Good night.

It’s getting late but if you’re looking for entertainment for your mind, well here are some safe stories to read about.

I was in church this morning and there happen to be, sitting among brothers and sisters, a man who was drunk. This is Montreal, downtown. That sort of things does not happen very often for sure, but people from the streets do drop in. The man was disrupting the meeting by being loud, so he was asked to leave, but obviously, he did not see why he should so he stayed. There is this rule in the church that drunk people are not allowed to attend church meetings. Some elders and people tried to persuade him to leave, but it was a waste of time. Finally, a white-haired man from a couple rows in front of the little commotion, got up and sat down, right besides the drunken man. The older man put his arm around the man’s shoulders and talked to him gently. The service continued and 10 minutes later, as the pastor was preaching, two police officers came in and took the drunk man away. The pastor obviously stopped preaching and told the congregation why this man had to leave and how we’d like to see him be freed from alcohol. He then prayed for him (the police officers waited for the prayer to be over) and then they left.

What I like about this little story is the love the church showed to this drunk man. Especially the love than the older man showed him. The drunk man was not dressed in his “Sunday’s clothes” as we say in French and he probably did not smell good. But the old man did not seem to care, he treated him like a child who was too young to understand he had to be quiet in church, with so much love. Just the fact that the pastor prayed for him, showed how much he cared, even though the man probably did not understand much, at least the police officers were witnesses of this love.

Now another story from my today.

I was at Berri-Uqam, waiting for the next métro to come by and bring me home. I looked at the time and realized I would have to wait for another 7 minutes. It was late. A man came by and asked me if I knew what time it was. Looking at my watch and I told him, “11:12″ or something like that. He thanked me and shook my hand. Right there I knew he was not the “average” type of person taking the métro, he was probably “not all there” or drunk or I don’t know. People don’t shake your hand for telling the time. So I knew I was in for some fun (I’m being sarcastic here). The man then told me he was a little sad today. Being such a prolific speaker I did not know what to say. I told him how it happens to everybody, once in a while and how we often feel better after a night of rest. But he told me he had been feeling that way for a while. I asked him what he was going to do about it. He didn’t know. “Do you know Jesus” was my next question. He didn’t really answer, he simply said he didn’t believe in him, he had asked and asked from him, but nothing ever worked. The métro came by and we got in. He continued, saying that he was fed up with all the religion and he didn’t believe in any of the “prophets” (I’m not sure what he meant). I didn’t know what to say. So I said, “What are you going to do then?” He didn’t know. I asked him “Then how can I help you?” He said he didn’t know. My station was next and I was about to step out so I simply told him I had found hope in Jesus.

These two little stories tell about broken people. A man, slave to alcohol and a sad man without hope, ready to ask help from a little stranger like me. I’m not really sure how to act and what to say but I know for certain that when Christians display love, even when it is not appreciated, it glorifies God and brings the Kingdom of God in our midst somehow. Why the Kingdom? I don’t know, that’s the way it feels - “The Kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet… He sent his servants to those who had been invited … but they refused to come. … Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready .. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ” (Matthew 22:1-10)

There are so many wretched people - they too are invited to join us at the banquet. That’s how the Kingdom of God looks like.