An Unfortunate Event

I’ve been working our children’s security program at my church for about 4 years now. And most days it’s a pretty easy, fun job. Every now and then I’ll get someone who expresses some resistance or questions what I’m doing. I don’t usually let it bother me because I know that not everyone appreciates the purpose of what we’re doing.

Tonight was a little different. I politely stopped a lady to request to see her ticket (our policy is to only allow people up the stairs who have a computer generated tag/ticket). She wasn’t the only person I’d stopped, but apparently she came back down and watched me not stop other people. This bothered her enough to come back and ask me if I was stopping other people to check their tickets to which I replied “yes.” She walked off. What she didn’t know was that many people stick their tickets to their shirts or are accustomed to flashing their ticket to me as they go up. I didn’t have time to fully process what she may have thought she saw before she walked off. Once I had, I really wanted to find her and explain the situation, but couldn’t leave my post.

The reason that this bothered me more than in the past was because this woman was black. I’ve heard our pastor speak of the fact that people of color have expressed to him that our church is not always welcoming to them. This saddens me because I know that most people in my church see hearts, not color. I hated the thought of this lady thinking otherwise of both myself and our church. I wanted to let her know that she was welcomed and loved at our church. I looked for her once I was done, but she’d already left.

I hope to see her again, but if I don’t, I’ll at least remember this experience and will try to keep in mind that what I think I see is not always what it appears.