Ding Dong!

So, last night I was in bed. I was sound asleep. All of a sudden I find myself awake, very awake. Was that the door bell? No, surely not. I close my eyes.

There it goes again. This time we’re both awake, squinting at the clock. Its 2.45am and there is someone at the door. I’m lying there in denial and saying nothing. But it rings again and the Commissioner begins to bark. (yeah, we have a dog called Brengle).

I get up and go down stairs and head to the kitchen for the rolling pin (very Christian of me). I try to peak out the window. I see nothing. The bell rings again. The dog barks again!

I make my way into the hall way, can see the figure standing there but no idea who it is through the glass. I’m guessing, by the persons stance that this man is either drunk, on drugs, or is a deranged axe murdered without an axe. Funny what your brain does at 2.45am.

I call out ‘who is it?’ No reply. I get down and peer out the letter box. The man bends down and says ‘Its just me!’

At that, I lay down my lethal rolling pin and open the door to Jim (not his real name). I say ‘Jim, what on earth are you doing here at this time of the morning?’ At this he stumbles drunk half-way through the door. I manage to get him stable and he starts to re-count the same woes that I hear from him every week when I encounter him in the pub.

Jim was wrapped in an Army flag and dedicated as a baby and covenanted himself as a Junior Soldier. He tells me that he’s coming too the meeting next week. Its always next week. God is always pulling him to the Army.

We have the same talk as we always do about his woes. I put my clothes on, bundle him into the car and drive him all the way home. I pray with him at the door. I give him my business card to remind him that this encounter has happened at all.

“Come and see me when you’re thinking clearer” I tell him. He promises he will. This time, he might.