The Smell of Beer

I never knew how important the smell of beer in a truck could be.

As I was riding in the passenger seat of this newer truck, I thought to myself that it might have been the first time that there was a lingering smell of alcohol in a moving vehicle and I was not feeling either guilty or scared. In fact, I was thankful for the aroma of the beer.

You see, we were heading to a Bible study to meet a group of friends, who as of about a month ago were strangers to a couple of us. And the person who was responsible for introducing all of us was sitting in the back seat riding with us to our meeting place. We drop by every week, and every week he is surprised that we have shown up, and he has to hustle and get dressed and finish his beer so that we can get there in time.

After each week, he gets back in the truck when it is all over and says that he is glad that we showed up to bring him down, that this time it was really good for him to hear what was being said. And yet, the next week, you can almost be assured that he is going to be surprised that we are there and he will still be drinking his beer. He will most likely get in the truck and tell us about the most recent fight he had with his girlfriend, or his most recent run-in with the police, or “clarify” for us that he is just having his first beer. Frankly, we can expect that not much has changed with his life from the week before.

But that is not what is important. It is not important to have him say some prayer and tell him that everything is going to get easier because of the prayer he just prayed. It is not important to continuously lay guilt on him for things that he might have allowed to go awry in his life. I’m not sure if any of that is the point.

I think it is important that somebody is there every week at his place to see him, and talk with him, and let him know that someone cares. I think it is important that somebody is there to help him work through issues he may be having rather than condemning him. I think it is important that he can see that there are other ways, other options. I think it is important that someone gives him a ride to hear the Word. I think it is important that someone simply shows up. I’m just glad that God has sometimes allowed that someone to be me.

I never knew how important the smell of beer in a truck could be.