What you think about gadgets?
I was wondering
what you make of the
gadgets we have today?
Are you a gadget person?
Do you approve of technology?
For instances,
mobile phones,
computers,
cars,
mp3s,
ipods,
and shuffles.

Some of the disciples
don’t approve.
They say
we should sell them all?
Give them up,
give the money to the poor?
But then they still have
electricity
for their toasters
their shavers
their kettles.
So they confuse me.

Lord,
I do feel guilty,
when I look at all the stuff I have.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with it.
You know
when
my time is up.
I guess it won’t be my problem,
but I do worry about it.

So much more I could have done
So little time – to do what’s left.

Lord,
I think you just might be a gadget man.
After all you made us,
and does that not imply
a level of ingenuity or gadgetry?
We truly are wonderfully made.

When I was a student at Glasgow, I remember walking down University Avenue, an old dossier approached me and asked me for some money. I insisted that I would take him for a roll and coffee. We duly tramped down to a wee cafe on Byers Road. Just round the corner from where the above picture was taken. I put my companion at a table and went to order. Well you should have heard the abuse I got from the cafe owner. I was told in no uncertain terms with a few sweary words thrown in, that it was not on to have the dossier in the cafe. ” Do you want to chase all my customers away! He’s mingin! ( this means he stinks in Glaswgian) Before long i was out on the street. the dossier was simply saying, ” Awe, son, gonna just gie me somethin tae buy a pie oot the chippy” I ended up giving him his money for the chippy it was the only way out of an embarrassing situation.

We interviewed a homeless person, for a project we were doing, He told us what it was like to be on the street. He said it was the shear dampness of the Scottish climate that got to his soul. Just looking for a place to be warm was his priority. They say don’t give a homeless person money, they’ll just drink it. Maybe that is all they can do to stay warm or block out the biting cold.

Have a look at this clip, I wrote the script for one of our “On the Street” evenings. Maggie our trainee minister looks the part, she brilliant at the acting, and you know something, she’s a pretty good preacher, when she’s not on the bottle. BACK ON THE STREET