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The Sola Panel is dead; long live the Sola Panel! by Tony Payne (4 comments). Regular Sola Panel readers will no doubt have detected a little slowness and quietness over the past six weeks or so. … more
Kids’ culture watch spot: Facing fear by Gordon Cheng (3 comments). By popular demand (two people asked), here is my next script for a culture watch spot I did with the kids … more
Daniel 2-7, Harry Potter and Narnia by Gordon Cheng (1 comment). It's a Sunday as I write this, and I'm speaking on Daniel 2 and 7 later this morning at a friend's … more
A constituent on same-sex marriage by Sandy Grant (34 comments). Last year, the Australian Parliament agreed that its Members of Parliament (MPs) should seek the … more
A tribute to John Stott by Sandy Grant (2 comments). Friends, I'm not ashamed to say I shed a tear when I opened up my computer on Thursday morning to read … more
Talkin’ ’bout my generation (part 3): On giants’ shoulders by Scott Newling (26 comments). This is the third post in this series; you can read part one, and more
Bible reading with kids by Sandy Grant (0 comments). I was asked for recommendations for resources that would encourage parents to read the Bible with their kids, especially … more
Talkin’ ’bout my generation (part 2): Stepping aside (not out) so others can step up (not in) by Scott Newling (3 comments). This is the second post in this series; you can read the first post, Unassuming … more
One more sip of the coffee by Tony Payne (8 comments). Sandy Grant is a man of integrity. Back in the early days of Sola Panel, I wrote a post … more
Talkin’ ’bout my generation (part 1): Unassuming generations by Scott Newling (30 comments). There is a model of ‘intergenerational theological decline’ that has been doing the rounds of late, and perhaps you … more
Tony Payne
Paul is one of the Staff Editors at Matthias Media. He is married to Cathy and has three fantastic kids. He loves student ministry, reading, writing music and playing the saxophone, and is looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.
Sola Panellists
- Tony Payne (convenor)
- Jennie Baddeley
- Mark Baddeley
- Andrew Barry
- Peter Bolt
- Gordon Cheng
- a local church and a certain Christian publishing house. (Sometimes the latter vocations can happen without the first.) Many people call him a nerd, which he prefers to geek. He\'s keen on biblical studies, languages, great technology, science fiction, coffee, photography, frisbee, family, jazz, and hats. You could call his tastes eclectic. ");'>Sam Freney
- Sandy Grant
- Scott Newling
- Gavin Perkins
- Ben Pfahlert
- Peter Sholl
- Claire Smith
- Nicole Starling
- Jean Williams
- Lionel Windsor
Some other sites
we like (Why these?)
- Matthias Media
- The Briefing
- 9Marks
- Albert Mohler
- Anglican Church League
- challies
- David Ould
- ENTRUST
- EQUIP book club
- Girl Talk
- Gordon Cheng's Blog
- The Gospel Coalition
- Jean Williams's blog
- Justin Taylor
- Lionel Windsor
- Monergism
- Moore College
- MTS
- Nicole Starling's blog
- Phillip Jensen
- Pyromaniacs
- The Proclamation Trust
- Reformers' Bookshop
- The Simeon Trust
- The Ugley Vicar
There’s another reason people might not have acknowledged that it was painful for her, and this is that we are really bad at responding to pain.
We can respond to the most awful circumstances with silence rather than by saying “I’m so sorry!” simply because we’re uncomfortable around pain and don’t know what to say.
Your friend’s story is a wonderful reminder to move towards people in pain, in sympathy and sorrow, rather than away from them, into a hurtful silence.
Thank you, Paul, This is really a very important thing that needs to be said more often.
This reminds me of an interaction with my son Jacob’s teacher the other day.
She pulled me aside to tell me how upset he had been to discover that many of the kids come from families where the parents are divorced or separated. He hadn’t reacted in class, but had stayed behind after class to talk to the teacher alone about his concern for the kids and his bewilderment at what their parents had done. (His yr 1 class have been doing a unit on families at school this term.)
She seemed to think his reaction was kind of sweet, and VERY naive, and told me that she had explained to him that “we’re all different, and nobody’s perfect”.
There was some truth in her assessment, of course - his reaction was partly just the reaction of naivety.
At another level, though, it seems to me that his reaction was exactly the right one, and that there’s something really sad about the way the culture we live in works so hard to normalize things that are tragic and terrible and anaesthetize our reactions to them. It starts early!!
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