How's life for you at the moment?

Challenging was my answer.

But not necessarily in ways you might expect.

Last night I met someone who had been a friend, albeit not a close one, from a few years back. His wife had sung with the worship team at the church, he'd looked after sound and they'd been involved, at least to some degree. I'd also been aware that his business was having difficulties (manufacturing in the UK for anyone in engineering has been desperate these last 20 years) and that family life wasn't easy with a couple of small but very energetic boys.

Then they drifted away, bit by bit. I got the gist that married life was difficult, money ditto. To my shame I didn't pursue and they were outside my pastoral care & I was pretty busy anyway.

Fast forward to last week, I mentioned seeing someone I'd thought I recognised? Well yup, that was them. Still same rugby-forward frame, but with the addition of breasts, long hair, dress, 'curious' voice and handbag, minus 5 o'clock shadow.

Chris and I had discussed 'what if' during the week, which was a good thing because it all came true. What do you do in this situation? Denounce them in front of everyone? Start expelling demons? Ask sharply pointed questions about their wife while calling them by their previous name? Ask them if they can still stand up to pee? We discussed none of those things specifically, but both considered the question.

And so it was that she saw them (I'm not saying him or her right now) sat down and talked, with some degree of care in a way a woman could and a man couldn't without confrontation. I came over later after I'd dealt with the things I needed to do and then dodged the issue for a couple of minutes more before doing a psychological 'scruff of the neck'. We small-talked, uncomfortably, feeling things out a bit. It must have been difficult for them because my face is often effectively a screen for whatever's going on inside my head, and it certainly wasn't easy for me. They're currently going to a liberal and 'inclusive' church in Oxford, but that's not very local.

The question it came down to is the corny old saw WWJD?

Would He have condemned them, sent them away in shame. Would he have accepted them with more grace than I had as someone who fouls up - like we all do. The level Chris and I are at right now is that we'll take them as we find them: I don't really see there's another option, and see where it goes from there. Who said life had to be simple?