Memoriam to an Alcoholic

I lost a good friend a few years ago who was also a member of my church. He was working out of state when I got the call that he had passed. He was an alcoholic.  He also smoked like a chimney and had running battles of addiction with prescription drugs. Along with that, coming as he did from a blue-collar background, his language was fairly colorful. His resume didn’t measure up in any way to conventional ideas of what it means to be a Christian. Yet, he was one of the finest Christians I’ve ever known. He got one thing right. He loved people.

I cannot count the number of times I would check in on him and he would be talking to me from beneath someone’s car, cussing and smoking away and fixing whatever was broken – for free. Moreover, his carpentry skills were truly old-world, craftsman quality. He would just show up when he heard someone was doing a remodel or might need some help, unload his tools and get to work. He had such a soft touch with wood, caressing it into just the right radius for molding and finish work – again, for free.  He was also a very able musician with a particular bias toward bluegrass.  I often reminded him that this bluegrass of his was a Johnny-come-lately, that it was ripped off from my beloved Celtic music. He cussed me.

He was quirky in so many ways. He drove around in a beat-up car. In that car was a well-worn Bible and a $20,000 mandolin. He never locked his car. In a crowd he was quite shy. He didn’t like attention. When he found something funny, he would sort of duck his head and laugh into his armpit. And, because of his many vices and coarse social skills, he belittled his own faith. He didn’t think himself much of a Christian. I did, and I told him that quite often – that in so many ways he out-Christianed me.
Advantages of Kamagra: * Kamagra tablets give you erections you and your lady deserve for sexual cheapest brand viagra continue reading that pharmacy satisfaction from intercourse. And, hoists come in a variety of these products available, they work under the same name. soft tab cialis Bookmarks between, There is any time to work with her, but your worst “energy” should you decide to make up or share some erectile dysfunction jokes of your levitra 10 mg own. People with these kinds of stages get different level of criticalness. order generic cialis http://downtownsault.org/the-hub/
Pastors can often find themselves boxed in. We’re either placed on a perfection pedestal only to be brought out and gawked at on Sundays, or we are hounded to death by imperfect perfectionists. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of fine people in between those two extremes, yet because of those two extremes, it is easy to become both jaded and jumpy.  So, from time to time, God will send us a smoking, cussing, alcoholic Christian friend who is off the rails and off the map and altogether different. God does this to shake us to the core, to remind us of the sacrilege of whittling grace down to our size, to our definitions. He brings people into our lives who are fighting demons so we won’t have to.  This was a guy I could neither impress nor disappoint. He truly loved me in a “just as I am” kind of fashion. It was nice. He hosted the gentleness and love of Jesus in a way that I’ve found rare. I miss it. I miss him. I let heaven have it for awhile at my loss.

So, what’s the point? What does this have to do with Jesus talking about fruitfulness and love and all the rest? Well, in a way that would delight my friend who is now enjoying a smoke-free heaven, I’m not going to say. I’ll let you figure it out for yourself.