Behind The Curtain

I walked into the diner yesterday morning for breakfast and a meeting.
I have a standing appointment every Wednesday.
Waitress knows my name.
She knows how I like my coffee.
I guess familiarity has some good qualities.
The regulars are there.
Each with their own meal....
Each with their own thoughts.....
Each with their own..............................................................problems.

You couldn't tell by simply gazing around the room.
Everything looks at peace.
Casual chatter and the rattling of plates and silverware.
The air punctuated by the voice of a waitress calling out the order to the cook.
"Pull one bacon.....hash browns...scattered, smothered and covered."

Yet this morning I see things differently.
I'm sure when the people stop to look at me, they see the same things I see in them.
Someone who is simply trying to get through this life.
Yet in this casual setting....
In this place of food and company....
each of us had our own problems and situations that haunted us like some deep, dark demon.
The guy in the corner.....
He is an alcoholic.
He is a regular but sometimes has to go to the hospital because of his liver.
He is afraid. Unsure.
This diner affords him some normality in his life.
The waitresses know his name and they take care of him.
He construes this to mean friendship and relationship.

The other man, late 30's ...early 40's.....dresses like a jock.
He probably played sports in high school but those dreams have been covered in the dust of life.
Yet he still tries to find his identity from the past.
Baseball cap.....
shades......
sweat shorts and jersey....
Always sits at the counter........drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.
Usually has a newspaper, turned to the sports section.
Makes small talk with the waitresses.

Me?
I'm simply a tired old, fat man trying to get to heaven (as John Wimber liked to say).
My problems are there for all to see.
I have longed since lost the energy to put up a front or try to be something I'm not.
I do not write this to bolster any ego, especially my own.
I simply write it as truth.
You see, in many ways I am very fortunate in that God has put me in a place where problems and character defects are out in the open.
 Being a pastor at a drug and alcohol rehab, you know that every one who comes here does so because they have a major life problem. You can't deny it and you sure can't run away from it.
We don't get many in here who don't have any problems at all.
To me, this puts everyone ahead of the curve.
They have to openly acknowledge "HEY! I'VE GOT A PROBLEM! AND I NEED HELP!"

Unlike the folks at the diner...who drift in and out and carrying around the weight of their own brokenness.
Maybe I should stand one day when I go to that diner and make an announcement.....
"Excuse me....could I have your attention please."
"I have been coming here for 13 years, so I have seen a lot of you on numerous occasions."
"You know....I don't see much joy in your face. I see a lot of pain and heartache."
"For some of you, the pain is the only thing you have left that lets you know you are alive."
"You really don't have to carry this around anymore. Jesus.............yes, that's right, Jesus....!"
"Not the God you thought you knew from church, or the God of the religious television show you watch to make fun of....
 But the real, deal Jesus.......He wants to have relationship with you."
"I know this may offend some of you....I know that you didn't come here to be preached at."
"Well, you know what.....I didn't either, but week after week I see your faces. Eyes that have seen too much and scars and lines that measure out the bad choices you have made. You have forgotten how to laugh........let alone smile."
"There was this long-haired, hippe-type guy back in the 70's who wrote some songs about Jesus simply because he ran into him and it changed his life."
"One of the lines from a song he wrote says, "Why don't you check into Jesus, He's got the answers."

God bless everyone who sits in that diner today.
From the waitress who needs healing for her back because shes always in pain....
to the customer who seeks shelter there for more than food and drink.
If ever there was a place that needed you to be God at, it is this diner.
Amen!

God on you..........
mb