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A Safety Netby Dalton Tice

TY Work Portfolio, May 2009

I suppose it’s fair to say that I have grown up in a religiousenvironment. My parents were to a certain extent ‘god- fearing’and we did the traditional church on Sundays, that is when it didn’tconflict with sports fixtures. We didn’t like to admit it but Englandagainst the West Indies in the final match of a five-test seriessecretly took priority over the ringing church bells in the distance. Iwasn’t too bothered about God. To me he seemed like some meankid, with a white beard, sitting on top of an anthill and playingGodzilla on the local population of ants. Church bored me beyondbelief. I’d find myself reading through the Bible, looking for somereference to rugby, the closest being ‘It’s better to give then toreceive.‘ What was the point? To me it was just a rule book, anexcuse for old men with white collars to feel some sense of authority on a Sunday morning and a little hope for grannies gettinga hip replacement. I believed in God, but the whole idea of Christianity seemed strained, perhaps boring in a way.I had this friend and I knew he was a Christian. He went to myschool, and even though he didn’t play rugby, which was the onlything my mind seemed to revolve around at the time, there was stilla sense of gusto associated with him. He wasn’t a hermit and Inever once heard him humming psalms to himself. So when heinvited me along to this Christian talk I saw no reason not to go. Itdefinitely wasn’t your conventional church meeting. There wasn’t adog collar to be seen anywhere or any old man for that matter, infact it had a somewhat laid-back atmosphere. A young manstepped up to do this talk. From a distance it looked as if he mighthave had gel in his hair, which must have been a first for theChurch of Ireland. His speech lingered a bit but I listened and therewas something fresh and different about it. He explained what theBible really said, how it wasn’t a rock waiting for someone to trip