my life…in text format

On this beautiful Monday evening, beneath the rhythms of the song playing through my iTunes playlist, I can faintly hear the quiet sounds of night as it envelopes what was a fantastic day. My room is a mess, it could really use a good cleaning, but instead, I am here on the computer, chatting with some people, listening to music and breezing through amazon.com.

As I was looking, I was thinking, “I should buy some of these books because they will help me be better at my job.” For those of you new to this blog or who may not know me, I’m a pastor. I work everyday with the sole purpose of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. That is my job, that is my life, it is my mission. I work in an organization that reaches out to a young generation of teenagers in desperate need of hope and someone to trust them and point them to a Creator that not only knows them, exactly where they are, but loves them without a single prerequisite on our part.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had these moments where something “clicks” in you. Like something you’ve always known you’ve known, but you don’t keep in the front of your mind. Today, after our Memorial Day cookout and dessert, my sister and I heard some music plink-plunking down the street. We both immediately knew what it was, it was an ice cream truck driving around our area. We ran inside, got some cash and ran back outside to get ourselves some good ‘ol fashion ice cream treats from a truck. I remember the feeling when I was kid, looking up at what them seemed to be a massive wall of selections. All of which would make my tastebuds dance. I chose the blue-raspberry screwball today. (You know, every one has a gumball at the bottom). Somehow when something clicks, it’s like that feeling you get when you experience something you haven’t experienced in a while. It’s something old, revealed in a new way.

I had a moment like that this evening.

As I was looking at all these titles of books that I was thinking I should read that would help make me better at my job, I got this feeling. Like my Spirit was being talked to, deep in my soul.

I was being asked this question. “Why would you need those books to do your job better? Why don’t you just love people more?”

That’s pretty much how it happened too, not a lot of pomp and circumstance, not some huge “AHA!” or light shining down through my ceiling. It was pretty simple, really. “Why don’t you just love people more?”

I immediately felt like I was almost wasting my time looking at books that had to do with business tips and biographies about successful business men. How would these help me love people?

I know how to love people.

How well am I doing when it comes to loving people?

I need to do better at loving people.

One thing I absolutely need to do is see myself the way my Creator sees me, because He loves me more than I love me. And if I can see how He loves me, then I will see how I can love OTHERS better.

I’m a flawed human being. By flawed, I mean…I mess up a lot. I sin. I screw up. I fail.

Flat.

On.

My.

Face.

—–

Thank.

God.

For.

Grace.

And if a God can love me through all of my screw ups, sins, doubts, fears, failures, short comings, stupid choices and awful consequences, I really have a great example of what it means to love others.

How well do you love people? How are people loving you?

How are you doing at letting other people love you?

The Bible says that God is love.

Period. What else needs said?

Where is our pure devotion to Christ?
What have we allowed to get in the way of our pure and sincere devotion to Christ?

What does the word “devotion” mean? 5 minutes with God each morning, reading my Bible? Of course not!

Devotion is our response to what we add value to. Devotion is what we pour ourselves into and what we allow ourselves to be influenced by.

Have I poured myself into God and allowed myself to be influenced by God?

Devotion = Loyalty.

Have I been loyal to God?

Devotion = A full presence of focus without distraction.

Where is my focus?

My heart is convicted. My focus has been blurred, my desire to glorify God has become something I attempt to do on my own rather than allowing the glory of God to shine through me because of the sacrifice of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The schemes are out there, the traps are set, clear vision is necessary.

Clear vision only comes by gazing, with full devotion, into the eyes of Jesus Christ. Focusing my attention on Him and Him alone. We all move one step at a time. We all live one breath at a time. I need to focus each breath on the amazing grace that sent my Savior, my King, to a cross that He did not deserve to go to so that I can live a life that I fail at daily. A life of freedom and closeness to a God that loves me. Who’s more concerned with my ability to look up to Him each time I fall than He is my ability not to fall.

What is God asking of me?

What is God asking you to do today?

##

What are the schemes we recognize satan is using to separate Christians from God?

-Deception, Distraction, Perversion
-Self-Indulgence
-Complacency, Materialism
-”We pray in situations so that the result of our prayer will benefit us instead of the will of God.” (I think this is a thought provoking statement).
-The scheme that deceives us into thinking we are a weak remnant as followers of Christ.
-Religion.
-Compromise.
-Not speaking the truth. (Not going to a brother/sister when you see them in fault as the Bible instructs).
-Fear. (Absolutely paralyzing).

Fear can hijack our faith.

What do you think?

-”The early church was in the homes.”

-Today we’re going to practice the old church culture. We’re going to work together to answer some questions and we are going to help preach the message today.

-Satan is deceiving people. He is attempting to deceive even the elect of God. We live in a culture and economy that is ever changing.

-When we think that our life is so geared towards prosperity, we need to remember that we live in a fickle, ever changing environment. We need to ask, where is God in our lives in the midst of our current situation? How do we rely on Him now? Because if we don’t rely and trust on Him now, will we trust Him in the storm?

-Ephesians 6:10-13

-Question: What are the schemes that we recognize Satan is using to separate people from God?

That title is supposed to be read while using the voice like the guy on the radio promoting that monster truck rally that you always hear about. SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! (random echo) you know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, today is in fact Sunday, the day before Memorial Day. Marking the beginning of Summer and hopefully a slew of beautiful, warm, sunny days.

I will be blogging my pops’ sermon today. Northpoint Community Church did a series called It’s Personal and my dad felt that the message was too important and necessary to not share with the people we enjoy community with.

So, if you’ve heard the sermon series, some things might be familiar, but with a little different flare. This is the final sermon in the series and so far it’s been awesome, so if the past few weeks are any indicator of what today will be like…You may very well find some life changing truths on this here blog by 12 noon today.

See ya in a few!

Andy ::

For the first part of this story, check my previous post.

We left off with a woman who had back into my truck without regard to my part Ford Ranger’s bumper. Apparently, she also was more concerned with what in the world I was doing behind her than she was whether or not I was ok.

Her reaction when she got out of her van after crashing into me. “What were doing back there!?”

I should’ve said, “Um……let me think, DRIVING! LIKE A NORMAL PERSON! What were YOU doing??!”

But I didn’t I politely asked her if she was ok, assured her that I was fine and that we should pull off the side of the road so we could exchange insurance information. We pull off a side road, both get out of our respective vehicles to exchange info.

She comes around the passenger side of her van and proceeds to tell me that she is unsure of her insurance information.

This is not 100% accurate, but the conversation went something like this.

Me: “Do you have an insurance card with a policy number?”

Her: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t know it.”

Me: “Do you have know who you have insurance through?”

Her: “I don’t know, just give me a second, I’m really medicated, I just came from the doctor.”

At this point, I began to think, “What am I in the middle of right now?” I probably should’ve started looking for candid cameras or Ashton Kutcher to come out screaming “YOU JUST GOT PUNK’D!” But…no such luck.

She then tells me to hang on while she gets the number of her insurance company. Then she opens up her sliding passenger door to the van to reveal…..

A mattress.

Yep, you read that correctly. A mattress laying in the back of the van. No seats, just a mattress.

Surrounding the mattress…several plastic totes for storage. Inside those totes, clothes and books.

She pulls out the tote closest to her and whips out a phone book. I am now completely blown away. I am starting to think this woman has some serious issues and I want to just get away from the situation.

Because of all the craziness that’s going on, I realize it’s probably a good idea to get her license plate number, just in case. So, in my best private eye, investigator sort of way, I have my pen and a slip of paper and step back and jot down her number. I know, I know…brilliant. Thank you very much.

She opens the yellow pages to an All State page and points to an agent and says, “That’s her, that’s my agent.”

So…trying my best to handle this situation correctly  (And also not wanting to have to pay for an accident that wasn’t even CLOSE to my fault) I call the number in phone book….

(Again, not 100% accurate, but it’s close)

Me: “I was just in an accident with a woman that says she has insurance with you…”

Agent: “What’s her policy number.”

Me: “She doesn’t know.”

Agent: “Oh, what’s her name.”

Me: (i tell her)

Agent: “Ok, let me check” (takes a moment)

About this time, the woman starts to panic and tells me not to call the cops because she shouldn’t be driving!

The agent comes back:

Agent: “No one by that name carries insurance with us.”

I’ve hit the wall. I have no choice but to call the cops because I have to file a report or I am going to have to pay for everything.

The woman looks at me and says, “I have to go, I can’t stay here, I have a doctor’s appointment to get to!”

Didn’t she just come from a doctor’s appointment?

I tell her that she can do what she has to do, but I have to call the cops and file a report.

I go through the whole process: police station, ride with cop to scene, he gets statements from the gentleman in the parking lot that the woman started waving to, files report…la dee da dee da.

Thankfully, somehow, the cost of the repair is covered and I don’t have to pay a deductible and my insurance rate didn’t go up. I have no idea how that actually happened because we still have no idea what insurance she has.

The police officer keeps in touch with me over the next few days and informs the following: (you’re not gonna believe this)

Cop: “Yeah, we found out who it was…she lied about her name.”

Andy: “Oh yeah?”

Cop: “Yeah, also, I want to encourage you to stay away from her. She’s slightly crazy and has a very long rap sheet. She’s known by all the cops.”

Andy: “Oh…thank you.”

Cop: “D’you get everything figured out with your truck.”

Andy: “Yeah, thanks for everything.”

Cop: “Do me a favor and if you ever see her again, give us a call and let us know when and where.”

Andy: “Will do.”

So there you go. That’s my story. I got backed into on the main street, by a crazy woman apparently spending some time living in her van, who happens to have a rather long rap sheet and is infamous in our area with the local police officers.

Oddly enough, I saw the same blue van at a corner store about a week later…and *dun dun dun* there she was.

She didn’t recognize me. It might have been that her pupils were dilated.

…a blank page.

I really like to flip open my computer, open firefox, type the wordpress address into my address bar, typing in my username and password and getting ready to write something.

Today I have a story: This is a true story. And it actually happened to me.

I was driving home from the campus of Youngstown State University (back when I was a lowly college undergrad) and in front of me was a large blue van. Like one of those conversation vans you see old people driving, that have swivel chairs and tv’s and horns that when you honk them sound like a boat is pulling into your driveway. It was like that, but not fancy. It was a little beat up.

I’m behind her crusin’ along at about 35-40 miles an hour when I see the driver, a woman, wave to somebody out of her driver side window. She then looks to want to turn left, but passes the road she wants to turn onto. It’s like she saw someone she knew in a parking lot, waved and then decided to turn in and see them, but had missed the road. So what does she do?

Of course, she does what every normal driver would do, she continues to the nearest parking lot, side street and/or driveway, pulls in and turns around…..

NO! She doesn’t.

She slams on her breaks. So I stop. Thinking, ok, she needs to take the turn slower, she missed it, she may need to back up a bit to get, so I’ll just wait.

Then I see the little white lights the indicate the vehicle is now in the gear “reverse”. Which of course means, when she hits the gas, she will be going backwards.

She starts inching toward me and she keeps inching towards me, a little faster now…still faster.

I start to see this ginormous blue van begin to fill my windshield and I’m thinking, “she is not going to stop!”

So the firs thing that goes through my mind is to kick my poor little rust colored orange ford ranger into reverse and just back up out of the way…so i check my rearview mirror…all clear.

I try to get it into reverse and it’s just too late this woman is on the gas like she is purposely driving a race car in reverse. I start honking my horn…

CRASH!!!

She smashes right into the front of my truck. Had no idea I was behind her.

She puts her van in drive, pulls off to the side of the road that she intended to turn on to begin with, I’m assuming. I pull up behind her ready to hear a wave of apologies and “you oks?” I’m very merciful and ready to ask her, “are you ok?”

What do I hear when I get out of my truck?

Lady - “WHAT WERE YOU DOING BACK THERE!?”

Me - “Are you ok?”

Her answer was that she had just come from the doctor’s office and was medicated had her pupils dilated.

Um…I don’t know about you, but isn’t there something about operation heavy machinery or vehicle use…

Anyway…this story is just getting good…wait till you hear what happened next…

Which will come later.

On Monday I had the fantastic experience of attending a Cleveland Cavaliers playoff basketball game. The Cavs are currently in a tight best of seven series against the Boston Celtics and game 4 was on Monday night with the Celtics leading 2-1. After Monday’s game, the Cavs had tied the series 2-2 (they have since lost one game and back to one game down).

Monday morning I was getting dressed and I realized something as I was pulling my LeBron James number 23 jersey over my white long sleeve Cavs t-shirt. It was clear that I was a fan of the Cavs and specifically LeBron James. It was clear that I didn’t care much what people thought of me considering the jersey is probably about 2 sizes to big as shirt sizes go.

What’s interesting is that as I was donning my paraphernalia of fan-hood, I realized that I was more excited to wear this LeBron James jersey then I was any T-Shirt that expressed my faith in Jesus Christ.

Let me explain…I decided earlier this week that I was going to take every Tuesday to attempt tackle an issue of popular culture and discuss it and how it relates to faith. Well…some people would say that sports is not a valid part of popular culture the way that music, movies and art are. With over 20,000 people pouring into an jam-packed arena every night, with sounds louder than that of a jet engine, I would say that for those 20,000+ sports would be a very valid part of pop culture.

Which brings me to my main purpose for writing.

I am not a bigger fan of LeBron James than I am of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is my first choice between the two…that’s easy. What’s interesting is that I am more willing to wear a LeBron James jersey than I am most “Christian T-Shirts” I see. It’s not that I don’t like wearing my faith where all can I see…I want EVERYBODY to know that I follow Christ and hopefully I can make such an impact that they are DRAWN to Christ because of Christ living in me.

What I don’t like is the way other people respond to the Christian message on a lot of material that shares the Christian message.

I saw a woman wearing a shirt yesterday that said the word “LOST” and it looked very similar to the LOST logo from different advertisements I’ve seen from the popular ABC show. I liked the shirt, I liked the message, I didn’t like how I would have to explain the shirt to someone who didn’t understand its intended message.

Maybe that’s the point, maybe the idea is to create conversation and if that’s the case, great! I hope the discussion is effective and engaging.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing shirts that create some amazing, open conversation about very important issues. Check out To Write Love On Her Arms or this site to see what I mean.

And this isn’t a post about “shirts”. It’s a post about how followers of Christ have a wonderful message that they should share with their lives first. Drawing people to ask questions and shake their heads in disbelief at the selfless, sacrificing, passionate, heart-felt love they feel emanating from deep within the followers of Christ.

What do you think about all this?

Any thoughts?

I missed a week. Sorry. Ingenuity and Pandemonium.

Thankfully there wasn’t one huge thing that went wrong this past week. Unfortunately there wasn’t a huge blinding moment of shear creative brilliance I can write about either.

Our set up for services includes 4 large free standing canvases. They are painted with the youth name and a cool artsy design. Two weeks ago, during our Wednesday evening service for teenagers we had a guest speaker. Towards the end of his sermon, he was giving an altar call and two of the members of the praise and worship band started to play a song. As the momentum picked up, the music was gearing up, the drummer walked towards the stage to add a nice rhythm to the music.

Well…he took a bad route to the stage and moved one of those canvases just enough for him to get through…it was a little too much movement.

He let go of the piece and noticed that it was no longer secure. He grabbed a hold of it started to fix it and went to let go of it again…and again it started to fall.

All this is happening right in front of the stage.

I realized what was happening and quickly walked behind the canvas and grabbed a hold of it so he could go play the drums.

I spent the rest of the service behind that frame of stretched canvas just hoping that I wouldn’t lose my grip and somebody who had come up to start or further a relationship with Jesus Christ didn’t get knocked in the head with a piece of canvas.

I was able to get it secure again, but it was a slightly terrifying moment nonetheless.

How was your week?