My Poop Story

Dear Blog Readers,

Warning: This story does not have any kind of spiritual undertones or messages, but is freaking hilarious.

As you may or may not know, I work at a bank. I am a personal banker for Bank of America. Yesturday I went to lunch with my wife Beck. Well when I came back from lunch I had to use the bathroom. I went to use the mens lobby bathroom and as I opened the door I was bombarded with the smell of poop and the sight of a big pile of poop right in the middle of the floor. But thats not all there was poop smeared all over the walls as it looked like a poop bomb blew up.

Revulted by this I decided to use the girls fresh smelling bathroom to take care of busines. I then went into the lobby and asked one of the tellers if they know about the bathroom poop explosion. They did and I also noticed cones all over the lobby floor. I come to realize that this guy did not just make a mess in the bathroom, but decided to make a mess around the banking center. Now I could see going from the bathroom straight to the door or vise versa. But this guy decided to take a world tour around the bank and leave piles of poop on the floor and must of been shaking his booty to shake it down his pant leg and onto the floor.

Now it is the assistants managers job to fix the lobby when these things happen. The poop clumps were so revoluting that the assistant manager assisted in not cleaning up the poop, but call in an emergency janitor. I don't know about you, but I think our customers would appreciate not smelling the stench of poop when they are conducting their financial transactions.

The other personal banker Jaime came to our rescue and cleaned up the poop in the lobby. He said he at first thought that the poop was a little smear, but when he moved the towel that was covering the poop, it smeared all over the floor. Unfortunately when you take one for the team, you end of getting a little dirty, as he received a smug of soveigner on his pants.

You could say that the other day was defiantely a poopy day!

A Bomb is Going Off

Dear Blog Readers,

I had a dream last night. It was wasn't light hearted. It was intense and had a profound impact on how I looked at life today.

The dream started at a start line for a triatholon. The gun went off and we all started to swim in the ocean. Waves were coming at us and I knew just how to swim to get beyond the surf. The majority of the pack were thrown down by the waves and all of a sudden I was up with the leader. Then I began to pass the leader and was leading the pack. My adrenilan was pumping as I was excited, but yet fearful that the people behind me were going to pass me up. I then transitioned to the run leg (which was odd considering the bike leg comes after the swim) and as I began to run the field caught up and I was in third or forth place. We then ran into this school and they opened this door in the hall way. Following the leaders I went into the room and I could not find out where they went. But I found myself in a room with two boys putting together a bomb to blow up the school. I said, "where did they go". They had no idea of what I was talking about. I asked, "what are you doing" and they said, "we are making a bomb". All I could think about was how I needed to find out where they went so that I could catch up and win this race. I ran outside the door that I came in and saw someone go into another door. I walked through the door and went down a concrete slide and asked where the racers went. We were stucked with these students and and one student came up to me and she said, "the cops aren't coming". I then had a choice, do I find a way out so that I could win this race or do I help a crisis situation.

It is amazingly similar to current real life analogies. I feel like I am running a race and all I care about is reaching the goal. Winning the race! Competiting and finishing! Yet maybe I need to realize that although I have my goals, I cannot forget about the people around me and the people who need me.

I was reading the a verse in the Bible and it said, "A noble man, has noble plans, and noble deeds he stands".

Yelling At Us

When you're walking down the street, and a man in a dark place is yelling at you, when you're 100 yards away, what is your first inclination to do? Ignore him? Run from him? Or run towards him?

This is one thing that happened last wednesday night as we were feeding and praying for the homeless. We had no idea what he was saying, but we knew that some people had bad experiences with this one particular person so some backed away. So three of us walked towards him as he was laying down on some rocks kind of in the open. As we got closer, one of the guys in the group, Ryan said, "hey I know that guy he came to church with me a couple of weeks ago".

Ryan picked him up to bring him to his church. They had coffee before and talked and then he took him to the Sunday service. This guys name was Mark and Mark had a blast. Mark had this deep raspy hard voice, scruffy beard, smelly, and under about 5 or 6 blankets to try and keep warm. But through all of that front you could see a heart who had a heart for God.

Mark wanted to come to church the very next week with Ryan and they made plans to do so, but unfortunately Ryan didn't show up and Mark felt like he may have done something wrong as he had doubts that maybe Ryan didn't want him to be apart of his church. Mark was sharing with us through his rough around the edges front that he was hurt and wanted to come to church with Ryan again because he had a great time. Ryan was out of town this coming weekend but made plans to pick him up the following week at 9am.

I was talking to a medical doctor for the homeless who comes out with us every week and Randy said that "it really doesn't take much to really to show someone that you love them and yet it is like giving them the world. They are so appreciative for giving them the little things in life."

So when someone is screaming and yelling even if it is done in anger their is a soul and someone who wants to receive love and someone who may want to become apart of a community that will love them. Instead of walking away out of fear, walk towards them in love.

-Justin

Beginings

I am begining to understand how and why Jesus hung out with the poor, the sinners, the prostitutes. I am begining to see why Jesus talked so much about showing love, feeding, clothing, and housing the outcasts of our society today. My eyes are begining to see how radical it is to not only do these things but also how impactful they are in the lives of the people that you do them for.

As I was talking to a few people in the group I realized that many of us don't realize growing up and playing church that we go to church with the same kind of people as us. We specifically will go to a church that has similar people and probably have similar views on the world. We probably do church with people who are of the same social and economic stature and most of dress up and take a shower before we go to church.

But I want you to reply to this posting and tell me the answer to this one simple question, "How many homeless, prostitutes, drug dealers, etc have you see sitting in the Sunday pews at your church?"

Now you may say "none, but you see Justin those people wouldn't want to be apart of my church anyway."

It is funny how we like to make assumptions on people who we'd rather not have them be apart of our community or family or church because their different. But if you do make the assumption that those people do not want to go to church with you, how many people who partake in those lifestyles have you asked to go to church with you today, yesturday, last month or ever?

So how do you realy know that they don't want to?

Another thing I am begining to understand is that sometimes I see God get ahold of a heart and get them off the streets. Other times I see God work and then they come back to the same place they came from. This cycle happens over and over again until one day they may just give up.

But God has been showing me that if he gets ahold of their heart we need to become that bridge that excepts them and loves them in another community called our church because the bad community they are apart of now is where they receive love now but causes them to replicate these unhealthy lifestyles and habits. God was showing me that if he is going to change their heart, then he is asking us to bring them into a new community called the church that will love them, care for them, and help them. See the reason why you see people make this cycle over and over again is not because they can't or they can't get over their addictions or they are worthless people. But because it is in this bad community where they receive love and they are not receiving love anywhere else. The reason why is we do not find these outcast people in our church today is because we want them to hear about Jesus but also stay far enough away so that we really dont have to except them and love them like our own family.

I sometimes wonder if we, in some weird way, we like to preach and yell Jesus out to people because if we came in love then we would actually have to get to know them. Claiming persecution allows a barrier, but coming in love mends a bridge. What world or church or community do we really want to build? And what kind of world, church, or community Jesus wanted us to build? Are we on the same plan or different?

Please comment!!!!!!!!!!