The Man Behind the Music

You never know when 

God sends his presence 

who is Jesus in the crowd that's present 

Do we even let him? 

Maybe he tries 

but we deny with our closed eyes

No, not all though 

I have hope 

I know quite a few that see the clear truth 

The truth isn't limited purely by sight

it contains all senses

so we must respect them

everyone no matter what they look like

how they act 

they could be Jesus 

just wearing a mask 

are you willing to receive them? 

Aside from youth ministry at Chaminade College Preparatory, I work as a part time Specialist for the Apple Store. I meet so many great customers and today I started something new. Before I left the break room, to head to the Sales Floor, I said a quick prayer that God would bless all my customers and allow me to meet and build new relationships with them. Well, I met some awesome people. 

One customer from San Diego showed me some amazing apps on his iPhone. Before I ended the sale, I mentioned to him, his wife, and daughter that I did Christian Rap... they though it was cool... and then they continued shopping and left the store. 15 minutes later the Dad came back and started talking with me about my faith and mentioned he is a big fan of the Joel Osteen Podcasts. I too am a fan of Joel and show his podcasts in class. He said that Joel's insights nourish him and give him spiritual energy which he must use to help spiritually feed others. I found this to be amazing. Yes, it is our duty to take what we learn about our faith and share it with others. We are a family, a team, walking on the road of life together. If we can pool our resources and knowledge then imagine where we will go! I was thankful for this conversation and inspired. 

Another customer was purchasing OSX Leopard (the latest Mac operating system). He was a tall white man with curly hair sticking out of his black beanie. I asked him what kind of music he produced and he said, "Rap". I then asked if he had produced any songs I might now... he proceeds to ask me if I knew "Hypnotize" by Notorious B.I.G.! I was in utter amazement that this man was the man behind the music of "Hypnotize". We then talked for about 10 mins about Biggie, Rap, and the source of inspiration. He asked my why I listen to Biggie and 2Pac and still do Christian Rap. I told him that Notorious B.I.G. said only rap about what's real to you. God is real to me so that's what I rap about. I appreciate the freedom of expression that rap contains. There are no limits. You create your own boundaries.  The same applies to our life as a Christian. We have free will which allows us to control our lives. We can soar as high as we want with God if we choose to. However, we can also limit our faith to fit inside of church or what we learn in a classroom. Our faith values these tools, but is so far beyond. We have a God that has put a ball of fire in the sky that has been burning for thousands of years... it's probably won't go out anytime soon. Did the sun know it would burn for so long? Probably not. Do we know how far we can go into God's love? No... so let's keep going. 

The poem above is about being blinded not only be limitations, but by classification. I had no idea this tall white man would have made such a legendary beat. But he did. We never know when Jesus is going to show up and show us something we couldn't imagine. So we must do our best to expect the unexpected and be ready.