Thank God for Parking Ticket Officers

Who said that they are always out there to get you?

I had sleepily missed the 2P sign of a prime parking spot at Crows Nest tonight. Sleepy is what working nights do to people. Lo and behold, after our quick dine at Thai Tucker Box and browse at the bookstore, a parking ticket officer working OT was taking down my little, innocent Echo's number plate!

I sheepily said, "Oh, we're leaving now... and I didn't realise we had to pay after 6pm..."

A pause.

He nicely smiles back and said, "OK, this is a warning. See that ticket machine over there, you must pay if you park here." And he walks away. If we had stayed in that bookstore one minute longer, $79 would have been blown, and all because I didn't 3rd of 4 signs on the pole, that read,

"2P 6-10pm Mon-Sun".

I am reminded that our brains choose to see what we want to see, often times. I only saw the sign that read "1P 6am-6pm Mon-Sun". In hind-sight I did see the second sign when I parked the car, but I could not register it. In so many circumstances, in experience, and in reading people's writings, I observe that often we only see what we set out to see, what we want to hear.

Not always do our "ears itch to hear what our hearts desire", even in so called scientific observations, in application of world-views on other cultures, we only see what we set out to see. We simply love our types and stereotypes.

But I heed the warnings. Both from my friendly parking ticket officer from the Pacific Islands, and from our God, in the coming of His Son and of course, in His Word today: to know that the heart of man deceives even himself, and we need an External Guide to point out our obvious blunders.

I'm just thrilled that I wasn't fined! So is me missus : )

Crusaders Business Breakfast at the QVB Tearooms

I've never been to a Business Meeting, let alone a Christian Business meeting.

This one was held by The Crusader Union of Australia, or simply known as "Crusaders". I knew of their youth outreach at schools, school camps and holiday camps; but I only saw their vision and the fruits of their work at this Crusaders Business Breakfast.

Roger Corbett (AM), the recently retired CEO of Woolworths Ltd, Australia, spoke. He's a Christian too, and has personally benefited from the work of the Crusaders from his youth. He challenged us, a group of professional and business Christians this morning to know the need for God in our work, and see the need for God in our world. He saw that a living God in the lives of business men was the key to their personal integrity in the workplace. By leaving God out of the picture or thinking that "God is dead", we have left the Australian business world with weak, self-gratifying leaders, and a pervasive cynicism in the Australian public towards many businesses. Sadly, many of those leading the business world, have also become cynics.

But there is a different type of business in our world. The vision of this business is a world with changed lives. Crusaders aims to bring the living God through living relationships to youth whilest at schools today. The organisation and team are Bible based, meaning, they believe that God's living word changes lives, especially because it is a word speaking of His assuring, unceasing, amazing love for us. Many lives are changed, mostly in their youth, by the Christian message.

The short interviews with the youth from non-Christian backgrounds who have attended Crusader camps are inspiring. Individual lives, through Christian leadership coming from Christian youths, have been changed. Many trust in this living God and have found His love real, stabilising and motivating, such that these individuals have grown, impacted their school friends, and even moved onto Christian youth work themselves. At the very least, many youth have heard the gospel message, and many of them decisively commit their lives to God in their formative years.

I work with sick people, out in Western Sydney. I see many youths and families presenting with their physical needs. I can only begin to imagine the spiritual need of these families for this message, that changes their youths' lives. They will form future families, they will do business, they will shape our future Sydney. I can see how such a message to our youth will not only bring social productivity, an unmeasurable statistic in our societies, but also spiritual hope to families, who have suffered for years in broken relationships, not because of poverty, but because of their rejection of God.

Have a look at the Crusaders' website http://www.crusaders.edu.au/, or click the Title, and pray for our youths at school, that through these types of outreach ministries, they will hear the life changing Christian message.