Listen!

Red barn
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

A story from our Jeff Street book of stories. This is one of my favorites, from our pastor, Cindy...

So, one time this fella was evicted from church for bad behavior. We don’t recall what exactly he was doing now, but he was on the inebriated side of things and was causing a disruption during a Wednesday night mealtime (our Wednesday night prayer meetings are preceded by a dinner where all are welcome, and many often come).

Usually, when this sort of thing happens (and it does happen at times), Diane or Kate or Cindy or one of us (and more often than not, it’s one of our fearless women) will deal with it. Escort someone out, call the cops if necessary. One way or the other, we deal with it.

This time, Cindy escorted him to the door on a cold night, insisting that he had to leave. He argued his way out of the room and argued at the door, and eventually Cindy opened the door, got him outside, and closed the door.

Still, he remained on the other side of the door, yelling at Cindy but Cindy was insistent. She stood her ground on the inside of the door repeating, “No, you just need to go on. Go on. I’ll have to call the police. Go away.”

And the fella just stood right there on the other side of the door, yelling.

Cindy eventually opened the door to tell him to his face he needed to go on, at which point she could hear that he’d been yelling, “My coat’s stuck in the door!”

We don’t always know the reasons for people’s behaviors, and sometimes we never will. But sometimes – sometimes, we just have to listen at least a little.