I Still Don't Get It...

Dang it.

One day --when the dust settles--I will write an incessantly long blog about how things continue to happen in my life. I have a 'chance encounter' with someone, and the next day....BAM! God thumps me on the head like a 6th grader and says, "Dude. You totally missed it."

This morning, I read this.

The greatest part is this quote:
"I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the market place as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on a town garbage heap; at a crossroad so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin... at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. That is where churchmen ought to be, and what churchmen ought to be about."

Here's where I got thumped:
Yesterday, I walked to Pizza Hut with a group of high schoolers (you know who you are). Some of them didn't want to walk, because we'd have to walk through the crowd of skaters/smokers/potheads dressed in black hanging out in front of Subway.

"Cool. Then let's walk." I said.

As we got closer to 'them', my group became more and more quiet. Anxious. Walking and staring at the ground. One of the guys in black had long hair and smelled like a mix of Camels and stale grass. And he spoke to one of the highschoolers I was with.

"Hey, dude." he said.

"Hey."

Once we got out of earshot, hunkychristianman whispered, "He's in one of my classes..."

Good. We should have friends outside our little Christian Country Club.

We went in, ate pizza, watched a pathetic clown and headed back to church for FUEL.

(Here comes the thump)
After FUEL, my wife says to me, "Why didn't you just invite the skaters in for pizza, no strings attached?"

Dang it. A simple expression of love.

Jesus said, "And whoever offers these little ones even a cold cup of water [maybe pizza?] will not lose his reward."