Okay, nokay? Obadiah does not know what this means but the last “full size’ K-mart in the US is shutting. So maybe “K-marting’ is something Australians do better. Actually, with their Anko brand, the local k-0mart might be turning the tables on the US. More than 1 billion Anko products are now sold each year, the AFR reports. “Anko has since acquired cult status and gone global. The brand is now also sold in Target, Kmart’s sister chain, worldwide, from Canada and India to Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Singapore and the Philippines.
“Eighty per cent of sales across Kmart’s 300 plus stores are now Anko products.”
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Corporate coffee: Obadiah buys a coffee after helping at disability tennis each Saturday. He’s been doing his best to ignore this sign, but weakened last week. Call it a lack of corporate cooperation…
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A final act: Obadiah was struck by a sermon by his minister, Alan Lukabyo, on Acts 27, a long chapter detailing the rather exciting sea voyage of Paul on his way to Rome. Maybe lazily, Obadiah has simply thought of it as an adventure story, showing Paul to be brave, but taking not much more from the text.
But Lukabyo pointed to a real change in Paul’s situation. “Here’s what does strike me when I read this chapter, chapter 27. I think what is new here after all this time, 26 chapters. What dawns on me is Paul is no longer a missionary. It’s a massive shift. He’s no longer a missionary. He’s already spent more than two years just as a prisoner. Just imagine that he’s my age. I imagine after almost 30 years of intensive work as a missionary, travelling, evangelising, pastoring, recruiting, training, it all just comes to this chaotic end.”
Obadiah, who has seen the end of several career paths, finds it helpful to see Paul as a fellow traveller. His sense of identity as a servant, a Christ follower, is intact despite being cut off from the crowds and the status of being among those who see him as an apostle.
What a great example this humble Paul shows us, following the God he belongs to.
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A dark novel: Obadiah has (finally) read Methadonia, a novel by a former colleague turned addiction counsellor, Henry Everingham. As the name might imply, it is set around a Methadone clinic, recognisably in inner Sydney. It is a small, tightly-focussed world of people ruled by their passions, sometimes managing to escape. It clearly is a book written from close personal observation. Everingham’s book has the ring of truth. It’s a bell-ringing chamber of truth.
But what stuck with Obadiah was the longing for normalcy, stability and stable relationships with the central character, Olaf and many others in the book.
As Paul advises Timothy, “Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.” (2 Timothy 2:22)
Faithfulness, life, and peace: what Olaf knew he was missing.
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Scripture Grift: The state of Oklahoma is soliciting bids for Bibles for the public schools. But look closer at what they are asking for – such as the US Consitution printed with the Bible text, with the US Pledge of Allegiance and the US Declaration of Independence. Obadiah’s mind goes to the words at the end of the Bible in Revelation 22: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.”
And in a strange coincidence, the We The People Bible endorsed by Donald Trump, and the God Bless the USA Bible from Lee Greenwood, a musician who plays at Trump’s rallies – and also endorsed by Trump fit the Oklahoman Bible requirements. Odd coincidence that.