Truth in a Public Washroom

Last week I found myself ‘in town’ for some errands and slipped by the Fair Trade Café on Inglis Street for a coffee and to do some reading while I was waiting for my next appointment.

Don’t know if you’ve visited the Fair Trade Café before, or not, but the coffee there is really good and the ambiance works for me.

I got a surprise when I went into the restroom though – coffee will do that to you – I go in, and there is this large plague like poster on the wall in front of me. It’s right straight on in front of you when you are doing your business. Just seemed like something that was a little bit, ah, can I say ‘spiritual’, for such a ‘secular’ environment like that.

It was an encouraging surprise though. I guess every once in a while a place in the culture around us opens up a crack and some profound truth slips in. I mean, think of it! How counter culture is this - ‘He who dies with the most toys still dies’! - right there in the washroom of the Fair Trade Café, a message that Jesus Himself would be pleased to own. In fact, I think He pretty much does. Check out the story of the rich fool in Luke’s gospel chapter 12. Pretty much the same idea. Not the kind of ‘feel good’, ‘don’t say anything negative’, ‘stay clear of certain subjects’ kind of stuff that we usually associate with sales. I guess that is why it was so refreshing to see. It kind of gave me some hope for our culture.

There are cracks there people. They are there and we need to look for them and slip in some truth whenever we get a chance. After all, the truth is the truth, and even when we try and suppress it, or bury it, or distort it, the truth has a way of just kind of slipping through it all and ringing in our ears.

I’m going to stop here as I could really start to ramble on here about this one. The truth is the truth. It rings true. Enough said about that.