B E H I N D / T H E / B A R

My buddy Michael came in today, if you remember I shared his story with you last week.  He came in pretty hot under the collar after an interchange he had on his way past a street preacher downtown.  Apparently this guy likes to give Michael a pretty hard time on a regular basis.  He doesn’t know much about Michael, never really had a conversation with him, to learn about his life, but he does seem to be pretty confident where Michael is going to spend eternity.    Most days Michael is able to let it roll off his back, but today it was a little harder.

Street Preacher said something to him about going to church, to which Michael replied that he had a church, just up the street, “it meets at Cadence Coffee, on Sundays.”  Turns out Street Preacher knows about us too, not a lot but enough to express his opinion.  “I know where you go, that ain’t no church, its just a place for [insert derogatory racial term here] and idiots.”  Well that made Michael mad, and he came in saying, “I need to get you to pray for me, cause that dude done gone and made me mad, real mad.”

We weren’t bothered too much by Street Preacher, in fact we explained to Michael that Jesus says we’re actually blessed because of what Street Preacher said:

11 “You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. – Matthew 5:11, 12

In a weird sort of way, that was one of the highlights of my day.  Michael didn’t stay mad and discouraged.  In fact, he left laughing, and high-fiving because we helped him see that what appeared to be an insult was actually a confirmation of God’s blessing.

Remember, sticks ‘n stone may break your bones, but words don’t have to hurt.

Help us pray for Street Preacher – He’s obviously a broken man just like the rest of us.  Guess we need to take him a cup of coffee tomorrow.