Maybe this is why I am doing this

I am thirty.
To some of you that sounds old.
To many, that sounds young.
To me, it's in between.

Thirteen years ago I was walking along the River Greenway in Fort Wayne. I was lonely, angry, and feeling like I hated the world. As I sat on a bench at the one mile mark out from the parking lot on Lake Ave, a figure approached in the distance. I am thinking, "I hope they don't talk to me."
As he gets closer, I realize he's an old man. To me, he's really really old. I am seventeen, he's probably 70.

"Hello!" he says with cheeriness that is like nails on a chalkboard to me."Hello." I reply. He ensues to make conversation with me. Even though I don't want to talk with him in the least, he seems to care. He asks what brings me to Greenway. I tell them I just came out there to think (a surprisingly honest answer). He asks me what I come out there to think about. And I mutter something about my job, school, my family and girlfriend. At this point, his chipperness hasn't been slowed by my gloom.

He says, "Do you know what I think about when I come out here?" I'm thinking, "No, and I don't care."But I say, "No, what?"

"I think about the Lord Jesus Christ."

Now, understand that lots of other people had invested in my spiritually. My parents always took me to church. They talked with me about God all the time. We prayed regularly. I served at church. And just before all this, there had been even more people talking with me about God. For some reason, though, I had not let it click yet.

I say that to preface what I say next.

In that moment, I was face to face with Jesus for the first time.

This man, though a stranger, loved me. And he loved Jesus Christ.

Sounds remarkably like he was fulfilling the greatest two commandments.

In that moment, I was converted. If my life was a mountain range, this was the watershed.

Why? Because of love, caring, and words spoken about Jesus.

His name is Bill Dunn.

Maybe one reason I am doing this is because I would like to lead a church full of Bill Dunns. I'd like to be a servant leader to a group who is taking the love of Christ to the streets- in the lives of family, friends, co-workers, strangers, the poor, the needy globally.

I think that's why Jesus came. He hoped that maybe, just maybe, by loving us so much we would want to spill that over into the lives of others so that they might come to know him as well.

It's a mission marked with love. Wanna join me?