Andy B Podcasts and Stuff

Send us Fan Mail Whatever you to keep you occupied during the day you are making plans. Perhaps you aren’t even conscious of doing so but you do! I’ve often been accused (not kindly) of winging everything I do and never thinking through anything. My wife always laughed people stated that – she knew the reality and it involved lots of planning, back ups and redundancies with all potential issues ma...

Send us Fan Mail Preparation is king! You just can’t beat coming up to something which needs your full attention, to be already relaxed by the effort you put in before hand. In September 2023 I led a small but dedicated team to launch a Global Media Organisation – a Radio Station which was UK based, but with a Global Heart. And we did it! But it didn’t just ‘happen’ randomly – it took lots of effo...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever prayed for something and waited for an answer from God - only for the answer not to be the one you really wanted. I know I have! There’s an old story about a man who is stuck at the bottom of a cliff, with the sea threatening to drown him so He cries out to God. In the story God hears the prayer and sends a man in a boat, then a helicopter with a winch and finally a...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever removed a screw and put it back in to the same hole, you may know what feeling of panic when that screw simply keeps turning, and won’t tighten anymore. The hole has become worn, and so needs something to hold that screw firmly back in place. A simple trick I was taught decades ago is to simply push in half a matchstick (and with the burning part removed!) and try t...

Send us Fan Mail How many projects end up being sold, in pieces, on eBay? From project cars to project kitchens, we all have those things we begin and never complete. But the worst thing we can ever do is to simply never begin something. Sure, the road might be long and tough, but you can never finish the project you never begin. I’m not talking about putting things off, but actually intentionally...

Send us Fan Mail ”Pride goes before a fall”. You ever heard that phrase? It’s actually taken straight out of the bible, from Proverbs 15 verse 18 and it’s another nugget of eternally rich wisdom that reminds us not to think too much of ourselves. Pride is one of things that blinds us to the obvious truth - much like the fable of the emperor’s clothes. So proud was that king of wearing the finest c...

Send us Fan Mail Goodness is a good thing. And it’s only natural to say that God is good. And, yet, describing God as good actually – on it’s own – devalues God, because He is so much more than just good! Yes God is good, but God is more than good and our word “good” can not describe enough of God’s goodness. It can only paint something of God. It is not the complete answer. Likewise, all that is...

Send us Fan Mail I’ve worked alongside, or under, some great leaders in churches and in businesses, and voluntary organisations. And, sadly, I’ve also served around people who love to use their position to bully others and, the most successful approach I’ve seen to achieve this, is through creating grey areas of information and knowledge. Think about the last half dozen big names in the Christian...

Send us Fan Mail Nobody likes being put down. In fact, being put down as a child is so traumatic it can have terrible life-long consequences. As adults we don’t like that level of criticism either because, if you’re constantly criticised in your job, you won’t try harder. You’ll simply give up trying altogether. The bible makes it clear that we need to be accountable to others, and that does inclu...

Send us Fan Mail Being busy can be a great feeling. It can make us think we’re doing better than others we may meet in our life. But, the problem with being busy is that busyness can soon become just the next thing on a to do list. And that is never good when it comes to the relationships that matter most to us. One of the most important words in the English language is the word “No”. It’s a word...

Send us Fan Mail The bible tells us that God has a plan for our lives. It demonstrates how God’s plans are always best for us to be able to live our lives to the full. The big issue is that what we think that means only sometimes ties up with what God’s plans actually are. It isn’t that God is tricking us. By no means! That is against His entire nature, for God will never trick or tempt us. But, H...

Send us Fan Mail It’s been said that you can form a habit by repeating something just 6 times. And yet it can take 6 weeks of repeatedly not doing that thing to break that habit. Such is the power of addiction and habits. So be very slow to point the finger at someone who is trying to break a habit, no matter what it may be! Coming off medication that I had been on for more than a year and a half...

Send us Fan Mail Beta mode. It’s a term you might have spotted, but have little knowledge about. Essentially, when it comes to software, it speaks of the next generation of that software. It’s a way of testing new features – it’ll probably look similar to what you’re used to, but may do new things, in new ways. And Beta mode gives developers an opportunity to see where the problems are; it lets yo...

Send us Fan Mail Titles can be the source of much contention and confusion. Show me a confused organisation and titles, probably, are part of the problem, because we can allow titles to define and focus the energy of people. Or, we can use ambiguous titles that cause confusion and delay. In Thomas the Tank Engine we see exactly this as the various engines think they’re more important than the othe...

Send us Fan Mail I wonder if you’ve ever bought something that wasn’t cut what you wanted. Do we take it back, live with it, or bin it. I guess what we do will be somewhat dependent on what we bought and how expensive it was. We also might consider that the cost of returning it could outweigh the cost of having bought it. I’ve been there more than once. I’ve also taken something back on principle,...

Send us Fan Mail To Obey is better than Sacrifice. It’s a beautiful gem in the Old Testament which can sometimes be missed! And, when we read something in the bible about sacrificing animals, it’s all too easy to disregard it as out of date because of what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus’ death and resurrection means we don’t need to sacrifice animals in the Temple. But it doesn’t lessen the importa...

Send us Fan Mail David, of the David's Daily Dose blog , and I were chatting around two pieces of scripture we had commented on. One was Romans 5 and the other Hebrews 12 and how they link together and he challenged me to write something on these two, so here it is! Hebrews 12:1-2 (New Living Translation) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of fait...

Send us Fan Mail There’s a line in the film Kung Fu Panda. The Master is speaking with his trainee. The trainee feels fierce and tough and hard. He’s talking about how he can make all sorts of things happen, like where a tree can grow. The Master simply replies that while he can have power to  choose where a tree may grow, he can’t control what will grow – if a peach seed is planted, then a peach...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever heard a strange noise coming from a piece of machinery? We have had exactly that experience fro the past few weeks. Our lawnmower has been working harder and harder, and achieving less and less. Grass has been hacked rather than mown, and more is left behind that collected in the grass box. And that noise kept getting worse. It was kind of a screaming, whining, terri...

Send us Fan Mail Much like the Trinity, a decent mug of tea requires 3 elements – tea, boiling water and milk. You can disagree about the milk and whether it comes first or not (it always comes first by the way) but those three parts make a decent ‘brew’. We had a fancy kettle that had stopped working, only it hadn’t totally stopped working. It still took water and made it hot, only not hot enough...

Send us Fan Mail While sitting in church one day I couldn’t stop looking at the perfect illustration of how we should be with our Father God, when I saw the small baby in front of me perfectly secure and resting in the arms of their dad fast asleep! It so powerfully spoke of how important dads are! In our society we live in a time when we know how important fathers are, and yet society seeks to de...

Send us Fan Mail While away at a festival I tried to buy an ice cream. Someone had given us a gift of some money for our family, so we thought that would be a good thing to do! However, when we got to the ice cream seller they told us they couldn’t serve us unless we could pay cash, as their card machine was no longer working. I took a quick look and decided it probably lust needed a charge. Right...

Send us Fan Mail In the film, Inside Out, we see an image of how emotions develop in the brain of a new born, through to old age. We see the importance of emotions, and why Joy – a main character in the film – is not the most important emotion.  We love the film as a family because it reminds us of the importance of caring for our emotions; of listening to them and valuing them. The problem with e...

Send us Fan Mail When we had arrived at a festival we knew we had 4 car trips to make each day. We’d decided to drive in because there were four of us. It was a good decision, made prayerfully. But when we arrived for that first day, I knew we didn’t have enough money in our bank account to make it back home on the 4th day. I started to second guess myself, and the prayerfully gained peace we’d ha...

Send us Fan Mail I got something through the post last week from a friend of mine. I’d typed out my address, but he’d altered it. My address was still correct, but he also added “Andy Berry, BBHQ” for BerryBunch Headquarters. He didn’t need to do that. But he said, afterwards, that he wanted to make me smile. And he did. So, what simple thing can you do – today – to make someone smile. Share a smi...