The Confrontation

BEN: Hey, Joe, can I talk to you a minute?JOE: Sure, what’s up Ben?

BEN: I wanted to ask you something.

JOE: What’s that?

BEN: What’s your spiritual gift?

JOE: My spiritual gift? Well, I’ve always felt that my strongest
gift was the gift of mercy. Why?

BEN: Mercy, huh? Well, I hope you get that gift some day.

JOE: Excuse me?

BEN: I hope you get that gift some day, (building to anger) because
you sure don’t have it now!

JOE: Why do you say that?

BEN: You don’t express mercy toward me. You never talk to me.
You don’t even notice me half the time. You always just walk right
on by. You call that being merciful?

JOE: I’m sorry, Ben. Believe me that was not intentional.

BEN: Sure it was. Hey, I know. I’ve watched you. You go out of
your way to talk to the people you like, and you go out of your way
to avoid me.

JOE: I think you’re making too much of something here…

BEN: Is it because you feel threatened by me? Do you think that
you are the only one who can do stuff in this church? Sure, I know.
Everyone likes you, and you can do no wrong in their eyes. All
the while, you just go right on doing your thing and you totally
kill the dreams of others.

JOE: Kill the dreams?

BEN: (gets right in his face) You killed my dream!!

JOE: Ben, I’m afraid I don’t even know what you are talking about
now.

BEN: Oh yes you do! I had a dream, and you killed it!

JOE: Is this about you wanting to sing your own songs in the
service? Because I have nothing to do with that.

BEN: Oh, yes you do! Yes you do, Mr. Showman! You and your big
productions, with the costumes and the set and musical numbers…
everyone singing every note perfectly, and you parading around in
your robes with your friends, and everybody loves it. Well, that’s
what you think. I’m here to tell you that everyone doesn’t love it.
Some of us can see right through you.

JOE: I don’t know what you are so angry about. Look, if you don’t
like something I am doing. That’s fine. You have a right to your
opinion. If you want to be a part of it, you can be. You dropped
out of choir after only two rehearsals, so I assumed you were not
interested.

BEN: I could tell you didn’t want me there.

JOE: That’s not true, Ben.

BEN: You were never going to use me.

JOE: You never gave me a chance! How do you know I wouldn’t have
used you? I’ve heard you sing, and I know you have a nice voice.
The chances are great that I would have used you. But you dropped
out so fast, I thought you weren’t interested. I guess I should
have talked to you about it, and then you could have explained your
feelings to me. I had no idea.

BEN: Yeah, I guess so. But since you never talk to me, how could
that ever happen?

JOE: Look, there are a lot of people in this church who I don’t get
around to talking to. I’m sure there are many who I’ve talked to
even less than you. And folks don’t always come and talk to me
either… but I’m not all worked up about it. I had no idea that you
wanted to talk to me so bad. You know, you could have just walked
up to me.

BEN: I have. You always end the conversation as fast as you can,
and then you are off doing your own thing. You can’t deny that.

JOE: Okay, I will admit, that there are some people who are harder
to get close to. I really don’t feel that comfortable around you.
I don’t know why. I don’t know what it is. I see I need to work on
that. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.

BEN: Yeah, right. I came to you asking if I could sing, and you
just brushed me off.

JOE: I didn’t brush you off. I just told you that it wasn’t my
decision. I directed you to the pastor and the deacons. They have
a policy about that, and if you want them to change their policy,
then you will have to talk to them.

BEN: But you are the director. You are in charge. You have the
influence.

JOE: I am under their authority. I don’t have total freedom. I am
not necessarily in agreement with all of their decisions, but they
have their reasons, and I submit to them, because they are my
authorities. I am assuming you talked to them about changing their
policy so that you could sing, and they told you ‘no’, and that is
what you are upset about.

BEN: You knew they would. You just passed the buck. You didn’t
have the guts to tell me to my face.

JOE: I did tell you. I told you what the policy was, and I sent
you to them, because I can’t change anything.

BEN: It’s wrong!

JOE: Maybe it is. But we are just going to have to live with it,
aren’t we? I’m sorry you are hurt. There are things that you can
do. It doesn’t have to be as bad as you are making it.

BEN: Just forget it! Nothing will ever change here! You won’t and
they won’t! I don’t know why I even bothered! (He walks off
abruptly)