they’re behind you…

I’m back. ‘Normal’ service is being resumed. Sally and I had a lovely week without the children. Not that it was lovely being without Thomas and Hannah, but we were able to do what we wanted without shouts of ‘Boring!’ or ‘I don’t want to’ or ‘Can we go home now?’

We visited different places around the area that we have not visited before and also went to the cinema to watch a film: Inception. The film is good if you want to watch a film that you have to concentrate in. Unfortunately concentration was hampered by the seat-fillers in the row behind us who insisted on talking loudly throughout the film.

Example: Michael Caine made an appearance. “Ooh, it’s Michael Caine!” “That’s Michael Caine.” “I didn’t know Michael Caine is in this film.”

I tried a couple of hard stares, but they don’t work well in a dark cinema. In the end a chap who was sitting on the other side of the cinema came over and asked them to be quiet because he could not hear the film. Sally said she was impressed at my self-control as she could sense I was getting quite frustrated by the noise from behind us. I said that I kept quiet because I did not want to appear rude, and what if these people turned up in church one Sunday and saw the man who had told them to be quiet standing at the front!

It got me thinking about whether I am as conscious about the impact my behaviour has on other people. I have the habit of raising my hand in thanks when I have waited to let cars through a gap and they do not thank me. What do they think?

What about other occasions. I have been embarrassed when in shops to see irate customers having a go at the staff. How would the people in shops respond if they turned up at a church one day to see that irate customer? Or what about when we have been on ‘hold’ for ages listening to tinny music while we wait to speak to a human being about a customer service problem only for them to fail to deal with the issue? I have managed now to express my dissatisfaction without expressing anger at the individual – pointing out how it makes me feel about the company and the system rather than complaining at the person. After all, you don’t know whether it says ‘Rev Lear’ on their screen!

Sharing our faith is something we do with our lives as well as our lips!

We went to the cinema again the other night. I sat in an aisle seat as I usually do because it feels a little roomier. Just as the feature was about to start a lady from the centre of the row got up and started working her way out. “Excuse me, sorry, oops, excuse me, pardon me, gotta hurry, oops, excuse me.”

By the time she got to me I was trying to look around her and I was a little impatient so I said, “Couldn’t you have done this a little earlier?”

“No!!” she said in a loud whisper, “The TURN OFF YOUR MOBILE PHONE PLEASE message just flashed up on the screen and I left mine in my car.”