So This Jewish Dude and Christian Chick Walk into a bar......or Maybe are in a Boat?.....

 OK, a bit misleading....I don't drink...and I get sea-sick easily.




               Hi Everyone, It's me...the long lost blogger that can't seem to get her act together to post on my blog.


 I hope all of you were greeted by the new year with a whole lot of happiness, health and strength...I write strength because it seems that we are called upon to be strong more and more. Whether it's our own sicknesses, or the weight of having to care for a family member....Maybe it's our jobs and the strength we need to go to them everyday and know that there will be challenges. Then there is our world....



               all I can say is WHAT THE HELL?
                     





                Seriously, what in the world is happening to our world?

                I can barely sit through the main stories in the news without cringing in disgust or fear.

                Sometimes I talk to God and say "Lord we need a "Do over". We have made so many mistakes...can it be fixed?


                There is so much hate and I wonder....why? why? why?

                Have the whispers of evil been slowly taken in like some drug and now as evil yells we simply follow the sound?

               

              A long time ago I worked in a neighborhood  clothing store. The owners were a conservative Jewish family.

              The store where I worked was owned by a man and his wife. Their Children worked there too as well as Grandparents who had lived through WW2, by literally being one step ahead of the Nazis.

One of their kids was my age and after a while (as people of the same age will do) we would strike up conversations. At first they were general type of topics. His parents didn't like when we would speak to each other and whenever they could they would separate us and keep us at opposite ends of the store. Maybe they thought I was a bad influence? Maybe they were afraid that we would be attracted to each other? I don't know.

 On Fridays the parents would not come in and "J" and I could talk without the prying eyes of his parents. It was on those short Fridays ( the store would close early for the Sabbath) that we started to talk about almost everything under the sun. When business would slow down during the day we would talk about music and laugh at corny jokes. He would ask me about my faith and I would ask him about his. He would listen to me and never judge or criticize me. I would do the same.

               

                 We respected each other.



              He appreciated me as a human being with a point of view that he could never get in his world. And I was able to appreciate him. Others who worked at the store couldn't figure us out. The Jewish workers would ask him why he liked talking to me...

               "Isn't she strange? watch out all those Christians want to do is convert people" they would tell him

              and co workers who were not  Jewish would ask me the same questions..

                "Isn't he strange? He could care less about you ya know...women mean nothing in their world..doesn't he tell you that he's right and your all wrong?"

     


                J and I  soon realized that even though he wore a Yarmulke, attended a Synagogue and kept Kosher..I attended Church and believe in Jesus and took Communion....we had the same dreams...the same fears...and most importantly a Love of God that was a gift that we took seriously.


          Later, after I left that job  I saw him walking down the street. We stopped and talked and he told me of his upcoming marriage to a girl he had taken on a date just once. He had never been alone with her..or for that matter even touched her hand.


          This didn't shock me because he had told me that is how it was in his world. I wished him well and we both smiled and waved goodbye.

          I wonder if he saw me now would he still be that opened minded kid I knew? Would I? Have the evil whispers infected our hearts as we have grown and have seen so much more than we did when we were 18? I'd like to think that we would stand and talk about life for a while, share pictures of our children and wish each other well.


           In a world where empathy, sympathy seem to have disappeared...


               Where violence is everywhere to the point where our schools feel no longer safe


                     Where people take advantage of our fears and tell us that violence is the only answer

                     
                            Where we are mocked for loving God.


         I hang onto the fact that there are people like "J" and so many others I have met from every walk of life. I cling to the knowledge that they feel the tug to do good in this world. To follow the golden rule and refuse to let those evil whispers derail them from a righteous path. They go out and experience this world and pray.

                                                God hear our prayers