"Powder Nose Joe"

When I was I was born I went to live with my aunt and uncle, on their ranch,  in a small small city of Golconda, NV. 15 miles east of Winnemucca. You know, I wouldn't even really call Golconda a city, it is more like, a sneeze on the map. When my aunt and uncle moved, they were one of 3 homes that were there. It is a desert. Miner country. (and why they chose that land, my uncle worked in the mines) My uncle purchased 40 acres of dirt and developed it over the years. 26 years later Golconda has grown. It now consists of about 100 people, a post office, and a bar. However, that ranch, is beautiful. A windbreak of trees, a horse corral, a beautiful home, a huge shop. It will always be a place I call "home". However, 26 years ago...desert.

Now that I have laid out the landscaping of this long ago "home" for me. I will say, you can imagine what free time for a toddler looked like there. Your typical things, catching lizards, crying at the sight of a snake, getting EXTREMELY dirty, and lots of bath times. We had a beautiful golden retriever named Josie. Josie was my "protector". From the moment I moved there, she never left my side. She slept by my crib. When I cried, she was right there. And when I started walking, she went EVERYWHERE with me. The poor thing was the most patient pup. When we were outside I would pick up rocks and feed them to her and she would carefully take them in her mouth, just to please me.

One of the family favorite stories to be told (always by my aunt) is the "Powder Nose Joe" story. After my many hours of playing outside I would of course have to be thrown into a bath. When I was a clean kid again, I instantly left behind my snake chasing, lizard catching, boy ways behind, and became a girl! I begged for the powder to be taken out. After my aunt had powdered my face in the most dainty of ways, the routine was for me to call for Josie. He was my side kick after all. So naturally, I had powder, she needed powder too. So I would make my call. "POWDER NOSE JOE!"  and wait. One more time. "POWDER NOSE JOE!" I never had to guess if she would show up or not. Soon enough Joe would come around the corner. She knew what was coming. But she never failed to show up. She never had a look of dread in her face. She just faithfully came. She would walk up to the counter. Sit down in front of me and wait. I would take the pad, fill it with powder, and POOF! One hit to the nose! Suddenly my beautiful dark golden retriever was as white as a sheet. She would wag her tail and leave the room. And she would continue to show up, day after day, and let a this little toddler who she loved, powder her noes.

Day after day it was just as messy, just as annoying, but she loved me.

Faithful one.

This morning I recalled that story being told at Thanksgiving this year. And I smiled. However, this morning, I was reminded of the story in a different light.

I saw the scene in my head.

The little Amanda walking out of the house. Dirt flying because she is just learning to walk and her feet drag a little. Tiny rocks being picked up and stuffed into Joe's mouth with no complaint. Just gentle eyes watching me as I told her she needed to eat. Being pulled away when there was a snake near by. The cup to the mouth to carry my voice as I called her to have her nose powdered. The puff of white snowy colored powder. And a loving white faced dog, wagging her tail to tell me she just enjoys her time with me. Still wagging her tail and she leaves the room.

This is what I heard:

"Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day. Nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday."  --Psalm 91:3-6

Powder Nose, oh faithful pup.

When I think about my childhood and what growing up was like, I see nothing but the divine grace and beautiful redemption of God. His faithfulness is beyond anything I could every hope, dream, ask, or wish for. In that moment, seeing the memory unfold, being narrated by this verse. The Lord gently reminded me how he has been "my Joe" my entire life.

"Surly Amanda I have saved you from the enemies snare, and from deadly pestilence. I have covered you with my feathers, and under my wings you have found your refuge; My faithfulness has been your shield and rampart. You do not have to fear the terror of the night or the arrow that flies by day. Nor the pestilence that stalks you in the darkness, or the plague that destroys at midday."

Read it with your name my friends.

In the moments that we were learn to walk and can barely lift our feet. With each trip, each fall, and each scuffed knee. He is there. Walking beside us.

In the moments where there are snakes and snares we are unaware of because we are to busy exploring life. He is there. Protecting us.

In those moments when things seem so right to us in our small minds. When we try to convince the Lord that our way of thinking is correct and that surely we know best. He does not spit the rocks out of his mouth in front of us. (all the time anyways) and gently allows us to learn from our mistakes. And then continues walk with us.

In those moments when we call. Oh friends, when we call. When we call for the same things over and over again. The hurts, the pains, the struggles. When we have washed ourselves clean of the dirt, only to dirty ourselves again. Those moments when old habits have died hard and we are have found ourselves coming back to those old routines. When we cup our hands to our mouths and call out for him to come. He comes. No questions asked. No second thoughts. He comes. Knowing who we are, knowing where we are going, knowing the choice we will make the next day. He continues to come.

Powder Nose, oh faithful Savior.

There are so many times were we look back at times in our lives and see the hurts and pains, but fail to see that we were not alone. So often we do not remember that as our heart breaks, so does his. As we rejoice, so does he. I encourage you to remember friends that whether we choose to acknowledge or not, we never have been, are not, and never will, walk alone. We will always have someone there beside us.

Sometimes we are to "young" in understanding to know exactly what He is doing. Or to wrapped up in our own thoughts and plans to see what is in front of us. And sometimes we just flat out ignore the reality of what we are choosing, however, he will faithfully comes.

Who am I Lord that you should be mindful of me?

One of my favorite things about the Lord is that despite how we see ourselves and despite where we allow our decisions to take us. His faithfulness sees JUST us. Purely us. Not our "junk"...just us. The way he created us. His reflection. His pride and joy.

No matter how many times we call for that "powder nose" moment. He will come.

What in your life right now needs that moment with the Lord? That unresistant moment of presence with Him?

Cup your hand to your mouth my friend.

He can't wait to answer.

Purposeful Stranger

Monday morning I arrived to my dentist appointment, I walked in and got what I always do: huge smiles and welcomes accompanied by "how are you doings?" and "How is work goings?". This is always the kind of friendliness I recieve when I come to my dentist's office. The staff is absolutely amazing. I walk in, on the near side of a panic attack knowing that soon enough I will have to endure listening to these awful machines inside my mouth. (So weird, it has never been the actual work, but the sounds that make me nervous.)  However, despite all of the nerves I wear so clear on my sleeve, I am always put at ease with the great attitudes of my dentist's office staff. I sit in the waiting room and watch as the other family that sits and waits as well receives the same greetings, well wishes, and we even exchange  glances and smiles of our own. Fast forward, about 2 hours later, same day, cleaner teeth, excitement that I have survived, headed to my next appointment. Driving down a main street in my town to my eye doctor. I always look forward to seeing my eye doctor, he is awesome. I have no worries, except maybe the "puff of air" test. As I walk in to my appointment, I am met with a very different greeting. No smiles, no "how are you?", in fact, the staff seemed to be in a bad mood and I found them to be quite rude and unhelpful. None the less, I smile, say thank you and take my seat. As I sit in this waiting room, it is the same type of atmosphere, everyone just seems to be in a bad mood. People complaining of the wait times, people not even acknowledging people who would like to sit down.There was one person in the whole room smiling. An older woman, smiling at an adorable baby and what happened? The mother got up and moved across the room. There was such a difference that 2 hours and a drive across town made.  Funny how the place that usually stresses me out had a good attitude and the place I felt at ease stressed me out.

Or could it be that the atmosphere was adapted from the first person they came in contact with as they walked into the office?

 Did that stranger who did or didn't greet them properly as they walked in the door completely change the course of their day.

As I sat and waiting for my name to be called, I recalled a time that I was in San Francisco and was sent across the street to get some testing done for a follow up with my oncologist. I remember practically being in tears because of how rude the lady at the front desk was to me. There was so much going through my mind in regards to my Cancer at that moment, that the last thing I needed was someone being mean. I remember thinking, "THIS LADY! She knows that people who come through this door HAVE CANCER...she doesn't get to be rude!" But monday, as I reflected on that appointment, so many months ago, something hit me. I was so upset that she was being so rude when I was having a bad day, but, what was going on in her life that was making her have such a bad day?

This realization made me reflect on the type of stranger that I am to people. We expect so much from people ya know? We always want the best service, with the best attitude, at the best rate, and in the best timeframe possible. But how often are we ready to go above and beyond to provide the same things to other people.

How many people could you have walked by today, in every place that you went, and you didn't even know they were there? A deeper thought, how many people did you walk by today, that maybe really needed someone to acknowledge their existence, that maybe really needed just a simple smile, or needed someone to show just a little bit of kindness, but we just kept walking. Have our lives become so busy and our minds so focused on our "to do list" that we have lost sight of what and who is around us?

The thought of that is so sad, especially knowing that so many days, that is true for my life. However, I say with all of my heart, something I know to be true is this one thing: People are ALWAYS more important than your/my to do list.

My life has been, I guess you could say, hectic the last few years. And in the process of this time, although it may be so very legitimate because of what I have been dealing with, I have found myself to be so inward focused, forgetting that there are people in my life everyday, waiting for me to be that stranger that makes a difference.

Romans 2:4 says, "It is God's kindness that leads us to repentance."

It is so true. He is so kind. And in my reflection of him...Am I kind as well?

It is not very often in life that you have the opportunity to have a complete stranger change your life forever. I am honored to say that I have had that privilege.

Nearly 5 years ago, I was blessed with an incredible friendship in my life. It was one of those friendships you know is from the Lord. Little did I know, the blessing of his family, complete strangers, would be to me. The father of that friend, an incredible man named Bruce Sanzari, forever changed my idea of how I treated each person that came into my life.

I remember the first time I met Bruce. I was greeted with a smile that could make the meanest person in the world instantly nice. It was a genuine one. But his smile was not the only thing that was genuine about him. EVERYTHING about him was genuine. His whole person was an out pour of his faith and the same way that he knew his Lord was kind, he was as well. In the first conversation we shared, he asked the typical, "so what do you do with your life?" question. But he wasn't wanting the "oh you know, work, school, ministry" response. He genuinely wanted to know about me, and where I was. It was so refreshing. Then, when I met his lovely wife, and two of his daughters, I realized the legacy that lived in his family, because they were exactly the same. Friendship is so easy to build when you know people care.  Bruce joked with me life I had been a friend from his childhood. He would crack jokes about me, about his son, he would talk trash about my football team. It wasn't about the amount of time he had known me, it was about the simple fact that, now he knew me. And because he knew me, it was his responsibility to love me. And isn't that what Christ had called him to do? To love people? When I was diagnosed with Cancer, my friend Brady, would tell me constantly that I was in his and his families prayers, and I knew it was true. Because that is who they were. This family, I had met once, who were pretty much strangers to me, kept me in their prayers. Asked God for favor on my behalf. Though they didn't have to, they did. I remember the first time that I had seen the Sanzari family in a long while. I visited their church and I sat anxiously through the service waiting to be able to say hello. The first person I saw was Bruce. Of course, I was greeted with a hug, a joke about football, and that same smile that let me know I was apart of his family of friends he built by the incredible gift God gave him to be able to love people. And it was the same as I began to see the rest of his family. I had the privilege of enjoying lunch with them that day before I came home. Sitting and talking with Bruce, Trisha, and one of their daughters, Michaela, was such a blessing. A lunch that will forever hold a special place in my heart.

The day that my friend called to tell me his dad had gone home to be with the Lord was a devastating day. Not just to his family, not just to me, but to this world. Because he was such a jewel. Although, I do not know why God does the things that he does or when they happen, I do know that on that day, his heart was broken too. Bruce was a purposeful stranger. He didn't care who you were, where you had been, or where you were going. He just cared about you. Because you were a person and you crossed his path, you were important.  I remembered how heavy God had put the Sanzari family on my heart the day before and I remember asking God to be with them. And He was. He always had been. Every time I saw them, he was with them. He was in the way that Bruce loved people, and in the way Bruce had taught his family to love people, God and Bruce were in them, and with each person that they come in contact with, a piece of God is left behind, and a piece of the legacy of a professional and incredible stranger is left behind as well. Bruce, you loved people well, and I pray that I can be half of the blessing you were to me to those I come in contact with every day. Thank you for teaching me to be a purposeful stranger.

You see, much like I learned from my friend, God has called me to love people. And although, on most days, I feel like I come up short, the call doesn't change.

I want to be a stranger that SEEs people. That loves them. Because people matter.

As I walked out of my eye doctors appointment, I stopped at the desk, thanked the ladies for their time and let them know I hoped they had a great day. It could have made a difference, it could not have, but I do know that I was a kind stranger.

To most we are strangers. But to one, we could be the person that changes everything.

It's MY kindness Amanda, that leads you to repentance.
It's MY kindness Amanda, that you are to reflect and live out.
Therefore,
It's your kindness Amanda, that can change a person's day.
It's your kindness Amanda, that can change a person's life.
It's your kindness Amanda, that can change an atmosphere.
It's MY kindness, through you, that can lead them to repentance.


What would the world around you look like if you became a purposeful stranger?