Southland Christian Ministry Training
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By Ian, on November 1st, 2011%
Have I ever told you the story about the bartender at a local hotel …considered himself the strongest man around …offered a $1000 to anyone who proved stronger. He would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass …whoever could squeeze one more drop of juice out would win the money. Weight-lifters, truck drivers, even MSI’s had tried but couldn’t do it.
One day scrawny little man came into the bar …thick glasses, polyester suit, put the briefcase on the bar and then in a quiet voice, says “I’d like to try”. After the laughter had died down: bartender does his usual trick, .squeezed the lemon and handed its wrinkled remains to the little man. The little man clenched his fist around the lemon …six drops fell into a glass!
 Crowd cheered, they were bewildered yet publican paid up and then asked little man, “What do you do? Are you a weight-lifter, professional lemon squeezer…what?” The man replied: “No! I work for the Taxation Department and so I have had a lot of practice squeezing!”
This week I have been reminded that we all want to get the most out of life, but some people seem to squeeze more out of it than others. The trouble is we can become so fixed on achieving (or not achieving) that we lose sight of what is really important. The drive for more things, the compulsion to get that promotion, the desire to impress the boss by working long hours can blind us to the fact that in the process we have sacrificed what makes life worth living.
Pause to ponder your life… in the squeeze for more have you neglected your family? Your health? Your faith? I think is was Mark Twain who said that “Man is the only animal who, when lost, goes faster!” Don’t just keep running, stop long enough to evaluate and reprioritise your life. It is not about getting one more drop out but enjoying the drink! So think about what your lifestyle is doing to your health, give some quality time to your family and seek God’s help to really get the most out of life.
Chaplain Ian S Whitley
By Ian, on August 13th, 2011%
 It has been said that “life was not meant to be easy”, we all know that, yet in the normal daily trials of life we forget! Being away on the annual chaplain’s conference this week we were reminded of the fact our role is to be intimately involved with people going through those difficult times, and how important it is for us to fine tune our skills. So we were put through presentations on death notifications, issues regarding suicide, new SI’s (standing instructions) and DI’s, (defence instructions) teaching related to blood born diseases at crash sites and the ongoing challenges faced by techos who worked on the F111… heavy stuff!
Yes, our role is to help people deal with all those difficult situations, to talk about their fears and failures, and somewhere in all that find hope and faith to keep going. So this week we also spent time worshipping together, experiencing the diversity of our faith traditions. We did this not just as a group of chaplains but by visiting some of the great churches in Melbourne. We spent time at the Catholic and Anglican Cathedral, the Uniting, Presbyterian and Baptist inner city churches as well as the biggest synagogue! In our increasingly diverse multicultural nation we also had a presentation on the theology of Islam.
The great food in the Laverton Officer’s mess was offset by the opportunity to do a physical fitness test (which I passed) and the great company… not just thirty odd chaplains but a whole bunch of international students who wanted to practice their English and were prepared to listen to my stories. Just trying to explain what a chaplain does was a challenge!
So, all round it was a great week with challenges in the spiritual, mental and spiritual realm. It may not have been an easy week, but with new friendships built and others restored, new concepts learnt and others reaffirmed, new techniques perfected and old ones retuned it was a successful week for which I am thankful. Consider this:
“…only he who gives thanks for the little things, receives the big things.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
What have you got to be thankful for?
Chaplain Ian Whitley
By Ian, on March 18th, 2011%
 This week I have been forced to consider what I have been learning. Have you ever recognised that your mind is a bit like a muscle? If you want it to stay sharp you have got to stretch it! We seem to be naturally lazy and so we need to prod it and push it to make it perform. It does not happen overnight, but if you allow it to stay idle and unexercised it will revert to useless flab, making one of your most useful assets mere weight that will hold you back! What have you done this week to stretch your mind?
Here ae three suggestions to give you some good mental exercise that will keep the cobwebs from growing:
- READ! This appears to have fallen out of favour in recent years, but it is still vital to open your mind to a bigger world. Read widely – not just what you are comfortable with. Read wisely – taking time to think about the meaning and application.
- TALK! Go beyond talking about the weather and the football and deal with the how’s and why’s of life! Be prepared to discuss issues, ideas and concepts that will mean something in the long term. As you talk, probe and question, your mind will be forced to reason through specifics and take you to places you have never been before.
- WRITE! As somebody once said, “thoughts disentangle themselves over the lips and through the finger tips.” Have you ever kept a journal? I find that is a great way to spell out what is going on in my mind. It spells out ideas, feelings, struggles, hopes and dreams. In some respects it forces me to articulate who I am and where I’m going.
So, this weekend I am going to re-prioritise to make sure I do some mental exercise as well as physical. Come to think about it, maybe I will need to do some spiritual exercise as well!
Chaplain Ian S Whitley
By Ian, on September 26th, 2010%
There are some weeks when it feels like no matter what I do, I just can’t get ahead. You don’t need me to tell you that life is sometimes hard, and we all go through difficult times, but how do we deal with those issues that get us down? This week I have been reminded of what happens when people just deny they have a problem or adopt poor coping mechanisms – out of control stress, depression, relationship breakdowns, alcohol abuse and other self destructive behaviour. The scary thing is that there have been times over the last few days when that has been internal and not external!
That is the bad news, the good new is that it doesn’t have to be like that! Although you might feel like a victim and it seems like you are unable to do anything about your situation, you CAN! My first go at this ponderings I came up with seven things you could do… but it just did not ring true for me, and where I am at, so I decided to tell you a story.
 I first met Bruce when he was probably only 16 or 17, and I was 15. He was the opposite of me in every way. By that age he had already tried everything, he smoked heavily, was an alcoholic, dabbled in drugs, was covered in tattoos and had a police record. He was qualified to do nothing and only got a job as a storeman because the boss wanted to give him a chance. He couldn’t seem to get his life together, and at every corner things just got worse. One night while smoking in bed, heavily under the influence of alcohol, things happened and the boarding house where he lived burnt down. He fronted up to work next morning with nothing but the clothes on his back, and his boss, (my father) invited him to live at our place till he could get his life sorted out.
My life from that point my life changed, as I began to understand that I had everything going for me. I had a stable, loving family, a good education, healthy self esteem, hope for the future and the belief that God was in control. As Bruce would say that is easy for you – I have NONE of that! Yet in the years to follow my brother Bruce taught me basic counselling skills, as we worked to overcome his bad start in life, we laughed and cried through many and varied crises. He emerged from those struggles with a strong faith and was able to establish a stable family for his children but bore the scars of those early years for the rest of his life.
Why tell you this very personal story? Because I needed to remind myself that bad things do happen to good people. We cannot control what has happened to us in the past, or our family background but we can choose our response. Sometimes it is only when we get to the very bottom that we are forced to accept the truth about ourselves and the need to take desperate action. Maybe you too are in one of those crises, what are you going to do about it? If you have admitted that your life has become unmanageable and that you are powerless to fix it, you have reached step one of the AA process. My job is to help you with step 2, to come to believe that there is a higher power that can help to restore your sanity… yes, it is possible but nobody ever said it would be easy.
Chaplain Ian Whitley
By Ian, on August 8th, 2010%
It was with interest that I read a recent article called “Continuous Improvement Ponderings”. In the light of all the people I talk to who are already in ‘change fatigue’ mode, the thought of this process continuing for the next ten years and saving $20 Billion in the process seems overwhelming! The ‘rolling wave’ feels like it is drowning many, so here are a few helpful hints on how to stay afloat, and surf that wave instead. So, instead of focusing on the demand for Improved Accountability, Improved Planning and Enhanced Productivity,
- Keep the big picture in focus! We all want to pay less in taxes, we do not want to see waste in any level of government! We need to be able to accept the fact that there some things that we can’t change, so don’t fight it, see what you can do to make that big picture a reality.
- Maintain a positive attitude! Yes, this process will bring pain – all changes do, but the challenge is to refuse to focus on just the negatives and seek out the positive aspects.
- Get the facts! All too often we are content to operate and make decisions on assumptions which may or may not be accurate. This new world order will only ‘work’ if the foundations are based on solid truth.
- Refuse to focus on the past! We will never return to the good old days – they were not that good anyway. Yes, we must learn from the past, but to build a new and better future we need visionaries who are open to new possibilities.
- Move forward with confidence! Start each day with a clean slate, remembering that each day brings new opportunities. Yes, there are many challenges and unknowns but with some innovative, creative approaches we can achieve what many believe to be impossible!
 While on leave I was able to do some surfing. On one particular day it was big, I felt intimidated by the size and was tempted to just go home and do something else. Yet when a couple of other board riders decided to have a go, I joined them. It was not easy getting out, and I felt unprepared for the challenge, but at the right time I took the plunge and caught one of the best rides of my life! We can spend all our time and effort whinging about the Strategic Reform Program (SRP) or we can choose to catch the wave. Yes, it is a big wave, and it is not necessarily going to be easy to get in position to catch it, but it offers the ride of your life, if you attack it with the right attitudes. Come to think about it those five points apply to most areas of life, so stop playing around and get on with making the most of what God has given you – this is your life, not a dress rehearsal!
Chaplain Ian Whitley
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