This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Chris Evans Show with Michael Ball:
If you are anything like me, there are times in the day when you just need to switch your mind and give your ‘serious head’ a bit of a break. That’s what the internet is for – social media in particular.
One I turn to simply posts clips from local newspapers or photos of newspaper billboards. I can’t tell you the title because it’s a bit rude – but it always makes me laugh. Try these genuine headlines:
“Dog ate pair of giant knickers”
“Delight as man grows banana in garden” (That’s Surrey for you.)
“Chaos as badgers snub their new home”
Chaos?! Life must be quiet in Macclesfield.
The best of the recent ones – actually from the Somerset Gazette – has to be: “Village People upset at YMCA plans”.
It’s not exactly at the level of North Korea and the threat of nuclear conflict, is it? Or even how many full-time jobs a man can have?
But, for most people the local is as important as the national or the global. What happens in the neighbourhood has an impact on your day in a way that Russian espionage against Hillary Clinton does not. ‘Nude man’s rampage at tea rooms’ might be a bigger story in Cambridge than Harrogate in the same way that windy weather in London is irrelevant to the hardy northerner.
Why does this matter? Well, principally because it reminds us of what a songwriter once called “the greatness of the small”. For Christians this is bread and butter to the way we see our faith and the world: God comes among us, as one of us, at a particular time and in a particular place – in Jesus of Nazareth.
The small matters – just as the local matters. In a world that trumpets greatness, power, wealth and image (if not always truth), I believe we can make a powerful difference to one person by paying attention to what lies before our very eyes. As the proverb goes: change the world for one person and you change the world. Which is the spirit in which to understand Comic Relief this week.
So, today I’ll laugh when I read the hot news that “Puddle splash victim vows revenge” and remember that loving your neighbor starts just here.
Advertisements
