Soloman's gift

Looking for his escape his finale of abuse was spectacular finishing with a final benediction to the four corners of the reception.

For a moment I was in another world. I had been called down from my office as there was no-one else on the Training College, everyone else had left - "Would you mind there is an incident on the reception..." the soft South African accent apologised "there is no-one else".

I walked down the stairs and was met with a barrage of abuse from the cause of the incident. Soloman is pyschophrenic and I meet him most Sunday's at The Salvation Army church where we worship together. The two on security looked edgy as Soloman made non-sensical accusations and generally took out all his inner frustration on a face that must have been vaguely familar.

I gently took his arm and spoke into his madness as best I could - with no obvious effect except to start the whole story again. Looking for his escape his finale of abuse was spectacular finishing with a final benediction to the four corners of the reception.

Soloman left with a look of achievement. Perhaps he achieved far more than he realised. His gift to me was fabulous. I walked away from a busy day feeling strangely refreshed!

Comments

Roz Lynch said…
You did say you misse Patrick!
3:18 AM
Anonymous said…
perhaps he sensed you had an intrest in footprint sandels and could see the impression in the floor???
9:32 AM
Anonymous said…
Just wanted to say sorry for using ur blog to have a discussion about whether a certain way of worship is right under the name of the salvation army or not! sorry!
Clare x
4:41 PM
The Smiths said…
Must be just like the old days at Poplar. So much for the wisdom of Soloman, eh?
4:57 PM
Gordon said…
Roz/Gaz - very poplar and patrickesque!

Anon - :o) you could be right!

Clare - you are welcome! Perhaps ask anon to email you and you can keep the debate going.
10:39 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Read more

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Image
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an...
Read more

Types of Christian Spirituality...

Image
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play...
Read more