John Kerry

A most interesting day: It started off at the local school bus stop as nearly all Friday's do during the school year, from there a short visit with Sean Wrenn, then some unfocused time working on my sermon, and then I met John Kerry. Crazy huh?
I heard at about 230 pm that John Kerry's bus tour was gonna drive through Mt. Vernon around 4:45 and he might possibly stop. So I went to downtown Mt. Vernon to see the crowds and possibly see a presidential candidate. (For the record I think only my wife knows for sure who I'm voting for, I like keeping that stuff secret and I would have went to see George Bush just the same.) Tons of people were lining the street, both Bush and Kerry supporters, and it got really annoying listening to the Bushies chanting four more years while the Kerries chanting four more months. People on both sides were just so passionate, it kinda made me sick. Especially when a couple people got into a shooting cussing match in front of me that I had to break up. I ended up hanging out with a couple of middle school kids and we made fun of both sides.

When his bus finally showed up it ended up stopping so I ran down to where it was at and he got off the bus. Next thing you know after getting yelled at by a bunch of secret service guys and girls, Kerry walked right buy me and shook my hand. I tried to tell him "abortion is murder" (I felt like I had to say something prophetic, if Bush were there I would have told him to cancel third world debt), but the crowd was to loud and he was going by to fast to hear me, not to mention I was kinda intimidated and didn't say it too loud. After all that fun he got back in the bus and drove off. I want to be in the secret service now, it looked like a cool job.

Interesting thing happened after that. I ran into this seventh grader I know from the neighborhood who was down there watching the whole thing. He got so lost in the crowd that he never got to see Kerry. He asked me for a ride home and on the way to the car he asked if we could hang out for a while, I couldn't say no. It's safe to say this kid is pretty lonely and needs a few more friends. It was odd for me to hear his request to hang out after I just pushed through a screaming crowd of Kerry supporters to shake Kerry's hand. It made me look at the crowd (the bushies and kerries) this evening a little bit differently. Are they all, and myself included, missing the point a little bit. I look at Christians who are really involved in this election on both sides and I especially wonder if we are missing the point just a bit. We fight and fight for our candidate or issue while there are people all around us who would just like us to spend a little bit of time with them. It just makes me wonder a bit.

I doubt that all made since, cause I'm not sure I even understand what I'm saying.

May our God bless my friend I got to hang out with tonight. May he know that God would rather hang out with him than with presidential candidates. May he know God's amazing love!