Well, now that you ask …
In the past decade, Koorong Christian stores have closed in some areas. However, I’m very fortunate to have one in the same street as our corps, so it’s easy to wander down and pick up resources we might need.
On purchasing some items there last week, the retail assistant – who was very pleasant – asked the question you often hear in stores these days: “Did you get everything you need today?”
I thought, “Well, not really. I need world peace and an end to poverty, and homes for the homeless and for Christ to come again, and I didn’t get those today.”
I also need people to be kinder to each other, and politicians to talk less and listen more, and employers to care more for their staff, and drug traffickers to be caught and imprisoned.
While we’re talking about my needs, I could also do with some T-shirts that won’t lose shape after a few washings, and I need the price of petrol to come down and I need Wagon Wheels to go back to their original size (maybe wagons have got smaller over the years).
While I’m not sure if it’s a need – maybe more a desire – I’d also like another premiership for my footy team, I’d like to hear more Cold Chisel on the car radio, I’d like McDonald’s soft-serve cones to go back to being 30 cents, and I’d like Humphrey to come back on TV.
I also need teenagers to be more polite on public transport, and sporting associations to stop promoting sports betting, and singers to stop using autotune technology, and fish and chips to be cheaper.
More seriously, I need people to know Christ, I need Christians to act like Christians are supposed to, I need churches to mobilise in their communities, I need the Bible to be read more broadly, and I need a Salvation Army that isn’t hesitant to talk about salvation.
So that’s what I thought. Then I said, “Yes, thanks”, paid for my items and walked out.
It’s an interesting question, “Did you get everything you need today?”. Maybe we should ask it of people as they’re walking out of church each Sunday after the meeting.
– Major Mal Davies and his wife Major Tracey are the Corps Officers at Adelaide City Salvos
