Lama's log

With some excitement we're trying to gear up for hosting rough sleepers on very cold nights. I'm quite excited about it. Something happened around it though that has caused me to wonder somewhat.

There has been that absolute mistrust of people that have anything to do with the council. Initially then, suggestions that we should not take this on because it was a council initiative and that they must be trying to dump this or have bad motives. Later talk about making the council pay for and staff anything and everything we can think of with lines like 'make them pay', 'they should do it', again all the while assuming that their motivation must be bad. This has taken me aback a little.

It made me think of David Cameron's first speech as Tory party leader in Prime Ministers question time. He won the day and did it by agreeing with Tony Blair. Blair was floored by the approach. He expected a fight, instead what he got was someone who didn't disagree with him for the sake of it.

There's something in that for me. Jody spoke to me of playing snap in our communities. Looking at what people are doing and being and then saying 'snap', that's what Jesus did/said. I see no reason not to do this with authorities too. The trick will of course be staying on our agenda rather than theirs, but where the agendas overlap then let's cheer and go forward.

There's something too about remembering that 'the council' is made up of people that we wish to encounter. This is boldly displayed in the fact that we have a member of our community who works for the council. He's a social worker and a lover of Jesus (not in that order). He sits at the front line and does the best he can for those he sees. He often feels vilified for his role as a social worker and a 'service provider'. I wonder if instead of saying 'the council/government are not doing enough', we should say, 'oh I have a spare room' and if we can't then perhaps just stay humbly quiet.