I was met by a smiling young lad at one of the tills when I was in M&S today. He had a huge beaming smile on his face when it was my turn to be served and he asked just a little bit hesitantly "are you a minister?"
He recognised me from his years at the two schools where I am chaplain: and I found that recognition both surprising (given that I looked nothing like your average minister, having come in to the shop after a jog and in a thoroughly unshaven state) and encouraging.
Who can tell exactly what cumulative impact those regular visits are having on a young and impressionable lad? I certainly seem to have made some sort of impression, since the thing he remembered was the strong, clear voice!
I have to wonder, though, whether the message had come across as strongly and as clearly as the voice.
But it made me think of the way that the prophet John the Baptist is decribed - the voice of one crying in the wilderness... To be prophetic, you need, whatever else, you need to be a voice. And being out there in the wide open places of a shopping centre, in among the people ... maybe that's a present day equivalent of John the Baptist's wilderness.
He recognised me from his years at the two schools where I am chaplain: and I found that recognition both surprising (given that I looked nothing like your average minister, having come in to the shop after a jog and in a thoroughly unshaven state) and encouraging.
Who can tell exactly what cumulative impact those regular visits are having on a young and impressionable lad? I certainly seem to have made some sort of impression, since the thing he remembered was the strong, clear voice!
I have to wonder, though, whether the message had come across as strongly and as clearly as the voice.
But it made me think of the way that the prophet John the Baptist is decribed - the voice of one crying in the wilderness... To be prophetic, you need, whatever else, you need to be a voice. And being out there in the wide open places of a shopping centre, in among the people ... maybe that's a present day equivalent of John the Baptist's wilderness.
.1.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment