Graffiti at The Grill

"It is quite natural and inevitable that, if we spend sixteen hours daily of our waking lives in thinking about the affairs of the world and five minutes in thinking about God and our souls, this world will seem two hundred times more real to us than God." William Ralph Inge



The quote above stood out to me when I read it the other day on another website because I have been desiring to know God deeper. After I stumbled on that quote, I kept going back to an event in December. The week before Christmas, David and I went to a John Berry Christmas concert in Watkinsville. Since that city is near Athens, we decided to go on a nostalgic visit of the downtown/north campus area for dinner. When we were students at UGA, the Grill was a popular hot spot for students and locals to eat. I fondly remembered it as a shiny, 50's like diner with eclectic waitstaff, complete with LOTS of "flair" or piercings. What we found that day was a sad reflection of what it had once been. The ceiling tiles that weren't missing showed numerous stains, booths were ripped open and the waitstaff, though still eclectic, just seemed frustrated by life's circumstances. Business was slow because school was out of session for the holidays, but the few that were dining that night looked lonely and lost.

Shortly before we left for the concert, I went into the bathroom. After I entered the shabby restroom and closed the door, the awful graffiti on the walls leaped out at me. When I was in school at UGA, I probably never really thought much about all of the pain inscribed on those walls. This time, however, I was struck by the despair, anger, and confusion that the each of the writings revealed. Messages offering drugs, twisted sexual escapades, and deeply personal secrets canvassed each wall. As I stared fixedly upon one of the "entries", I was amazed at how God had reached through all of those temptations to seek my heart during my time at UGA, but I could really feel the darkness around me in that bathroom. Living in suburbia, it is easy to forget that there is a spiritual war raging over our heads ALL the time. There in that filthy room, I became fearful that Alex would choose UGA and fall into any number of traps waiting for him, forgetting that these pitfalls are everywhere, not just Athens.

While I was in there, I found myself praying for the women that would enter that bleak place in the years after me. Because the Grill is in the center of the bar district, my thoughts turned to the college co-ed that would stumble in the bathroom with the room spinning from too many cheap drinks at nickel night. So drunk that she won't even be able to comprehend the graffiti on the walls, much less add to it. Then, I prayed for the girl that has reached her limit with this life and her desire to end it all. I spoke a word to God for the desperate soul that works nights at Toppers to make college tuition and the vast array of drugs she consumes to get through it. Lastly, I prayed fervently for the young woman that would find herself alone and scared with an unplanned pregnancy. There were others that I could have prayed for, but it was too overwhelming to be surrounded by so much pain for any longer that I had to get out of there.

That time in the dingy bathroom of The Grill impacted me to lead Alex in the right direction throughout his life. Right now, he has a heart and strong interest in God. I don't want him to lose that!! He needs something that I did not have growing up and it is not the latest video game or the hottest car. It is faith in Christ that I pray will steer him around those horrible pitfalls. Instead of living out those graphic restroom depictions, my hope is that he will gently show those that would write of such hurt, the hope he has in Christ. Each night since that visit to Athens, I have knelt at his bedside while he sleeps and prayed for God to guide David and I as Alex's parents.