Barnabas
I don't think his parents really wanted Barney Rubble to be emblematic of their beloved son. Remember Barnabas had been Paul's partner in touring the Asian churches in the first century, until he and Paul had something of a fight about John Mark. But they worked it out by separating into two teams and succeeded in serving the new believers across the Mediterranean. Our friend Barnabas, on the other hand, was a sucker, much more like Fred Flintstone's Barney. Boisterous and fun loving, and full of practical jokes, but Barn would also fall for every lame claim someone would make, and end up looking stupid. He could dish it out with joy, but could not really take it, at all.
The last time Barney came to the meeting, everyone else was told to come early and park around the corner. Then we all hid in the back room. It was his birthday, and when he arrived and saw that nobody else was there, he sat in his car and cried. Who knew he was so sensitive? And lonely? (Besides X-Ray, I mean.) Then Yetti ran out to tell him we had cake inside, and Barn realized we had seen him crying and drove off mad! Well, embarrassed really, but we guys sometimes use 'mad' to cover our real feelings don't we Chuck?
Anyway. Our own “son of encouragement” needs more of that particular treatment, and we have formulated a plan!
Poor Barnabas. But life for all of us is such a mess sometimes. How do we ever cope with all of the issues; the big and the small, the critical and the incidental, the eternal and the temporal?
Actually, he sounds a bit like Barney Fife!
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