Categories: uncategorized
Date: 06 November 2004 21:03:09
It's been a gruelling week - various bits of political work stress, worry over the health of some friends and family members - and at the end of it I really didn't feel like spending an evening at the church firework display.
But I'm glad I did. It was so, well, nice, that I just wanted to hug everyone for being so nice and normal and friendly and not journalisty. Sometimes nice is good. We weren't particularly being the edgy church in the community that we are known for being. We weren't dealing with homelessness, refugees, or fulfilling any great commission. We were just standing in someone's garden eating hotdogs. And that was exactly what I needed. Hotdogs, hugs, and a sense of a normality that goes beyond the office politics and stress that is dragging me down right now.
I guess this is a message for churches who secretly worry that they have to be cool and they aren't quite achieving it. Nice is good. I get little enough of it elsewhere - and I'm sure lots of other people feel the same.