Purpose Revisited

Ever been asked what is your purpose or ever read a book about finding your purpose in life? Ever asked yourself or been asked what is the purpose of (my) life?

Is there a purpose?!

Nothing is made without some purpose, even a painting has a purpose, even a matchstick - think about it..

Isaiah 64:8
Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; We are all the work of your hand.

Just the creation of the thing, in itself can be its purpose (for example a sand castle), once created there may be no more need for it, but in the creation someone felt some sort of joy or fullfillment, and that was its purpose all along.

I dont think this is the case for people, and do think that the Lord had great joy in creating every one of us, but like most 'things' our creation was for a purpose. Perhaps those babies that die in hospital days after being born were like sandcastles to the Lord, and gave him the joy he needed in just creating them and those few days of life. Who are we to understand, his ways are above our, his thoughts above our understanding.

Romans 9:21
Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

If you look at some of the people it is sometimes easy to know if someones purpose was 'special' or 'common'.

If you look at Nelson Mandela - obviously a very special purpose!
Some people have died saving another person, very noble purpose, infact most noble!

John 15:13
Greater Love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Some of us are the more common clay jars, who's purpose may not be as noble, but in our service to the Lord we find our purpose, and in being the common service jars being 'last' in the hierarchy we will become 'first'.

Luke 13:30
Indeed there are those that are last who will be first, and first who will be last.

I remember my Great Gran, we called her Nanna, who at the time was in her late eightys her hair being snow white with age. Well, when I was a young lad, Nanna although being quite deaf, loved to squeeze my knee and tease me about the dimple on it.

I remember how she would tell my parents that the Lord hadn't forgotten her, she believed that He still just had work for her to do. I remember thinking to myself, how can that be, Nanna must have stopped working years ago. Nanna was in an old age home and although was very involved there before (working for the red cross before admitting herself - as I later found out from my parents) she was now very much one of the residents, albeit a well known one.

How could she be working for the Lord? What could the Lord be expecting from her?

Well, I am now a father and look back fondly on my Nanna, and think perhaps squeezing my knee and teasing me about the dimple on it, was some of the work the Lord had wanted her to do. Heck just telling my parents those exact words infront of me may have been part of the work!

I dont remember when Nanna died, I dont even remember her funeral or if I went, BUT I do remember the donkey bites (knee squeezing) she used to give me, and I now love to give my son the donkey bites, in the hope that one day he remembers.

I just recently read a book that, says that the best (and sometimes only) way to figure out what anythings purpose is, is to ask its maker.

Again when I was younger I remember seeing some very strange looking kitchen utensils in my mothers kitchen, and no matter how long I played with them, took them apart and put them back together, I could not figure out what the purpose of the instrument was until seeing my mother use the utensil. Ok this analogy is not perfect as my mother was not the creator, she was however the purchaser - and in so doing would have been told by the maker what the purpose was as to encourage her to buy the utensil.

The garlic crusher/ chip slicer could never tell me what its purpose was (duh, this was an inanimate object) but the 'maker' could.

I agree, we are all here for a purpose, we may not know what it is, but our Creator knows, ask him, he might just let you know what it is, and perhaps he won't.

But be sure though - there is a purpose for you, and you might be fullfilling it right now, unknowingly.

2010 FNB Whiskey Live Festival

Went to my second Whiskey Live Festival last night in Sandton at the Sandton Convention Center.

Firstly I would like to thank Ilse for thinking of me when she was given some extra tickets to the event, and to do that a second year in a row is just great.

Of course there was absolutely no choice as to who I would be taking along with me to this one, it just had to be the man that introduced me to two of the more acquired tastes in life, cigars and of course - whiskey, that as chance would have it make a very handsome pair, Mr Ryan Barrett.

On arrival we did not realise just how long the line would be to get into the tasting hall, as last year we arrived at the event alot later. We were entertained, albeit briefly, by a proper Scottish pipe band that had been quietly waiting outside of the center on the pavement before hand, dressed in full Scottish traditional dress - kilts and all. On entrance they were anything but quite - 6 bagpipes, 2 drums, and a base drum. They did play sporadically during the evening inside the hall and added a really nice ambiance to the event.

We were very lucky this year to also be given a pair of tickets to a whiskey workshop, this one been held by Glen Grants part owner Dennis Malcolm entitled '170yrs of Tradition and Innovation'.

Dennis is a thin tall man with really curly grey hair and a seriously thick Scottish accent, and he too was dressed in traditional Scottish dress. The room was filled with about 30 - 40 people most of which looked alot like my father, grey balding and bearded. I must admit I would have really felt out of place if it weren't for the few younger guys (if you consider being in your 30's young) sitting nearer the back of the room.

We were all seated in front of long tables that crossed the room from left to right and neatly placed in front of each seat was a plate of crackers, obviously for cleansing the palate, a bottle of water and of course four glasses containing four different drams of Glen Grants finest whiskey.

Home after a very nervous start where Dennis gave some background to the history of Glen Grant, the brothers John and James who started the distillery in 18foot sack to the Major ,their grandson, who eventually took over from them and made one of the boldest moves, that later proved to be the real making of the brand. That was the Major, added a purifier to the plant that would be cooled by water, that would prevent the heavier particles from escaping ensuring the distilling process and would force them to condense early and only the lighter particles would be allowed through the process, and the heavier particles sent back to the front of the line.

This radically changed the taste of the whiskey for the better. But enough of that. To the tasting.

We first tasted the majors reserve which is a single malt - as are all the glen grants - that has been left to mature for 7 years. Its amazing just how much more you can taste in a whiskey when someone else who has drunk it - and been involved in the manufacture - for years starts to tell you what you could be tasting.

What I really liked about this whiskey and the 3 to follow was the fruitiness of the initial taste and the texture being rather creamy on the tongue. Some of the other whiskeys we tried later in the evening had a oily after-texture that I cant say I would have noted if I had not gone to the workshop, and make me really appreciate the quality of Glen Grants product.

The second was the 10yr old that ended up being not only ended up being my favorite but Ryan's as well. This one really set the bar high and in our humble opinion only a few whiskeys came close to making as much of an impression - and they were blended whiskeys, not single malts. The 10 year old was alot like the 7 but the flavours where just so much more intense and the initial taste was alot smoother and less acidic.

We also then tasted the 16 year old and the 170 year commemorative whisky, both being very nice, but also not making as much of an impact as the 10 year old. the 170 is a blend of Glen Grant single malts ranging from 7 - 25 years in age.

Another thing that was very evident in the workshop was the great lengths Glen Grant had gone to in keeping the quality of their whiskey at high, even though it meant that the cost to make the product remained higher than other whiskeys. This is significant because back in the day the when the blends where becoming very popular Glen Grants single malt still managed to keep its own.

I dont want to waffle on about all ths whiskeys we tasted last night in as much detail, but some fo the other whiskeys that we had the honour of tasting were:

Bushmills 10 and 12 yr, Jameson Irish (Reserve), Johnny Walker Black, Red, Green, Gold and Blue, Chivas Reagle 12yr old amoungst others.

I think it is worth mentioning here that I would never have expected whiskey to have as many undertones as it does, and I hesitate to say that after last night, I may now be converted from a wine drinker - to a whiskey one.

Slawncha! (Cheers in Gaelic)

My First Blog Post

Hi, this is my first blog post, cool aint it. Not sure who would actually want to read anything here, but hey what the heck.