I thought Monday night was going to be a great night, but not for the reasons that actually made it great. I thought it was going to be great because I would be challenged by the revelation and intellectually stimulating talk by Rob Bell entitled, “The God’s aren’t angry.” Well, the talk was wonderful and yes it was stimulating and thought provoking, but it is the events that unfolded after the talk that made the night, well, a night of contrast.
After leaving the Tabernacle, the beautiful old church building that has now become one of Atlanta’s top music venues, we stood outside in the brisk air contemplating what we just heard and taking in the city around us, when all of a sudden this man begins to talk to Christina and I. We joke around with him a bit, making small talk and ask his name, which he responds, “Daniel Wise.” Then Daniel meets Andy and asks him for some money, but instead we ask him to come eat with us. So the 4 of us begin to walk up the street towards a diner on the corner. As we are walking aother man name Chris asks us for money and we again tell him to come and join us for dinner. He joins us as well. Meanwhile Josh, my husband, starts talking to a man named Clifford and they begin to share their lives. We all go into the diner and eat together. We asked them about their stories and they shared their hardships and dreams with us. Daniel shared that he lost his wife and he couldn’t handle life after that and became addicted to drugs and then soon after was diagnosed with Cancer and after the chemo he was broke and ended up on the streets. He shared with us his faith and we had him write his prayer requests on a napkin so that we could continue to pray for him. The other man, Chris, smelled really bad. When he talked you almost wanted to hold your breath and breathe after he was done speaking so that you would not have to smell his breath. But, you begin to get past the smell when you hear his story and his desires. His dream is to one day work on a clean-up crew for a contruction company. Now, that is humbling.
While we are talking to Daniel and Chris, Josh is hanging outside with Clifford. Josh had given him some money that he got out of the ATM and jsut sat on the curb sharing life with Cliff. Cliff’s dream is to one day own a salon. What struck me about Cliff was that when another man named, Michael Williams, came up to us asking for money he gave him some of the money that Josh has just given him. Michael had told us that he was addicted to crack and that is why he was on the street. Cliff was impressed by his honesty and gave the man the amount of money he requested. It was a beautiful picture of “loving your neighbor as yourself” and just sharing the blessing.
Well the contrast begins now. We leave these 4 wonderful men and begin to head back to our car, when we pass back by the Tabernacle. These 2 men are standing on the street preaching at the people that had just attended Rob Bell’s message. They were not preaching in a loving manner, but were there to fight and judge people using the scripture. When we are passing by Andy recognizes one of the guys and says to him, “you need to forgive her and move on.” Well that really ruffled this guys feathers. The story is that his wife cheated on him and he is bitter at her as well as the church they were attending because he believes the church was wrong in not kicking her out. He now has bitterness rooted in his heart, in which he says he is not willing to forgive. Andy had spoken to this guy another day when he was preaching on a street corner closer to our home. Well the man began to attack me, using scripture to judge me. Then he began judging and attacking my friend Christina. I stepped out of the conversation and started praying with my hands in the air and speaking out loud, but not loud enough for them to hear. I prayed that God would quiet their tongues and that the judging spirit and bitterness would flee. Right then, both of these men looked at me and stopped talking. Then, the one man in anger says to me, “don’t you raise your hand to God like you know him, like you obey him.” This fired me up inside and in my agitation I responded that “God knows my heart – He knows me, ” as if I had to proclaim it to this man. Why did I feel the need to defend myself? Why did these men frustrate me so much?
Afterwards, Christina, Andy, Josh and I headed to Centennial Olympic Park to pray. We prayed for the 4 homeless men that we met. And, we prayed for the two men that we encoutered. We prayed that they would all know GOD’S LOVE! What a night of contrast. From the homeless men who had such great love to the men who claimed Jesus and were so unkind to us. In the end it was a great night and a learning experience.
