"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.
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