Sometime last month I was invited to the theatre by a male friend I hadn’t seen in over two years. We had recently been in touch again after a long time
and endless promises to meet up.  We agreed to meet up on a Friday evening at the theatre. I googled the synopsis of the play to find out what it was about, it’s reviews and the fact that it had won a couple of awards cemented my decision to go and see it.

As far as my thinking goes, this guy was just my friend; there was nothing else to us than two friends out at the theatre. After we got our drinks, we headed up the stairs in a queue filled with eager theatre goers heading for the entrance of the cosy theatre hall.

As the doors opened at 7.00pm, we were directed to our seats right in the centre of one of the middle rows. The hall quickly filled up. The play started with a young black boy uttering some vague words in a playground setting.

The play was centered around a case between a black boy and his white teacher, who is subsequently accused of racial abuse.

Minutes into a playground scene, all I could hear were profane words that began to strongly grieve my spirit . The profanity was so much that my countenance became sad, I couldn’t enjoy it, or even smile, it was one swear word after another. I started to think about how I could leave without disrupting the crowd of people around me who seemed highly focused and glued to the stage. I waited till half time, and turned to my friend who was smiling as though he had won me over. I couldn’t even smile at him, my spirit was so grieved.

I explained that I would have to go, refusing to  sit through the rest of this play.  It was almost as if I spoke an unknown language. He didn’t understand me at all; he started talking about something else. Out went his false confession of being a spirit-filled Christian, I thought. I repeated myself, and he replied:

“But that’s life though.”
He continued: “I hope you are joking, because how can you come out with me and say you are leaving.”

I thought to myself, ‘this guy doesn’t have a clue about God.’ I noticed his tone changed, he was subtly getting upset. It seemed to be all about him, he wasn’t interested in anything else. I kept my words to a minimum because I realised he didn’t understand. It was almost like praying in tongues around an unbeliever. All he saw was a woman out with him, who was about to walk out and leave him sitting alone in the theatre. My explanation meant nothing to him. The last straw for me was when he uttered the words “If I were you, I would keep quiet about it, I would rather not upset the person I’m out with, and I would rather not say anything.”

I replied: “I’m happy to wait outside for you, but I can’t sit through this.”

He said: “Okay, and responded with a territorial nod, as though he had won a battle.”

On that note I stood up, to leave, while most people were still away from their seats, on half time errands. As I sat in the lobby area waiting, I thought, what exactly was I doing waiting for someone who doesn’t even have the same belief system as me?  We were definitely not operating under the same spirit, in-fact it seemed like our spirits were in conflict with one another.

My offering to wait for him was because I didn’t want him to get offended or have the wrong memory of me walking out on him. However, I realised my lifestyle would always offend him because God would always be the centre of my focus, and I make no apologies for that. We could no longer be friends because he had no respect for me. I stood up to walk out of the theatre and called my mum on my way out to tell her what had happened.

She replied in a loud funny tone: “What exactly are you waiting for, he is inside the theatre and you are waiting outside for him. You better go home right now.”

The moral of this story is: As a spirit-filled Christian, we can’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers. This term applies to friendships too, and not just marriages. Furthermore, never be afraid to speak out against something that is contrary to your Christian beliefs or when something grieves your spirit. Don’t ever keep quiet about it, apologise for it, or try to please people. Our ultimate focus should be to please God, and lastly it is more important that we don’t grieve the spirit of God that dwells in us, because it’s His spirit that guides and directs us.