Author: Sharon
Are You Too Far Behind To Catch Up?
There are chapters in, “A Manly Man” and, “Why You Make God Smile” that stress the importance of surrendering your heart to God before i...
Chapter 2: I Don’t Need Help Do I?
Okay, okay, I have an issue with this already. Who is this silly woman and why is she expecting me to take notice of what she says? Aren’t there enough females ...
Chapter 3: What Makes You Feel Manly?
How does a gentleman like you think? What do you believe makes a man, manly? You can tick as many as you like below: Did some of those make you feel guilty? Di...
Chapter 4: Who Was Jesus?
There’s one thing I have noticed. You keep interchanging the name “God”, with “Jesus”. You have talked about worshipping God then mentioned the importance of ob...
Chapter 5: Rough Sports
When the footballer skids across the grass to shoot that ball through the net, he is not caring about his bloody knee. He knew his skin would rip as it came int...
Chapter 6: Are You Calling Me Evil?
So, let me get this right. Are you saying that just because I don’t worship your Jesus that I’m evil? I have never murdered anyone and I don’t even believe in s...
Chapter 7: What About Suffering?
Umm. I think I understand it now. I know that everyone that ever lived – all of creation – have sinned in some way and even though those offences may not ...
Chapter 8: All Things Noisy
Here’s a stereotype that’s partly true: Men like loud things! Motorbikes revving. Sports cars racing. Deafening exhaust pipes. Shouting crazily at matches, espe...
Chapter 9: A Body to Die For
Have you ever seen a dead body in real life? Up close and personal? Imagine one is lying in front of you – a dead male, all pale and lifeless on a slab. I...
Welcome (Introduction)
Welcome to part 2 of, “Why You Make God Smile…”. In Volume 1, there was a poem that began, There’s coffee in the sugar, There’s mould on the ham, Toast crumbs i...
Chapter 10: Is It So Bad?
Can I be honest with you? I had a friend who said he was a male witch. There was no secret about it – he told everyone. He didn’t even dress in black or look me...
That Big ‘Ole Bible Scares Me Half to Death!
“Why would I want to read anything written by someone who is going on about the Bible? Isn’t it just an old fashioned, religious book that makes people feel wor...
Epilogue
Since the bookshop closed, over the years, it’s been great reminiscing with Sophie and Casper, and it’s helped Casper in particular, get over some issues that w...
Why Are Christians So Confusing?
I feel sorry for non-believers. We Christians can be so fickle, hypocritical and downright confusing. Years ago, I was laughing with Cammie and Daisy (the chara...
Chapter 12: Springing Into Action
For a large proportion of retailers, the Christmas period is their most important time of the year, because that is when they make the most profit. For us, Chri...
Chapter 25: A Sad Farewell
Unfortunately, our bookstore chain never survived. The company went into liquidation and all 41 stores closed. Twenty-six of our branches went into administrati...
Chapter 24: For the Love of Bibles
For those of you who are still in the Christian retail sector, what an exciting time for you all! Especially the ladies! If I was in a shop right now, I’d be gr...
Chapter 23: Bloopers
Many years ago, while I still worked for the bank, I was attending a wedding when I spotted a girl with whom I was vaguely acquainted. After the ceremony, she w...
“It’s All About the Faith, ’bout the Faith”
After Jonathon Steingard’s Instagram revelation back in 2020, that he no longer believes in God, and the subsequent backsliders who eased out of the Atheist clo...
Chapter 22: Escape to the Yellow Arches
“Get over it!” How many times have people said that when somebody is harping on about an issue that bugs them? Cammie was very patient. I constantly whinged to ...
Chapter 21: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
One of the best aspects of working at the shop was that there was a large variety of jobs to do and different skills to learn for each of them. Good We had two ...
Chapter 20: The Coconut
Apart from The Gaithers and anything black gospel, our all-round most popular selling music was an Irish lady called Marilla Ness, Celtic singer Máire Brennan, ...
Chapter 19: Mafia Man
He always looked like he was posing for a photo shoot, but to actually call him a ‘poser’ would be cruel because not only is that a negative judgement, but he’s...
Chapter 18: The Prayer Meeting
The situation with the drunken men was becoming increasingly worse. Almost every day we had to deal with an unwanted disruption, and it began to feel like the d...
Chapter 17: Has This Been Counted?
The first years of stocktaking were performed when the shop was closed. We would take one or two days and finish within the timescale given by Head Office. Extr...
Chapter 16: Ryan
Of all the drunken men who frequented the store, Ryan was the one who touched my heartstrings the most. Firstly, he was the most regular – visiting us up to 3 t...
Chapter 15: Difficult Choices
It is not always easy to make the right decisions when faced with somebody who has a penchant for self-importance. It is even harder when that person is a custo...
Chapter 14: Adam
Adam spoke in monotone voice. He wasn’t autistic but would have loved people to think he was. I liked him. My colleagues didn’t. Casper and Trudy had endured mo...
Chapter 13: Little Green Balls and Holy Hounds
From time to time, I loved to play pranks on my colleagues to ease the tension of a stressful day. Jessie was my best accomplice because she was even more giggl...
Chapter 11: All for Nothing?
People tend to see things from their own point of view. Therefore, whenever I am evaluating something that I did not approve of, I try to turn things around and...
Chapter 10: Thieves
Items disappeared from the shop from time to time. The most opportune moment for thieves was during the lunch period when less staff were on the shop floor. Not...
Chapter 9: The Building
Even though our shop was in the heart of the city, it was grubby in places that could not be easily cleaned. Apart from the two main display windows at the fron...
Chapter 8: Tristan
Tristan was a small elderly man with a row of gappy teeth and a wide grin. He spoke in a gruff voice and wobbled when he walked. This was not owing to old age. ...
Chapter 7: Street Evangelism
I giggled. And giggled. Trudy refused to look at me while she served the man in the shop. One would have thought his attire was invisible the way she kept a str...
Chapter 6: Head Office
The management team were run by a group of people dedicated to spreading the word of God. They were passionate about seeing a Christ presence on the high street...