Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Friends on the street

One day a week I have the privilage of standing with the War Cry outside Tesco in Durham, and what a privilage it is. I have made many friends, and yes I do believe them to be friends. They might not follow my blog, be on facebook or twitter, many of them do not know my name, nor me theirs, but week in and week out they share their lives with me.

A few weeks ago I was talking to one man about an experience I had in Starbucks. I was just calling in for a drink, I ordered the coffee and to my supprise the man serving me told me that his name was Chris and asked me if there was a name for my coffee. Well I wanted to say "Coffee" but I was polite and muttered David.

Well I was talking to this man on the street about this and we had a laugh, but he added, no one calls me by my first name only friends.

It must have been two months later after many more conversations, some quite deep, some personal, some about his family, some about mine, but he ended the conversation with these words "my name is Neil, what is yours?"

What an honour, I had made a friend on the steet in Durham. He might never come to hear me preach, read any of these blogs and I am almost certain I will never see him in church, but every week we talk about life and family and within this reality we talk about our God.

Is this man a Christian? In whose definition? Maybe one day I will be able to answer that question.

As soon as we look at the people on the street through the eyes of organised religion we imediatly judge them, just as the Church did in Jesus's time.

My friends on the street teach me a lot about God and his grace. Jesus showed us how God saw mankind. I believe that the people on the street can show the church how mankind sees God.

I believe that there is less rejection of God than we believe there is. I see hope in the eyes of my friends, and I know that the God of hope is out there.

PS I'm sorry but I am not a good speller, is there a spell checker



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