Chris' Children In Need Auctions

From comedian & writer Paul Kerensa:

My desk has never been cleaner. My socks are all paired, my books have been alphabetised and my pencils are dangerously sharp. Why? I’ve got a tax return to do – anything’s better than facing that shoebox of receipts.

As a self-employed, coffee-shop-hopping freelancer, I’m told to keep every receipt pertaining to work. Hot drinks, work-based snacks, research materials (alright, magazines and cinema tickets) – whatever’s helped fuel a book or a script. And no, writing a Pause For Thought about a trip to Majorca doesn’t make flights tax-deductible, it turns out.

But once started, pathetic as it sounds, I’ve found myself reminiscing over receipts. Fondly recalling meals I had a year ago. “Ah, that little coffee shop before that gig in Bristol… Ooh, that Liverpool all-you-can-eat buffet … Oh, that three-course dinner before going onstage, then nearly falling asleep at the mic due to the bloated sugar rush.”

A year of my life, represented by papery reminders of things consumed. I hope it doesn’t entirely sum me up. But what do I have to show for it? Maybe it’s too simplistic to ask if I needed that latte, that bit of cake. But the wider story can be quite telling.

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” My heart’s clearly in a heap of caffeine – probably beating like a drumroll. But our treasure isn’t just money. Writer Rick Warren explained: “Here’s how you know what’s important to people: Look at their calendar, look at their bank statement.”

If we’ve got a new passion, we find time and enthusiasm, when we thought we’d run dry. In exhausted modern lives, it means digging deep, finding new energy and resources. Call it ‘emotional fracking’.

We feel spent, skint, running late, days full. But when I’m staring at receipts in caffeinated nostalgia, I recall not only when I justified that nice dessert, but when I left that café, and walked past that homeless teenager, their hands in pockets keeping the cold out, my hands in pockets keeping my wallet in.

Digging deeper, reaching out, leaving people better than when we found them – that’s living. Children In Need isn’t just the name of a charity. It’s lower-case as well as upper-case: those children, in need, of our hard-earned, quickly-spent-on-coffee resources. And maybe when we look back at where we’ve put our treasure, we’ll remember our heart is there too.