Mercy is a spiritual gift that I do not have. Well…let me put it this way…I just don’t have mercy for stupid Christians. I really don’t. It’s amazing to me how some Christians act and I seem to have a knack for meeting some of the really crazy ones.
Last night before our youth service, as the band was rehearsing, a lady came bursting into the room flailing her arms in the air. At first I thought there must be some major problem going on, because the lady seemed to almost be in tears. We stopped playing and then I realized that I’ve seen this lady before. Long story short, for about the third time since I’ve been here, a Christian lady from the community behind our church came in and lit into me for having "loud music." I’ve been patient with her before, but last night…wow…I couldn’t take it anymore. Here’s some snippets:
Crazy lady: "People have pictures falling off the wall because of how loud the music is down here."
Me: "I think some of your community has the gift of exaggeration. My office right here has pictures on the wall that don’t seem to fall of with the loud music."
Crazy lady: "There are a couple of people in our community that need to be reached for Christ, and things like this keep them from church."
Me: "We will have 100 youth in here that need to hear about Christ. I tell you what…you reach those two and I’ll reach the 100 in here."
Crazy lady: "I go to ___ ___ Baptist Church and our youth pastor doesn’t have to use loud music to reach kids"
Me: "Well…he can continue reaching those kids. We’re gonna reach those that he is not reaching."
Crazy lady: "If you would only take it down one decibel, it would make a huge difference."
Me: "It would take a lot more than one decibel to make a difference."
Luckily, another pastor who is well gifted with mercy, came in and escorted her out. It was nuts.
Here’s the deal…whenever you are reaching people, there will always be opposition. Usually, it’s from people like this lady who really have no clue what it’s all about. Don’t waste your time with them. There are more important things in this world than dealing with idiots that claim to be Christians, yet bash you every chance they get.
On a funny note…she did bear a striking resemblance to this lady:
husband. father. leader of a community of Christians called Venue Church. creative. passionate about diversity. simply trying to be obedient in the little (and huge) things.
You know, Josh, I have to say I’m quite proud of you for the way you handled it. I wouldn’t say it was a lack of mercy, just an obvious observation of sorts.
Your responses to her were quite wise!