Missional Monday - Drive-by Peeing

I play in a band, and that means that on ocassion I find myself out at some crazy hour of the morning at a bar or club waiting to take the stage.  This story actually takes place just after we had came off stage, but to fill in the context we have to rewind just just minutes before our set was supposed to start.

On this particular night, we were on a line-up with three other bands.  This means three bands worth of instruments and equipment all crammed into one tiny hallway off to the left of the stage.  It can get really congested and fairly crazy between sets as one band is coming off and another is trying to get on.  That tiny artery can get clogged rather quickly.  As we were scrambling to get our equipment, one of the guys in the band could not find his guitar.  We all began to join in the hunt before finally having to admit that it was missing.  Our friend was almost sick with worry seeing as the back door to the club was right off of this hallway, and there was a very real possibility that someone could have come in and stolen it.  The show must go on, however, and so with a borrowed guitar we hit the stage, and although it took until part way through the first number for nerves to begin to settle, we had a pretty good set.  After the set, we were back to looking, before once again having to admit that it was no where to be found at the club.  A number of us went out in the alley behind the club to load our gear back into our cars before heading home...without the guitar.

It is actually at this point that the strangest part of the story begins.   I grabbed a number of the guys from the band, many of whom were actually the core of my worship team, along with those who are not Christ followers and suggested that we pray for the situation with the guitar.  There we were, standing in a circle in a dark, dingy alley behind the club praying when all of a sudden a car pulls up, a guy jumps out, urinates against the wall beside us, jumps back into his car and speeds off down the alley - it was a drive-by peeing.  We finished praying, laughed out loud at the strangeness of what had just happened, hopped in our cars and headed for home.

So what does this story have to do with being missional?  Nothing really I guess, but I have told this story a number of times and realize that I have had some totally different responses.   I have told this only to see people get stuck at the fact that I would be at a club or bar.  I am not sure they ever heard the rest of the story.  I have had some people get very uncomfortable with the thought of being around non-Christians.  I have had others focussed on the fact that our prayer would have been a great witness to the others in our circle of influence who are not believers.  Finally, others have seen in this story the very real juxtaposition of light and dark that is the reality of the world we live in.  

So here is a missional question for you, when you read the story what stood out for you and what might this say about where our heart and minds are in terms of thinking about engaging a broken world?