I seem to have lost one of my 'S' badges. You know - the lapel patches that appear on the tunic of a Salvation Army uniform? Well, I've only got one - and I've not had any shoulder trimmings for quite a while - as apparently, the corps has run out of them. So I am now lopsided. Is that a sign that I'm only half-salvationist...?
If I thought I could get away with keeping it that way, I probably would - because I'm quite rebellious about that sort of thing; and actually, I think half-salvationist is probably a label that fits me very well! Although I'll qualify that: it depends where the particular bit of the Salvation Army is, that I'm engaging with at the time.
For the last year or so, I've openly said to quite a ot of people that the only thing that keeps me engaging with Gorgie Corps is the fact I'm a songster. Now, I'm going to qualify that too, because I also have lots of nice friends whom I enjoy being with who also go there; I have one or two opportunities a month to share some ministry with elderly people - whom I've always got on with very well; I usually get to carry the flag in front of the band on the rare occasions it leaves the comfort of it's hall; and actually - it's just where the corps is right now that I don't really care for - it's been different before and has the potential to be again!
Yesterday, our songster brigade was in Govan. For some reason we'd been chosen to sing for an hour, following the local songsters and the West Scotland Youth Chorus, whom I have to say were excellent; and after that we were treated to an evening event by Regent Hall Songsters, which is just so stuffed with professional singers and students of all of London's best music learning centres that I end up thinking it's just as well I live where I do, as I'd have no chance of belonging to anything like that!!
If you've read my previous post - the most recent one, it'll probably come as no surprised to you that my emotions are all over the place right now. I've somewhat unwillingly and unhappily woken up with a headache, which I've already started battering with painkillers; and as soon as I remembered about my missing 'S' I did consider not going to church this morning. But no! That'd be the start of a slippery slope - half a salvationist is surely better than no salvationist; and if anybody can't cope with that, then that's their problem, isn't it? And with luck, there might be somebody around who can sell me some replacement badges!
(And in the meantime I'll probably share the half-salvationist joke - which doesn't have to be a joke at all if you think about it; and could certainly form the basis of my next prayer meeting - perhaps accompanied by Ecclesiates 4:9, where it says that, two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. I mean, think about it - single people, of which I'm also a member...
People - especially traditionalist church people who think they know and have seen or done it all, need to be made to think about these things...!!!
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