What Goes Around

From King Arthur’s table to the O in Oprah, people are fascinated with things that are round. Charles Barkley in his big shaved head was called the round mound of rebound and gosh how people loved him. Santa has a belly, pool has its cue, the earth has the moon and the solar system has its planets. (8 or 9 depending on whom you’re talking to.) There are Ben Franklin’s glasses, polka dots and wheels of cheese. Even if you’re square, there’s something round that gets your attention.

The Skinny On Round Steak

Before I was a Pastor, writer, musician and general renascence man, I was in the repo business. I actually was in management for a rent to own company but in truth I was a glorified repo-man. That’s right, the Brewer would spend 12 hours a day, six days a week working the six housing projects in Ft Worth. My store was on the corner of Lancaster and Miller, a very dangerous place for anyone to spend 60 or 70 hours a week and though I was an authentic country bumpkin, it was a perfect job for a kid that wasn’t afraid.

As I became friends with lots of clients I was often invited to bar-b-que's for “roundsteak.” The first little party I went to changed my life and added a new word to my vocabulary. The man cooking, stabbed a thick slice of baloney off the grill, put it on my plate and said,” have yourself a slice of roundsteak, Troy."

Round and Round

It was good for me to be involved in the mess of all those housing projects because it made me want to help people that needed help. I never minded so much retrieving a stereo or a big screen but a stove or a refrigerator or even a washing machine from some poor family or single mom was a terrible responsibility. As a Christian that believed in demonstrating God’s personality, it also posed a serious moral dilemma. I was praying with my wife about it one night and she came up with a brilliant idea.

We worked out a deal with a used appliance guy on Hemphill Street, raised some funds from like-minded friends and tried our new plan the next weekend. On Saturday morning I knocked on a door in the Butler housing project. A few minutes later I was rolling a refrigerator out of an apartment while the woman of the house called me every name she could think of. The neighbors came out to see what all the racket was about, the kids were crying, people were screaming, “That ain’t right!” The milk and food was going to go bad. Somebody threw something at me that had some kind of yucky liquid in it, I don’t know. It was ugly.

Several hours later I knocked on that same door again with a used but very good and fully paid for, refrigerator. When she asked me what I wanted, I told her, “I came in the name of Remco before, but this time I come in the name of Jesus. I want you to have this for your family, it’s free.”

She cried and cried and Heaven scored one for the good guys. Right through the goal posts and between the devil’s eyes. It was awesome. For the next 2 years I worked there and Leanna and I replaced every refrigerator and cooking stove that I had personally repossessed for my company. Some 30 or 40 in all. They didn’t cost that much and it wasn’t that big of a deal but it made a big difference and was a powerful ministry.

Gather Round

Today in our ministry to the poor, we still give away appliances through our food bank warehouse but I don’t have to buy them anymore. People just give them to us and we give them away to families as fast as we can get them. In 13 years at Open Door I have had many times more the number of refrigerators and other appliances given to me than I ever gave out. It works like that. God is faithful to payback over and beyond anything we do in his service.

Here’s what I know; you reap what you sow. What comes around goes around. We tend to think about that in negative terms but the principle of reaping and sowing is supposed to be about harvest. God will never allow you to out-God, God. We are not going to be more faithful, loving or kind than He is. He will always outshine us. He’s magnificent like that and I love him for it.

He’s just looking for an opportunity to do it, something to work with. Whatever random act of kindness God wants you to show to somebody else, I double dog dare you to do it. You might make a bigger difference than you think and that big of difference will come back around to you.

Galatians 6:9

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Visit the Brewer at FreshFromTheBrewer.com