It Really Works, I’m telling you it works.

My schedule was off yesterday so I ended up running in a different place at a different time.

I said to God yesterday morning: “Make me open to say the things that you would have me say to the people you would say them too” and He did.

As I got back from my run along the Eugene Bike Path a man and woman were standing near my car. The guy has a disability and the woman obviously his personal assistant.

My morning started with a TV appearance with Amelia Abel on KEZI talking about Look Me In The Eye, a campaign to draw attention to the needs of people with disabilities. Then we went on the radio at KKNX.

(Back to the bike path)

As I walked up to these two folks I look at the guy and just started talking. I was asking him questions but he was unable, because of his disability, to answer. I just kept talking with him and to his personal assistant.

As I started to leave I heard this small voice in my head say “Thank her for what she does” and I did.

This morning the first thing I find on my Face Book is a note from this woman telling me how much it meant to her to have me say those simple words.

It was so important to her she looked me up on Face Book so she could thank me.

I also ran into an old friend on the bike path and found out her husband just got fired from his job. We had a nice talk and I told her this could turn out to be the best thing ever for him. She hugged me and told me she was so glad she had run into me on the bike path. Remember this is the bike path I rarely run on and I never run at that time of day.

Guys, this stuff works. Being kind, paying attention to people, listening to God, it really, really works.

My Doorway

I hear a knock on the door. I don’t recognize this young man standing on my porch. He’s looking for work on a ranch. My two-acre place hardly constitutes a ranch so I call a few neighbors in an attempt to help this guy out.

We talk a few minutes and he decides it’s time to leave. I ask him how he got to my house. He tells me he walked 4-miles from town.

My wife looks at me and says give the guy a ride back into town and I do. On the way we start talking about life and all that stuff. A connection is made so I tell him to call me and I’ll buy him coffee sometime. His life story was complex and painful and difficult and something inside me felt the need to help.

Andrew did call me and we went out for coffee several times. But after about a month he just disappeared.

Two years later I get a phone call at KEZI. It’s Andrews mother. She tells me Andrew is the young man I reported on the night before who had walked into oncoming traffic on I-105 and killed himself. She asks me if I would mind officiating Andrews funeral. She told me how much he used to talk about his friend Rick Dancer. He remembered me because apparently I was one of the few people who had listened to him. It seems Andrew didn’t have a lot of people in his life.

I showed up that day at a cemetery in Springfield and did as his mother had asked. She kept in touch with me for many years. It was apparent their family had a lot of issues, as many families do these days.

I don’t know why I’m writing this memory on computer paper. I think this all comes from a conversation I had with a friend the other day about living my life on the edge. He told me you must have been living like Jesus the proof is in all the strange things that occur in your life. He reminded me that the same things happened to Christ.

This is causing me to go back and remember those moments. To write down the odd and memorable moments that happened when I was open to them.

I wonder how many times we miss great moments because we are too busy or not listening?

God, open me up to even more, please.

Look Me In The Eye: What a Month

September was “ look me in the eye month” and what a great month it turned out to be.

Look me in the eye is a simple public awareness campaign that’s aim is to get each one of us to acknowledge those with disabilities in our community.

Amelia Abel joined me several times to talk on the radio and on local television about why this is so important to people with disabilities.

Today we visited KEZI’s morning show and KKNX radio and she did a great job.

Between interviews Amelia and I went to our favorite coffee shop, Full City, and had a great time.

KKNX can track how many online listeners it had while we were talking and guess what? There were 15,000 people listening and the numbers for an online service that provides a link for people with vision disabilities was bursting with listeners. These aren’t just local listeners these are people from all over the world.

The campaign isn’t over when September ends. You will be hearing much more about us in the coming months. In the meantime, don’t forget to “Look People In The Eye.

The Connector

I’m writing on Face Book and a young man comes on and we begin to chat about this or that. Next thing you know we’re headed to coffee to dig into the deeper things of God.

I go swim at a hydro pool, talk about it on Face Book, the next thing I know I’m a friend with a guy who builds pools and we’re chatting it up on Face Book.

God is into making connections. He loves to put people in our lives unexpectedly. It is almost as if it’s a test to see how much we can truly love other people.

When we are open to it, and allow it to just happen life gets very interesting. If we resist and instead retreat to our comfort zone life becomes stagnant, stale and downright boring.

Right now, as you get up out of bed, God is already planning your day. He’s working out possible connections for you. The question is will you live with expectancy or plan your day so perfectly that you get everything done on your list and miss His?

I’m an expert at this topic because I miss a lot due to my planning. Fortunately I have a God who gets in my way.

So, take your shower, brush your teeth (please) and leave a few holes in your schedule today. I’m telling you, something is going to happen if you do.

Get Off My Path…Please

Each day, for the past week, I’ve driven past the site of deadly crash on Camp Creek Road on the way to my house.

A 24-year-old man died right there by that tree, a tree now covered with flowers as his friends and family remember him.

Today my phone rings, the man leaves a message and asks me to call him. The man is the father of the young man who died in the car crash.

Come to find out I knew Brian. I used to go to a Bible Study with him. We even met for coffee fairly regularly for a while. I even baptized him in the river down below our house.

His father sounded so sad on the phone. Brian was an only son and now he is dead. His dad asked if I would come to Brian’s memorial next week. Of course I will be there. How could I not go? If my son died at age 24 I would want people who I took the time to call, to come and remember him.

I was talking with a friend about all the interesting and odd things that happen to me. Last week I’m in a crematorium with someone I know and this week I discover this connection to a death on my own street.

My friend said to me “odd and wonderful things happened a lot to Jesus too. Perhaps, Rick, he said, this is proof that you are walking closely to His will for your life.”

So I must remember in those moments when the Pharisees and people who tend to tow the line throw their steely darts my way, that I am not here to walk their way I am here to walk the way that God designed only for me. And let me tell you it is a very odd path indeed, and I love it.

(Most of the time)

Let Them In

It is amazing what can happen when you look beyond what you think you know about someone.

I am continually flabbergasted at the abilities of people with so called disabilities.

This morning I watched as Amelia Abel, a young woman with Downs Syndrome, held her own on live television.

Marc Mullins at KMTR invited us on his morning show to talk about the Look Me In The Eye Campaign.

She has become a voice for many who are voiceless. Amelia can put words to feelings where others may not have that special ability.

To watch Amelia Abel, come alive on TV or on the radio as she talks about the things that matter, I have to wonder how long all of that stuff has been bottled up inside her.

It also causes me to wonder, how frustrated people like my brother-in-law Chip Diehm must feel because he has no voice and must have people like the rest of us, speak out for him.

Oregon is the only state in the country to close all of its institutions that once housed people with developmental disabilities. Alaska also has no more institutions but sends its developmentally disabled folks to other state’s that still have institutions.

Not us, in Oregon we put these folks, where they need to be, with us in the community. If we truly look them in the eye and slow down to really listen to them, we will discover what is missing from our culture today.

I truly believe people like Amelia can fill in the gaps that we fail to see. They put the human into our being. They allow us to see what really matters and for a moment the world looks whole.

This is perhaps one of the most important things I have ever been involved with and it causes me to smile a lot.

Take time to look someone in the eye today if you are brave enough to do so.

And tune into KMTR News tonight and watch Amelia Abel.

On Thursday she will appear on KEZIs morning show and on KKNX radio at 8:30am.