“Just Jesus!”

The other day I ran into one of my favorite Christian authors in the airport. I wish I could say it was an awesome experience. It wasn’t. I got ghetto for a minute and screamed his name out loud, just to make sure it was him. He turned around. I got nervous (like the time I went to an all you can eat restaurant before going to a scheduled Jenny Craig appointment). I turned into a groupie. I almost fainted. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but I did feel like one of those high school girls that crazy for anything that had to do with Twilight! For reals.

Anyways, I worked up the nerves to walk up to him, and introduced myself. “My name is Willy Ramos,” I said, “the youth call me the preacher’s ghetto.” Auuuuuuuggh, man. I can’t believe I just choked up! Why am I so scared of him? He’s just a man. Ok, I’ll try again. “I meant to say, ghetto preacher.”

He didn’t say a word. Just looked at me like if I was stupid. I realized that I was bothering him so, I picked up my luggage, and said, “Bye.” Then, I took out one of one of my business cards, and attempted to give it to him. He never took it. He left me hanging. I was embarrassed and was turning as red as Bob the Tomato from Veggie Tales! He left me with my hands in the air, looked at me up and down, then turned away to retrieve his bags. I can’t believe he just treated me like I had the “cooties” or something. Wow.

I wanted to backslide just for a few minutes and hit him over the head with my suitcase! I didn’t. Thank God. Imagine the headlines on that! On the next “Cintinela” magazine: “Fat preacher sits on author and squashes him!!” I went home and cried. Not one of those soft-baby-boo-hoo kind of cries. (I need to keep my street cred, bro!) I shed a tear. Because it hurt.

I’m kind of glad it happened, though, to be honest. God taught me an important lesson that day. God reminded me that I shouldn’t put no one up on a pedestal accept for Jesus. Not Ellen White, Joel Olsteen, Joyce Myers, and, not Oprah……….Just Jesus.

“You shall have no other gods before me….You shall not bow down to them or worship them.”
-Exodus 20:3-5(NIV)