fun

Well, my day was full of people again.

Which is good. The way it should be.

Jesus was always with people.

Sure, he took time to be on his own. Mostly it ended up being at some pretty unearthly time of the day or night, when no one else was really that up to being around.

I guess if I was an author I'd maybe see things differently. I'd have a little sign up on the door that said - Do not disturb. Please.

And people would understand. At least, I hope they would.

They'd know I was hard at work and needed to be left on my own to do this job, this very important job of writing this book.

And maybe it would be a good book. A great book, maybe. A book, perhaps, that somehow changed the world.

They'd see how very important it always had been to have that sign outside my room saying Please do not disturb.

Such a wonderful book was the fruit of that leaving the guy alone.

But I'm not an author. That isn't my job. It's not what my life's about.

Even if I might sometimes like to entertain the notion that it was.

People are not an interruption to the life I'm called to live. They are that life.

And I figure that God knows what he's doing when these many different people cross my path: and that he'll let me know himself what to say when the moment comes to speak.

Like a Sunday. If I haven't had the time to prepare too well. Because of all the people there have been.

It's different, of course, if I've nothing to say because I've just been loafing around.

Time with people comes in all sorts of different forms.

Sometimes it comes through e-mails, sometimes through telephone calls.

Most of the time, though, it's face to face, person to person.

The way I think it's meant to be.

I was round at the school again today. A couple of times.

The first time was late morning. Just before the school was closing up for the week (they have a half day on a Friday).

I'd said to the Primary 6s yesterday that I'd bring them all a booklet which would cover all I'd talked about with them when I'd been in with them. So I took that round.

They were in the middle of a German class when I put my head around the door.

The funniest sort of German class I'd ever seen, I have to say. Though that's not saying much since I've never taken a German class in my life.

They were playing a game. School has changed a lot since I was at that age.

I don't think we ever played games like that in class. Well, maybe we sometimes did in a sort of way. One of our teachers worked like that. His classes were fun.

It's a good way to learn. Because children like to play.

In fact I think adults like to play as well. Except they don't let on, because they think that everyone else will think them very childish. And ... well, they don;t want that.

But I think it's true. We like to play. I think that's the way that we're made. I think that's how God is himself. I think he likes to play.

So I stayed while they played the game. And I guess I learned some German, too.

And I'm hoping they're learning that life the way that Jesus lived it out, that's fun as well.

Like the game they were playing, you have to stay alert and use your head and think about what's going on.

But it's fun. It's there to be enjoyed.

Using my head and staying alert and thinking about what's going on. All of that has been part of my day. But there's fun with it, too.

I was in at the school later on. They had their Christmas Fayre today. Late afternoon.

So I went along for that. The place was mobbed! It was great. Young and old and everything in between.

I met so many different folk. Stopping and chatting and catching up. It was great.

I think the children love it too. When they see that I care. That I make the effort to come to the things that they put on.

(Not that this was the children's doing, this Christmas Fayre. This was the PTA. I think. I didn;t actually ask!)

Going along to a thing like that is probably not in the same sort of league at all as some of the other important things that loads of people do.

Like writing books. Or writing up new legislation for the country to obey. All sorts of things like that.

But I figure it's what the Lord himself is eager that I do.

Just be there.

That's all you have to do. Be there. And enjoy the being there. Enjoy the meeting people. Enjoy the chance to chat. Enjoy the fun. Enjoy the bits of laughter you create.

I think that's what he says.

There's a woman, for instance, who stands outside the local shop each day.

She's from Romania and she's selling, every day, her copies of The Big Issue.

Now, it's not a new issue each day she has, of course. Which makes it a little bit awkward when I pass her nearly every day.

So I stop and chat and I've got to know her just a little bit these past few months.

Her English isn't all that good. And I don't speak Romanian, any more than I speak much German.

I'm not a brilliant linguist, as you can see.

But you can still have fun with German, though you don't really know the language. As I discovered again today.

And this lady and I, we can still have fun. Despite the language barrier.

Because the language God gives us to speak doesn't work through the medium of words.

Which sounds pretty trite. But it's true.

People are people, whatever the language they speak.

And whatever the language they speak, they're looking, I think, for love.

For love, and a life that is full to the brim with fun.

They don't want to work, I think, so much as simply to play.