Day 193-238: Change @ the Workplace

Thanks to a dependable revolving door atmosphere where I work I only have to wait a matter of weeks to share Jesus with a whole new crop of people. The fact that I know that 98% of my co-workers today are long gone tomorrow also helps the sharing because I know I only have a limited amount of time and I NEED to make it count. Often times I do less when I feel I have all the time in the world to do something and I absolutely HATE wasting my time. It's a hard fight to get motivated but I intend to win that struggle.

In the last week I was able to share with two people at work. The first kid was a gal who was going to a church on campus and then, thanks to her boyfriend, started going only sometimes because he doesn't like "contemporary" church services. The decision he came up with was to simply just not go to church and she went with it. I still don't know exactly why she started to tell me so much about all that since it was the first day I had worked with her and I was training her to do one of the most disgusting jobs there is to do at Raising Cane's. Perhaps the whole "So do you go to church?" question did it or maybe, just maybe . . . it was a God thing. I'm going with that latter :-)

Either way while weighing the chicken, and avoiding getting our chart all gooey, I just plain told her that taking time away from God because of her boyfriends hangup wasn't cool and that they should not only go to church but try to get involved in a small group so that they would get to know people and whatnot. Her reaction surprised me more than my frankness with her. She told me that she was going to start going to church and that if her boyfriend didn't like it oh well, lol! YES, PRAISE GOD!!! I want to make it clear that I hope he goes of course but yeah, either way I'm glad she said all that and hope she goes through with it. You can pray on that.

The second guy I got to talk to was a guy who I'm chums with who is getting his Masters in Edu. which automatically makes him the coolest guy there, lol! The fact that he wants to teach English is also very bonus, hah! My bud is just about the busiest guy I know but he will talk to you and listen better than almost anyone I know. Right now we are talking about Jesus and why He is so important. Work sort of makes it hard to keep things going sometimes but you all can pray that I get some time to talk with him and in that time have the right words. Prayer for him would be sweet as well :-)

It's been a while and blogging has obviously not been my thing for a while but maybe I will make it back sooner next time. Either way it goes God bless and keep sharing Jesus :-D

Day 189-192: People stepping out makes me happy :-)

So my roommate got my attention yesterday and told me how he shared Jesus with someone random.

This was HUGE!

The conversation went something like this . . .

DL: Hey, dude. I was in Paige Hall yesterday and maaan that's a beautiful building. JT told me that it was a good place to study so I checked it out. While I was there I was sitting at one of these marble tables when I saw a guy near me and I felt like God was telling me that I should share the Gospel with him.

I in turn said . . .

ESM: WHAT!? That's soooo cool :-D

Hah!

DL: Yea dude, it was so clear I just knew I had to do it and at the same time I didn't want this guy to think I was crazy so I wrote him a note right there and before I left I dropped it by him.

Lol! I'm loving the story at this point because it was just such a clear example to me that God totally works through all of us in just the coolest ways no matter where we are and in a way that is just totally personal and unique.

Now, back to the story.

ESM: LOL! That's great.

DL: Yea it was cool until I got around the corner and I hear him coming around to catch up with me.

ESM: Lol! YES!!! Lol!

DL: When he got to me he was like "Hey man, you dropped this" and I just looked at him and took the note back. I told him thanks and then after a second I just gave in and told him the note was for him.

The guy is obviously curious.

This tale of stepping out ended with my friend explaining his actions and the guy telling DL that he was a Christian and involved with a Christian group on campus. The two talked some more and than parted ways.

I loved it.

This is one of the most outgoing moments in my roommates life and I'm just glad he obeyed God in this really sweet case. Can you imagine if we all had stories like this. I'm sure one of us might even get to have one with someone who isn't a Christian :-) Even if they are Christians I can only imagine what that kind of boldness expressed through another believer could do for them. I wonder what this guy thought about all of this and wonder if he has been made just a tad bit more outgoing after witnessing the actions of my dear roommate. I hope so.

For now, I hope you all had a good time and felt the joy I tried to convey in this little post here.

It's a great thing when we let God work in our lives.

Let Him work in yours today :-D

God bless and good afternoon.

Day 157-188: The Life of a Blog . . .

So just when I thought I was going to begin posting more I had just about the biggest break EVER!!!

All I can say to explain this lapse in posting is that I made a challenge for myself and until that challenge was met I wasn't allowed to blog.

Whew. I can only imagine how long it would have taken me to meet my little challenge without the blog grounding in place. A loooong time is my guess.

For now though I'M BACK and I have a cool story of a recent happening that I think you will enjoy.

The Bus.

I was on the bus . . . again, and I was listening to my iPod . . . again, when all of a sudden I totally felt God wanted me turn off the music. I waited a sec because it sort of scared me. This has happened before and the next thing that follows usually involves me stepping out of my comfort zone. I've got joy but fear of embarrassment is making a case as well :-)

Finally I turned off the music and I sat. "What now?" is sort of what I'm thinking. I waited some more and started praying. I totally got the vibe that I'm supposed to talk to the guy in front of me about Jesus and so I do. I tapped him on the shoulder and I asked him the question, "What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the name Jesus?" followed by my "Hey, this is really normal please believe me" smile :-D My pal said, "Jesus?" followed by that sound people make with their lips to blow you or your question off. I sat there some more.

Prayer continued because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing something here so I just waited on God and BAM, it hit me. I totally remembered that I had a few Gospels of John in my book bag that had to have been there for months. I know I'm supposed to give one to this guy who just lip blew/smacked the question a minute ago. Sounds sort of crazy now but at the time I was so absolutely sure that this would change everything that I didn't really even think twice about it. I tapped him again and gave him the book. I saw him open it up and start reading the first page.

A few friends of his got on and started trying to talk to him and he just kept on reading. He flipped to the next page and then again to the next all while these women he knew are chatting it up and trying to get him talking. I'm praying my little heart out just going I have no clue what's going on but I'm thinking I like it. I was going to have to get off soon and was pretty happy with the way things ended up when this guy turned around and asked me, "Is this for me?" I told him, "Yeah man" which he followed up with a pause and a "Thanks."

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

I was so happy I didn't know what to say other than, "No problem man" lol!
God totally rocks my world :-)

Thanks for your time and God bless all!

Other stories may soon follow but in the meantime feel free to have some adventures of your own :-D

Goodnight :-)

Day 153-156: Even when the Buckeyes lose . . .

God saves the day :-)

It's sort of late right now but I'll say I spent my time well with a friend from out of town. We saw the most terrible game Ohio State has played since about 1999 together surrounded by our Chi Alpha buds.

My friend and I talked a bit after the game and prayed too. All the while I was thinking, "God is so much more."

This might make no sense to anyone outside of Ohio but football could be considered a religion around these parts so balance between the game and what some people (including myself at times) make it can be lost.

While heading to school this morning I had my iPod going when I felt that nudge to talk to someone. This is always appreciated because I believe that if God didn't nudge me I would be a pod person totally lost in whatever I was listening to whether it's music or a Ravi Zacharias sermon Jam :-)

I felt like I should talk to a guy that had jumped on board the bus next to me. A few minutes later I'm getting his info so that I can find a church for him to go to since he's new in Columbus and doesn't know hardly anyone.

God told me to love people and sometimes that can be hard. God told me to be bold and sometimes I get cold.

I think that greatest thing God told me today and a way I can't perfectly verbalize is that He's there yet again for me with a good friend to boot and a mission that is far more important than a glass football.

With God. I'm always on a winning team.

Amen and goodnight.

P.S. PRAISE GOD!!!

Day 143-152: What a difference 152 days make

So today I decided that I would start writing stories again. Maybe it was my old chum from Dubai or maybe I'm just not wasting my time with other things but the short of it is that for the moment I thought it would be a good thing if I started sharing stories again at least a couple of times a week. I think one of the last stories was around Day 70 or something so it's been a little bit. I hope you enjoy and are encouraged!

Today I woke up bright and early for prayer and when I got across campus (which takes about 20 or so minutes) I was wet and made aware of the fact that the prayer house doesn't even open until Monday . . . tear.

After deciding that going home was out of the question I decided that I would have some good God time.

I walked into the Info Tech. building while listening to some some sermon jams which you can check out by clicking the Sermon Jams link @ Go-365. I think it was Greg Laurie - Trust. After milling around for a bit I saw a guy and felt like maybe I should talk to him. I didn't. A few seconds later someone sat close to the guy I didn't talk to and for some reason he seemed like someone "safer" to talk to. Confident I walked over, sat down, and pulled out my Bible. He left almost immediately. I jammed for a few seconds more and looked to my left. Here goes nothing.

"Hey, my name's Erik and I was just wondering if I could ask you a question. What's the first thing you think about when you hear the name Jesus?"

That was all it took to get to talking and eventually the guy gave me his contact info and said he might come out for the Chi Alpha National Championship Bash on Monday! He's new in town and I probably never would have run into him had I not realized there was no prayer this morning. Funny how things work out eh?

Sorry that I still haven't gone back to the picture posting like the first month but maybe next time that might work out.

God bless kids and continue to GO! Who knows what could happen!?

Laters, esm

P.S. While trying to organize my life a tad bit better I got ahold of a kid I popped a question at a couple of months ago and now that same kid is coming to the XA OSU Bash on Monday!!! How cool is that!?!?!?

Just goes to show you that even though people can get lost in the shuffle sometimes it's worth a shot to try to reconnect if you can get past yourself.

Day 126-142: More and more each day :-)

Over the last few days I've decided to share more than usual and just so you know it's going great. For anyone that still checks up on this you may have realized that I'm keeping this posting thing up just to keep myself on track :-)

God bless and Merry Christmas :-)

Day 115-125: Still Pushing, Still Growing

Well, I'm still trying to share Jesus and even though it's a war (this is not just a figure of speech) God can get me through.

Keep sharing and be encouraged.

He is working all the time :-)

Whether you read it or not.

Remember in this war Love conquers all.