Karaoke - Fun and Frivolity

Lately my life just seems so boring i don't even have anything worthwhile to blog about. So whether or not the below topic is worthwhile or not, i'll leave up to you to decide.

As you may or may not know, some of us are into the habit of going to karaoke on a Thursday night. It's really fun and it's right up my alley a. because i'm a night owl and love staying out late and b. because it gives me an opportunity to stretch my vocal chords without having to worry about whether i get the song right or not! WOO....

Lately, we have been going so much that we are now regulars! I love becoming a regular because you get to meet such a diverse variety of people, the bartenders start getting familiar with what you like and well...it's just fun all round, it gives you a sense of belonging! Very important!

So now that we're regulars all sorts of things are starting to happen. The karaoke host (who i'm nuts about and completely in love with - i know, i have to convert him first, grrrrr, that's a differrent story?!) loves to make fun of us and intimidate and belittle us and sometimes is so frustrating and annoying that you could seriously hurt him. But in a way, he's so familiar with us that he knows we'll still love him even after he is nasty to us. I love to sing with him but that's a different story again!

The bartender (we don't know his name yet) knows that we love to order a glass of ice with our drinks and always smiles at us, as i've said before he's now taken to throwing the ice at me instead of serving it in a glass. He also knows that he's not allowed to take our ice when he clears the tables. He also sings on occasion.

Then there are the people that we're becoming familiar with like Marcel and Soane and Marcus and the lovely lady with the short brown hair (she's my favourite, she's sooo nice?!). We're such regulars there that these people now casually just come up to us to have a chat. I LOVE IT!!!!

The other great thing is that the other night, after a night of cruising Sydney's main street, George Street (oh what fun and frivolity), we stopped back at our local hotel (the karaoke bar aka The Clarence Hotel - which btw, isn't really local but familiar to us!!!) at 1:30am to have a drink (cokes etc) before we headed home. It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling when we arrived at the bar and the bartender flashed a big smile at us (he was the smiley one) and asked us what we'd like. We then proceeded to have a conversation about daylight saving before heading over to a table to .... drink.... i was thrilled to bits that we were welcomed into the bar because the bartender KNEW US!!!!

I guess the point i'm trying to get at here is that for a while now, i've been thinking how boring it is to be a regular and how predictable it is that we'll be there every thursday night. Don't we have lives? Well, actually no, we don't but that's beside the point. The fact is, and i only realised this last week, is that we're starting to build vital relationships with people and even though we don't set out to 'convert' them as such, who knows what will happen further on down the track?! I don't need to purposely talk to them about Christ when i can keep them in my own prayers. Because praying for them in my own time lets God know that i'd like to see them come to know him. It's more important for me to be an ordinary person, just who i am so that they can see Christians are normal human beings, so long as i'm praying for them, God will do the rest through that relationship - i'm 100% positive he will! It doesn't mean i'm steering clear of God talk because if it comes up, i'm more than happy to chat about it, in fact i'd be thrilled.

I'm convinced that relational evangelism is a much more appropriate way to reach the world and it makes being a regular at karaoke so much more fun and exciting. I love the anticipation of people coming up to me for a chat!!! Whoever thought that karaoke could be an unintentional ministry. It has the same kind of excitement and buzz about it that doing Schoolies ministry does and I LOVE IT!!!! Finally, one of the places where God can really use me - somewhere that i'm already at and somewhere where the people are already at?! Awesome, eh??

Tink xoxo