Parallel Proof

We ask the questions all the time, “Was that really Him, was that God? Or was it just me?” That still small voice inside you, who is it really? Does the Almighty talk to the average person submerged in day-to-day experiences? Where is He? More importantly, where WAS He? Like 97% of all Americans, Bruce is as ordinary and unremarkable as anyone. From pastor to police officer - to living paycheck to paycheck, Bruce is obsessed with trying to prove a parallel between past experiences and God speaking directly. A simple self-improvement podcast as the true, meaningful, hilarious, personal, and sometimes tragic stories are brought to you with the added connection of inspired words.

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Parallel Proof

001 - A Dumpster of a Parallel

November 11, 2020 • Produced by Cairn Lane • Season 1 • Episode 1

Episode 1 brings you the parallel of a body in a dumpster to a man hiding in the baggage area. Don't hide. Step out, and be what you are called to be.

I want to welcome you to the very first episode of Parallel Proof. A project that I believe is a proving, at least to me, of how the ordinary, average lives of everyone can, and does, parallel words written by great people and inspired by God himself.

So, I want to tell you a true story that happened in my life back in January 2002, and this is how I remember it. Here I am, fresh out of the 6 month police academy in Sacramento, CA and I’m riding as a passenger with my field training officer, month one into real-life, hands-on training. I have zero clue what I’m doing as a police officer on patrol. That’s why you have training in the field for another 6 months after the academy. Its graveyard and near 3 am in the morning and its cold. The January cold, really, probably felt colder than it was due to nervousness. This is my first month in training and remember, I have no clue how to handle anything. My training officer, who shall remain unnamed, was driving and found a place to park next to a business obviously closed in the middle of the night. He’s backing up the patrol vehicle and inches his way fairly close to a very large commercial garbage dumpster, you know, the kind behind supermarkets, malls, whatever, I don’t know, probably 10 feet away. My trainer proceeds to exit the vehicle, and of course, being the good trainee I am, I jump out of the car as well. My trainer is like, “Bro, you going to hold it for me as well?” Apparently, he was going to relieve himself in a hidden spot, out of public view. Obviously so no one can see. Yes, I realize this shouldn’t be done, but hey, at 3 am, what bathroom is open? Anyway, that’s not the point.

After he was finished, I decided, well, I really have to go too, soooo, I exit the car and take my place right next to the dumpster. I unzip and let it rip, and as the steam is rising up between me and the metal dumpster, something odd happens. The hairs on the back of my head begin to stand up and I get this crazy thought. “what if there was a dead body in this dumpster?” I know, unlikely, but after I zip up, I pull my flashlight from its holster on my duty belt. The top of the dumpster is eye level, so I grab the top of the container, step up on a small ledge at the bottom and raise myself up to see over the side. It felt like the movies in slow motion. I shined the flashlight onto the garbage in this half-filled dumpster starting at the wall closest to me. As I projected the light at the pile, OH MY GOD, I see sock covered feet with legs attached and as I move the light away from me, and across the garbage, I observe the body of a human and a head laying face down in the garbage. A BODY is laying on the garbage! Did I just stumble across someone dead? Dumped in the trash? Next thing I know, the head turns and looks straight at me! Holy Mother Of God! I jump back in a complete panic, and try and pull my gun from the holster, backing away from the container and I start yelling, probably screeching, “lemme see your hands, Lemme see your hands!” My trainer, who thinks I’m trying to play a joke on him, stays in the car until he hears an unknown voice say “OK OK, I’m coming out” as the mid 40’s man stands up in the pile of garbage. We pull him out and stand him in front of the can, between the container and the car. I’m shaking. My trainer is calm. Garbage dude is standing in our urine. Him placed in the urine is by accident of course. Anyway, We retrieve his name, but what can we do? We can’t really run his name for warrants. I mean, how do we explain how we found the guy? After taking a leak out in public? Right! That wont fly, so, we let him go. Nearly a minute later, it was eating at my trainer. We have to know about this guy we stumbled upon, so, we run his name. We can play it off like we are just doing some investigating on locals. Sure enough, garbage man has a felony warrant for his arrest. But….. he is gone. We searched for him for an hour, and even brought K9 in on the sly, but nope, dude was in the wind! He knew he was wanted by the law and just got a “get out jail free card!” And so, that’s the way I remember it.

So Here's My Parallel

I remember reading about when Israel was looking for a King, they had to assemble everyone together. Someone asked God if the man to be chosen was among the crowd, and God said, “No, he has hidden himself among the baggage.” That is 1 Samuel 10:22 to be exact. God was talking about Saul. God has called us all to make some sort of a difference in our world, He even called the dude hiding in, and laying on, the garbage when I was a cop. Everyone has a purpose and everyone has an existence for being created. I doubt his was to be laying in refuse hiding himself from being discovered.

Saul hid from his calling, and people had to run and get him and bring him out from where they found him, among the baggage. He started off hiding, with the mindset of not being located, and if you read about him, it never really went well after that. So, I have a few questions for you. What is your calling? What were you created to do with the life given to you? What talent or talents that you possess are to be used? My Proof of Parallel is - Find out how you are supposed to be making a difference in your little world, and don’t hide from it. There is baggage all around us. Time constraints, monotony, exhaustion, negativity, easy justification. But, don’t allow the baggage or the garbage that surrounds us, weigh us down, and be an excuse to hide from what God has called us to do. Come out of hiding! Step out on your own, and take control of your purpose, and what that future is supposed to look like.

Here’s why Parallel Proof is meaningful to me. A little conversation here.

Life is packed with daily activities. Each of us encounter different experiences every day. Some mundane. Some hilarious. Some tragic, and some boring. As we look back in our lives, as time is unrelenting in continuing on, there are significant reference points in our lives we can locate as markers we will never forget. Again, some tragic, some funny, some life altering, and some just plain old stupid, but unforgettable. Yet here we are, average ordinary humans going about our daily lives.

Our lives are made up of these significant reference points in the past that make us who we are. The history of my life, the story that has been written shaping who you today took place 5 seconds ago, 6 months ago, a year, 10 years, 30 years ago. You can’t go back and change anything. But, your future hasn’t been written yet, so every decision you make will be based on your past experiences. The 66 books written by great men and women allegedly inspired by God were written well before we ever existed. Yet, there is a parallel between our existence up until now, to the very words God has meant for every one of us. The Bible is meant to relate to reference points in your past, so your future can be whatever you want it look like. We can correlate our remembrances to the very words of God which in turn will make the Bible come alive on a personal level. You don’t relate to the Bible, the Bible relates to you. And there is a harmony between His words and our past that can be connected together, to better our future.

It is a belief of mine that God has personally spoken to each and every one of us and all we have to do is parallel His words with our past experiences. We have to make God’s words relevant and meaningful. We have to purposely fit them into the encounters that make us who we are. Only then will we realize God has truly actually spoken to each one of us individually. What did God say to you through a past experience? Put it together.

Thank you for listening. Subscribe now if you want to hear more in our next episode. Also, if you have an experience you want to share, drop me an email at parallelproofpodcast@gmail.com. Looking forward to having you here next week.