I was at my sister in law’s place today doing some handyman stuff and getting the house ready for tenants. One of the jobs involved changing over the vanity basins in the bathrooms – relatively simple you’d think – but not if the fittings are hard to get…

To get the basin off I needed to remove taps and spout. To get the spout off I had to wrench very hard on the poly nut holding it in place, breaking it in the process. No big deal I figured. I’ll get another one from Bunnings… A ‘5/8’ nut would be easy to find you’d think.

So I went to Bunnings…

One of the shop assistants took a look and said ‘nope, never seen one of those. If we have one it’d be in that area there.’ He pointed me to an aisle and then did an about turn. Thanks a heap…

So I went to Reece…

‘Nope. They stopped using them about 9 years ago mate. Can’t help you.’

So I went to Galvins…

‘Nope. Can’t help you mate.’

That was it.

I went back and did some more work and then thought I’d try Quinns Hardware. These guys sometimes have odd stuff, or if they haven’t got it they can find it somewhere.

Sure enough. A woman in her 20’s answered the phone.

‘Ok, I know what you mean but I’m not sure if we have one. You’d have to come in, but I think we can help. I’ll leave a few out and we can see if they fit.

I went in and one of the nuts she had there was perfect. And then she looked up her suppliers book and ordered me another one (for the other basin…)

So what does it say about the 3 ‘big guys’? Honestly to me it simply says ‘we don’t care and can’t be bothered.’ What does it say about the little guy?…

A heap!

After removing the

Its been 3 weeks since we moved house, (one of which we spent over East), but I’m now starting to feel somewhat settled in the new place. Settled enough to be able to appreciate the environment and feel grateful rather than lost.

Actually I’m loving it here and I’m aware that I actually feel more alive in this place than I have for a while. Most people who have come and visited here tell us that the house and area is very ‘us’ and while I’m not sure what means exactly I would have to agree. It feels right. It feels like a place where we can come alive.

I’m very conscious that I have come here with a very different mindset to that which I went to Butler. I haven’t come here ‘on a mission’, yet I’m very aware that I am indeed on a mission – every bit as much as I was back there – but perhaps with some knowledge and experience that I didn’t have at that point in life.

So how does a ‘backyard missionary’ do his thing 8 years on? (That’s how long I have been blogging on this theme!)

Well I guess the big shift has been in ‘waiting for the wind to blow’ rather than attaching a 215HP outboard and hitting the throttle. I don’t mean that in a passive way – not at all. But I do mean it in the sense of sniffing around and trying to tune into what God is doing and who he may be bringing across my path. I mean looking for the wind and setting the sails to catch it rather than driving full steam in a direction because I can.

As the wind has blown there was a surf at the local beach with a bloke my age and a good conversation to boot. I’ve wandered next door and across the road to meet the neighbours when they have been out gardening. And then today the phone rang and it was a local bloke seeking some labouring work. He had found my card at the local hardware (another place where my face is now getting known) and called me seeking work. If enough work comes up then I’ll be giving him a call.

Its honestly not very exciting but these are the networks that form as we live our ordinary lives – as we surf, shop and work – and my guess is that God is just as capable of using a vessel with sails prepared for the wind as he is able to use a bloke with a huge outboard. In fact my choice to live this way is because I am sensing that it is a truer way to live and more sustainable.

So the journey begins and we’ll see where it leads but for those who may still be interested that’s the deal thus far.

This afternoon as I was painting some lattice on our verandah I couldn’t help but think that if there is a hell then this is what we would be doing there. Painting lattice is a ridiculously tedious and frustrating task with so many fiddly edges to paint that you feel you will never finish. That was where two hours of my Sunday afternoon went – and I haven’t even finished the first coat yet…

Then around 5.00pm as Danelle got back I decided to head down to the lagoon and see if the little wave just 100m north was throwing anything up. I got there and saw a pile of cars – whale watchers – all checking out the big fish lolling around a couple of hundred metres offshore.

I headed back home and called the kids (its nice living 400m from the beach) and they came to have a look. Ryan and Sy were there so they whale watched and played while I surfed and watched the whale do his thing and the sun sink slowly into the ocean.

If hell involves painting lattice then this was pretty damn close to heaven!

I think its in our nature to avoid any change that disrupts our comfort and makes us uneasy.

I had a call a couple of weeks back from my dad asking if I knew how to uninstall Windows 7 and wind it back to Windows XP. He had just bought a new computer and the new operating system was unfamiliar and alien, so it seemed smarter to simply go back to what was familiar.

I have taken my newly acquired Mac away with me on this holiday, not to work, but simply to learn. I bought a mac because I wanted to learn a new way of computing and I haven’t yet come across anyone who has made the change and regretted it. For a few days I felt like my dad did.

After 4 years on a Sony Vaio running windows XP I was in a place where I knew just what I needed to do to get the result I wanted. I’m still unfamiliar with the Mac and at that ‘not yet convinced’ point in my experience. If you offered me a brand new Vaio with all the good specs I’d be tempted.

But I am convinced that the best is yet to come in my Mac experience. I believe that there is a better way if I am willing to feel clumsy and disoriented for a while. So I will keep going.

I can’t help drawing the parallel to my experiences over the last 10 years with churches. There may be a better way – there may be a way to express communal life that is healthier and richer than what we know, but few will pursue it. And that’s simply because it doesn’t come naturally and easily.

We have become so accustomed to one ‘Operating System’ that we can’t easily figure out how to work with a different one. It may even be that a whole new OS eliminates bugs and glitches and makes the whole thing much more efficient and effective, but we are familiar with ‘windows’ so we’d rather have the devil we know than take a risk on something new.

It seems there are few willing to jump ship and re-imagine because it does bring with it a degree of discomfort, but what if we are settling for less than we should? Wouldn’t you want to at least give it a really good shake?

The god’s of comfort and security have a strong grip so it can be daunting to even begin the journey. As for me and my house… its a no brainer