bible | Sarah Orrell

desert islanders tearing apart a boat to build a raft

Stray Planks

Oh, those helpful calligraphers. They always get in the way when you're trying to build a raft.

Oct 132 min read

Chips and Chips: What's Getting Chipped Away?

So, there's chips, and there's chips. Ask your great-grandparents, and then ask the nearest five-year-old. A crucial difference. Not just one.

Oct 83 min read

Notes on Artificial Certainty: AI, Faith, and What We Think We Know - But Was It Only Hearsay?

Just notes on certainty and hearsay, as I thnk aloud about how artificial intelligence shows us more than we wanted to see about what we're full of.

Oct 25 min read

Notes on AI, theology, imagination, and the origins that might make the difference

You get knocked over by a wave. It was 5ft. No, sorry, 50ft. No, sorry, 50,000ft… or like Job. At what point is the hurt such that the scale isn't the point. Oh, and AI.

Sep 244 min read

Four more metaphorical mechanisms for the shelf in the shed: Hezekiah

The way I think about things like this — like Hezekiah's story — is like walking around a shed filled with metaphorical mechanisms. But then, my grandfather was a toolmaker.

Sep 185 min read

Why No One Needs Another Course on Plastic Hammers

So many things to say about the nature of reality as seen through plastic hammers for babies and how teachers — like, God, for example — teach.

Sep 93 min read

living room door slightly open with bookshelves and chalk

As if by Magic: Theology, Imagination, and a Thought Experiment

My website looks quite standard until that menu item — Stage Door. It's what happens with a literary imagination birthed in Bible and Bagpuss.

Sep 83 min read

thinking [not aloud]

Just an average writing day, but genuinely finding my private thinking interrupted by questions about how that might seem if said aloud.

Sep 81 min read

Nothing Else is Working Either

Not another thing! How on earth can someone be expected to rejoice when they've just heard the flock is even cut off from the fold now?

Sep 74 min read

Judas, Jonah, Jeremiah — a thought experiment

Not preaching here, just thinking aloud! What if we take three Bible characters and stand in their shoes — and let them stand in ours? Situations. Motivations. Implications.

Sep 62 min read

Optimising Gold Dust: Are we still shaping the conversation? Or are we learning to speak only in ways that algorithms reward?

Is cosmetic language surgery a thing? I think it might just be.

Sep 45 min read

Setting the Stage on any given Thursday

What happens in the space where faith, muscle memory, and a Bible story meet — this day. Or Thursday…

Sep 34 min read

Melchizedek and the Wheelbarrow

I had a friend who, whenever he got to "Melchizedek," said, "Wheelbarrow."

Sep 23 min read

The Strong Man and the Cotton Wool

Sitting in the morning's stillness, wondering if being disarmed and bound could also be an embrace? A reflection on Mark 3, distraction, stillness, and learning to listen.

Sep 12 min read