I am a Church Girl

… I am a church girl, I have been a church girl as far as I can remember. Church is my home, home is my church. Everyone in church is family, we call each other brother and sister. We even have church fathers and church mothers. We attend each other’s event and share our stuff. But one thing we do very well is that we smile at each other, we break into a smile every time we make eye contact. If smiling seems inappropriate because a solemn session is on, then we soften our gaze. We smile at friends, relatives, strangers, first comers, the young, the elderly, we even smile at the people we don’t like (not that we don’t like anyone) and our enemies (not that they exist!). If you are in church, you get a smile, period.

Imagine how we felt, when a Street Girl came into our midst, her gaze was cold and hard, her eyes were piercing and terrifying. Her presence was intimidating and unfriendly. Her whole energy was one of ‘if you mess around with me, I will punch your face’. Slightly confused, we did the only thing we were good at, we all broke into a unison smile. She stared at us all in disbelief, with the most ugly scowl on her face. We all retreated not sure what next to do.

A little child walked up to ‘ugly face’ to find out what was eating her up. It turned out ‘ugly face’ had a sweet spirit and the look was the street look. Street Cred is important on the street. With some coaching and loving we taught street girl to soften her gaze and smile a bit. I must admit the smile looked a bit weird but she gave it a good try.

It was my turn to visit my new friend at her turf on the street. I approached the street with my silly little smile plastered on my face. Everyone gave me a strange look, my new friend quickly called me to the side, if I continued with the stupid smile, they will call the men in white coat. She told me, people don’t go about smiling nilly willy on the street. I quickly adjusted my face, stiffen my body, putting on the best possible tough face I could muster. Nobody need to tell me, I knew it was not convincing, but I gave it a good try.

I met other street clan people, as I got to know them, I realise that they weren’t bad people at all. They are just not smiley, touchy feely people. I learnt a couple of lessons, looks can be deceptive and when you are in Rome you behave like the Romans. To win them, I have to become like them, to the Jews, I become like a Jew, to the weak I become weak. I become all things to all men that I may win/save some.

All said and done, I am still a Church Girl inside. We smile, we love people and that is it.