So last night I went to an elder/staff meeting and we were discussing our vision statement for the church, which is the following:  A community of sojourners in Christ, committed to live by FAITH, to transmit HOPE, and to be known by LOVE! While we were discussing the vision, this question was brought up; “What about our vision excites you?”  I sat back for a minute, truly in thought and asking God…..tell me what really excites me!!  So we were in a point of a standstill, am I excited about the Faith part, definitely. Am I excited about transmitting Hope, for sure!  What about the love part…..and that is where it stayed…right then I began to think of I guess the way that God has wired me….I believe that without a shadow of a doubt that I can outlove anyone on this earth…no matter what you do to me, I love you….no matter how many times you crap on my parade…I love you… Now do not get me wrong….alot of people I do not truly get along with, but honestly would do anything for.  I guess I would say that I am excited about that part of the vision, because that is the easiest for me to do…it is the thing that I am wired for…but what about the weak link…what about the FAITH part?

I thought for the rest of the night, that wow, my Faith is not the faith of those in Africa, not the faith of my Grandma, that when she was dying of Cancer she was still praising God…heck when I am sick for a day…you can find me shriveled up on the couch…not doing a thing! I began to think, it is my Faith that will make me love better! It is my Faith that will make me transmit hope in a better way. It is my faith  that will help me to be involved with the community of which I live in!  But without it, am I truly doing any of it???  So now I get it….I have Faith, but why do I have it….I need Faith, but why do I need it…I preach Faith, but do I truly exemplify it… and now I blog about Faith, but is it truly written in my heart.  Now do not get me wrong, I believe that everyday I am putting an effort into becoming closer with Christ, but am I truly living by the Faith of which I believe.  The faith that God may be requiring me to think outside the box, and really dream….the Faith that this year God is definitely going to move, and I am going to be right their with Him….whatever that may be!!  The faith that no matter how bad this economy gets, God is still enough!!  I ask you what is your Faith, not just that you believe that Christ died for you…but how do you practice what you preach…or do you.   For example there is a buddy of mine, named Charles Hill….a leader in ministry that frankly is that of someone I have never seen!  Someone who gets it, and goes after it!! I am asking you to pray for his next step. He has just announced something huge in his life…he never wanted to plant a church again, thinking that he would stay at New Hope Community in Loudonville, Ohio forever….but now is following the call to plant a church in Salt Lake City, Utah….which is possibly one of the hardest places to plant a church, but is also one of the fastest growing places in our country.  I ask you to jump over to his blog, you will find it on my blog roll, and begin to pray for this man of God and his family…..that God will continue what He has started, and that no man will be able to bring it down…. Charles…keep bringing it bro!!!

Until tomorrow,

Tug

P.S.  Mall Cop is hilarious, but I am still a bigger fan of Slumdog Millionaire!!!

In a supermarket, Kurtis the stock boy, was busily working when a new voice
came over the loud speaker asking for a carry out at register 4.  Kurtis was
almost finished, and wanted to get some fresh air, and decided to answer the
call. As he approached the check-out stand a distant smile caught his eye, the
new check-out girl was beautiful. She was an older woman (maybe 26, and he
was only 22) and he fell in love.

Later that day, after his shift was over, he waited by the punch clock to find
out her name. She came into the break room, smiled  softly at him, took her card
and punched out, then left.  He looked at her card, BRENDA.  He walked out only to
see her start walking up the road.  Next day, he waited outside as she left the supermarket,
and offered her a ride home. He looked harmless enough, and she accepted. When he
dropped her off, he asked if maybe he could see her again, outside of work.  She simply
said it wasn’t possible.

He pressed and she explained she had two children and she couldn’t afford a
baby-sitter, so he offered to pay for the baby-sitter.  Reluctantly she accepted
his offer for a date for the following Saturday.  That Saturday night he arrived
at her door only to have her tell him that she was unable to go with him. The
baby-sitter had called and canceled. To which Kurtis simply said, “Well,
let’s take the kids with us.”

She tried to explain that taking the children was not an option, but again not
taking no for an answer, he pressed.  Finally Brenda, brought him inside to meet
her children.  She had an older daughter who was just as cute as a bug, Kurtis
thought, then Brenda brought out her son, in a wheelchair.  He was born a
paraplegic with Down Syndrome.

Kurtis asked Brenda, “I still don’t understand why the kids can’t
come with us?”  Brenda was amazed. Most men would run away from a woman
with two kids, especially if one had disabilities – just like her first husband
and father of her children had done.  Kurtis was not ordinary – - – he had a
different mindset.

That evening Kurtis and Brenda loaded up the kids, went to dinner and the
movies. When her son needed anything Kurtis would take care of him.  When he
needed to use the restroom, he picked him up out of his wheelchair, took him and
brought him back.  The kids loved Kurtis.  At the end of the evening, Brenda
knew this was the man she was going to marry and spend the rest of her life
with.

A year later, they were married and Kurtis adopted both of her children.
Since then they have added two more kids.

So what happened to Kurtis the stock boy and Brenda the check-out girl?  Well,
Mr. & Mrs. Kurt Warner now live in Arizona , where he is currently employed
as the quarterback of the National Football League Arizona Cardinals and has his
Cardinals in the hunt for a possible win in the Super Bowl.  Is this a
surprise ending or could you have guessed that he was not an ordinary person.

It should be noted that he also quarterbacked the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.
He has also been the NLF’s Most Valuable Player twice and the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player.

AND THE REST OF THE STORY:
When Kurt, his wife and 7 children go out to eat he
has one of his children pick out a family eating at the restaurant. Kurt then tells the wait staff he is
picking up the tab for that family’s dinner anonymously. He remembers the days he was working nights
in the grocery store and feeding his family on food stamps.

Not that it made any difference than before, due to the fact that I despise the Steelers with a passion, but I definitely know I will be rooting for the Cardinals come Sunday!!  I simply cannot find it in my heart to root for the most despised team for Browns fans worldwide!!! Yes, I am a Browns fan and yes we will win a Superbowl!!! Mark my words Andy Myers….the Browns will win more games than the Patriots next year…due to the fact that we do not have Crennel anymore…you guys can have him back to fill up the water bottles!!

How about you guys…who are you rooting for in the Superbowl??

(the story about Kurt Warner was forwarded by a lady named Cindy, so I am not taking credit for writing that, you knew it would have not been grammatically correct if it was written by me!!)

Excerpt from Mark Yaconelli’s book entitled “Growing Souls: Experiments in Contemplative Youth Ministry”

A friend of mine attended a Christian pastor’s conference in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The participants included one Native American pastor who was on his first trip to a major metropolitan city. During a lunch break the Native American pastor took a walk outside with one of his colleagues. As they stretched their legs along the busy sidewalk, the pastor suddenly stopped, turned to his companion and said, “Do you hear that?” The friend paused and considered the bustling noise of the city. “Hear what?” he replied.

Planted along the downtown sidewalk was a small row of trees. At the base of each tree was a circle of flowers. The pastor walked over to one of the trees, knelt down, reached beneath one of the floral clusters, then stood and opened his hand, revealing a small black bug. “It’s a cricket.” Dumbfounded his friend replied, “How can you possibly hear that?” The Native American pastor reached into his pants pocket, took out a handful of coins, and threw them into the air. As the coins hit the cement, people from all directions stopped and looked down. The pastor turned to his companion and said, “It depends on what you’re listening for.”

I must say when I read this portion of the book it set me back for a minute and was honestly, I guess what you would call speechless! I think that there are so many times in my personal life where I do not or would not have heard that cricket, or would have possibly heard it but due to my busyness of life, would have never stopped to take time to see what it was worth, or to examine if I am just supposed to sit back and listen to it for a while.

Why isn’t it enough to listen? Why is it that we have got to feel like we need to be moving for God to be? Now that pastor moved alright…he moved right over to the sound…moved the flower clusters and held the cricket! That pastor did what many of us would not, when he heard the noise ….he moved closer…He grabbed the flowers and moved them so he could hear it more clearly!!! Why do we sometimes hear a noise (from God) and continue walking, when what He is wanting us to do is move closer, shuffle a few things around, and boom there He is waiting to hold us, show us what it is that He wants us to do…but truthfully what He wants is for us to come to Him when He speaks, and not avoid what He is trying to say….but come closer and really focus and spend the time with Him….So what are the flowers that you need to shuffle to hear Him more clearly, what are the sounds that you are so focused on that you do not hear what God is trying to say…I challenge you to truly listen for the crickets and when you hear them….RUN…right to the flowers, move them, and grab on to whatever it is God is trying to tell you!!!!

Mark 4:9 Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

John 8:47 He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

Jeremiah 7:23-24 But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.

John 6:44-45 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.