Pastor Ray is my papa.

My father can talk to anyone. He is a senior who saves $1.51 every time he gets coffee at MacDonalds, which he does every Saturday morning. There are several regulars there. We pulled up last Saturday and a young man out for a cigarette hailed him from the sidewalk. I caught the first two words of the exchange, "THAT woman," he said. He was unloading the story on my Dad. People do that. They seek his ear and his advice. However, the man was not confessing, by his body language and pitch of voice I guessed it was more of an acquisation or gossip. I headed into the restaurant.

Apparently, it turned out that the young man is a homeless guy who recently had a bicycle stolen (some kids ripped off this homeless guy, gees!) He got mad and he got drunk. In unfortunate timing, while having a bout of consoling booze, he also had a bout of loud words with THAT woman. To the young man it seemed THAT woman didnt care that he was hurting and blowing off steam from the injustice done to him by some kids who had just ripped off his whole life! And the woman, offended by his drunkenness, and volume felt the guy had no respect for anyone and she didn't appreciate his foul language and in no uncertain tone and terms had let him know. As a result, the exchange was futile, no one was seeing the other person and everyone was/is offended.

It is easy to see how we get into such things. How do we get out of such things???

"This is a classic example of being previous offended," I mentioned to my Dad. The light went on in his eyes, "YES!," he leaned forward and put his hand on my shoulder. He spoke softly "Are you having a bad day, dear?" Pastor Ray laughed out loud.