Humbled - again

 

Hello all. I hope that you are ok. Many thanks for all your good wishes and advice about my back. It is much better, thank you. I'm bending at the knee whenever I need to reach down, like a rubbish ice skater about to launch into a triple axle, but it seems to be working. It's just about remembering not to stand up too quickly, at least for now. As I haven't left the house very often, I just thought that I would briefly let you know what I have been watching and reading, etc. 

Actually, that is not entirely true. I did go out. I did my best, Mrs Overall, walk down the road to the pictures. We went to see what everyone is calling "That Penguin Movie" with Steve Coogan. All the critics said it was a two-star film at best, and they called it anodyne. I didn't know what that meant. Do you rub it on? So I looked it up, and the dictionary said "not likely to offend or arouse tensions". So I absolutely thought that this was the film for me. And I really liked it. Steve Coogan plays a teacher who moves to Argentina and is struggling with life after a family tragedy. He accidentally adopts a penguin, and multiple lovely events ensue, which help him with his life. It's not Citizen Kane - I thought Citizen Kane was boring, to be frank, but it is completely fine. AND, it is a true story. You even get to see a bit of footage of the original penguin swimming in a pool in Argentina. FOW2 - who has a couple of degrees in film- says that there is a theory that Steve Coogan will never get a decent review from certain newspapers because he is a Socialist. I didn't know about that, but I do know that this film was more interesting than reading Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail banging on about Harry and Megan. 

In the telly department, I really liked The Residence on Netflix, which is a shameless Agatha Christie steal about a murder in the White House, but it is funny and sharp, and I didn't guess the baddie. (Well, I did a bit, but HOH had no idea, and I didn't want to show him up.) Also, I like Interior Design Masters, which is back (I'm sorry - I know it's rubbish) and Race Across the World (which definitely isn't rubbish).

This week, I also watched Ambulance, and it made me think about myself, and possibly not in a good way. I know that I have mentioned that we have had a lot of problems with rough sleepers around the office where I work. Now, for those of you not in the know about the nitty-gritty of sleeping rough, it can be  - how can I put it - very bodily function-heavy. It has not been an unusual occurrence for us to turn up for work and have to move bottom-led debris before we begin to work. Often, this is in front of our entrance or exit, as it seems that people have felt the earth move, as it were, and squatted wherever they are standing to rid themselves of this troublesome thing. (I hope you are following me, but I would understand if you would rather not.) Our elderly cleaner then has to go outside with buckets of boiling water and bleach to get rid of it. If you are lucky enough to come across any of these people and attempt to remonstrate with them about any of this, you normally find that they are, at best, unrepentant and, at worst, physically threatening. I do understand that it is the drugs talking, but that is little comfort when a man with a black eye is squaring up to you in the car park. 

I have to admit that there has been a hardening of heart on my part towards this happy band, and we have worked hard to bring the full force of the law down upon them to get them moved. (That is not as easy as you would think. They have a lot of rights, and they are not afraid to invoke them. Also, it can be a bit disheartening when the city security patrol informs you that rough sleepers have very difficult and complicated lives. Not as difficult and complicated as yours is going to be, mate, if you don't get this sorted. Anyway, I digress.) 

Just to make it clear, we have dealt with rough sleepers for many years. We have made brews, made toilets available and, against our better judgement, sometimes given out money. But this is something entirely different. And, when the council had roused themselves so that they were forced to leave  - I can't say that I was sorry at all.

Anyway, I don't know if you saw Ambulance this week, but at the end, they came across a rough sleeper in a car park. He was a young man from Sri Lanka. He was attending a university in England and, through a combination of circumstances, found himself trying to do his work while living alone and frightened in a car park. He said that the worst thing was that he was so lonely. People at uni didn't talk to him because he was dirty. At the end, they put a caption up of him looking clean and happy, and it said that although he received no help from the government, the kindness of a stranger had given him a roof over his head and got him back on his feet. I can't stop thinking about him.     

You may be expecting me to say, Dear Reader, that I have realised the error of my ways and have invited our car park sleepers back. That has not happened. Sometimes, when bad behaviour happens, you have to think of the people it is affecting as well and escorting frightened elderly people back to their cars because people in the car park are shouting at them cannot be allowed to continue. But I have been prodded gently and reminded that Grace is complicated and multi-layered; that my starting point should always be a softened heart. My call is to love as I have been loved, and God has not wobbled on that at all. Not everything ends up as beautiful as The Temptations singing My Girl and, at this point in time, I have no idea why not. However, it is back on the horse, carrying on in the same direction. I am called to do this, like it or not. Have a great week.

And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Eph 3