A certain black man was visiting a strange city on business, and he had to be gone over the weekend. He was a believer and hated to miss worship at home, and his business was all at the convention center where he was staying, and he did not have a rental car. So he thought that he would take a walk Sunday morning, and spend some time in prayer.
While he was walking, he heard the sound of singing and looked up, and saw a church just ahead of him, on the right. And so he walked up to the front door, and the deacon who was standing there was initially startled, recovered himself, and then stepped in front of the man as he attempted to go in. “I’m sorry,” the deacon said.
The man who wanted to worship was not easily discouraged, and he thought this might have been just the deacon’s personal problem, and so he walked around the side, looking for another door. But the deacon had raised the alarm, and the black man was greeted at the side door by two men, who both shook their heads quietly. To his credit, the younger of the two men also looked slightly ashamed of himself.
The man turned sadly away. He had earlier in the morning resigned himself to not be able to worship, but then the sight of a church had gotten his hopes up. He was walking slowly back to his hotel, deeply discouraged, and he was praying about it.
“Lord,” he said, “I really did want to worship You. I wanted to sing to You, and hear Your Word proclaimed. I really did want into that church.”
With that, he heard a noise above his head and looked up, and—although he had never had a vision before—the Lord actually appeared to him in a vision. “My son,” the Lord said. “Don’t be discouraged. I know exactly how you feel. I have been trying to get into that church for years myself.”
As compared to a Kinist, who would read this story and remark “What seems to be the problem?”