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Japan has rhythmic gymnastics competitions every year. It’s a good idea to remind yourself these are high school men – and put in some amazing performances that wouldn’t be out of place in the Olympics.

How do you destroy a company – or a country? Besides war, there is the unintended consequences of good-sounding government policy. The UK is becoming a poster child of how you destroy a workforce by encouraging them to work less as well as creating endless layers of unproductive government oversight.

Reopening a 3.3 mile train line to Portishead from Bristol took 79,187 pages of planning documents. Printed out, that’s 14.6 miles of paperwork – 4.5 times the length of the actual railway. The process has taken 16 years so far. (Construction should start soon.)

Mage’s Musings is a channel that has a selection of interesting reflections on old school Dungeons and Dragons – as it was played in the 80’s.

One of the better playlists is is Old School Essentials playlist in which a party goes through the classic “Keep on the Borderlands” module.

His retelling of their sessions does a great job capturing just how different it was to play by early D&D rules than today. I was intrigued by how deadly combat encounters turned out to be and how often early characters would die. As other DM’s of that era point out, players had to be much more crafty and think about what they were doing. Just jumping into combat would often result in the entire party getting killed. Dice were unforgiving and one bad player decision and some bad rolls would almost certainly get one or more characters killed.

Give a few of these sessions a listen. It’s interesting how many characters some players had to go through as they get killed off.

Dr Gavin Ashenden was a pre-eminent Anglican academic, canon theologian, and member of the Anglican Synod. He was a rising star appointed as a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II and later made a bishop.

He became deeply worry about the direction the Church was taking as he saw it departing from traditional Christian values – a position that has caused a complete split in the Anglican synod.

When he voiced his concerns publicly, the Lord Chamberlain gave him an ultimatum: remain silent or resign as chaplain to the Queen. Dr. Ashenden chose to resign and would eventually leave the Anglican Church to become Catholic.

Here he shares his story.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus gives the apostles authority over evil spirits, curing the sick, raising the dead, and tells them that “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” – Mt 9:37

It’s worthwhile knowing the backgrounds and humanity in the 12 apostles. They were certainly not picked because they were worthy, intelligent, or without serious failings. Quite the contrary – God again and again picks the most broken and flawed people to bring salvation to his people.

So, do any of the stories of these 12 ring true for you or sound familiar? Do not be afraid! God’s power is precisely in healing the most broken of us and despite our past actions. He simply asks us to come walk with Him every day. We do this by spending time in prayer and inviting Jesus to participate in all our daily activities. When we walk each day with Jesus, we build a relationship with God. A day-to-day walk with Him and in that walk we can experience the profound healing and trusting relationship each of these men did.