Alcohol is my church

I met a man in the bus today. He said "Alcohol is my church." I didn't know how to feel. Angry? Sad? Tired? For some days now, all I have been hearing is "the church did this to me, the church is bad, church is not a good place." And sincerely, I'm sick and tired of hearing it. But then I asked myself: Is the Church God? No. The church is not God. God is God. The church is just His house, filled with people - people with different characters, different mindsets, different pains. People who are still becoming. So why do we blame the whole house of God when one person in it hurts us? The truth is, we humans allow our experiences to shape our perception about a lot of things without truly finding out the actual truth. One bad experience becomes our whole definition. One person hurts us and we conclude that the entire place is bad. This man... he said he just does good for people and lives his life. But the same people he helped have hurt him. That's why he says it's better to do good and not expect anything in return. What struck me most about him was both his pain and his honesty. He was not pretending. He was honestly broken. His pain was real, and his honesty made me listen instead of judge. I understood him. But I also saw his mistake. He did good expecting from people. And when you expect from people, you will always be disappointed. God said we should do good unto Him, because He is the one who rewards, not people. That's why I think we need to really study the Bible and live the life patterned for us as Christians. If we follow God's order for living, we won't be easily broken by people. And this bus I entered, the entire journey taught me a lot. If I had entered a luxurious bus or even a flight, there are some things God would want me to learn that I would not have been able to learn. God teaches in the lowly places too. I felt a seed was sown in his heart about the truth through our conversation, because I shared my own experience of faith and trust in God, and how I have been completely sold out to serving God with everything I have. I also told him that Christianity is not religion, it is a personal relationship with God and living a life that completely emulates Christ. I may never see him again, but I believe the seed will grow. People will fail. But God won't. And I must not let people's failures make me forget God's faithfulness.