{"id":142,"date":"2019-03-08T18:23:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T18:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/?p=142"},"modified":"2019-03-08T18:27:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T18:27:48","slug":"burning-sandals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"Burning Sandals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He walked in like a Hollywood movie star who was in-adept at being incognito. Shorts, bright patterned shirt, unbuttoned from the top to reveal a Brillo-pad of chest hair. Tall. Wide shoulders. Worn out flip flops. And sunglasses on a cloudy day.<\/p>\n

Not knowing he had walked into a Christian book store he asked, \u201cYou got any magazines?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry, no magazines. People in the coffee shop just read them and leave them lying around as if we were a library or a doctor\u2019s office. Are you from out of town?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I love engaging the customers. \u201cWhat brings you to town?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking for the place that made my sandals.\u201d<\/p>\n

I glanced at his flip flops. \u201cAre you talking about Birkenstocks shoe store down the street?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not there.\u201d He came up to the counter and removed his sunglasses. \u201cA few years back I had these really good sandals but lost one. I need to replace it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou lost it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. I was a dancer for Elton John.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at his build, I could see that. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I was up on stage dancing to the song Tiny Dancer. After the song we took a break, and someone called out to me. I knelt down at the front end of the stage and he introduced himself. He was a photographer and he loved my sandals. He ask me if he could take a picture of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was hooked. A sandal. A dancer for a famous person. A mystery to solve. Wow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the man, yes, with one stipulation. That he send me a copy of the pic when it was developed. And that is how I lost my sandal,\u201d he said matter-of-factly.<\/p>\n

I was confused. \u201cDid he steal it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I got the picture in the mail and he had only taken a picture of only one of my sandals. ONE.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wrinkled my forehead.<\/p>\n

He seemed to get agitated and slapped the counter. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why I lost my one sandal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, that\u2019s interesting. Did you find the shoe store?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes and no. The place burnt down\u2026.AND THAT IS WHY THE WORLD IS GOING TO END IN FIRE!\u201d<\/p>\n

Before I could say anything, like I was sorry for his loss or something, he continued on and on quoting rock songs that mentioned fire to prove his point. I listened intently. Then he put on his sunglasses and leaned in.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd did you know that the government is hiding all the UFOs in Western Kansas?\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought, Where? Kansas is nothing but miles and miles of nothing but miles.<\/p>\n

He continued talking about aliens. When he took a breath, I asked him if he had a web site.<\/p>\n

He handed me a business card. Yup. He had one.<\/p>\n

I immediately got online to view the website. It was full of conspiracy Mumbo Jumbo\u2014nothing made any sense. I was not surprised.<\/p>\n

We said goodbyes. As he sauntered away, I thought of the verse in the Bible, \u201cThe day of the Lord will come as a robber comes. The heavens will pass away with a loud noise. The sun and moon and stars will burn up. The earth and all that is in it will be burned up.\u201d 2nd<\/sup> Peter 3:10 and\u2026 all because of that man\u2019s sandal.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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He walked in like a Hollywood movie star who was in-adept at being incognito. Shorts, bright patterned shirt, unbuttoned from the top to reveal a Brillo-pad of chest hair. Tall. Wide shoulders. Worn out flip flops. And sunglasses on a cloudy day. Not knowing he had walked into a Christian book store he asked, \u201cYou […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}