Old Church Basement

 Old Church Basement - Link to podcast

I’m not much for the big sing fest type gatherings where we seem to sing forever and never have time to chat.  I’d much rather gather with a dozen or so sincere friends and have more of a fireside sing along.  

When I was a kid growing up in the salvos we had a monthly gathering called a youth crush.  It was basically about 40 teenagers in one lounge room.  So it was in fact - a crush.  I recall quite liking these events for a number of reasons, mainly because I often had to spend the evening squashed up on a two seater couch with 5 girls.  It was never traumatic for me and I am quite possibly a passionate and safe hugger because of the beautiful intimacy we shared together in those days.   I did not date a girl till I was over 21 and I always used to say ‘why go into all the complications of dating when I have dozens of girls who I love and who, share honestly with me and are affectionate with me?  I played cricket and basketball with plenty of boys and went to an all-boys school so the balance was quite good really.  

The other things that happened in the youth crush was we had some supper, listened to a speaker and then had discussions and sang some choruses.  It was fabulous.  A depth of connection and fellowship that I have never quite recaptured since. 

What made it so special apart from the girls, was the culture of openness and truth telling.  There was a lot of love and acceptance in my experience there and we galvanized this by joining together in song.   The songs were never sophisticated.  There were boisterous songs like this is the day or Father Abraham that involved actions and lots of hand clapping.  Other songs like “something beautiful” and “Be still and know” brought us together in a more prayerful way.   The songs were sung in a spirit of togetherness and unity that made them land deeply in our souls.    Even today 40 years later, I still find myself humming them at random times.

I was recently helping out at Maroochydore Salvos and on a Sunday the congregation is small and quite elderly.  I started off using videos of some of the latest and most popular songs for the worship times, but it didn’t really work and one Sunday after the service had finished, I got the Uke out and started playing a few tunes I knew.  Everyone seemed to come to life as the songs I played were mostly the old pop songs or church favorites like What a friend we have in Jesus and Amazing Grace.    From that time on our services were held in a circle and we sang the simple songs together that everyone was familiar with.  It was lovely.  

There is a great new video around at the moment called old church basement.  The words tell the story of this guy and his buddies who used to sing simple songs in the old church basement and how all the lights and staging of the big event singing is wonderful but sometimes gets a bit complicated.  He reminisces about the joy and power of his first experiences of God’s love at these times and in the video just sings with minimal accompaniment with a whole bunch of his friends.  It’s terrific. 

I’m not much for the big sing fest type gatherings where we seem to sing forever and never have time to chat, as I have a voice like a chain saw and find the hype and performance of it all a bit manipulative and false.   I’d much rather gather with a dozen or so sincere friends and have more of a fireside sing along.  

When I lived in Sydney in a block of four houses with a shared driveway, we used to get the fire pit out and gather to toast marshmallows and catch up.  These were in the days when my ukulele was a bright blue $20 kids toy and I knew only three chords, but we sang a few simple songs together and really enjoyed it.  The lovely Sue and I am currently staying with Lyn who lives in this block and shared in those times.  She has shared this week about how special these little gatherings were and how the singing meant so much to her.

When I ran the conversational English class at Villawood we always started the session with a song.  Maybe Waltzing Matilda or Advance Australia Fair and it got us off to a good start with smiles and laughter and a feeling of unity.  

The only other song I sing is the Collingwood theme song, but it has been a very quiet year on that front.

My kids are going through an interesting stage right now.  They are binging on a movie that features songs by Michael W Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman who were my favorite singers when they were kids growing up.  They know all these songs because we used to sing them in the car.  They rang the other day and we blasted out a few classics lines from the great adventure and my place in this world and it was a fun and joyful few moments.  

Music and singing is a great thing.  It lifts our spirits and joins people together in really special ways.  Go on, next time you are at a dinner party or at someone’s home for a catch up strike up a song together.  It will do you good.  

Bless ya,

Mustard Seed

 Mustard Seed - Link to podcast

Love and hope in a person is infectious and hard to contain.  Like a warm smile or a big laugh, it just seems to influence whoever witnesses it.  A tiny mustard seed grows and spreads everywhere and is difficult to stop.   

For most of my life I have been aware of the parables of Jesus and the fabulous truths for living they contain.  They teach us about what Jesus refers to as the kingdom of God. They are filled with great stories that help guide Christians about what is important and they ways we are to partner with God in his kingdom priorities for this world.  

For the next few months, the Monday Nuggets of truth will be based on these parables.  I want to give a big shout out to Major Barbara Wilson who was actually one of my training officers in Salvo training college back in 1995.   She is a great thinker and a very practical and earthy sort of Salvo.  I like her a lot.  She and I seem to be on the same page and we often chat about the content and progress of the podcast. She is providing some stimulating research and comment for these episodes, so that the content is rich, wise and hopefully really helpful.   

The first parable I want to look at is the Parable of the mustard seed found in Mark Chapter 4.  It goes like this.  

“What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

I have always believed that the idea of this parable was that the love and power of God was expressed in a small act of faith and that it would eventually grow into a mighty tree, unshakable and powerful.  

But the truth is mustard seeds never grow into anything like a mighty tree.  They are not even classified as trees.  They are shrubs.  But here’s the thing, the average mustard plant produces around 8000 seeds. So when we look at the parable from this point of view, the Kingdom of God is more like an unruly, uncontrollable, invasive weed that sends shoots everywhere.  And we are invited to sow these seeds.      

So if we sow seeds that are like this in terms of how they grow and spread, trying to control it is extremely challenging.  Organising and structuring an invasive weed is a little pointless don’t you think?  

And what are these seeds?  Seeds of acceptance, kindness, justice, peace, and love. There’s no telling who will show up when we throw that kind of goodness into the world – which is why it’s so unpredictable, so scary and so dangerous. That kind of radical inclusion generally leads to a cross.

I went for a run with my friends from Helensburgh salvos the other day and afterwards caught up with about ten or so of the people connected to this group for breakfast at a cafe.  There were mums, dads, a grandma and 4 little kids.  We have been journeying together for a few years now and know each other well through experiences like trail runs, playing card games and countless honest and significant conversations.  They have even been known to sing along to my Ukulele playing.

The warmth and love we share is really special.  At the café, we laughed, hugged, shared deeply and all felt the safety and significance of just being together.  A new person came into the group for the first time and was immediately embraced and accepted beautifully.  It was soulful to witness this communion around food, togetherness and a deep yet informal sense of God’s love and presence.  

I am confident that every person at this gathering was uplifted and encouraged by just being together.  I am also confident that they all went into their worlds spilling over with the same spirit of love and acceptance that we all experienced at that café.  I am confident they would attempt to replicate this spirit wherever they go.  

Shoots form this group will be planted and spring up everywhere. Even if they are uprooted and seem to be dying off, they are sure to spring up again soon.   

One lady from this group is going to live permanently in New Zealand in the New Year.  The Kiwis are about to be overrun by an invasive shrubby little plant of love and hope that will be absolutely unstoppable.  

Bless ya, 

Come from Away

 Come from Away – Link to podcast

When a disaster hits, like the 9/11 terrorist attacks or even a flood – people are usually generous and compassionate in response.  Reality is, there is always a crisis for someone and we have opportunities, every day to be amazing humans.  

Back in 2011 The Brisbane River peaked on 13 January and over 20,000 houses in Brisbane were inundated. The floods damaged the Brisbane Riverwalk, a floating walkway over the Brisbane River and a 300-metre section broke free and formed a "floating missile" that threatened significant Bridge infrastructure along the river. This floating missile was safely guided under bridges by a brave bloke in a tugboat.  His courage saved lives and secured millions of dollars’ worth of critical infrastructure.    Brisbane's major football venue, Suncorp stadium, filled with around 2 meters of water reaching right up to the fourth row of seats in the stands.

Hundreds of people were displaced from their homes and the salvos were involved in feeding programs at a number of emergency evacuation centers.  I was asked to manage an evacuation site at ANZ stadium and we were feeding the 3-400 people three meals a day who were sleeping there for around two weeks.  

It was a hectic time.  The kitchen on this site was being renovated and so tradesmen were called in to finish the job as quickly as possible.  Chefs and equipment was needed and of course heaps of food, drinks, refrigeration and of course tea and coffee.  Thousand other issues like rostering volunteers and making sure hygiene and food safety issues were in place all needed attention.

Support came from everywhere.  An experienced qualified Chef found out about it and literally dropped everything in his catering business and worked with us full time for free for the whole fortnight.  Companies arrived with truckloads of food and families, grandmas and church groups cooked meals, cakes and treats every day.  The people were super grateful for these personalized expressions of care and although the trauma of losing a home is the main memory people at this shelter will remember, they will also remember the beautiful expressions of love and care from complete strangers.  

So much happened at this time that was heartwarming and generous.   Literally thousands of volunteers called the mud army hit the flood affected streets of Brisbane and helped clean up the mess.  

I have been involved in Salvo front line work for many years and more often than not we run feeding programs where hungry people from the street are offered a hot meal and encounter not only good food, but the smiles and generosity of the volunteers and staff who cook and serve the meals.  These events have a similar feel to the time I had at the evacuation center during the floods.  The daily crisis for homeless people, things like mental illness, addiction, sleeping rough and the trauma and violence of life on the streets, is just as real and challenging as a middle class family losing a home in a flood.  

I recently saw the musical Come from Away and it was fabulous.  Go and see it if you can.  It will restore your faith in humanity.  

It’s the story of 38 planes grounded during the 9/11 crisis that were diverted to an airport in the small Canadian town of Gander in Newfoundland.  This small community of 7 thousand people doubled in size overnight.   The musical tells the story of how the town rallied, dropped all their petty differences and fed, housed and loved these traumatized passengers, no matter who they were, from all over the world for 5 days until the US airspace restrictions were lifted and they could all go home.   

Schools and sports stadiums were converted into shelters and thousands of meals were cooked.   Often people were invited back to local resident’s homes to stay and to share meals.  One line in the show is with a droll sort of a girl at a check out in supermarket saying “thank you for shopping at Walmart and would you like to come back to my place for dinner tonight”?  

The emotion and depth of love and camaraderie between these people is rich.  At the ten year anniversary of the event they all got together and some journalists recorded their stories and eventually the musical was written.  It is now one of the most popular theatre productions in the world, playing to sellout crowds across the globe who stand, cry and applaud at the end of every performance.  

This play captures something of the best in humanity and in many ways explains why I still love being a salvo.  Every day my job is to find ways to help people who are like the passengers stranded at Gander to find comfort, hope and a way to get back home.  

The Salvos and organisations like us are always looking for volunteers and to partner with people who are serious about making a difference, but more than this the world needs people who are generous and accepting especially of people who are hurting and alone.  

In the musical there is a knock knock joke at the end that sums this all up for me. It goes like this, Knock knock ………. come on in, the door’s open. 

Bless ya   

Alone

 

Alone - Link to podcast

Nobody really knows what it’s like inside our skin.  People can empathize, but we ultimately need to face our lives alone, nobody can face it for us.  This can be unsettling, especially when we are suffering, however some people find comfort in the mysterious presence of God at these times. 

As many of you know, I am a keen runner and love going for a Jog.  I often run alone and always take a mobile phone with me in case I have a heart attack, get lost or strain a calf muscle or something.  I want to be able to call for back up and get support should anything go wrong.  However when I run with someone else I rarely take a phone as it weighs a little bit and I already have to haul my hefty torso around and am ok to minimize the additional load ….  However I seem to have no problem eating 5 mobile phones worth of pudding or roast chicken the night before a run, so I concede, this is not very logical.  Mmmm,  my point is that I like to have the security of someone else nearby whenever I run because I feel vulnerable without it.  

Being alone in this world is uncomfortable for most of us and we usually like a friend to talk to or some company to feel safe and supported.  However it is possible to feel very alone even when friends and support are nearby.  David Whyte in his poem on Alone comments that a wife or husband can lie in bed at night and feel desperately alone even when their partner is literally 2 inches away from them.  

Nobody can ever truly understand what it is like inside someone else’s skin.  People can grasp the gist of it but my history or emotional and psychological patterns are unique to me and me alone!  When I have the man flu, I know what this feels like and in my experience my friends and especially my female friends, have no understanding of how dreadful it really is for me.  When my beloved footy team is likely to lose every single match, nobody truly understand the grief and humiliation this brings.  I am alone in this experience.   When I am on my death bed or genuinely grieving a loss, others can empathize, but I am alone inside my skin and have to face these things myself, nobody can face them for me.  

When we come to grasp the depth of this reality it can be quite unsettling.  We feel fragile and vulnerable.  People may visit or a chat might take place, but most of the time we are left inside with our own thoughts, feelings and fears.  

People of faith describe a sense of the presence of God when awareness of this deep aloneness comes.  They sense God near and present in a mysterious and almost mystical way.  Prayer becomes the internal dialogue with the divine that can happen at any place and at any time.  People experience this as a comfort especially when being alone in suffering or when their troubles are inconsolable.  

I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day who recently ran a 100 kilometer trail run.  She is a strong runner and was not too troubled by the physical part of the running, but found the mental side of the experience overwhelming.  Her support crew were there for her, but she had to do the running and thinking by herself.  After 44 km she was not ok.  Crying and despairing and 35 minutes behind her scheduled arrival time, she met her support crew and was wanting to quit.  Her support crew prayed with her and surrounded her with love and hope and the assurance of God’s presence with her.  Now this person is not a fluffy religious type who has weird mystical experiences every 5 minutes, but she shared that after this prayer she was aware of footsteps behind her as she ran.  She often turned around to see who was there, but nobody was.  Eventually she came to realize it was God, somehow present with her as she ran. Loving her and believing in her and deeply aware of her journey.  She smashed the 100 km time she was hoping for and now, weeks after this event, seems to have this renewed assurance of God’s presence with her all the time.  Not hearing footsteps – that would be a bit creepy, but really aware that love and hope and belief is there for her in a mysterious but solid sort of way.  Isn’t that cool? 

For her God is with her and she is never alone.  

Since April last year when Covid hit and we were in lockdown and I started this podcast, I have been working from home more than ever and the Lovely Sue has now retired and is also at home more than she used to be.  I often comment to friends on how lovely it is to have this season where we can be together and available for each other.  Surprisingly the Lovely Sue then turns to them with a look of despair and says she just wants me to leave her alone.  Maybe the lovely Sue hears footsteps like my running friend only to discover that it is not a mystical experience of the divine, it’s me!

Important to mention, sometimes being alone is a good thing too! 

Bless ya,

Damien Saal

 Damien Saal - Link to podcast

Damo has had a tough life in some ways and ended up needing help from the Salvos.  He now works at the Salvos recycled Bike workshop and I hang out with him every Wednesday morning for a few hours.  I really like him and he helps me! 

Every Wednesday we leave home at 6.30am and go to our favorite coffee shop and get nice coffee.   I then drop the lovely sue off at Foodbank where she volunteers in the office one morning a week.  I then head to the Salvo Recycled Bike Workshop and hang out with Damo for a few hours fixing up bikes.  The workshop is a social enterprise and I think it’s a great idea and so wanted to get involved.  But the surprise packet in this is Damo.  The guy who actually does the work.  He’s a great guy and I just love working with him.  Wednesdays are a highlight of my week.  Every week I learn something new about how to fix bikes.  I had no idea how complex and skilled a bike mechanic actually needs to be.

Damo is a master and seems to know exactly what to do.  He shared his story the other week at a Salvo event and it really made me just appreciate him even more.  He never knew his father and he experienced some significant trauma in his youth.  His mother died tragically and suddenly when he was a young man and this unhinged him and he turned to drugs.  He ended up in prison and in a lot of trouble.  His options on exiting jail were limited and he ended up attending the Salvos rehab in red Hill.  He did well, found some stability and recovery and made a connection with Andy Steele who introduced him to the bike workshop.  

Damo is a big guy.  Probably 6.2 and 140kgs.  He is a hard worker and is smart in a technical and practical sort of way.  He and I joke around a lot but I have also come to trust him and share honestly with him.  The other day I was cranky and frustrated.  So much in life at the moment for me is unsettled and there just seems to be loose ends whoever I turn.  Nobody’s fault, just a combination of moving state, no house to go to and a transitional phase in work with the Salvos.  Add to this heart scares, Covid disruptions blah blah blah   

Anyway I got to the bike workshop and just let Damo have the lot.  He listened and understood and then we pulled the spokes out of a bike and he showed me how to replace them and get the wheel back on using the special tools and techniques that only bike mechanics like us know how to do.  

It was not a therapy session, but it was a safe and well humored place to be real and to not be alone in the struggle.  After an hour or so with Damo I had forgotten about my worries and had just felt like the world was a nice and safe place again.  Often when I see Damo I tend to nestle my head into his massive chest and half joking and half serious tell him I need a bit of love and affection.  Now Damo on the surface is a brute of a man and certainly not much of a hugger.  He has no deft counselling skills, but as it turns out Damo is a guy who is really good for me in this season of my life and I’m glad we get to be together every week.  

After a few hours at the bike workshop, I go and pick up the lovely Sue who tells similar stories about the people she works with at Foodbank.  Just ordinary but kind and accepting sort of people who allow us to participate in life with them.  I bet there are people like this in your world as well, and today I invite you to just pause for a moment and appreciate how special this is.  I’m grateful for the Damo’s of this world and I might even tell him so.  He will probably think I’m a bit soppy and needy, but Damo has been through a bit himself and we all need friends.     I think the bromance is good for him too!

Bless ya, 

Ambition

 Ambition - Link to podcast

Ambition can be a dangerous fixation on a set future that drives us to achieve a goal in a way that diminishes our humanity and hurts the people around us.  Ambition that is not generous, creative and loving is often ugly and immature.

  

There is a real tension I reckon between being ambitious and being mediocre.  Some of my Helensburgh running buddies recently participated in the UTA.  A series of running events in the Blue Mountains in Sydney.  They ran 22k, 50k and even 100k events.  I am in awe of the strength of body and character required for such phenomenal achievements.  However running with these guys is so much about relationship and the generous friendships and care that the group offers.  But if you are serious about running a 50 or 100k event like this and your only agenda is to be kind and supportive to the group, running with the old fat guy who cannot keep up and will never help you achieve this goal.    

I’ve been part of brass bands with the salvos and its always a tension for the leaders to try to get the band to a great standard and at the same time be a compassionate friendship group that accommodates average players that may hold the group back.  But if excellence and high standards are your ambition, then sacking poor players and halfhearted contributors is the way to go.  Big business and corporations have a reputation of stomping over anything and anyone who stands in the way of their ten year strategic plan for success.    

So how do we hold this tension in our career, our marriages and our social lives?  Surely it’s not a bad thing to strive for excellence, but as the saying goes,  it’s hard to fly like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys.  

I guess it depends on what you are wanting to achieve   If winning and building an empire is important to you, then stepping on a few heads will be necessary, but if building community and accepting people who are doing it tough or have certain frailties and weaknesses is the agenda, then loving people will trump the program objectives every time.  

The bible warns us to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

For Salvos, I think this can be an extra challenge as we do life with so many people who have experienced trauma and hardship.  We often find our church services are not filled with beautiful or rich people.  We often set up programs and find our volunteers are inconsistent and complicated.

We sometimes look at big churches or companies that have heaps of money, popularity and success and wonder why the work we do so often seems small and insignificant. 

I was recently asked what legacy I hoped to leave and found myself saying it was all about leaving a trail of people who have been loved and valued more than they believed was possible who in turn love others.  

So I wonder if we are ambitious enough.  Do we settle for small when we should be aiming for big.  Well I guess it depends what the end game is.

I love the story of a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.

As he sat, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.

The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”

The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”

“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.

“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.

The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”

The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.

“I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.” 

The fisherman continues, “And after that?”

The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”

The fisherman asks, “And after that?”

The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”

The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

It’s dangerous to be so set and fixated on an ambitious goal that we lose our capacity for creativity and transformation in the deep and mysterious places of the soul.  Like a caterpillar metamorphosing from its cocoon into a spectacular butterfly, it is a process that cannot be rushed and it is natural and beautiful without manipulation.  

Let’s find contentment just where we are.  Maybe the things we value most are already within reach.

Bless ya,

World Environment Day June 5th 2021

 World Environment Day June 5th 2021 - Link to podcast

4 Challenges for World Environment day on June 5th 2021  

1. Pick up rubbish. 

2. Stop using plastic bottles. 

3. Walk and cycle more.  

4. Fall in love with your local environment.

I’m a big fan of the planet.  It’s lovely. Like most of us, I love walking beside a river or the ocean and just cannot get enough moments when I am surrounded by green rainforest and smell, hear and see the beauty and majesty of what is undoubtedly a most wonderful part of being alive!

Take this one step further and I look at a sunrise or a sunset, see the surreal and stark beauty of a full moon or a starry night in a country sky and the sense of awe and wonder goes to a whole new level.  

Yet we humans have a spectacular capacity to be so self-absorbed and one dimensional in our thinking that we do things every day that damage and spoil this amazing world we live in.  Honestly most of us will resist doing anything that is an inconvenience or that slows us down and if it spoils the environment a bit we just don’t care.  The way we often treat our own bodies is another disturbing case in point.  We tend to bite the hand that feeds us so to speak and neglect the most valuable and enjoyable parts of our lives; our environment.  

Well this Saturday, June 5th is world environment day and as I said, I quite like our planet so I’m keen to use my vast influence and integrity on this subject to change the world.  Probably just a little bit, but I’m gonna have a go.  

So here, beloved listeners are a few very practical things we can do this week to make a difference.  

The first and most obvious is to pick up some rubbish in your street or your local park or wherever you wander.   Don’t just walk past it – pick it up and get it into a bin.  Otherwise it will wash down a drain into a river then into the ocean!  It was not you who dropped it but there IS something you can do about it, so don’t hesitate - just do it!  

My second idea is to get reusable coffee cups and water bottles.  Don’t buy coffee in disposable cups or water in plastic bottles for a week and see if it can become a habit. Tap water is safe and clean.  For every 1 liter plastic bottle of water, we use over a litre of oil to make it, and 3-7 yes 3-7 litres of water to produce the bottle.  Then it needs to be pumped from the ground, bottled packaged, transported stored and refrigerated before it gets to you, using stupid amounts of fuel, electricity and manpower.  And of course you waste money buying something that you can get for free from a tap almost anywhere!!  

Three.  Choose to cycle, walk or car share whenever possible.  Let’s use less fuel and produce less smoke. Try walking to a local shop and taking a little trolley or something and see if the extra time, exercise and white space is not a better way to go than rushing so you can get back home to watch tele. 

And finally - Fall passionately in love with nature.  Get out into it and do so with a spirit of gratitude and reverence.  Slow down and really see it and experience it.  Martin Luther said God writes the gospel, not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars.   Love your local environment and care about what happens to it.  Maybe then we will care enough to act, speak to politicians or maybe join a land care group who weed and replant things along local river beds.

Bless ya