Cricket ... now and then

"If there's a God

He's laughing at us

And our football team ..."

Ben Folds, 'Effington', 2008

The little boy standing at the boundary in this photo (in the yellow cap) is my 9 year old nephew Benjamin (Benji). We took a family excursion to the first day of the Boxing Day test in Melbourne this year (where Australia were appalling - hence the quote - yet another one from Ben Folds). Benji waited patiently (a trait he rarely demonstrates) for one of the players to sign his new miniature bat, but he left with none. It made me think of the miniature bats full of signatures, now hidden in my cupboard, that I managed to obtain as a child - I even went up to Adam Gilchrist when he was drinks boy for NSW and got his signature, way before he defected to WA and became one of the best ever Australian players. I then started drawing a loose analogy from this situation. Once upon a time it seems it was acceptable to be a Christian, to give it the time of day, just like Adam Gilchrist gave me the time of day all those years ago. Maybe I'm too pessimistic (does that bode well for our church plant? Probably should put that on the prayer list...) but I don't see that so much today. It seems like Christians want to be given the time of day but we are being ignored for what seems to others like a more pressing, immediate reality. How can we truly be evangelical and effective in such an environment? That's up to God.

Mantras, bread ... and the car

"Lately you've been down on luck

Crying out to the man above

I believe in miracles

But a miracle you can't control ....

I believe in answered prayers

But the answers are found everywhere ..."

Sarah Blasko, 'Down on Love', 2009

I have two 'mantras' that I try and remember to repeat every day (the key word in this sentence is 'try'). I was reminded of these when one was repeated during the sermon on Sunday ... shortly after which the car once again decided to stop working. I took that as yet another hint that God wants me to pray (breaking down literally in the church car park was about as subtle as a brick) - either that or He doesn't want me to buy any more Malaysian cars/wants me to farewell my Proton for a far better option. So I decided to use part of the hours I spent in the car park writing down a prayer list for 2011, something that I'm hoping will be a New Years resolution I start early (like this blog).

Anyway ... the mantras!

- 'Not my will but yours' - something that stuck in my head from a sermon a few years ago

- 'Man cannot live on bread alone' - from Deuteronomy 8:3 and repeated by Jesus in Matthew 4:4. Reminds me of where my true sustenance comes from ... both in general and particularly as I head off to earn my income from, and directly and incremently increase the profits of, the largest bread manufacturer in the country.

What are your mantras?

Perspective

"Go ahead, you can laugh all you want

I've got my philosophy

And I trust it like the ground

That's why my philosophy

Keeps me walking when I'm falling down"

Ben Folds, "Philosophy", 1995

(This song has a somewhat tenuous link to the topic, but surely you have worked out by now that I like Ben Folds. This song has operated as my mobile phone ring tone for many years. Ben Folds in fact announced an Australian tour in May 2011 this week - yay!)

It has come to my attention recently at work that the word perspective is rather popular. In fact so many people use it/refer to it that it borders on annoying, and I try to use whatever synoynm I can instead of it. Individuals have perspectives, groups of people (departments, divisions, teams, customers etc) have perspectives, the overall business has perspectives. I thought I would look it up just to make sure everyone was using it in the right context:

per-spec-tive

1.

a. A view or vista

b. A mental view or outlook ... (my italics)

2. The appearance of objects in depth as perceived by normal binocular vision

3.

a. The relationship of aspects of a subject to each other and to a whole: a perspective of history; a need to view the problem in the proper perspective.

b. Subjective evaluation of relative significance; a point of view ... etc.

(courtesy of thefreedictionary.com)

The word is not used in the Bible (according to my NIV Compact Concordance) but it is obviously key to faith both now and then. I was watching American Dad (Season 3, Episode 3: Dope and Faith) this week, where Stan (bless his heart) and his new friend shared a common view on so many things that he couldn't fathom that this friend could not have faith and spent half the episode trying to convince him otherwise. We are so keen to share and accept perspectives from one another these days, that I can't help wondering whether Stan has a more amenable approach to our God - even though his creator (Seth McFarlene) happens to be an atheist.

Getting your hopes up ... and gazumping

"You know what hope is? Hope is a bastard

Hope is a liar, a cheat and a tease

Hope comes near you, kick his backside,

Got no place in days like these"

Ben Folds, 'Picture Window', 2010


"Time after time I think 'Oh Lord what's the use?'

Time after time I think it's just no good

Sooner or later in life, the things you love you lose

But you've got the love I need to see me through"

Florence and the Machine, 'You've Got the Love', 2009

This topic is so good it gets two songs. I've actually been sitting on these songs - and this topic - for a while, but it finally feels like I may have enough to say on it now (but will it be coherent? Time will tell). I'm not even going to try to define it ... they tried on the episode of Family Guy I watched the other night, which was comedic as usual but perhaps not worth repeating.

Firstly, I'm going to start with some (random) characteristics that I've learnt about myself over the course of time:

1. I really don't like the colours black and brown together. People wear these together often but I steer clear of it.

2. I was once much more ambitious than I am now. There was no particular turning point, I just gradually stopped aiming so high.

3. I really don't feel I worry and/or think too hard about anything - once again a trait that has slowly crept up on me. This one I attribute entirely to the Holy Spirit and in the hope I have through Christ (particularly for his return).

That said, there is plenty that I hope for in this world. Just this week I had great hopes of being a home owner, only to get outbid ('gazumped' is the actual term) at the last minute. My other great hope that comes to mind is that those in my life who are yet to have children will succeed, even if they sometimes feel hopeless. I can sometimes have a Ben Folds view and sometimes a Florence view - unfortunately I think most people can often see hope as it is written by Ben Folds.

I think hope drives Christians to 'become like some to win some'. I think the following story illustrates this to a degree, even though my research shows the woman in question wasn't a Christian:

"Live Aid", Aryn Baker, Viewpoint in TIME magazine (October 25, 2010)

"(Linda) Norgrove was killed in a failed rescue attempt on Oct 8 ... the world lost a dedicated, caring woman committed to improving the life of Afghans - and the community in which she lived lost hope."

"... Norgrove spoke fluent Dari, dressed in local clothes and, even though she was not Muslim, wore a headscarf because it smoothed her working relationship with locals. Her commitment to working directly with the people she served made her both an effective administrator of aid - and a target. It was a chance she was willing to take."

And so, to conclude ... that was much shorter than I thought it would be. Maybe I don't really have enough to say on hope yet.

Flying ... and judgement

"What will people think when they hear that I'm a Jesus freak?

What will people do when they find out it's true?

I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak

There's no disguising the truth"

dc Talk, 'Jesus Freak', 1995

I've been doing a lot of travel for my job over the last year (why does it seem all my posts come back to work??). I like to compare myself to that George Clooney frequent flyer character from the movie Up In The Air - although I'm nowhere near any carrier putting my name on the side of a plane.

A few weeks ago I headed to Cairns (I won't tell any more bad travel stories, but this trip didn't really fare much better than my trip to Canberra last week). I'll tell this story in two parts - firstly, what happened on the way up. I'm a window seat kind of person, and when the stewardess says over the loudspeaker to 'take your assigned seat' I take them seriously. Someone was sitting in my assigned seat. So I asked them to move. They weren't entirely happy about it (and I don't really blame them, because there were some amazing views out that window) and seemed to indirectly imply I was holding up the plane leaving, but they moved. I had been considering doing some study during the flight for my upcoming Moore College correspondance exam, and for some reason their seemingly poor judgement of me spurred me on. I pulled out my book and read for hours, whilst munching on food from the cart and staring out my window.

The trip back was a different story. Once again, I had scored the window seat (being a frequent flyer and super switched on and all that). I had to squeeze past two pretty beefy guys ('We were having bets on who'd be sitting next to us' was their introductory line), who were very cheery and chatty and yobbo-ish. They were getting stuck into each other and swearing and having Crownies, and occasionally they would let me in on it. They seemed like the kind of guys who would shake the hand of anyone who happened to sit next to them. My confidence to study on this leg of the journey waned dramatically.

All of these people were strangers by the way. Didn't know me from a bar of soap.

I must care if people label me a Jesus freak. How will I truly fare as an ambassador for our church plant in West Pennant Hills (or, for that matter, an ambassador for Christ)? And if I care that much about strangers, how much more will I care if it's someone I know/respect/like/trust etc? And what does that really mean for my motivations?

Driving ... and praying

"I shouldn't have driven

You shouldn't have driven - but we got there ...

It's you and me and the Holy Ghost

On the road to dawn heading down the coast ..."

The Whitlams, 'Thank you (For Loving Me At My Worst)', 1999

I'm happy now - I found a reason to quote a Whitlams song. I know I have just picked what seem like random chunks of the song, but there is a purpose behind it.

I'm terrible at praying. Actually, that's probably the wrong way to put it - rather, I don't really do it that often. At uni I tried the whole praying without ceasing thing at times, which didn't work out, and it's just gone downhill from there.

I even think about praying eg. 'I should pray about that'. People will be in a pickle or be sharing something with me, and quite often I tell them I will pray for them. The intent is there, and I often think about praying for them beyond that encounter, but if I'm honest it may not go much farther than that.

I was driving to Canberra bright and early on Wednesday morning to spend some time at another one of our bakeries (ironically, during this trip, there was an incorrect media release made that the company I work for is not doing enough to reduce the sodium levels in its products - I wish I didn't see heaps of metaphors in that but I do). It's a long drive and my CD player has recently carked it. So I thought about praying - but then I turned the radio on instead.

God had other plans. Maybe He's getting sick of my pseudo promises. He found a way to stop the car - literally. My plans to make it to Canberra by 9am were dashed as I waited for the NRMA, then waited at a repairers, then found perhaps the only car to hire in the small town I happened to break down outside of.

As soon as I got back on my way I prayed for the next 60km.

It was only after that that I pulled out the iPod - and the Whitlams came on. Suitable song don't you think? God is even in my iPod.

Purpose of my blog ... and ex boyfriends

"Some guy on the net thinks I suck

And he should know

He's got his own blog ..."

Ben Folds, 'A Working Day', 2010

I am continuing to sum up what I think about my foray into blogging with these lyrics. I'll get over it eventually, because I really am very keen to write this blog, and have been thinking about its content for ages. Notably, this song also oscillates between the ideas of being great at what you do versus the opposite, conflicting emotions I experience almost daily in my occupation.

The purpose of this blog was originally going to be to describe my methods of approaching Colossians 4:6 in my life, but it seems the horizons have broadened, especially since I've learnt that I'm not the only person to use the term 'salt' in their Christian outreach (for example, it is the name of the youth group in the church community we belong to, and the website http://www.twosalty.com/ sells what looks like some super trendy Christian threads). I think this blog will probably metamorphise into an analysis of the Christian vs secular worldview through my eyes (however valuable that may be).

Salt (otherwise known as sodium chloride!) is something I have to think about in both realms. My chosen career involves the science of food, and for the last four years that food has been bread. Australian legislation and our customers have been dictating all kinds of instruction to the industry on our use of salt over this time - firstly it was mandated that every loaf contain iodised salt, and now they want us to remove salt (<400mg/100g) to help us have less heart attacks or something. Not only will that partially negate the iodisation in the first place but it will reduce its shelf life - and bread without salt tastes wrong. Besides, we do actually need to eat some salt, it does perform a function in our bodies.

In the Christian realm I have been studying Acts through Moore College over the past few months and am at awe with how well Paul understood the idea of seasoning his conversations with salt (which makes sense, given he wrote Colossians). Whether the members of his audience are pagans, Athenians, Christian, Jews - he knows what to say to achieve exactly what God intended him to. My prayer is that God will help me have the same foresight and that I will be able to record the answer to that prayer in this blog.

So ... let's see how all that goes.

I have been thinking today about a particular time in my life when I was 'overdosing on salt' (I'm trying to keep with the theme here ... but I might be trying too hard). It is only now that I can truly see how sleeping with people before you are married can forever more add emotional complexity that would otherwise have not been there. There are other people besides my husband I am irrevocably tied to, for better or worse, and those people have been shown such a poor example of God's love through me that I want to repair but can't (often I take it out on them too). I'm sure there's lyrics that could go along with this (maybe by Tim Freedman?), and this could raise a whole other discussion point on forgiveness ...

... but I think I've reached my quota of thinking (and publishing those thoughts) for a while now.

Starting a blog ...

"...let's have a toast for the douchebags..."
Kanye West, 'Runaway', 2010

I thought I'd start my blog by explaining how I feel about starting a blog. Even writing that sentence felt pretentious.

Hopefully I'll get over this feeling if I'm going to write more than once.