A GUY AND A GAL

“And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.  For he had said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.” (Mark 5:7-8)

I often take Sunday afternoon walks, and this past Sunday was no exception.  On Sunday afternoons, I sometimes like to walk from home to the Framingham Public Library and back.  I know that some of the real “no work on the Lord’s Day” hard-liners will not understand me patronizing the library on Sundays.  Yes, I know that in light of New Testament teaching, the “rightness” of having the library open on Sundays and having library staff working on Sundays IS certainly “debatable”, but I take that pragmatic approach that as long as it’s open, I’ll use it.
I like to walk and pray, then sit in the library, read Scripture and make notes in my devotional journal, then walk and pray again.  

On Sundays, the library is open from 2 to 5 in the afternoon (except during the Summer).  I got to the library right at 2, and found a seat upstairs in the reference room.  Within five minutes, my Bible reading was interrupted by the voice of a loud and angry man yelling at the female reference librarian.  While he did not use any “four letter words” in speaking to her, the man was very rude, disrespectful, and insulting.  I think the issue was his use of the library computers.  He felt he was not given enough time on the computer and that the librarian was “playing favorites”.  That certainly does not make sense, as the library had only been open for five minutes at the time.  I could see that the man was tall, fat, somewhat sloppy looking and somewhat lower class looking.  He was loud.  He talked to the librarian, and another female library employee the way a drill sergeant would talk to some new recruit who was out of uniform, leaning against a wall, and had just given the sergeant the finger or something.  The guy claimed to be a “Framingham Town Meeting Member”.  If he is, I certainly hope he’s not from Precinct 13 (my home precinct)!  His behavior was disgraceful.  This all went on for about five to ten minutes, but it SEEMED much longer.  Nobody in the library’s reference room could concentrate on what they were doing.  The guy demeaned the reference librarian’s name and yelled that he was filing a formal complaint with the Town.  He was intimidating and threatening.  Honestly, I FELT like walking up to him and saying something like, “Sir, I’m Pastor Bob Baril of First Assembly of God and you’re behavior is way out of line and I’m asking you to stop.”  I thought about it.  I realized that considering his size, he could easily put me in the hospital.  I also realized that speaking to him could enrage him all the more.  So, right or wrong, I Iooked across the room at him and did not say anything.  I DID have my cell phone ready to call the police in case he took things even further.  Fortunately, he left and did not return.

On the way home, I stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts on Concord Street.  I bought a coffee, and was greeted by “Ellie” a mentally ill woman that I’ve seen around Framingham from time to time over the past ten years or so.  Ellie even attended our church for a short time, although I don’t think she ever made it through a full service without walking out.  At times I’d run into her someplace and she’d ecstatically yell something like, “I’m the VIRGIN MARY and I’m going to FLY to Heaven to meet Jesus!!”.  THIS “Ellie” seemed quite “normal” compared to that.  She lamented that she’s on quite a bit of psychiatric medication and that, “They’re trying to kill me.” Well, compared to “I’m the VIRGIN MARY,” that didn’t sound too bad!  Ellie seriously told me she’s been regularly watching Charles Stanley on television and getting a lot out of him preaching.  I encouraged her to keep that up.  She also showed me a book she’s reading by Christian author and teacher Stuart Briscoe, and I encouraged Ellie that Briscoe’s teachings are sound.  Finally, Ellie  looked at me with some concern and shared a problem:

“On Thursday night I had a dream that the devil was after me,” she said, “and I was terrified for hours after that.”

I felt genuine compassion for her.

“Ellie,” I said, “now I’m serious; if anything like that happens again, you say, ‘I rebuke that in the Name of Jesus!’”.  She genuinely appreciated the exhortation.

When I got home I e-mailed the Director of the Framingham Public Library to let him know what had happened in the reference room.  I was concerned that IF a formal complaint is filed against the reference librarian, he needed to know what really happened.  The Director and I know each other from a committee we’re on, so I was glad to have his e-mail address.  (He replied on Monday and was very grateful for my comments.)

Sunday afternoon... a guy and a gal... each with mental illness issues of one kind or another...  It was quite an afternoon!