Fear, drugs and pigs...continued

If you have ever lived in Mexico you can appreciate the statement, ¨Only in Mexico´. Today amidst all the media superhype about the swine flu/H1N1 Kelley, Erin Brumit and I were treated to a random display of craziness. We were grabbing a bite to eat for lunch at a fast food chicken place and were done, just hanging out, catching up with each other´s lives, when along comes a teenage boy over towards the table and with great stealth he snatches up a slightly used chicken wing of mine, right off my plate.

I was a little shocked, Kelley almost laughed and Erin just sat there with an Erin grin on her face, halfway startled and about to burst out in laughter too. What did he just do? He grabbed a picked over piece of chicken off my plate and ate it right there. Did he ask? No, he just snagged it and gnawed on it. Normally people ask for food donations here, but this guy did not. What made it crazy was the fact that we are supposedly in the midst of this huge pandemic in Mexico and all the schools are closed for safety's sake. The people behind the counter all had on masks and gloves to protect them and here's this kid eating food from someone he doesn't know and without asking. Very odd, right?

Mexico is a place where you just might see about anything. If you think this story is crazy you should've seen the guy driving a truck one day down the city street holding a rope in his hand which was attached to a horse running along side him. And no, we don't live in the country, we live in a big city, over 1/2 million. Only in Mexico...

Pick a side and stay there

Today we had a very interesting conversation while mixing cement by hand in Mexico. Franc and I were talking about the need for men to step it up in the church and be men, not just fixtures or doormats or silent partners. As we talked our partner in mixing Jaime came back out from hauling a wheelbarrow of concrete inside. He heard us and didn't speak up at first, you see, he doesn't go to church and has not for some time. I don't know how long, maybe 4 years, maybe 10.

When Jaime finally spoke we listened attentively to hear what he had to say. He said that men in the church need to live the same lifestyle outside the church doors as they do inside the church doors. He even made a physical movement to show how they need to not straddle a fence and live one way, not two ways. Hypocrisy is what he was referring to, not just the normal sin we deal with in life, but blatant hypocrisy. We've all seen it and it is never attractive. Some of my darkest memories of youth group were the kids who talked very spiritual in youth group and the night before partied like heathens.

What Jaime said brought out a verse from Revelation, where Jesus is telling the church to be either hot towards him or cold, but not lukewarm or tepid. Franc quoted the verse in Spanish, I couldn't even though I tried. Wow! There we were, an American missionary, a young Mexican pastor from Chiapas, Mexico, and a Mexican man who had become disgruntled by the hypocrisy, yet was willing to openly share and not condemn.

Pick a side, Jesus or the world. If it were only that simple, people would be flocking to churches and begging to come in and see what this Jesus' stuff is all about. If we lived as salt and light, the world would want what we have, they would follow us around and wonder what we are up to. Too bad it isn't true, they could care less most times.

Let's give them something to wonder about men. Let's live bold lives filled with integrity and walk in faith so that others will scratch their heads and try to 'get' us. Let's live with faith and courage and leave doubt and fear in the past. Let's get excited about something more important than the Super Bowl touchdown or the March Madness tourney breakdowns.

Well, that's all. I have to go rest my muscles from the concrete mixing. Pick a side....