M is for MAGAZINE

I'm one of those people whom newsagents hate to see coming into their shops, . I can stand for ages at the magazine racks and browse, without ever buying anything, but I'm not alone for sometimes it's difficult to get a parking space at the racks with all the other people who want to do exactly as I do. And what a wealth of magazines is now available. I had a glance at some of the titles the other day in one of our big book stores and I discovered glossy productions for men, women, teenagers, sporting enthusiasts, computer buffs, home lovers, musicians and lots of others on holidays, buying property, cars, games, keep fit, body building, yachting, boat building, stamp collecting, the money market, a whole host of hobbies and of course other mags, usually on the top shelf, catering for the seedier side of life.

I started collecting my first magazine in the early seventies when Shoot, a weekly football publication, appeared for the first time. Initially it was their free gift of 'league ladders', spread over several issues, that enticed me to buy. These consisted of little tabs, in the colours of every team, that fitted into slots on a league table and allowed you to keep an up-to-date record of where every team was in their respective leagues. While the idea was good in theory, I soon found out that it took more than a little work every week to keep them correct and soon found it easier to just look at the paper. However by that stage I was already hooked on the publication and every week, had it on order from our local newsagent. it was full of colour pictures that were often removed to adorn the walls of my bedroom and there were always lots of interesting articles to read. Having collected the magazine for several years, one day I decided that they were taking up too much space and burned the lot! How I wish I had kept the first issue now.

Sometime after we were married, wife took a liking to Hello and the whole process began again with the magazine on order every week and even my dad, who collected it for us, acquiring a decent knowledge of celebrities over the years. Every few months they would be collected up from around various racks in the house and piled in the attic. Then one day, having collected the magazine for several years, we decided that they were taking up too much space and recycled the lot. Progress!

During all of this time, I have been the occasional buyer of other publications though for some years I was hooked on one or two musical instrument mags, but more for the adverts to compare prices than for the articles and often for the free gifts that came attached to the front cover, first as floppy discs and later as CDroms. However I no longer hoarded these and once they had served their purpose, they were either recycled or passed on to some other enthusiast. The odd time I also bought a car magazine but usually only when I was in the notion of changing the car.

Wife also still buys a 'homes' mag or 'Hello' but there is no longer any compulsion to be up to date with the rest of the world. Now if I am standing at a magazine rack, I'll have a quick read at a local rugby glossy or a Liverpool FC publication and might even browse through a music or guitar mag or check the latest computers in a PC journal but rarely will I bring any of them to the counter. Is that terrible? I don't know but it has one or two lessons about life all the same.

What it teaches me more than anything is that life is all about choices and how as we get older, we begin to realise the really important choices we need to make. I still enjoy browsing magazines but in the bigger picture, in the longer term what's most important to me? The answer is my relationship with my Creator. And that brings me to the second lesson I have learnt. We can 'browse' for ages at Christianity without buying into it. We can know as much as anyone else about the Bible, key verses, the right words to say in the right places. Why we can even have important positions within the church, right up as far as minister and still only have head knowledge. The sad thing is that there are many like us who are similarly 'browsing' but walk away empty handed without the free gift of Salvation that God has provided. Paul reminds us that 'the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Time to stop browsing and choose and the great thing is that He has already paid for it.