[Kid Inspiration]

When I was maybe 10 or 11 my dad took me to see Victor Borge at the Christchurch Town Hall. Victor was a Danish pianist and comedian whose one-man show, Comedy in Music became the longest running ever with 849 performances in the 50’s.

I was thinking yesterday, (happens occasionally) that the performance had quite a profound effect on me. I was one of only maybe 3 or 4 kids in the audience, and maybe I didn’t get all the jokes. I remember laughing pretty hard though.

I don’t even know why dad took me to see him, I had started to learn the piano at that stage, but we hardly ever went to many concerts at all.

Influence and inspiration can happen in the strangest of places. It was at that concert that my love of comedy and music started. And today they are both a huge part of my life.

Music: Well I write songs and play music. And my ipod ear plugs have been repaired (little bit of tape does wonders) frequently through overuse. My wife knows when I am coming because she will hear my whistle before she sees me and my CD collection has slowed its growth only recently because of some perplexing need to spend my hard earned dollars on more nappies.

Comedy: Umm… Well I watch a lot of reruns of Whose Line is it Anyway?… And my weekends at church are spent doing a lot of stand-up comedy… I stand up in front of the kids… they laugh. [hmm... apologies to all reading]

So who are you influencing?

Victor Borge may have done it without realising, but I think we need to be intentional.

Every weekend I am thinking two things (sometimes more… but let’s take an average weekend);

1. The next senior pastor of this church is sitting in one of our kids services.
2. I want every single child in my care to grow up and lead children to Christ. A big fat hairy audacious goal I know… but why have wimpy goals?

If you have never heard of Victor, check out one of his most famous routines, phonetic punctuation below…