Will the circle be unbroken

After watching Four Day Weekend in Fort Worth, Eric and I went for coffee at the cool-indie-coffee-spot-that-was-bought-out-by-Starbucks. It sits, like every other Starbucks, close to an intersection in a high traffic area. And it is a great place to people watch.

On each corner there was a different scene. On one corner was a street evangelist. I thought he was really drawing quite a crowd until I realized all of them were from his youth group. On another corner there were two guys with their hats laying on the ground and their guitars in hand. They were terrible. The third corner housed The Reata, its a pretty nice restaurant in Fort Worth.

Our corner held the Starbucks and a seventy-ish looking middle aged man with a guitar. He was singing folk music that nobody was listening to, so he finally asked a quartet of nicely dressed people close by what they would like to hear. They asked for Amazing Grace. He couldn't remember the words or the tune for that matter. The table tried to cue him along; it didn't go well. But he did aquiesce to singing a "religious song." He sang Will the Circle be Unbroken. In fact, the quartet sitting at the table joined in with him, as did several others. Then he sang I'll Fly Away.

And that corner, for a moment, felt holy.

I wonder if the guitar player--if only for a moment--felt there was a circle that could include him, a few well heeled people that can afford a nice meal at the Reata, a deaf guy (who was also listening to him play) and us--Eric and I.

The street evangelist kids who were told to feign interest in what the preacher preached missed this moment. I'm sure they handed the guy a tract--everybody got a tract, but being too busy "suffering for Jesus" they missed him. I don't mean to knock them, I've often got a plank in my eye as well. Though that night I'd taken it out for awhile and I got to be part of something beautiful.

Joyful even.

Joy is serious business. Joy really is eternal. And it is something I should practice more often.