Johnhwilburn.com

Last Saturday I helped a young lady who is visiting people to ask questions about the yearly Census in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. They are basic questions like how many people live in their home, and how long they lived there. The census workers are encouraged to work in pairs, and since she didn’t have anyone else to work with, I tagged along.

Most of the day was uneventful…..

but we did encounter one person who became very angry.

interestingly it wasn’t the census questions that angered him, but the fact that I was a pastor.

He ran a small bar in the nearby area (I don’t frequent bars, but the young lady needed to ask questions about the house on the premises). When we first came, he was very welcoming, encouraging us to sit down so we could have a drink. I explained to him I didn’t drink but that was okay, in fact the manager was very kind and gracious.

then he found out I was a pastor.

After that he immediately started to condemn God, the church, Jesus, and every core belief of Christianity. In a matter of minutes, I was asked seven or eight questions (he didn’t bother giving me time to answer them) making sure to use profanity for almost every other word. He was angry enough to follow us down to the car still cursing about the foolishness of our beliefs.

How did I respond to this man?

I did nothing.

Now this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered someone who is antagonistic towards the Gospel or Christ. I’ve spent many hours “reasoning” like the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts with those who follow other religions. But I didn’t respond to that man for one simple reason.

He wasn’t listening!!

Truth be told, I think he was slightly inebriated. This made his animosity towards Christianity easier to come out. But this man’s real problem was he had no interest in having a real conversation. He just wanted to curse at a pastor.

Working with the children of Barrouallie I’ve established some rules that we work by. One of the first is that “we ignore the silly people.” Children sometimes want everyone to pay attention to them, or just like being rebellious (we refer to this as silly). The worst thing you can do with someone like this is give them attention since this is what they want.

Sadly, there are adults who like these children, want attention on themselves at all times. When encountering a Christian, they immediately start “putting on a show” to attract all attention on them with profanity, and blasphemous statements.

Worst of all….they won’t listen to reason.

The gentleman Saturday had no interest in having his questions answered, when i tried to start doing so, he just asked three more. If he was open to an actual conversation I’d have no problem answering his questions. But because he just wanted to put on a show, I smiled and let him talk.

Getting into the car as he walked down the path, I waved goodbye and said, “God bless you” (Couldn’t help myself). And driving down the road explained there is nothing wrong with defending our faith. But we ignore the silly people.