Calloused Listening

11/19/2014       Officer “Andrew”        about 45

Something told me to reach out to “Andrew”, an on-duty Chicago police officer who had stopped in to get a bite to eat at our grocery store Starbucks.  “Excuse me, I’m a Christian from a church nearby and I’m wondering if you have a few minutes to answer an interesting question.”  He did, so I asked about his thoughts on what happens after we die.  He said “Well. I’m a christian too and I believe we will be reincarnated as another person”.  We went on to find out that “Andrew” grew up in communist Romania with atheist parents, and had little contact with the Orthodox faith of his grandparents.  His few memories of visits to his grandparent’s church gave him a very peaceful feeling as he experienced the incense-filled cathedral, but he didn’t find out much about religion until he married his Catholic wife after moving to the United States.  Halfway into our conversation, he received a call on his shoulder radio.  “Do you have to go?”  I asked.  “Naw, just a domestic.  We get calls from this couple all the time.” He said.  I was glad we could continue our conversation, but I thought about this later.  It kind of struck me that there might be a connection between his lack of response to the call on his radio and his response to God.  I’m not sure if he had ever clearly heard the Gospel, but he did have opportunities to hear some of God’s truth at his grandparents church and his wife’s.  But he had somehow turned from it and felt free to come up with “truth” of his own.  He had heard the call but had become calloused to it.  I believe he needed someone to come into his world and share some truth in a way he wasn’t used to. “The Bible teaches us there is no such thing as reincarnation.  It says that man is appointed to die once and after that comes judgment.” I said.  “We will be accountable for what we do in this life, and we don’t get another life to make up for where we went wrong.”  By this time Andrew’s partner came to sit down at the table, and his attitude toward me was more like “scram, beat it”.  I didn’t really get the chance to share as much as I wanted with Andrew, but maybe it was all he needed for now.