Recently I’ve been becoming aware that in everything we do and say we make the world either better or worse.

I was at Union Square in San Francisco on the fifth floor of a Macy’s Department store (where the Starbucks is located) when I felt the call of nature.  I momentarily departed from the over-priced coffee chain to use the restroom.

A zigzagged escalator and a few stairs later I reach the restroom.  Like a museum, the bathroom was large with two sides containing long rows of urinals and stalls.  No sooner than a moment later the worst thing that could happen to a man happened…

A middle-aged man walks in this lonely massive restroom he stands at the porcelain bowl mounted right next to mine.

Awkward.

Guy code rule number one: a man must always be at lease one urinal apart from other men, unless (in scarce situations) there is a line for the restroom.

I already feel uncomfortable with the lack of space between us in a room of great size, but then he looks at me.  He looks at me until I look at him and then his eyes scan me as they shift down… and then looks back at my face and smiles.

There aren’t words that can describe how that made me feel.  My blood shot through my veins like water through a garden hose and my fist engaged in clenched mode.  Logical thinking became disconnected from my mind for about 2.5 seconds and all I could envision was me pounding this guy in his face as hard as I could until his nose bleeds with justification.

Then I thought this probably isn’t the way to start off the day.  But that didn’t change the way it made me feel.  As I walked away I felt less and less angry and more and more… disrespected, unclean, disgusting, self-conscious, filthy… and violated.

I felt violated.

Is this how women feel when they sense guys looking at them rating various parts of their bodily structure?  All of a sudden this degenerate person appeared less pathetic and I became more sympathetic.  Jesus didn’t call me to be Homophobe, just a loving Homo sapien.

The Bible says that all people are created in God’s image.  How we behave towards people indicates what we believe about God. When we honor the image of God in others we protect the image of God in ourselves.

So this guy is just trying to spread what he thinks is the best way to live life for him.  He’s trying to engage with me and invite me into the ultimate thing that brings him satisfaction.  All of a sudden he starts to look more like me and less different than me.  There are moments when the adversary becomes just like me.  When a pervert becomes a pastor.

The hand that clenched a fist, became the hand that wiped a tear because I realized in everything we do and say we make the world either better or worse.

The people that I had been sent to save were suddenly the ones who saved me.