Jesus was a kick ass dude...

First of all, I agree. I agreed with Carissa, the panhandling hippie we were talking to, when she made that statement. I don't think she knew how true that statement was, but she sounded sincere.(Disclaimer: Let me first tell you that this story does not end with them saying the sinner's prayer, but it was told for the truth that she spoke and so I remember the story.) She was bumming around the big island with her boyfriend, Ben. They were from California and Oregon. They were your typical hippies. Ben had a degree in horticulture, had been to jail for possession of weed (which was when he quickly told me Mendocino, CA had the best weed in the world), and had moved to Hawaii with Carissa, with $200 to their name, to escape the real world for a little while. Carissa was from Oregon, she was a massage therapist, had hairy legs, and recently started "dreads." They both had the smell of a couple days without a shower. When we walked past them the first time I noticed their cardboard sign that read: Hungry Hungry Hippies. I thought it was clever. Anyway, I really wanted talk to them so as we passed them the second time we stopped and started talking with them. As we started talking they told us all of these details about their travels in Hawaii. How they experienced racism in Puna, sold fruit for a living in Hilo, and worked for a couple of work trades on the east side of the island. One of the work trades was run by a group of Hare Krishna believers. They said they would make the workers go to chants. They also said they didn't like that. Then we started asking us about what we were doing. So we told them where we were going and what we would be doing. They asked us if we were Christians. I responded, "Yeah, but I hesitate to use the word "Christian" because I don't know what ideas are attached to that title. I do my best to try and live as Jesus lived." Carissa responded with, "Jesus was a kick ass dude." I said, "Yes He was. He was a kick ass dude." We talked for a little while longer, but we had to get back to campus. So we said goodbye and started walking home.

Later, I was thinking about what she said about Jesus. I prayed that God would move that truth from their heads down to their hearts and that it would change their lives. I was thinking about how I didn't, in words, share "The Gospel" with them. I kind of felt bad. Then I realized that they didn't need someone else to tell them what the truth was. They had already had that with the hare krishna work trade. However, I believe God used the testimony of what we were doing with our lives to speak to them. I thank God that I don't have to rely on "me" to share "The Gospel."

God is good. All the time.

Dan