage.
This event is often considered to be identical to the loss of a child and has been described as traumatic.[
Losing a pregnancy can affect a woman – and her family – for years, research finds.
Emotional responses may be bitterness, anxiety, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust and blaming others; these responses may persist for months.
By far the most common PTSD symptoms that result from miscarriage are depression and anxiety.
Mental Illness after miscarriage is common, but women aren’t getting the support they need.
A study from the Irish Journal of Psychology found that 44 percent of women who had miscarried during their first trimester showed “clinical levels of psychological distress,” even months later. That includes depression, panic attacks, flashbacks, nightmares, and anxiety.
So your friend decides to forget the “12 week rule” and tells her family and social networks she is pregnant. She knows the stats — one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage — but she wants to have the support of family and friends around her in case she needs it.
Then the worst happens: she miscarries. And she discovers many people around her, including health professionals, lack sensitivity when talking about the miscarriage. Some don’t even acknowledge her loss.
So how can we support women better? What do women need from family, friends and health professionals at the time of a miscarriage?
Studies Acknowledge How Traumatic Miscarriage Is – So Why Doesn’t Society?
Dos
Acknowledge their loss.
Listen and let them grieve.
Encourage them to talk to other women who’ve had a miscarriage.
Mental illness can be a consequence of miscarriage or early pregnancy loss and even though women can develop long-term psychiatric symptoms after a miscarriage, acknowledging the potential of mental illness is not usually considered. A mental illness can therefore develop in women who have experienced one or more miscarriages after the event or even after many years later.
“There is the initial shock of finding out your child has passed, alone in an ultrasound room because partners are not allowed in with you, then there is the trauma of the abortion pill which is essentially going into labour at home without any medical professional present, and then you are expected to live your life normally for weeks, going to work, smiling, all the while knowing your dead pregnancy is inside you and could come out at any moment. I don’t think any woman finds herself on the other side of that mentally intact.”
“The study will explore the barriers and benefits of using a screening tool. Some hospitals now have early pregnancy loss clinics to which they can refer women experiencing miscarriages. This is a very new development and we hope that use of these clinics will result in better screening and follow-up for women who may have mental health issues following their miscarriage.”
There may be a link between PTSD and miscarriage
Studies Acknowledge How Traumatic Miscarriage Is – So Why Doesn’t Society?
Engel says there are very limited long-term studies related to mental health and miscarriage and that most studies tend to have been conducted in the first year post miscarriage or even within the first six weeks.
Engel also says findings of the studies are contradictory, with some suggesting that life circumstances or social support have no bearing on the experience of either depression or anxiety. Others suggest that women who have limited social support, prior losses, longer gestation, and/or existing mental health concerns are more likely to experience greater severity in depression and/or anxiety and to experience symptoms of either up to a year.
People are split on whether new guidance for crime victims will help or hinder prosecutions.
We think that this is a positive move which will help bring light to cases.
CPS Director of Public Prosecutions Max Hill says only ‘relevant’ material will go to court (Home Office/PA)
We think that this is a true statement unless Prosecutions come across something regrettable or questionable as the forms state even information of a separate criminal offence “may be retained and investigated.
Victims of rape and serious sexual assault could allow suspects to avoid charges if they refuse point blank to give police access to their mobile phone contents, two top officials have said.
Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave has admitted that the new national consent forms authorising detectives to search texts, images and call data are proving conversations around the UK as the difficulties of disclosure in the digital age risk pitting the pursuit of justice against preserving privacy.
In the lead-up to trials, police and prosecutors are required to hand over relevant material that can undermine the prosecution case or assist the defence.
The police are really saying, ‘if you don’t let us do this, the CPS won’t prosecute.’
Police and prosecutors have sought to reassure victims of crime that only material relevant to a potential prosecution will be harvested, but the forms state even information of a separate criminal offence “may be retained and investigated”.
Everyone needs to understand that if they get caught up in a crime, whether as witness or complainant, there may be information on their mobiles that is relevant.
When rape cases don’t make it to trial
The procedure came under sharp focus in 2017 after a string of defendants had charges of rape and serious sexual assault against them dropped when critical material emerged as they went on trial.
They included student Liam Allan who was accused of rape before his case was thrown out of court after it emerged a detective had not handed over text messages from the accuser’s phone.
Some 93,000 officers have undertaken training, while police hope artificial intelligence technology can help trawl through the massive amounts of data stored on phones and other devices.
The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) said a legal challenge is expected from at least two individual women who have been told by police their cases are likely to collapse if they do not cooperate with requests for their personal data.
What is AI? In computer science, artificial intelligence, sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and animals.
The failure of police and prosecutors to routinely disclose crucial evidence has caused ‘untold damage’, the Government admitted yesterday, suggesting artificial intelligence is now needed to comb social media of alleged victims.
In a devastating review, the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said a series of “system-wide” problems had led to innocent people “being pursued” wrongly through the courts.
The review was launched at a time of concern over collapsed cases, such as the prosecution of Liam Allan, who was charged with 12 counts of rape and sexual assault only for the case against him to be dropped.
While welcoming steps already being taken by police and the CPS to address the issues, Mr Cox called for a “zero tolerance” culture on disclosure failings.
Digital Divide: A Wake Up Call To Christian Leaders
In our era of instantly, constantly available “news,” how do we sift through the chaff and find the truth? How should we even think or feel about the relentless storm of bad news, questionable posts,conspiracy theories, and conflicting claims that swirls around us in this age of dis/mis/information?
Beyond the generational divide is the reality that the digital age allows information to leap over geographical and political boundaries
Nowadays, it’s common knowledge that whatever you post on the internet can be seen by anybody at anytime. But could you imagine providing evidence in a sexual assault case and then being charged for another crime because of information contained on your mobile phone? Well, thats exactly where this is heading. An indecent picture someone sent you on WhatApp perhaps, or maybe a movie that has not been obtained by legitimate purposes. Whatever the case maybe, its time to wake up.
We believe all of this comes down to is just simple common sense. Realizing that there are several sets of eyes on you at all times whenever you post online or on your phone should you become wrapped up in a court case for that matter is your best defense against posting or retaining something regrettable or questionable.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, spy, anti-Nazi dissident, key founding member of the Confessing Church as well as one of the most influential spiritual voices across the globe for decades. It’s a good thing for the modern Church that Bonhoeffer was determined in his course.
Bonhoeffer grew up amid the academic circles of the University of Berlin, where his father, Karl Bonhoeffer, was a professor of psychiatry and neurology and was awarded a doctorate in 1927 at the age of only 21. He also studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York from 1930–1931. During that time he attended Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and became deeply interested in the issue of racial injustice.
Bonhoeffer’s involvement in a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler led to his imprisonment and execution on the 9th April 1945.
More than seventy years after his death, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings on faith, the Church, ethics and the nature of God serve as a touchstone for all of us who seek to understand a Christian’s responsibility in the face of injustice and have gone on to have a profound influence on Western Culture and the legions of Christian thinkers who’ve encountered them ever since. He also remains an important symbol of opposition to Hitler.
Here’s a look back at some of Bonhoeffer’s most powerful quotes.
ON GRACE
“Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
ON JUDGING OTHERS
“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
ON LIFE
“Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.”
ON SIN
“May we be enabled to say ‘No’ to sin and ‘Yes’ to the sinner.”
ON JUDGING
“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
ON SERVING GOD
“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”
ON GOD’S LOVE
“God does not love some ideal person, but rather human beings just as we are, not some ideal world, but rather the real world.”
ON GOD’S WILL
“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.”
ON SERVING OTHERS
“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”
ON OBEDIENCE
“One act of obedience is worth a hundred sermons.”
ON EVIL
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”
ON STANDING UP FOR INJUSTICE
“If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”
ON GRATITUDE
“In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.”
ON FOLLOWING CHRIST
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
ON INJUSTICE
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”
ON PEACE
“There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared, it is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God’s commandment, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes. Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God. They are won when the way leads to the cross.”
ON ‘DEFENDING’ THE BIBLE
“Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic. Do not defend God’s word, but testify to it. Trust to the Word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity.”
ON REAL MORALITY
“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”
ON PEOPLE
“We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”
ON SPIRITUALITY
“When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.”
ON FELLOWSHIP
“The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them.”
ON PROOF OF GOD
“A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol.”
ON THE FUTURE
“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”
Out of the ashes rises great opportunity. That is the theme of the new exhibit “Creation from Catastrophe — How Architecture Rebuilds Communities” at the Royal Institute of British Architects. Featuring a number of impressive projects dedicated to rebuilding communities after a disaster, the exhibit explores the evolving relationship between man, architecture, and nature.
In an interview with Dezeen magazine, curator Jes Fernie said the exhibit reveals an “expanded idea of what architecture is and what architects can do.”
From Floating Schools to Unseen Plans for an Alternative London, a New Exhibition Showcases the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Architectural Responses to Urban Disasters
The exhibit, which opened on Jan 27 and runs through April 24, spans nearly four centuries riddled with successful disaster relief projects. It features designs for rebuilding after London’s Great Fire in 1666 as well as plans for water communities in Nigeria, which could be affected by unpredictable coastal water levels in Africa’s near future.
Here are five other unique projects you can follow up on when visiting the Catastrophe exhibit this spring:
The Reliance Building
1. The Reliance Building, Atwood, Burnham and Co., North State Street, Chicago, 1890-1895
While devastating, Chicago’s Great Fire of 1871 paved a new way for architectural design. Considered by many to have birthed the Chicago School architectural style, the disaster also led to a new type of architectural design: the skyscraper.
In an effort to create fire-retardant buildings, designers utilized tools such as steel frames and sheet glass coverings. The Reliance Building, constructed by Atwood, Burnham, and Co, is one of the first post-fire buildings that fathered a design very similar to the modern day skyscrapers we know.
Nepal Project by Shigeru Ban Dezeen
The Architect Bringing Cheap, Super-Light Disaster Shelters to Nepal
2. Housing for Nepal earthquake victims, Shigeru Ban, 2015
Simple, traditional homes in Nepal were the ones that withstood the catastrophic earthquake in 2015. As a result, Pritzker Prize-winning, disaster-relief architect Shigeru Ban designed housing structures for the victims.
Ban’s modular housing concept is modelled on the traditional homes that survived the earthquake. His design uses wood frames for the structure, cardboard tubes for the truss system of the roof, and debris from the disaster as infill for the wall. Thatch and plastic sheeting provided an extra layer of protection on the rooftop.
Women’s Centre in Darya Khan
3. Women’s Centre in Darya Khan, Pakistan, Yasmeen Lari, 2011
Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari (the first woman architect in Pakistan) showcases architecture’s role and influence in society. Throughout her career, the 75-year-old designer has built over 36,000 homes for earthquake and flood victims throughout Pakistan. She is also the founder of Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which allows architecture students to train local residents to rebuild their homes and communities after a disaster using natural resources like bamboo and mud.
One of her well-known projects includes the Women’s Centre in Darya Khan, Pakistan. Lari holds a deep affection for Pakistani women, who are typically displaced and struggling with the care of their children following a natural disaster. The layout allows women to unite and socialize and keep their children safe. And in the event of a flood striking, the first floor is high enough so that waters cannot reach it.
Sustainable post-tsunami reconstruction master plan for Constitución
4. Post-tsunami sustainability plan for Constitución, Chile, Elemental, 2014
After 2010’s deadly earthquake shook the coastal cities of Chile, plans for rebuilding and protecting cities like Constitución became a priority. In an effort to work with nature and the community, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena’s firm Elemental, proposed the intriguing method to plant more trees along the coast to absorb waters and prevent flooding.
The idea is that there is an opportunity to do something that would have long-term positive impacts, rather than a temporary fix that might be ruined by another major earthquake or tsunami in the area. The project will hopefully address short-term needs as well as potential long-term problems.
Ideas for rebuilding Hoboken, New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy.
Resist. Delay. Store. Discharge. A Comprehensive Urban Water Strategy
Resist. Delay. Store. Discharge. A Comprehensive Urban Water Strategy
5. Rebuilding of Hoboken, New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, OMA, 2012
Following the disastrous Hurricane Sandy that struck the Northeastern United States in 2012, about 80 percent of Hoboken, New Jersey homes were flooded, leaving the community wondering how to rebuild itself with an emphasis on flood defense.
That’s when Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’ firm OMA offered a solution that would combine hard infrastructure and soft landscaping, integrating coastal defense and natural drainage to protect against future flooding. The ideas between OMA’s and Elemental’s projects are very similar in that they look to work with nature rather than avoiding it.
Fernie told Dezeen that OMA offers a multi-pronged approach: resist, delay, restore and discharge. It acknowledges the complex water system and works with it, he said.
Big Project Failures Claim Their Victims in Spectacular Fashion
You’ve just been assigned a high visibility failing project and you’re working round-the-clock to get the work to the client on time, despite the fact that the job bears barely any resemblance to the project you initially discussed. The scope keeps creeping, the risk and issue alerts are coming in thick and fast, the project is already two months past the original deadline, the clients are getting antsy even though they’re yet to provide you with various key pieces of information in order to baseline the project. Is this your chance to shine and showcase your skills?
If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You Will Probably End up Somewhere Else – Laurence J. Peter
If you manage to turn the project around and the project is successful, you will attract many fathers. However, if the project fails, you will probibly be offered up as the sacrificial lamb (scapegoat), there is absolutely no way around it. A high percentage of projects fail to deliver useful results, that’s a fact.
Project managers are regularly blamed for schedule delays and cost overruns for projects they inherit by no fault of there own, however, in most cases, the fault for such issues rarely lies with just one person.
Sufficient data has been gathered to indicate that blockers such as unsupportive management, senior sponsorship or low resource availability are as much to blame for project failure as ineffective stakeholder management or poor communication.
Capture all decisions
The only way to protect yourself is to ensure that you capture all decisions made in the project. In most cases many of these decisions will have been made by people above you. While you can influence decisions made by people under you. Get into the habit of building a dashboard early in the project and updating it each week with actuals. Also consider using a standard repeatable technique to analyse the health of your project.
Constrained resources
If you are in a project where resources are constrained, clearly outline the resources that you require to deliver the project in terms of time, scope, budget, risk and quality. If resources are pulled from your project, clearly articulate the affect of that in delivery terms and measure that to time delayed or cost added.
Risk and issues register
Operate a strong risk and issue register, ensure it is both visible and assessable so your team can actively participate in updating it.
Stop the project
Always remember, cancelling the project is not always a failure. There can be many reasons why the project may no longer be desirable now. If you have done your job well, you can be really successful by ensuring a project does not continue to meander along, wasting time and money when there is no possibility of completing the project.
Organisational change management
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said when there are organisation change management issues. While there are a few project managers who feel their jurisdiction ends at the triple constraint, most now understand the need to achieve the expected benefits from their projects.
So when is it fair to blame a project manager for poor implementation of a project’s deliverables, this is assuming that they were employed at the beginning of the project?
If they didn’t perform good stakeholder analysis during the project initiation stage as well as at regular intervals.
If they turned a blind eye and deaf ear to factors that could impact value achievement
If they didn’t insist on a clear communication strategy and progressive information sharing with relevant stakeholder groups.
If they didn’t engage influencers from key stakeholder groups throughout the project lifecycle.
If the organisation management deliverables were not built into the project’s scope definition and work breakdown structure.
Assuming the project manager was appointed at the start of the project and had undertaken all of the above, what are invalid reasons to blame the project manager if the project failed?
A lack of timely resource availability or commitment by the organisation
Directives to the project manager to not engage certain stakeholder communities
Ignorance by senior sponsors to management risks raised by the project team
A management decision that is too bitter a pill to swallow in spite of how much it has been sugar coated
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