What If Your Train Doesn't Stop Here or There?

An atheist was drinking in a bar alone. Quietly at first but by 1:30 a.m. he asked the bartender, "Do you believe in God?"  

"Yes", the bartender replied, "and I need to call you a cab".

"Why?", the atheist was irritated.

"We're closing at 2. Driving at this hour, in the condition you're in right now, you just might end up killing yourself".

"Well, that would be it, right? I die and that's it. Light's out, curtains down, show's over. My train stops here or out there.  I've had a good run and when the whistle stops, end of story because I don't believe in the after life". 

"Are you a betting man, sir", asked the bartender.

"Yeah, I go to the casinos occasionally. I buy lottery tickets. Why do you ask?"

"Ah, well, believing as you do, a two dollar bet to win a million dollars would be one awesome return, right?"

"Yeah, sure!"

"And you believe, when the lights are out, curtains down, your train stops, your life is gone, you'd be a complete zero, not worth anything."

"Yep, flat out nothing, zero, zilch."

"Not even worth two dollars, right?"

"Not even that".

"So, betting a zero, zilch as you put it, would be a good bet  if there is an afterlife and it would be one awesome return, wouldn't it?  Zero for infinity, eternity, life after death, albeit a different life, perhaps?"

"If", the atheist interrupted.

"Indeed and to that I say", the bartender replied, "What 'if' your train doesn't stop here or there"?

"Well, tell me, if there is eternity, is the God you believe in eternal"?

"Let me tell you something. Several months ago a man sitting right about where you are sitting now, had much to drink and he fell asleep.  Right at about closing time he suddenly woke up, as if jolted by something.  I asked him what was wrong.  He said he had a strange dream. He said he had a conversation with God, which went like this: 'God, I know a million years to us is just like a second to you, right?  And a million dollars to us is like a penny to you, right? So, will you give me a penny - a God penny?  God responded, 'sure, just wait and I'll give it to you in a second'.

The atheist, after a minute of pondering, though not focusing on the punch line of the joke, said, "I got it, will you please get me a cab.  Here is my car key. I'll come back tomorrow afternoon".

"You mean this afternoon.  This is already the morning of what you think is tomorrow". 

"Right you are again". He stood up.  "I'll walk outside, get some air while waiting for the cab, all right"?

The bar owner who happened to be nearby checking the receipts by the register who was listening to the conversation  said to the bartender when the atheist walked out, "You've been telling that story to drunks all the time, but to an atheist"? 

"I got him to take the cab, didn't I"?

Later that day, just before 6:00 P.M. The bartender was back for his usual second shift that begins at six.  The day shift bartender said, "The guy who left his car is here. He's got a table since five and all he's been drinking is club soda".  

"Didn't you give him his car key?"  

"I did but he said he'll wait for you. There's a young lady with him".

As the bartender approached their table the atheist stood up, extended his hand for a handshake and pointed to the young lady sitting down. "This is my daughter, Gracey. She drove me over and insisted she'd like to meet you".

Gracey spoke, "First, thank you for talking with him and getting him to take a cab. My sister and an older brother appreciate it. Would you please sit down for just a bit. Your conversation didn't really change him.   You made him go back to the man he used to be.  He was a believer, not extremely devout, but he always took us to church every Sunday when we were little.  My mom passed away last year from cervical cancer".

The man, the dad, chimed in, "She was a wonderful woman whom I adored, a good wife and mother to my children and a great grandmother to our grandkids.  Why did she go the way she did? She suffered and it was painful to bear that she will not see our younger daughter get married.  Since then, I've stopped believing".

Gracey interrupted, "But it is all good now. He spoke to my sister and brother earlier today". Looking at her dad, Gracey said, "And dad, stop apologizing to us.  We are so happy, so blessed, you are back with us".  Turning to the bartender, she said, "Thank you for getting our dad back to us. You just don't know how wonderful this is going to be for us and our children.  So, thank you."

A couple more minutes later they all stood up, the man, the dad, extended his hand again and said, "Thank you for walking me back to my family again. Someone up there must have been listening again and spoke through you".

"God was listening all along and didn't stop speaking to you. This time you went back to listening again". 

As the bartender was putting his apron on, the day shift bartender asked him, "What was that all about?"

"Apparently, in the wee hours of the morning when I finished serving the last drinks, I somehow served a different kind of drink that thankfully quenched someone's thirst in some miraculous fashion.  I hope that in all the years that you will be bartending - I don't know how long you will be doing this - that you will get to experience something like today.  You will understand it then but not for now".

Stories like this happen all the time.  Often in the unlikely places among the most unlikely people in the most unlikely circumstances.  And across all social strata. We  are told we may seldom see it because in this modern age of social media, self absorption, everyone hunched over that tiny screen, people may not notice it unfolding in everyday life.  But they do a million fold more often than those extraordinary events we read in the news or social media. Whatever the reader's belief system or philosophical inclination, it is hard to ever find any definitive answers to some of the questions we encounter that defy logical or scientific explanations. Yet we do hear of life-changing single events or series of happenings that seem to defy the natural progression beyond or apart from what is expected.

The bartender, not saddled with self righteousness, nor a model for sainthood, became no doubt just a messenger.  Whether one ascribes any kind of spiritual motivation on his part or he was just simply doing what bartenders do - listening to other people's honest take on life once uninhibited by alcohol - he, without realizing it then, became an instrument by which another human being was offered a message.

Perhaps it is true that our individual life's trajectory is not one fixed track but one that requires we make  course corrections along the way that come either as minute shifts or life changing transitions.  It must help then to listen and observe along the way if our train doesn't stop here or there but one which goes on forever. 

 

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