It’s time for some facts, which will hopefully go towards breaking down some of the irrational fear about the dreaded “boat people”.

1. First of all, Australia only takes around 1% of the world’s refugees. Claims that we’re being over-run with refugees are not helpful. 1% of the world’s refugees really isn’t that much, especially considering Australia’s wealth.
2. Contrary to many people’s fears, refugees arriving by boat are not terrorists or undesirables. All refugees are thoroughly screened and statistics show that 95% of them are genuinely fleeing persecution and violence, and therefore receive refugee status. Those who can’t prove this are returned to their country of origin. So nearly all of the refugees who arrive here really are in a desperate situation
3. Refugees arriving by boat only account for around 1% of Australia’s total migration intake.
4. Last year, around 3400 assylum seekers were granted refugee status in Australia. By comparison, around 50000 people (students, tourists and visitors) overstayed their visa.
5. Finally, it is not illegal to turn up at a country and seek refugee status. We can all do it under international law. Even you and me. So using terms like “illegal immigrants” does not help to keep the debate rational and unbiased

Yes, we do need to do something about people smugglers. I don’t claim to have the answer to that problem, but we certainly shouldn’t fight the people smugglers by demonizing those who are poor and desperate. I think most of us living in Australia would find it hard to really imagine what it would be like to have to flee your home.

If you earn an average wage in Australia, then you are automatically in the top 1% richest people in the world. We really are a very wealthy nation and do have the capacity to help a whole lot more.

This has been going on and off for years now, and one of the most difficult parts I find is that because I’m her dad, I still need to be there for her. So even though she spits in my face every day (not literally), as the adult I need to rise above that and still love her, still be there for her, and protect her. I admit I don’t always meet that challenge.

This reminds me of the Jewish prophet called Hosea, in around 750BC, where it’s recorded that God instructed him to marry “an adulterous wife”. The idea seemed to be that God wanted to illustrate to the Jewish people how much he loved them, even though they rejected him. Hosea married a woman called Gomer who indeed was unfaithful to him time and time again, leaving him to sleep and live with other men. But Hosea loved her, and although she would break his heart, God would ask him to take her back. As you read through the story you can sense the pain Hosea goes through each time, yet he loves her so much that he cannot let her go, and continues to fight for her even though she has thrown his love back in his face and humiliated him.

The life of Hosea was meant to represent how we can often reject God, yet he continues to chase after us because of his great love and compassion for us. For me what is most amazing is that he doesn’t love us because we love him first, or because we’re good or deserving, but he loves us even while we are his enemy, even while we hate him. In my own life, even after I spat in his face and rejected him and hated him for years and years, he still loved me, and wouldn’t let me go. He patiently waited for me. And I need to do the same with my daughter.

But when I did look into the facts of this theory, I was shocked to find it was held together by a number of invented elements that scientists have never seen or measured. For example, for the big bang theory to work there has to be things such as dark matter, dark energy, and population III stars (just to name a few examples), but these things have never been found.

Perhaps that’s why in 2004 an open letter to the scientific community was published in the New Scientist and signed by 33 scientists (now signed by over 200 scientists), saying that the big bang theory was no longer defensible and had serious problems. In part the letter said:

The big bang today relies on a growing number of hypothetical entities, things that we have never observed—inflation, dark matter and dark energy are the most prominent examples. Without them, there would be a fatal contradiction between the observations made by astronomers and the predictions of the big bang theory…

and

In no other field of physics would this continual recourse to new hypothetical objects be accepted as a way of bridging the gap between theory and observation. It would, at the least, raise serious questions about the validity of the underlying theory…

For me this is another reminder that although man sometimes confidently struts around like he knows it all, in fact we know very little. We’re taking guesses at what has happened in the past, using flawed methods, and there are in fact many things the world tells us are true which just aren’t.

“But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being…”
The Apostle Paul, ~57AD

Along with my work colleagues we often used a term called “full moon fever”, which referred to the noticeable increase in cases whenever there was a full moon. People in other industries and occupations such as nurses, doctors, police, fireman, etc all said the same thing. All of us knew that the ancient myths about “lunacy” were true, even though there was no scientific evidence for it.

No evidence that was, until now. The Australian Medical Assocation recently published a report on a study in Newcastle that showed that “violent and acute behavioural disturbances are more common during the full moon…”.

Basically the report showed that during a full moon phase, there were double the amount of people presenting to the emergency department who needed sedation and/or physical restraint.

One of the clinical nurses at the hospital where the study was conducted said “Our findings support the premise that individuals with violent and acute behavioural disturbance are more likely to present to the emergency department during the phases of the full moon”.

So there you have it. All those people who work in the human services industry and have aways known that this is true – finally a study that shows the difference.

But what still isn’t really known is, why? Is it behavioural? Biological? After all, our brain is 75% water, and if the full moon can affect tides on earth, why not our brains? Or is there a spiritual cause? I know there’s some disturbing secret groups out there that practice their stuff around every full moon.

Whatever the answer, it’s another interesting variable in this journey of life.

Have you ever noticed a change around the full moon? Let me know your experience.

Nothing particularly special about that, until they also discovered that the bone contained intact blood vessels, red blood cells, and other proteins. An amazing find: Tyrannosaurus Rex soft tissue!

But this posed a big problem and challenge to the conventional theories about dinosaurs. Why? Because we know that proteins like the type found in this dinosaur bone degrade quite quickly, and would not be expected to last longer than a few thousands years, even under ideal conditions. Just exactly what had we stumbled upon here?

Then again in 2009, the same team discovered the fossil of a duck-billed dinosaur that also included soft tissue structures such as collagen, elastin, and hemoglobin. Again, no evidence suggests that these kind of tissues can last more than a few thousand years, let alone the 60 million years that have supposed to have lapsed since dinosaurs died out.

The truth is that in fact there is a growing number of scientists that subscribe to “young earth” theory, challenging the long held beliefs that the earth is millions of years old. These scientists claim to have plenty of proof that the earth is in fact only a few thousand years old, and that men and dinosaurs did actually co-exist together at one point in time. It’s fascinating.

Here’s the thing. On the one hand, there are huge amounts of people that die every day from poverty. The number is around 25,000 people or so, every day. And they die from preventable things like diseases, lack of food and water, and so on.

Now by Australian standards I’m not rich. My income is below the national average, and my house is at the cheapest end of the scale. But even so, I have enough money locked up in my lifestyle (in my home equity and my possesions) to save tens of thousands of people. If I unlocked some of that money, there is no denying that I have the ability to save so many people. I might be below average by Australian standards, but by world standards I’m in the top 1% of richest people (check where you are - visit www.globalrichlist.com and enter your annual income).

But on the other hand, God placed me in Australia. I was born here, this is my home, and the fact of life is that it’s expensive to live in Australia. The cost of living is high, and it takes a lot of money to live in an average home, put my kids through school, and live life. So I shouldn’t feel guilty about the cost of living a normal life in my home country.

But there’s a tension there. No matter how I look at it, every day that I continue to live this comfortable life, I am choosing to let people die. People that I can help. No matter how much I try to explain it away, if those people were standing in front of me today, my answer to them would effectively be: “I wish you well. But I’m choosing to have a nice dishwasher and surround sound entertainment system, rather than help you”. Surely I can do better than that?

So I’m wrestling with where the right position is for me. At the moment, rightly or wrongly, I feel like I have time to make the decision, because I currently still have kids living at home, and my role at the moment is to provide for them. But they are teenagers now, and in a few years when they’ve left home, all bets are off. I have no idea what I’ll end up doing then, but it will be interesting. And in the meantime, I’ll continue to wrestle with what’s the right thing to do.

But dogs are also messy. Part of the cost of having a dog in the family is cleaning up after them, sometimes they bark excessively, they sleep on the good furniture when you aren’t looking and make it dirty, they eat your best pair of shoes, they dig holes in your garden, and when you need to be away from your house for a while, you need to organise someone to care for them.

I never really liked this “messiness” about having a dog, and I used to think that when Rosie eventually died, it might be nice to not have a dog, and not have to worry about all that stuff anymore. I loved Rosie, but in those moments when she made be angry because she slobbered all over my biscuit I was just about to eat, I would sometimes think about not having a dog one day, and how it would be nice to not have to deal with the “mess”.

And then one day Rosie did die, quite unexpectedly, and I was surprised that I missed her much more than I thought I would. I miss her joy, love, and enthusiasm she had for me every time I came home from work. And while I do enjoy not having to deal with all the mess that comes from having a dog, the tradeoff is that I don’t have all the good things to enjoy either.

Life in general is like that. If I want to, I can disengage from life and from people, and avoid some of the “messiness” of life. Life can be complicated. People can be messy. Engaging with people can bring things into your life that cause discomfort. But by removing yourself from life and people, you also miss out on the soaring highs that come from real relationships and intimacy.

Life is messy. But I’m learning that diving into the mess and sharing it with people brings a much fuller life than trying to pull back and live a quiet life on your own.

It’s always fascinated me that a God who created the universe, whose power exceeds our wildest imagination, should choose to reveal himself not with loud shouts and incredible signs, but in a quiet whisper. Many times we are told to listen for his small voice in the stillness of life.

Have you ever got up real early before the rest of the world is awake? Before cars are driving on the road, before people are walking down the street? When was the last time you did it?

The other day I woke up early for some reason. It was getting light, but there didn’t seem to be another soul awake for miles around me. It was silent. And sitting there, looking out over the world, all I could hear was myself breathe. And the world looked very different. Away from all the chatter and noise of our 21st century lifestyle, my mind was cleared and turned to more important things in life. Eternal things.

If you haven’t done it for a while, I really recommend it. Get up early, or just go and find a quiet place somewhere. A really quiet place. And listen. If you’re bold, even ask God if he’s there. It will be worth it.

When I was a kid, Christmas was 100% about the presents. As far as I was concerned, some dude in a red suit would travel the world and deliver presents to everyone. Cool. I didn’t really think too much about why he would do that, but thinking back on my childhood I can still clearly recall the butterflies of excitement in my stomach as I went to sleep on Christmas Eve.

Then as I grew older I started to feel more and more unformfortable with the commercial side of Christmas. I saw us as a nation spending billions of dollars on ourselves, in many cases buying trinkets for each other that we don’t really need. And I started to appreciate just spending time with my family, rather than appreciating the photo frame or car washing kit or whatever else they gave me that I didn’t really need.

Don’t get me wrong, presents are a great part of Christmas, and are a way of showing we love each other. But if I went down the shops now (5 days before Christmas), I know I’ll see a bunch of people in a grump, yelling at their kids and filling their trolleys with trinkets for people because that’s what you do. They’re sometimes buying a novelty beer glass or a joke book for uncle Bob not because they really want to, but because that’s what’s expected.

For me, Christmas is now all about celebrating with people. And what am I celebrating? Being alive, knowing each other, sharing life with one another, and remembering one of the most amazing events in the history of our planet, when it was spoken:

“Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy, that will be for all the people! Today, a saviour has been born to you”

Like I said at the start, Christmas means different things to everyone. But whatever it means to you, make sure you take the time to sit beside someone and be real. When you’re about to die, you won’t wish that you bought uncle Bob a better novelty beer glass or joke book, you’ll wish you’d made the most of that opportunity to sit beside him with a drink and experience life together.

Have a great one.

As I walked through the carpark, I noticed about 50 metres away a man standing very close to the back of a car, almost leaning against it. His stance looked strange, and as I got closer, I realised he was actually urinating against the back tyre of this particular car – all out in the open for everyone to see.

Thoughts raced through my mind. Should I confront him about it? Is he drunk? Will he pop me one in the face if I say something to him? There’s children around, this is a public place, you can’t do that. Some poor person is getting their car urinated on! I think I might just turn left and go that way…

But then as I got closer, the strangest thing happened. He finished his business, then got into the car and drove off. It was his own car! This guy had decided “I’d rather wee on my own car in full view of the everyone, than use that public toilet over there”.

I spent my trip home thinking about that guy, and how we’re all so different. Never in my wildest dreams would I consider just going to the toilet where I felt like it. But some people obviously think very different to me. And I was again amazed at just how different we all are, and how we all have our own perspectives and different life circumstances.

Another guy who reminds me of that is Mr Sitting-On-A-Chair-In-The-Middle-Of-India man. When I was a teenager I went to India for a few weeks. As part of a study tour we went to some town in the middle of nowhere, and were touring around the back streets, looking at every day life in India. There were thousands of people milling around the place, but on one particular back road alley, there was one guy who caught my attention for some reason. He was just sitting on an old chair, next to his corrugated iron hut thing, watching the world go by. I only saw him for a split second as we drove past.

I saw hundreds and thousands of people like that, but sometimes I think about that man in particular. As I go about my hectic life, is he still sitting in that chair, down the backend of a maze of backstreets? What’s his life story? How is his life different to mine? What does he do all day? Is he still alive? Does he have family? What are his hopes and dreams? And like him, there are 6 billion other life stories going on at the moment.

Life has so many variations, so many different stories. We’ve all got a unique tale to tell.

So thankyou Mr Weeing-On-My-Own-Car man. You’ve reminded me again about the amazing variety of life all around us.