Our first day doing ministry here in Darwin, Australia we set out to do a Bible study in the aboriginal community of Bagot. Now over this last year I have encountered many local drunks, and our first night in Bagot I learned that I’ve stereotyped the village drunk man as someone who I cannot help, as someone who has nothing to offer me, and as someone who is somehow a further distance away from God than I.
Every time I’ve seen Richard this month he has been intoxicated and therefore he unfairly fell into my stereotype of the village drunk. Durning the Bible study he kept shouting out gibberish and I became more and more annoyed by him. I honestly thought it would be better for everyone including him if he wasn’t there. I didn’t think he could possibly be getting anything out of the study and I thought for sure he was not at all interested in God.
After Phil (the man on our team leading the Bible study that night) finished his talk we moved into worship. We sung a couple songs and then I thought the night was over. However, Isobel (our contact) wanted some of the people from the aboriginal community to sing a song for us. When she called up Richard to play the guitar I laughed to myself preparing for quite the drunken show. Then he hit his first chord… WABAAMM!! Punched right in the chest… He held the melody and even sung along really well for the rest of the song. He was there to encounter God just as much as I was, and in that moment I’m sure God was smiling down on him a bit more than myself.
I saw Richard for the first time through God’s eyes instead of my own. Richard has a heart for the Lord and he has struggles and copes with things on this earth just like I do. Sure we might go about pushing through the hard parts of life differently, but I don’t think God looks at that as much as He looks at our heart for Him. My prayer from that day forward has been, ‘God, show me peoples heart behind their struggles and coping mechanisms, because I want to love them as you love them. Amen.’
One week later Richard punched Scott Taylor (another guy on our team) in the face only this time with his fist. I’m not sure if he has written about it but you should check out his blog either way.
