Sunday, September 18, 2005

Organic Cleaner Guy

Some guy came to my door yesterday; he wanted to sell me some organic cleaner that apparently has super powers. Henceforth, he shall be known in this post as OCG (organic-cleaner guy).

(knock on my door; I answer)
OCG: Man, you must be really focused. I've been standing at your window waving at you.
Me (to self): creepy (I was actually in my kitchen making soup)
(Migo runs outside)
OCG: How old is your puppy?
Me: 3 months
OCG: He's just a little bit bigger than mine; I have a 3 month old pit bull.
Me: Oooohh... You like to live dangerously. Pit bulls are now illegal in Denver -- if they find one, they take it away and euthanize it.
OCG: No, I was just in Breckenridge, and they were fine with her.
Me: But that's not Denver.
OCG: Oh, right; I was confusing Denver and Colorado.
[Skip more conversation, which includes how his organic cleaner "cleans anything you put water on." I told him I don't care if products are organic, and I clean as little as possible. btw: it didn't clean the oil spot off of my parents' driveway when he moved up to their subdivision.]
OCG: So are you in college?
Me: No, I've been out of college for a few years.
OCG: So what do you do?
Me: I work in a ministry here in town.
OCG: Oh, are you a youth minister?
Me: No, I don't work in a church. We work with churches, teaching people Christian principles for resolving conflict.
OCG: So you can pretty much work with all religions. They all use basically the same ideas. Like Muslims pretty much believe the same things as Christians.
Me (racking my brain for Alfred's sermon about Islam - 8/14/05): Actually, Christianity is a faith that's a lot different than any other religions. For example, our principles for peacemaking wouldn't work in Islam because there's no such thing as forgiveness, with other people or with Allah. Muslims spend their lives trying to please Allah, but they have no idea if he's happy with them or not.
OCG: Wow, you must have studied a lot about other religions.
Me: No, I just study Christianity, so I can determine truth from a lie. (And I go to church where I get answers like this straight out of the sermons I hear. Praise God for my church!)

I also got to tell Mr. OCG that we don't consider Mormons to be Christians. "Who's 'we'?" he asked. "We" are Christians who adhere to the creeds that have historically defined Christianity. Mormons expressly reject those creeds. "Yeah, and doesn't the Bible says something about you're not supposed to add to it ... and they added the whole Book of Mormon." Precisely.

May God go with you, Organic-Cleaner Guy. Perhaps in all your lively conversations knocking on people's doors, you will find Someone who is seeking you as well.

"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:19-20)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For some organic cleaner that really works, try Quick n Brite. I use it to clean practically everything. You can use it on anything you can get wet with water, and it works better than the toxic crap you can buy at the store. Check it out. They also have microfiber cloths, mops, rubber brooms and more at www.simplygoodstuff.com