Prior to us being married I was at my car playing gospel music, cleaning my car out and waiting for then girlfriend to come to Drama Guild rehearsal at her church.   A homeless man walked pass my car, and inquired about who was singing the song that was currently playing. I didn’t hear him the first time so I cut my music down and walked 15 to 20 feet in front of my car to ask him what he had said.  He started crying because he said that no one had talked to him directly or looked him in his eyes directly in years.  People treat him like he was an animal because he pushed a basket and he was homeless.  He didn’t have shoes on his feet, just covers (shoes with no soles).

The Lord moved on my heart and I went and purchased some food for him. I asked the man to wait for me to go purchase him some food, he was surprised that I came back.  His hands had dirt caked on and were as black as the blacktop on the street.  I remember washing the dirt away from his hands.  I had a huge bottle of hand sanitizer and I remember washing and washing and washing. It reminded me of the Lord and how He does us.  How He is compassionate for us.  The scripture came to me that talks about how we unknowingly have entertained angels.

I’ll never forget that man.  He blessed me with a toy out of his cart, sung me a song and shared his testimony. It was actually his birthday and he had been at the grocery store asking to wash people’s windows for money.  He wanted to make enough money to get a block of cheese and some grapes which would have made it a beautiful birthday dinner for him.  It touched me and helped me remember that we cannot be too consumed with ourselves.  We have to be good to people in this Christian walk.  The Lord moved on my heart to be help him and I blessed him to get to a shelter.  There needs to be an awareness of people and their needs. 

He was the second reminder and confirmation that TBOC needed to be born.  You don’t know what people are going through.  Our God always has someone around to deliver a message and encourage us.  We need to live out loud.  We need to not hide in the darkness.  No one is perfect, but TBOC is for one that is trying their best under God’s mercy and forgiveness.

TBOC is designed to bring awareness.  TBOC is to bring Christ back to the forefront.  The Christian community is typically boxed in to talk about Jesus at church.  If you don’t want to hear about God, then you don’t go to church.   We have done a good job of recycling the message amongst each other and people who already know.  TBOC is the Great Commission all over again.

These shirts and the messages they will convey will be conversation pieces.  The hope is that these conversations will lead to unbelievers being saved.  We want people to know that it is not the status quo; and what everybody thinks a Christian looks like.  You are not disqualified because of your dirt. In fact, it is the dirt that has qualified us in the first place for God to come and die for us as a substitution for our sins.  We were not good enough and He couldn’t find anybody to die to save us.  But He came because His love was so great and his mind was not going to be changed about how He loved us.

Sometimes as Christians we don’t show that same mercy and love. We think everyone should fit in a box.  TBOC in so many ways is a means to say the box is open because it is not what I think; it’s about what God thinks.  With TBOC, we want to show who we are.  The world continues to escalate their message and bring it right to our doorstep, through various media and to our children.  We need to amplify the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and represent Him at all times.