just a brother working it out

I’ve only been invited to IHQ (International Headquarters for the Salvation Army) twice in my life. Once was for a casual lunch, and the other was to lead a youth ministry workshop. The second one took place yesterday.

IHQ now sits in a new building that’s been very well designed. All of the outside walls, and many inside, are glass and, along these walls, are printed scripture in coloured fonts. It’s amazing and, unlike the U.S. Army’s decision to take God out of their motto, is a really non-threatening yet obvious witness to thousands of tourists and citizens who walk by the building every day on their way to St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge (which it sits at one end of), and office buildings. I was really impressed and particularly liked the fact that, as we sat in a board room all day discussing youth work, we could see everybody walking by and they could see us. As somebody who loves people watching, it was slightly addictive.

One particular guy really caught my attention. He came in and immediately went downstairs to the café where he ordered lunch. It didn’t take too long to realize that the guy had a different sense of reality than the rest of us, that he was playing in his own ballpark, that he was a few tacos short of a platter, and that he was just a bit crazy. In the words of Sinbad, "He was just a brother, working it out."

It was easy to write him off as simply somebody who had dropped in and had no affiliation with the Army whatsoever. After all, a lot of people eat in the café who aren’t in the building to do anything else (it’s actually a very nice café.). It was easy to write him off, that is, until he literally started walking around the building saluting everybody. And I’m talking about the official Army salute. The guy was not only saluting people, but walls, ceilings, mirrors, the bathrooms, you name it.

And before anybody asks, no, his initials were not SC.