We All Wanna Be Loved

So it has been a week since a very defining moment (conversation) in my life. A week later I am stronger, better, freer (is that a word) than I have been in a long time. At the same time, I can feel my heart reach out for people like never before. Reach out does not even describe what I feel, HURT, is a better word.  This redefined me has caused some confusion for people. But the fact of the matter is that God is doing something amazing and I can not allow anything to get in the way of what He is doing. I have been praying for God to allow me to love people the way he does, and to break my heart for the things that break His heart. I received 2 revelations of that today that are opposite ends of the spectrum. First, if you dare to pray this prayer, you will be stretched. I am a sarcastic person. Sometimes when I see people my first instinct is to say something funny. This prayer will remove a lot of jokes out of your life. OKAY so for the ones I love who do not know I love them:

1.  A very successful person. This person would never think that they where not loved. The love I feel for this person is a love that goes out to them in their place of lack. There is not much lack, but the things this person lacks are not material. I want the best for this person and want this person to achieve all God has for their life. I have been consumed with a love for this person that they feel real love and real relationship. My love will extend to them through prayer.
2. Otis “Artist” Crum. Otis has to be in his 50’s or 60’s. I fell in love with Otis today when he walked up to me outside a church in Jacksonville. Otis had a JC hat on that covered his head full of dreams. Otis told me he “made the music”. Otis believes he is going on tour next month with Michael Jackson AND Stevie Wonder. Otis has a lear jet for sale for $800,000.00 but was asking me for $.87. I fell in love with Otis. I do not know what will happen to him but I do know God created him and has a plan for his life. I prayed for Otis on the way home tonight. I don’t know if my interaction with Otis the Artist will impact his life, but I know Otis impacted mine. He is equally as important to God as person number 1. God cares about people and could care less about position. 

I could tell you about the other people God gave me a glimpse of today, but I wont. We all really want to be loved. So often we do all we can to polish who we are so that others will love us. We think if we like what this person likes, or sound like that person, or do this thing, we can earn the love of others. Love is a gift. In it purest form it is given freely without obligation or condition. Love is a moment by moment decision to commit. Love is far from a feeling, it is often a burden, and usually is not very convenient. Love will make you do things that will stretch who you are. Love will cause you to feel for people you normally would never even notice. Love is so important to God that he said we are to “Love our neighbors as ourselves.” And as we all know, in America today, it is EASY to love yourself. I am so happy that my view of the world is changing. I have always been a “relationship guy” but God is moving me even farther in this direction. I care about my relationships. They mean the world to me. Relationships, when done properly, can be the best part of your life. So this week tell someone you love them…even if it hurts, and if it does hurt, it is probably really love. 

Hosanna and how God moves

It is finally night. I hear crickets outside the window. PEACE! Today was loud…VERY LOUD! But in the noise I heard His voice. I went to play hoops @ 5:45 this morning. On my way i had United in my CD player. I am an XM guy so listening to a cd feels SO oldskool to me!I listened to this song probably 20 times today:

Verse 1

I see the king of gloryComing down the clouds with fire

The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes

I see his love and mercy Washing over all our sin

The people sing, the people sing

Chorus

Hosanna, hosanna Hosanna in the highest

Verse 2

I see a generation Rising up to take the place

With selfless faith, with selfless faith

I see a new reviva lStaring as we pray and seek

We’re on our knees, we’re on our knees

Bridge

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what is yoursEverything I am for your kingdom’s cause

As I walk from earth into eternity

 Hosanna  

OKAY! that song jacked me. Selfless faith. What a concept. It is not about me. It is not about you. It is not about them…its about HIM. Make it about him and the rest will work out. Open my eyes to things unseen. Show me how to love like you have loved me. Break my heart for what breaks yours.  THATS WHAT I MUST HAVE. That sums up what I have been saying in my blogs since Sunday. That is what my post from yesterday was about….i want to feel what God feels. I can not settle for a few hours of God time…I need him continually and if it hurts or stretches me, or makes you uncomfortable about me, well we will all be okay.

God is moving and I want to be where he is at…doing what he is doing.  During the national prayer breakfast Bono repeated a story that was told to him by “a very wise man”: So often we pray that God will bless what we are doing. If you want God’s blessing go to where he is already moving, get involved with the things God is doing, they are already blessed. God cares about the hurting, the lost, the widows, the poor. I have a new compassion for these things as I get older and take less of the attention to myself and put more of it on HIM. I want to feel how God feels.

Today I was walking with a friend and a younger boy came by. He was awkward. He had a back pack on. He was insecure, I could see in his face that he was a little shook that this big guy and me where in his path. His glasses where not on straight. His shirt was balled up under the strap of his bag. I put my hand on his shoulder and said…”whats up homey”…he stammered for a minute and said: “hi”. Then darted off into the lunch room. As we walked away I said..man I feel for that poor kid. I have been praying for him all day. Tomorrow I hope to run into him again…God cares about him and wants to see him live full of confidence and not ashamed, scared or insecure. I know how that boy feels, and if ever given the chance again…I am going to tell him all about the destiny God has for his life. 

So as you can see, my mind is floating tonight. I hope this blog made sense. If not..there is always tomorrows. 

In closing, the Kanye West album leaked today. IT IS HOT! 

the practical application of the lesson goes a lil’ something like this…

1. that is the longest title i have ever had.so this past week i have really felt like i have taken a crash course on life, relationships, and how your supposed to do and not do some things.  I am living a great life. I mean really. I have had some rough things go down over the past few months, but I am on a different level of living right now. Life is fun. Im discovering things again. Creativity is coming back….its a good time to be alive. So in all this talk of maximizing life and embracing  relationship and all the stuff that I have been talking about this week, I had a moment today. I was at a birthday party and i started to talk to a friend. I have never had a deep conversation with this person, just the normal stuff you say in passing. But today we ended up at a table with 5 and 6 year olds running all around us and we started to talk. My friend is the grandfather of the birthday boy. He has lived an amazing life. He has so many experiences and wisdom and stories. So he started to tell me. As I am sitting there listening to him it dawned on me…this can make your life richer. Push in. Embrace it. Don’t just talk about depth and all the stuff you have been talking about, maximize this moment and dig in. So I started. I was asking questions, pushing farther in, and I learned some great things.Life is full of nuggets. People want a great life, but they want it to happen rapidly and in giant strokes. The truth is, greatness like anything else, usually develops slow, is built little by little, and is a process. The funny thing is you may work on a great life for 10 years and then on day realize…my life is great while all the people around you are like, this guy got her over night…not knowing you have invested years! So I feel I got 2 great nuggets out of this conversation, not to mention the more important process of becoming better friends with someone:

1.  My friend was about to go into major surgery and he asked god that if God would spare his life through the surgery he would devote his life to loving kids until his time came to go to heaven. 
2. “I don’t really talk about my life very much. I would rather just let people see who I am , not have them hear me tell them who I am.” YIKES! How deep is that. My friend has done some really cool things in life. He has seen success. but his humility was amazing! 

Wisdom comes in unique packages. You may not find it in 3 piece suits or leadership books. Wisdom my come from people you see everyday and don’t know their stories or you have not taken the time to learn about. I learned a lot today, and it was awesome. I look forward to the next chance I will have to learn even more.   

Grabbing A Memory

Life is short. The more and more I live the more I realize that life is a vapor. I love life. The best part of life is relationships. Relationships are the heartbeat of life. I am blessed to have great relationships.

This morning I was talking with some friends about some really deep stuff and Keisha (who has an awesome blog of her own) said: “Sometimes I tend to be a little bit vain.”  At that moment. I said…wait, stop. That was awesome. Write that down. That is your blog for today. We all stopped. We laughed. We took a sentence out of the air, captured it, framed it, and formed a memory out of it. We will never forget the day we sat at that table and the 4 of us broke out laughing in the middle of really deep thoughts over that sentence.

How important it is to capture the moments in your life. Great things don’t always let you know they are coming, they just appear. When your not looking for your chances in your world to maximize the moments and make memories you are not living life to the fullness it was created to be lived. I have said before I have a bunch of great friends and family. It is in these relationships that I find all the moments that create the scrapbook of life that we will all look back on one day and say…wow, those are the best memories we could have.

What moments have you allowed to slip away and not make into memories? Tomorrow is today…go make some memories, even if you have to make them out of nothing! This thought makes me very emotional. Thanks for reading my blog. Thanks for being my friends. Thanks for the moments. Thanks for the memories. Here is to a lifetime more even if we never are able to see each other again, we still have that time…that morning…that look…that smell…that sound, and I am thankful for all of them…and YOU. Be Great.