DIALOGUE BETWEEN MY MIND AND A TEENAGE GIRL

This morning I went to my favorite local coffee shop. Like every morning, I was greeted with the Cheers-like friendly hellos from the staff. After I ordered my mug of joe, I asked the young teenage gal how things were with her and her boyfriend. She said “We’re great. He’s sleeping in my bed right now.” After she said that, she answered the question that was running through my mind. “My parents are gonna be surprised when they see him there.” So I was thinking, “Oh boy, he’s a dead man.” But after I thought that, she said “But he spends the night often so it won’t be a big deal.” After that dialogue between her and my mind, I went to my table and my mind starting screaming “SINNER! GUILTY! BUSTED! THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH! OFF WITH HER HEAD!”
After I caught my breath and was able to compose myself, my mind start to clear and than the first thing that popped in my mind was Judge Judy. I don’t know if you watch that show, but if you haven’t, she is one angry woman. If I were in a bar fight, I would want her on my side. But I think her problem is that she gets so riled up she doesn’t hear the other side of the story. She’s not a fair judge if you ask me.
So it made me think of how I had been so quick to judge this teenage girl because her boyfriend was in her bed. Who knows? Maybe he ran 15 miles this morning and was passing her house at 5:30am and decided to crash at her house after she left for work. Or maybe he forgot about the toast he was cooking this morning and it burned his house down and he needed a place to sleep because he was exhausted from fighting the fire and saving his cat.
Whether he being over there was right or wrong, I don’t really know. And even if I did see it as wrong, if she wasn’t taught the same standards of truth that I live by because her parents, or even myself, haven’t taught them to her, than am I not to be blamed for that as well? I don’t know. But I do know that there was a log in my eye as I was looking at the saw dust in hers.

CLOSE MY EYES TO HIDE FROM REALITY

I was one of those kids that would lie in his bed at night and hear the most subtle noise and get pretty freaked out. I was extremely convinced that there was a monster somewhere in my room. I was always too scared to get up and tell my dad to come in and drop some Rambo on what ever it was that was scaring me. So I only had one solution, and it typically worked: close my eyes and keep my mind on other things until I fell asleep.
I’ve come to realize that I do this more often nowadays than I did when I was a frightened kid. I’m never going to know how I can fix things if I always close my eyes when I don’t want to see the reality of what’s happening around me. WE NEED TO BE AWARE.

HUNGRY? TRY EATING DIRT

He who is dying of hunger must be fed rather than taught. – Saint Thomas Aquinas
I am a sucker for buffets. If you ever want to bless me, take me to a buffet. Some of my buddies make fun of me because I have no problem going to a buffet by myself. They say it’s depressing; I say it’s pretty awesome. Here’s how much I love buffets; I proposed to my wife in a buffet parking lot! (If you ask me, it can’t get any more romantic.)
With that being said, one of my greatest pet peeves is seeing someone take so much food and not eat it. I’ve seen a person get chicken strips at a buffet along with 4 other items and eat everything on the plate but the chicken strips. WHY THE HECK WOULD YOU GET THE CHICKEN STRIPS THEN! I always tell them that I should force feed them and whoop their butt. But instead, I take their chickens strips and eat it for them and secretly wish they would be forced to eat mud for a week. Watch the video to know what I’m talking about.

MUD PIES

Taken from The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns
• Roughly 1of 4 children in developing countries is underweight
• Some 350 to 400 million children are hungry.
• About 1 in 7 worldwide- 854 million people- do not have enough food to sustain them.
• Approximately 25,000 people die each day of hunger or its related causes- about 9 million per year.

"When I was hungry, you fed me" - Jesus