Weird

As I read the bible, I have often thought that if I, we, anyone were to truly live out the gospel in the way that the early church did, we would look
crazy....
weird....
radical...

Whatever title you want to put on it- it would look completely different than the world. Sounds similar to John 17:16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of it." We shouldn't let things of the world bother us because this is not our home! Weird, right?

I am always mesmerized by the early apostles and how they took suffering. They would rejoice. They would welcome it. Can you imagine sitting in the jail and the guys in the next cell are singing Chris Tomlin while getting beat? Weird.

So I have to brag on my wife because she was so weird yesterday. I cant get past it.

She was in a car wreck yesterday. She is fine- just really sore. Her car on the other hand... totaled.

A teenage girl pulled out in front of her and Bre t-boned (no tebowed) her spinning the teenagers car 180 degrees into a ditch. I get the call at 7:19 of Bre fighting the tears to tell me what happened. I immediately get dressed and put on my cowboy boots with the thought that they would hurt the worse when I kicked whoever pulled out in front of my wife right in the teeth. I also contemplated grabbing my pistol (which I didn't). I hopped in the car to go grab my wife and gain vengeance for whoever did this to her.

Sounds normal, right? Every guy reading this is thinking "dang straight man!" That is totally of this world.

My wife, on the other hand, is weird. She walks over to the girl who is uncontrollably sobbing that pulled out in front of her and...

get this....

HUGS HER!!

She stands there holding in this girl in her arms telling her that she forgives her. That everyone is ok. That everything will be ok... I am getting teary eyed writing this. THAT IS SO WEIRD!! In that moment, Bre had every right to be mad and upset.

But she chose to be weird. She chose to be Christ to this girl. To love her. Comfort her. Support her. Forgive her. For every onlooker to that situation, Bre looked so weird because she looked so much like Jesus. I love my wife and am so proud of her.

Lets be weird. Lets be Jesus. This world needs it.

Breeze

I do apologize for not writing in so long (not that anyone out there really cares). A lot has changed in my life over the past year. One huge one though- A. My wife and I had our first child, a daughter, on March 31. Her name is Aubryn but we refer to her as A sometimes. There is so much I have learned and so much that has changed about me sense her grand arrival. I never though I would love her like I do. I also never really thought that I would learn as much from her as I have.

Yesterday, I was playing with her and took her outside just to look. About the time we got out there, the breeze starting to pick up. I looked directly at her and started saying "Wind, wind" like all parents do to teach them daily things we all take for granted.

And it happened....

A huge grin appeared on her cute, 6 1/2 month face. She picked up her left hand and just held in the air so gently... like she was feeling and truly enjoying the wind.

The wind. The wind? How can the wind make her smile and just stare as she feels the chill that is in the breeze.

Most of us hate the wind. It makes us cold, messes up our hair, blows the papers in our hand, disturbs us.

My daughter and her joy in the wind humbled me yesterday. Enjoy the little things God has given us. I dont care if you are broke or Mark Zuckerberg, their are things that our Father gives us daily that no one can recreate or mimic. Enjoy these gifts, these common graces, and worship Him.

The wind? Ofcoarse the wind.

Desperately searching

May 5, 2009, I spent the most money at one time (except for vehicles) in my life. But when I walked out of Rubin Brothers Jewelry, I knew I had the perfect engagement ring. It was awesome! So on May 9th, I gave it to my future bride and she loved it!

Now let me fast forward to last week.

Monday, I was entrusted to take the engagement and wedding ring to go get cleaned. After they cleaned the ring, they wrapped it up for me and I put it in ash trey in my jeep and headed to the house.

Bre asked me that night to go the rings. Here is where everything gets fuzzy.

Wednesday night, I go out to get the rings because I hadn't done it yet, and they weren't there! Freak out mode was at a all new high! We searched they house up and down, went through our trash, I cleaned out my jeep (found Crazy Love under my seat :) no disrespect Chan), everything! I even went to the dumpster at the church where we dump our trash to get old trash bags out and go through them! But the trash had already been emptied...

I was devastated. But I knew whatever I was feeling, bre was feeling 100 times more. We are laying in bed to the soft tones of bre crying next to me and I let one more apology.

From what I could see, the searching was done...
I looked every possible place in our house with no result..

THEN IT HIT ME! MY FAVORITE PAIR OF GA SOUTHERN SWEATPANTS!! I HAD THEN ON MONDAY NIGHT AND PUT THEM IN MY DRAWER!

I jumped out of bed, ran over and rip those pants out of drawer. I saw bre looking at me like I was crazy with no hope in here eyes.

and I heard it! The familiar sound of plastic ruffling from the pocket! I ripped it out and handed it to bre! The satisfaction of searching and finding those rings was incredible!!!

As I lay down to go to sleep, knowing sleep isnt coming because of my excitment, it really hit me...

When have I ever searched for God with that sort of passion or urgency?

In Matthew 13:44, it says that the kingdom of God is like a treasure. A treasure

What if I,

What if We,

What if the church,

What if the Church,

sought after the treasure that is the Lord like we were searching for one of our most valuable possessions that have been lost?

I could tell you what I would look like.

But I would much rather SEE it.

I hate golf

When it really comes down to it, I hate golf! Here is what normally happens... I will get up extra early, get out on the course at 7 in the am, get my stretches in, wait for my dad and brother to arrive, trash talk, and go to tee #1. Everything has been great up to this point...

Then the hooks start... the slices... the swings that take up more dirt than back hoe.... the shots way past the green.... and the putts that I miss that Ray Charles could have made.... and then I get in the car and wonder why I just spend $30 to get mad??

My dad use to say that if he wanted to get mad, he stomp his toe and save the $30 dollars. haha. We call that a "dad joke" in our family.

So the other day, I was determined I was going to turn into the next Phil Mickelson and hit the driving range. I remembered my old baseball days and our coaches always yelling at us to practice the fundamentals... slow everything down and practice each step slowly to make sure that you have proper form, stance, and follow though. I thought that would be genius to try on my golf swing....

I WAS WRONG

I could not even hit the ball with my driver! When I would slow my swing down, I could do nothing...

And it hit me. How many of our Christian lives are so similar to my golf swing. It is not to bad when I just swing fast but when I break it down, it falls apart. So many of our spiritual journeys seem to be going just fine because in the chaos of life, we still make it to church on most Wednesdays and Sundays, pray at least 3 times a week(when we need something) and read the bible about once a week. Our spiritual life is great! We think....

But when we our honest with ourselves and really look at our fundamentals of our Christian lives, it is falling apart.

One verse that I keep meditating on and going back to is one of the most fundamental verses in our lives.

James 1:22
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

Read the word and do what it says.

That is elementary Christianity that the majority of Christians leave out. As all these authors come out and right these books on being "Radical" and having "Crazy Love," they are just teaching what the bible has said for thousands of years but because of the shape of American Christianity, these ideas seem radical and crazy... but they are just as fundamental as the proper way to hold a baseball or how to stand while hitting your tee shot.

Slow your life down and see how your fundamentals are in your pursuit towards Christ. Chances are, you will be surprised at what you find.

Like a proud father

Last night at Impact, I spoke on the power of forgiveness and the freedom that comes from forgiving others. Instead of harboring those feelings of anger and hate, forgive and celebrate freedom. I shared of a personal story of my unwillingness to forgive that lasted almost 2 years and the conversation I had with that person the day before. The freedom was overwhelming for finally forgiving him and asking for forgiveness for all the anger and bitterness I had felt towards him! We looked into Ephesians 4:32, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." We came to the conclusion that as Christians, we dont have the right to not forgive. I urged the students to go as soon as we finished and call those that they needed to forgive or ask for forgiveness from...........

And they did!!

I was so shocked by the work the Lord was doing in their lives. As soon as we finished, the front lawn was full of people on their phones calling and finally forgiving people. We even had leaders with cell phones in hand forgiving people in their lives.

They would come running back in telling me all about it!! Some were discouraged by the response but I assured them they did their part. It takes one to forgive and two to reconcile.

Like a proud father, I saw students stepping up and realize the power of forgiveness to reach their potential in Christ.

Reality Students, you rock!!

breath

This past week has been the hardest week of my life. Me and my new bride just returned from our honeymoon a week ago today!! The honeymoon was absolutely amazing! We went on a week long cruise and ate our moneys worth! This whole week, we both longed to be back on that cruise ship going back the the amazing beaches and eating the great food! Then, I make a turkey sandwich, sit on my couch, and plan our next cruise!

Marriage is going great! We have been busting our butts trying to catch up on work while getting our house cleaned and doing a little shopping! Life is great! I just wanna share a quick story.....

We were waiting to get off the ship at 7:30 last sunday morning and happened to be stuck next to the biggest whiners alive! It was probably a 45 year old couple that evidently knew way more that the cruise ship directors. They were complaining about every 5 minute delay and were bashing all the cruise staff because we were 20 minutes late getting off the ship (because they hadnt opened the security check on the port.) When we finally got to leave, they tried to cut infront of people and almost started a fight.

Me and bre sat there and just laughed until the room cleared then just easied our way off the ship. Let me just say this to everyone thats been bashing leaders, just relax. This cruise staff just gave this couple the best week of their lives and with one delay, they automatically throw them under the bus.

If you are mad or upset with leaders in your life, breath. Look at where they have brought you to before you condemn them to Hell. If the leader is really that bad, go talk to them to their face. Have some patience and integrety.

Love mixed with a little of Holy Crap!

My freshman year of high school was a weird but great time for me. I had just changed school districts from Fulton county to Forsyth county and knew absolutely no one. I joined drumline and met some friends there but I still felt so awkward the first day of class. If any of you know me, you know it wouldnt take me to long to get to know the people in my class. I remember getting to know one guy in my personal fitness class that was a little ...um... well.... he was really nice. We will leave it at that. There were a couple of girls that sat across from us in the classroom and one that was exeptionally pretty. Come to find out, she was in my buisness procedures class to. Lucky me! (btw, that class was a waste of my life.)

As time went on, I got to know this girl day after day and got in good with her friends (guys- take note of that. Get in good with her friends! You will thank me later.) I figured out her name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, family, and anything else she would tell me. We would get in trouble in class for talking and laughing and cutting up. Then it happened....

I posed as a office assistant and told her drama teacher they needed her in the office. I asked her out, a freshman in high school, knees knocking, voice cracking, butt sweating, all of it. She said yes. Then a week later... it was over. I wasnt good enough..... oh freshman romances. The pursuit didnt stop.

So I didnt what ever man does when he gets hurt by a girl he likes..... date her best friend! haha I did and we had fun. When we broke up though, the pursuit was there for the girl that broke my heart after a week.

She asked me to go to a wedding with her one day.... If you a pursuing a girl and she asks you to go hang out, jump on that!! Clear your schedule (not that I had one as a 15 year old but you know what im saying.) We went and danced and sang and had a great time. We sat down to take a break and it happened. I got enough confidence to slowly reach over, pick up her hand, and lay it in mine. OH MAN!! It was magical!!

In my parents driveway after the wedding on September 21, 2002 when I was 15, she was 16, I looked at her under the moonlight night and simply asked "Breanne Gravitt, will you be my girlfriend?"

She will become Breanne Dodd in 5 days!!

I cant believe I have kept her this long. I am so stoked about this marriage but often I sit back and think, holy crap! Im getting married! Ive never done this before!! haha We are so excited to begin this journey and share life together every moment. But we need yalls help. We dont want to take this covenenant between each other and God lightly at all. We dont want to become another statistic. We want to focus our marriage on God and let all the things fall into place. We want to ask for prayer as we get ready for the greatest day of our lives.

Pray for our focus
our attitudes
our words
our strength
our love
our flights and honeymoon (saftey)
our future
our pursuit of each other, that it would never die
our respect of the covenant we will make
our joy
our laughter
our lives
our happy ever after.


Thank you guys for all the prayer and support. 5 more days!!!