My Run In With The Likes of Caitlyn Jenner

   

There was a palpable buzz in the room, especially for 8:30am on a Saturday morning. It's been a decade now, but I don't think I'll ever forget this day. I was in a group meeting for persons with schizophrenia. Yes, as an attendee; it was a requirement for my graduate studies in counseling. We had to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and the rest we got to choose. If I had a stalker during this time in my life, I'm pretty sure I scared him away.  I worked full time and went to school full time so, this 8:30am Saturday meeting was about my only option.
 
   I was nervous;  I wasn't afraid of mentally ill people, heck! I am one, I just didn't know what to expect. I sure did not expect to walk into a room of over 40 people, my text book said group therapy should be done in small groups, like 10-12 people. Guess they hadn't read my book.  It was chaotic! Everyone was talking loudly all at once and moving about the room, there was no identifiable leader, I seriously almost bailed. Eventually someone called everyone to order and said because there were so many today they would split us into two groups, sigh of relief, I'm not the only one who thought this was WAY too many people for a group. I spoke quickly with the leader making sure it was okay for me to be there and let her know that I would just be a silent observer and could even sit outside the circle if need be. "Nonsense," she said, "you sit with us and at the end we'll have some Q&A for you."

   I found a place on a tattered couch next to a tall skinny guy with wild curly hair, whiskers, tired eyes, oh and bright red lipstick, green eyeshadow, and a jean mini skirt. They say that in group settings of strangers, people will still subconsciously gravitate towards those they have the most in common with.  Since learning this, I've observed this to be true of most people, not sure what this says about me, but this was my seat of choice.  In all honesty, I think it was because it was the seat closest to the door.  The group leader asked us to turn to our neighbor and give a 2 minute update of our week, how we were doing, etc. Sam and I began to converse. (By the way,  I made up the name Sam.) Sam had had a rough week, people had been unkind, work had been harder than usual, my heart went out to Sam and so did my hand, I had reflexively placed my hand on Sam's arm. Sam's week had been so tough that it took up our 2 minutes so I didn't have the chance to introduce myself or clarify why I was there. At the break time I noticed they had a Coke machine so I was heading out to my car to get some change when Sam asked if I was leaving, "Nope, just getting change for the machine, you want a drink too?"

  When the meeting was called to order we returned to our same seats enjoying our cokes. After there had been a lot of sharing, the leader decides to introduce me and tell the group why I'm there. (I was hoping she'd forgotten about me.) She told me to ask anything I'd like, so I asked if anyone would be willing to share with me what a typical day is like for them. Their answers revealed that there really is no typical day, some days are okay, even uneventful, other days are filled with a rollercoaster of feelings, highs, lows, fears, anxieties, and chaos, but group helps, they told me. Sam said that a typical day is wanting to cut off body parts that feel like they don't belong. "Alone, crazy, uncomfortable in my own skin! " Again, my heart and hand went out. They were then able to ask me questions, they all spoke at once, and asked where I was from, if I was married, if I was scared of them, and what school I attended. I chuckled and began to feel more at ease and answered TN, nope, no way, and Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.

  Just when I was about to sigh with relief that the morning had gone so well, Sam jumped up and faced me. "So you're a Christian?" "Yes," I stammered, shocked at the question and the tone. "I don't believe you're a Christian!" The leader tried to interject, but I put my hand up to let her know I was okay. I really wasn't okay, my heart was pounding and I'm sure my face was red, but I wanted to know what on earth I had done in the last hour to warrant this response. Sam faced me and with a trembling voice said, "you sat beside me, you looked me in the eye,  you bought me a coke, you even touched me, I don't believe you're a Christian! The Christians who come into my work, if they don't ask for a different server they mock me, "Mam, Sir, whatever you are!" They leave Bible verses instead of tips, they're mean, horrible people!" The room got loud in agreement. The leader took charge and I don't know what she said, because my ears were ringing with panic, but she transitioned everyone to the snacks and it was all over in a matter of a minute or two. I wanted to just bolt for the door, I was shaking, but I turned to Sam and said, "I'm so sorry, can I pray for you?" I prayed thru my own tears and gave Sam a quick hug before I ran to sit in my car and put my head on my steering wheel. What just happened?! 

  It took me a long while to process it all, not this whole decade, but a while.  I was, AM, grateful for the experience especially while the nation was shouting back and forth about Caitlyn Jenner. Nothing I did that day was intentional, except maybe sit near the door. I was not attempting to be Christlike, I was there learning about the struggle of the people in this room for a class. My first reaction when Sam accused me of not being a Christian was offense and anger,  my mind said, "Hey! Wait a minute I was nice to you even though you're weird!" ** Before you jump all over me about my non PC comment, you need to know that I think anyone not like me is weird, you like cats? You're weird. You ENJOY sci-fi movies?  You're weird. You DON'T like to travel? You're weird. You love cottage cheese? Weird. Your idea of a fun day is shoe shopping?! Super weird. After hearing Sam's previous experiences with Christians I was relieved my affiliation did not show.  I may not have acted like a Christian that day, but I think I might have acted like Christ. (I was just as surprised as you are!) I'm sure no saint. and I don't know Sam's story or Jenner's real story, I'm sure there's some heartbreak and brokenness in there, but I do know a real love and a real Savior and it's Him I want to communicate to all you weirdos out there. My encounter with Sam changed me in so many ways that day and I pray that Sam encountered the real love of a real Savior that day, who can heal all of our brokenness no matter how weird we may be.

The Power of One

"He'll rule a nation one day- we just don't know if it will be for good or for evil!" we say in jest of my 3 year old nephew, Malachi- who is a delightful mix of sugar and spice all rolled up into one. He's the cute one in the photos to your left. I guess I'm taking for granted that you don't find Jesus, Hitler, or MLK Jr. cute though.

  I watched, "The Woman in Gold," last night, it wouldn't have been my movie of choice as I still haven't gotten over, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," but when my friend text me about it I figured it was about fashion.

   This one image, shown for a split second, stung me.
It's terrifying, awe striking, and unbelievable the influence and power that one man had. I had to shift my thinking to other ones so as not to become overwhelmed. I told myself just this past Monday we celebrated MLK Jr. another historical picture of the power of one, but then again, they killed him. I finally found some solace when the thought, "Before you know it all this snow will melt and we'll be hiding Easter eggs and celebrating the power of The One, they killed him too, but He got up, so enjoy the movie." Now you know my self soothing secrets.  But this post isn't about Malachi, Hitler, MLK, or even Jesus. In a way, it's about a man by the name of Abu al Barakat and in another way it's not about him either; it's about you or me, us.

   While I worked on Eurasia Experience and summer in southern Asia plans today, I listened to a message by Pastor Curt Harlow, it was about us too. It was called The Lost Sheep. He was preaching from the parable of the lost sheep so the title was appropriate yet lacking in creativity. I've both heard and preached this passage many times, but he brought to light something I hadn't known before.  In this time, if someone killed another man's sheep and was taken to court, he had to pay both for that sheep and all the sheep that sheep would've produced- they had to pay for the potential of the sheep. Sheep may be dumb, but they sure were (are) valuable to the shepherd. Which takes the sting off the Biblical comparison to us a bit.

  The fact that the shepherd would leave the 99 for 1 makes more sense if you understand the power of the 1. The shepherd did and does. I forget sometimes though.

  I don't much like crowds, they overwhelm me, plus I'm 5'2", the view isn't always pleasant for me. There were many times in Thailand where I was overwhelmed. Discouraged and disheartened as I looked in the mirror I would think, "Who do you think you are? This country is less than 1% Christian, what could you possibly do?" I didn't have a lot of faith in the power of that 1% or that 1 sheep staring back at me in the mirror. Surrounded by idols and Buddhist temples that 1 sheep in the mirror looked pretty dumb and insignificant.

  Here's a freebie, in case you didn't know this, the Bible says the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but he rarely has to go to those lengths when he can just discourage, dishearten, disappoint, distract, or frighten us. Turns out this sheep really is a little dumb, forgetting the power of One.

  My new assignment recently took me to a few places that are not 1% Christian, but 0% Christian and 100% Muslim. Actually, it's against the law NOT to be Muslim and that's not an old law; it's a 2008 law.

  Two things strike you immediately when you land on these islands- they're beautiful and they're serious about Islam.
                                           

I was familiar with a culture deeply rooted in its religion I mean, they say, "To be Thai is to be Buddhist," but there's no law mandating it so this must go deeper I thought, but I thought wrong. It's so rare that I'm wrong I was pretty surprised, but the truth is, up until the 12th century these islands were entirely Buddhist, which is quite a bit different from Muslim, in case you were wondering. But now they are 100% Muslim. I even saw the ruins of one of the first Buddhist temples here, it sits in this old grave yard.











This is where Abu comes in and my faith in the power of 1 and the power of The One grew three sizes that day outside this gated tomb.



   They tell me Abu is buried here, but they also tell me Elvis is buried at Graceland so who really knows?  Abu was a devout Muslim who visited these Buddhist islands from Morocco. A stranger visiting a foreign land is said to be responsible for the conversion of these islands to Islam and is greatly memorialized and honored here today.

  This is why my faith grew three sizes, this is what excited me! No! Not because the islands converted from Buddhism to Islam, but because of the power of one!  I want to be like Abu! You and I may only be one, well, technically we are 2, but you know what I mean. What can I, one, do in this overwhelming crowd?  I can remember Abu and the power of One. Here's to fulfilling our potential that the Shepherd sees. Embrace your power of one today, after all it's The One who supplies it anyway. Why yes, 1 person can make a difference, I sure know One who did for me.

What the Media Isn't Showing You about How THOUSANDS of University Students Rang in the New Year

I'm sure the hotel thought they were in for it when man buns, hoodies, and skinny jeans filled the lobby of the downtown Dallas Sheraton. I mean what would you expect from a couple thousand college students from state schools all over the south central US converging on a hotel to celebrate the New Year?  To be honest, I wasn't real sure what to expect myself.   #SCSalt was one of several XA (Chi Alpha) conferences going on around the United States this past week. I was there to represent Eurasia, to see if any of these selfie takers might be interested in serving or studying abroad.  Their hoodies and backpacks revealed they were from LSU, Texas A&M, OSU, Rice, Sam Houston, and lots of other letters and greek symbols with which I was not familiar.  My high hopes of having hundreds of students sign up to work with us in Eurasia diminished as we set up our booth directly across from the wildly popular 'sign up for a dodge ball tournament that would start way past my bed time' booth. I lowered my expectations and dodged a few frisbees.  Before the booth was even assembled students began to come over, I didn't really engage too much, I mean, the first gathering wouldn't start till later in the evening at 8pm so if I was going to make it thru the week with those late hours I needed to get in an afternoon nap! With little to no prompting they began to ask about opportunities in Israel, Russia, India, & ministry to the Syrian refugees. My curiosity was spiked,  cynical me wondered if these were some random religious studies majors in need of an internship so I inquired further. Computer science, nursing, English, music, graphic arts, archeology, and something to do with animals were the majors they rattled off. I tried to keep my jaw from dropping as they began to tell me about what they hoped to do with these things in the future and further inquired about opportunities to serve in Eurasia. These were some sharp twenty somethings, who had just paid hundreds of dollars to spend a week of their precious Christmas break at a conference with sessions about missions, prayer, and godly sexuality?! Is this real life? Are these real live university students from the United States of America?!  I surely had not heard about them as I flipped thru People and watched the news during my pedicure yesterday. I DID see interviews of people who looked a lot like them toting kegs and cases out of the liquor store promising the news anchor that they would not drink and drive and some versions of them talk about what they would be wearing on New Years and how many parties they planned to attend. I still wasn't convinced this handful of students who stood before me represented the masses that were gathering here in Dallas and at the other venues across the nation, I mean, it really seemed too good to be true. As they filled the lobby each day and night, students continued to come and inquire about opportunities to take Jesus to some of the toughest nations of the world.  Astounded and filled with awe I sat in the very back of their closing New Year's Eve service and took the above photo. I watched these future doctors, musicians, archeologists, teachers, video game creators, and tech geniuses- worship the Lord unashamedly. I watched precious moments as huge football players embraced one another in prayer, as students knelt all around the room praying for their families, campuses, and futures, as young couples prayed and worshipped together. Hope filled my heart not just for new workers in Eurasia, but for the future of my own nation. Standing before me on New Year's Eve this was IT, our future America seeking the Lord. The service closed out around 11pm and the event transitioned into a New Year's celebration with lots of music, food, laughter, and midnight kisses. (I know this from the hashtagged photos and noise level I could still hear from my bed in my 12th floor hotel room.) Happy New Year America, our future is BRIGHT!