This is not the playground, and it's not 3:00

I like the word 'Epilogue', it means that something happened long enough ago that there has been time to completely and properly analyze what really happened.  Things happen for a reason; life is a great teacher, and perspective is everything.

Last week I witnessed a horrific event - business as usual for a native - but I'm a traveler from a foreign land, so yes, it was horrific.  Why did this happen?  Who is at fault?  What is the life lesson?  I replayed the incident in my head all week long, looking at every angle; I discussed the event with dozens of people, executives at work, business owners, homeless street walkers, future thugs, real thugs, prostitutes, drug addicts, and drug dealers.  (side note: I don't know any pimps; not sure why.) - Although everyone had something to say, i.e. a different perspective, none of the opinions resonated in my persona.

Yesterday was Sunday, and for the last couple of years, I've been a member of "Love Temple Full Gospel Church", on Pike road, near Bush Blvd - it's "The real deal", my first exposure to such.  I've watched my roommates #2 and #5 have positively transformed lives there; the bishop, pastor, staff, and members minister with power.  Services sometimes last a long time, so I always take a "smoking ministry" break in the parking lot next door between Sunday school and the main church service.  Sunday school is split into a male class and a women's class - not sure what the women talk about, but the male class is a place I call "Godly men being real."  Something Pastor B said during Sunday school gave me the understanding I was looking for - like a brick from above, everything fell into place.

My presence is a ministry opportunity – When I smoke (cigarettes) and drink beer on the porch at night, I preach about God's justice and faithfulness to my roommates and the groups of teenagers that wander the streets, backing it up with actual experiences from my youth and life.  SOMEBODY needs to tell them; they don't have parents.

Saturday night's sermon was about the spiritual law of "work".  There's a spiritual principle that says that if you give value (to anyone) through the work that you do for them, then in the fullness of time, God will not allow you to be overpaid or underpaid; He is just.  Roommate #5 had the opportunity to do some part time work and didn't get paid "as much as the other workers".  She got mad about it and quit.  I recounted a time in my career when I was in the same situation, but instead of complaining about it, I worked to make myself more valuable.  I did the jobs nobody wanted to do, and got good at it.  A year or two latter, a new management team rolled in and changed everything, fired a bunch of people, and doubled my salary.  Is that because I was that much better than my peers?  I don't think so.  I think it was the Lord executing His justice, grace, and mercy - in His timing.

Then Sunday morning, I realized that in a very real way - my presence and the way I present myself can and does change what happens around me.  God showed me what can go wrong when good men do nothing; Lord please forgive me.  I could have honked my horn, [humor, Madea voice] yelled out the window "HEY! Y'ALL ARE MEN, THIS IS NOT THE PLAYGROUND, AND IT"S NOT 3:00".  Something, anything.  They wouldn't have liked it (as I sped away in my car); but it might have saved one cousin's life and the other cousin's jail time.

Epilogue

Sunday night, 9:30 – I hear the rustling of leaves of feet approaching the porch - two of my congregation approaches. "James, you got an extra square?" - Yeah, I got plenty; did you guys hear about the two cousins down the street where one shot the other, cold blooded, in the middle of the street?  "Yes, that was terrible".  I saw the whole thing and it bothered me all week till God spoke to me on it like a brick from the sky at Church this morning.  "What did he say?"  Pastor was preaching about wisdom and the fear of the Lord, and I was thinking to myself "Why should I fear God?” I mean, "I'm grown." - Suddenly, WHACK on the side of the head, the lady behind me was praising the Lord too much and accidentally hit me with her purse.  etc., etc.

It will be interesting to see what things sprout from these seeds and what fruit it brings over time.