Technology changes.
In the good old days, if you wanted to watch TV, camped out in your 1980s Mitsubishi Sigma on the side of the road somewhere between Melbourne and Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast, you needed technology like this portable Toshiba TV and a battery pack.

Technology changes.
Now, if you wanted to do the same thing, you would just pull out your mobile phone, and chances are you could stream your favourite movie on demand. And while the screen size might not have changed too much, the technology behind it sure has.

Technology changes. But have you ever wondered how it changes us?

A message by David Toscano

With a desire in the 1950s to settle an agreement about the fastest game bird, we now have the annual Guinness World Records, where we celebrate those who achieve record-breaking achievements and beat previous records.

The hunger and thirst to be the best, individually or as a team, fuel passion and drive gambling business worldwide. AFL players are willing to risk brain injury like CTE and lay their lives on the line for player contracts and the hunger for a win.
And so it is, each week we cheer our modern gladiators marching into the Colosseums of sport. We celebrate and cheer competitors who risk their health, even their lives, to break records and overcome human limitations.

It is a good thing that it never happens to people like you and me. After all, we would never get sick, have a relationship broken or compromise like the gladiators we see in the media. Or would we?

A message by David Toscano

One of my favourite things to do is to people watch. You know when you are in a café or at a train station, on a bus. And you just see people. People who all have their own concerns and their own lives. They are managing their families and talking to their friends, reading a book, scrolling on their phone. They are living their lives. And, as we know when people live their lives, there is great joy and deep sadness, there is stress and pain, and busyness and loneliness. We all have our own stuff, don’t we?
How will I pay that bill?
What does this diagnosis mean?
How will I manage to get everything done?
Am I raising my kids the right way?
Should I have done something differently?
What will it take to get a promotion?
What do I need to plan for someone’s birthday, or should I start thinking about Christmas gifts?
What are we doing for Christmas?
Sometimes it can feel like, with everything going on, we are just getting by. We make it through the week. We get here on a Sunday, and someone asks how we are and we say, fine.
We say, I’m here.
We say, I’m ok.
And we worship together and we learn and we feel cared for and we stop for a moment.
But by Sunday evening we begin to think about making it through to Friday night. Whether you are working or retired, whether you are busy or have lots of time – we can all feel, sometimes, like life is heavy and we are just getting by.
But I don’t think that Jesus lived as though he was just getting by. I don’t think he died and was raised to life so that I could get by. Jesus said, I came that they might have life and live it… on the weekend? No – Live it to the full.
But what does a fully lived life look like anyway?

A message by Sam Barlow