Honor, I feel honored to have been asked to work with The Gathering.

Excitement, I am filled with excitement — I am at a loss to imagine a group of people with more resources to change the world.

I am convinced there is an awakening happening among our generation.  There is a great dissatisfaction with the way the world treats it own.  I am convinced there is a great need, a need for love.

I can’t imagine a group, that could accomplish more than The Gathering

Many times, I would wonder when and if God would use me.

Through those times, discouragement would come upon me and slowly through simple observation, God showed me His purpose for me.  He would confirm it through the reaction of His people towards me, He would show me fruit of labor (I contend it was His labor not mine).

I am excited about the new venture He is sending me on, how exciting it is to put in action the things He has been teaching me.  Giving me the opportunity to share His wonder with others.  Old hats which should have never been overlooked by man.

I love my friends, they love me — I love my God, He loves me

I can’t wait to start the new venture so I can share this.

I really do not like running.  I like how I feel after I run, but I do not really like it.  So I have to listen to music to motivate me.

Due to my ADD ADHD symptons, I cannot listen to a predisposed song list.  I have to listen to a radio station, I choose to use my Air1 app.

Very recently I had the privilege of hanging out with the guys from Addison Road and Sanctus Real.  How cool they are.  How awesome their music sounds, how cool it was to hang out with them.

So I am running, listening to Air1, and Switchfoot comes on with their new song from their new album hello hurricane.  How cool is it to imagine that they go through the same type of struggles I go through.  I made a mess of me is what I do, and what I have done.  My wife thinks that I am like a bull in a china shop, more than once we have arrived home and she “coached” me on how I should act in public.

So through some of my talks with Addison Road and Sanctus Real, I was able to confirm that these guys are real.  They miss their kids when they are on the road, they make decisions to leave their families for the purpose of ministry.  Sacrifices are always made, decisions always have consequences, some good some not so good.

When I run, I do not like the short term consequences, I Love the long term consequences.

When I listen to this music and I listen to the stories, they share their hearts with me, they share their struggles with me, they share their succes with me.  One step at a time, one quarter mile at a time, one cycle of breaths at a time.  Inspiration is found.

And God will do the same with the Holy Spirit as he encourages us through music, or when he whispers in our ear.

Oh, the experience we gain from the life we live.

There is such a need for a superhero, that it is a multi gizzillion dollar industry between the movies, comics and other entertainment media.  Growing up we would tie a towel around our necks to make a cape, just so we could fly.

There is a scripture, Phillipians 4:13, which says I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.  What is the author talking about?  Is he talking about moving mountains?  No, that was Jesus and faith of a mustard seed.  Walking on water; no, Jesus again….. healing the sick, not here, I remember Jesus discussing it throughout, but not here.

What the author is talking about is his perspective on life, and finding joy in todays circumstances.  Oh how I have needed to hear this over the years.

My last job was a good job, but even good jobs have bad managers and they were all over the place.  Looking back, I should have done better.  In chapter 4:5 it says to let our gentleness be evident to all.

Hmm, gentleness. 

A superhero who can help me with my mindset that will allow me to get to a point where my gentleness would be shown.

One thing that happens (I have done it, but have been convicted of it) by observation is the saving of tables.  Yes, I have saved a table for my family in the past.  I have also observed families coming through with food and not having a place to sit.

The nice families not having a place to sit would never ask someone to get up, so they would politely wait until someone gets up to leave, sometimes to have a group of giggling kids go to save a seat for their parents just getting into line.  How discouraging this would feel.

So, now I do not save a seat for my family.

My kids, while they are standing in line with me, panic.  They are fear stricken with the thought of not having a place to sit.  They too have seen the families without a place to sit.  “Dad, they are taking all of the seats…”  I respond, “I know baby, but we will be OK.” I don’t know, who really knows right?  Inside I am feeling the turmoil, I am wondering if my family will have to walk around the restaurant with trays of food.  

Kids are clumsy, they drop things.  I am concerned.

Towards the end of the line, we notice an open table.  I am getting ready to pay so I release my kids to the table.  I notice a girl standing at a large table, a little girl.  I ask one of my children to ask her what size her family is, my family of five at the time would not fit in the already identified booth, and she replies, “four” my very smart daughter asks if she would rather have the booth and she replies, “yes” we now have a table big enough to fit our family, relief hits me.

Sitting down and enjoying our dinner together, one of my daughters says, “see dad it always works out” to which I say, “Yeah baby, it does”

Because it does.  There are moments in our life when fear can consume us, this time it was fear of not having a table.   Next time it may be concern of something else.  The lesson would be in what my daughter said.  

When we make God the center of our life, and we give him the opportunity, it will always work out

When I have made mistakes.

I can go through the littany of things I have done, but that is not the focus. The focus is the graciousness.

I have said some things I shouldn’t have. People have made the funny face, then smiled. I used to not pick up on that, I have been noticing it lately, I have been noticing the grace.

It is through the grace I have been trained by pastors, it is through the grace I have been promoted above my peers.

I think about the grace that covers, the grace that covers our sin and allows us to fellowship win a God who cannot accompany himself with sin. He applies grace through sacrifice, the sacrifice of His Son. It is through the acknowledgement of this sacrifice that we receive the grace that has been afforded us, allowing the opportunity to fellowship with our God, a gracious God.

This leads me back, to my interaction with others. The graciousness I have been shown. If you have been gracious to me, thank you. It has been through this graciousness, that shown by you, that has alloowed me to grow more and more in my relationship with God.

The bible talks of us being beacons, cities on a hill, living examples of God’s love. It is through the graciousness that others who are watching will know Him, or want to know Him.

When it doesn’t seem fair.

When it just doesn’t make sense.

When one reads 1 Corinthians 3, we can see Paul take his people through the process. The ones he are addressing has apparently put hope in the riches of the world. There are times we put our faith in the approval of man. Sometimes we base things on our promotion, where we stand in the pecking order, maybe we try to compare ourselves to others.

I have done this in the past, I know the penalty it could bring to a person. The turmoil inside a heart, the thoughts in lack of consideration for all the work I had done, all of the achievement I had made. Oh, the justification we seek.

Psalm 26:2 says: test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.

If we were to follow the advice of the Psalmist, we would want Go to try us, to search our hearts and minds for purity, for the proper intentions. I do not know about you, but I look on some of my past to which I regret, the times I preferred myself over others, the times I
have had the wrong heart, when I wanted good service, or a better deal, or a perceived
promotion.

I wonder what God thinks of my heart when I act this way.

I think about my daughters, how they act when they don’t get their way.

We cannot control what God does in our lives, but we can allow ourselves to be used by Him.

Buy what does it feel like? What is the actual process? What would it look like if it happened?

I just lost my father, with that comes recollection, comes the “I could have done this or that differently”. I have been flooded with those thoughts. I didn’t have the best relationship with my dad, so of course I wonder what could have been different if I would have allowed Godification to play a larger role.

I am in no means stuck in the self pity mode, I am just trying to learn my past. I am a firm believer in looking back to ensure you are on the proper course. This hurts to look back, my dad had some impact in my life, a lot of influence, some good some bad. I can look at his life, at my life and when I allow God to modify my life (Godification) I may be one of those people that God would use or could use to change this world we live in.

If I can change the way my car looks, if I can change the way it drives, or handles…. I wonder what God could do to me.

Godify: the real act of allowing God to change you to meet the fullest potential he has for you in your life.

If we would allow Godification, we would not only benefit from what God would have for us, but he would use us to change the world, to change the way the world operates, to change the way the world sees God.

Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow….. Psalm 144:4 (NIV)

I know that when I go through my day, I want to make an impact, there is a reason why my God given name is “Blaze”, right?

I am immediately drawn to think of what others have done, who has made an impact.

A guy named Darwin is talked about 100 years after his death, sounds grand doesn’t it?  This guy has made a lasting impression..  How about some other names?  Lincoln, Washington, Grant, Lee… are they names we recognize?  Are they names we think about daily?  Are they people we would want to emulate?

As recognizable as their names are, we truly don’t know who they are, I cannot pick up my phone and talk to someone who can share what their personalities were like, whether or not they would really enjoy Zaxby’s as much as I do.

If we look at the 80 years we may be here on earth in contrast to the time span of 4500 years of recorded history, the block of time we are here, is very insignificant.  I may not be able to make a bolt of lightning or an extreme spike on the time line, but what I can do is, with the help of my God and the insight of the Holy Spirit, make an impression upon others that may be lasting in their heart, and maybe just maybe, they can be that strike of lightning on the time line.