(4:45AM DAD’S & A POOL & THE GOSPEL OF MARK, NOT SO) SHALLOW THOUGHTS FROM THE DEEP END WITH MISS JULIE’S POOL BOY: Miss Julie unlocked the pool gates at 4:45 this morning, not to fix the pool’s condition but to fix a human’s condition. Yesterday, she got a call from the church minister. Two firefighters from Anaheim, CA were in town for the Ironman triathlon & one had a dilemma. He had promised his father he would complete a triathlon this year & his father passed before he could complete his journey, & adding insult to the injury, Hurricane Helene canceled the opening swim leg. The other firefighter, he googled local pools to raise his friend’s spirit, found Miss Julie’s & called the church to see about two dudes from Cali doing their own swim leg before heading downtown to bike & run. A minister answered the call that knows he has a 335,000 gallon ministry & he called the swim director that knows it too. Loving your neighbor is easy when it fits where one schedules God. Dark, damp, 4:45 & never seeing your neighbor before isn’t easy & is reserved for those that let God do the scheduling. But those that know Miss Julie like the Pool Boy does, know she was going to make it happen because she knows about competitive athletes, missing your dad, & the common thread in each of those tapestries, the thread of some days are easier, but none of ‘em are easy. By the time you read this, those firefighters will have completed their swim, pedal, & run odyssey & I’m sure that if Heaven allows it, a proud dad of a fireman got to watch his son. MJPB also knows if it’s allowed, another dad, Miss Julie’s, looked down with a smile. He was around before a spade turned dirt on an olympic sized ministry of chlorine laced healing waters. And there’s a chance the story will continue, another generation will pick up a check with a whistle around the neck. You see, when school started & the kids got to fill out a name, age, likes form & what they want to be when they grow up, the oldest that calls Miss Julie “Jules” wanted to grow to be a swim teacher. If that becomes a reality, her first lesson was delivered by Miss Julie in the dark & damp of 4:45AM & it was walk to the talk of Mark 12:31..