Today I am blessedly reminded of the greatness of mothers. 18 years ago, I lost my birth mother and it really didn’t register until I got into my teens and now even recentlyI have learned just how amazing and how big of an impact she actually had in my life, and in that I am blessed.
Today I have the privilege of celebrating the greatness of who a mother is with several great moms and remember my own. So to my mother-in-laws Linda and Karen, thanks for your support. In the year that I have “technically” been family with you, you have had a great impact and have helped us out a great deal. I look forward to many more years of sharing and making new memories and learning from you guys.
Len, thank you. Thank you. You have taken the place of a mother figure in my life and I may have not recognized that to its fullest extent or have let you know how much I’ve appreciate it. But thank you. Really you have been a mom over me longer than my actual birth mother. So in that. I just wanted to express my gratitude to you in how much all the dinners and snacks, all the advice, all the scolding and all the love I may have not noticed that you have given me the past 13 years. Thank you so much for who you are. You are a wonderful mother to your son and an equally amazing “step”mother to Rachel and I.
So with all this said, i even want to encourage and wish a happy mothers day to my sister. In the next couple of days she will soon learn the joy and the pains of being a mother to her daughter Roxy. (Roxy was the name of my birth mother. And this couldnt be any more perfect). So to all my moms, i love you and happy mothers day.
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Yesterday was AMAZING. With the help of 10 amazing people, 3 pickup trucks, a trailer, a mini van and a toyota carola, Ashley and I got our whole apartment moved in just under 5 hrs. How sick is that!? So a HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you goes out to David, Jeff, Corey, Team Swartz-ations, The Coopers, and Mary and her awesome little girls. Ok so maybe it was only 9 people but I’m counting all the little babies and toddlers as one person. haha. Again guys, thank you SO SO SO SO much for helping out. We couldn’t of done it without you.
This is just awesome proof of when God opens doors, he opens floodgates. I actually had to turn away people from helping. We even had a friend that was ready to bring another trailer and like 5 extra people to help out. So even to those who wanted to come out, Matt, Robert and Rob and your mens group, thank you for your consideration and even though I had to turn you away, Im still incredible great full for your servants heart.
God is good. All the time.
So tonight at around 8pm tonight will mark the 8 year anniversary of when I said yes to Jesus.
Wow….
What an incredible trip its been so far. Through trial and triumph its been so amazing to see what faithfulness in the Lord will do. No matter how far or how close I have been its been such a blessing to see what kinds of things that have taken place in my life. Im so excited about this right now and rightfully so I suppose. So if you’re wondering, the story goes like this.
I was 17 and my friend Lonnie Broussard had asked me to play some worship songs at a mens retreat the coming weekend. (That time I was going to youth group with my friend Calie, Lonnie’s daughter, at the time so I knew the songs and respected the whole crew at church). So I said, sure why not. So the weekend came and I was scared crapless. I was like “I dont know these songs I dont know nothing about God I really dont want to do this.” So i was like, whatever and I went down to Camp Hope Haven where they were having the retreat. On the way there it started raining and I knew it was just going to be rough.
So I got to the camp and at first I didn’t see anyone. I checked every building and didn’t see any cars or anything. So, I went home. I called Calie and was like “well, no one is there, guess I can’t do it. Want to do something else?” She said “no, I’ll show you where to go.” So she drove me back there and I was like “dangit”
So she leads me back to the back where the actual camp area was and I said to myself “Lets just do this” I got out of my car and found Lonnie. So he introduced me to a bunch of the guys at the church and fed me some pretty good food. So I thought “this wont be to bad”
The time to lead worship came and Lonnie came to me and said “If you play guitar, I’ll sing them for you” and I thought “great, this will be cake” Then after he said, why dont you play one of your original songs after we are done. I was shook. In my head i was like, I dont have one song that will fit here. All my songs are depressing and about pain. But I had one song called “A Way Back Home” It was about finding a way to back to something for hope somewhere. But I did have a lyric in the song that said “well God damn the day that I die” and I knew that wouldn’t fly. So without thinking I thought in my head “I’ll just change it to - God SAVE ME before I die, not knowing that thought and decision to do that would change my life forever.
So after the song there was a message and something just clicked. In my head I was thinking “I want to know Jesus more. What’s he all about?” after the message, Lonnie and I have a LONG talk about the meaning of salvation and the fall of man and everything and I was really connecting with it. We prayed for a really long time after that around the camp fire with all the guys and I just felt renewed. On the way home that night It was dark and peaceful and I had this Creed song ( I know. Go on with your hateraid with the whole Creed thing) called Faceless Man. And there is this lyric in the song that says
“Next time I see His face
I’ll say
I choose to live for always
so won’t you come inside
and never go away
So I made that my prayer and I felt that God just took grip of my life and I have felt changed and renewed ever since. The next day I official prayed that the Lord would just consume my life. And here I am now.
What an awesome trip it has been.
So happy spiritual birthday to me! Thank you Lord for pulling me out of the dark. I love you and worship you today and forever.
37 But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.
38 Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
39 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet Down!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have not have faith in me?” - Mark 4:37-40
I really like this story. It explains a christians life pretty much to a t at times. We are in the “sea” of life and when the waves start picking up we panic. We feel like we are on our own. We know we have the Lord RIGHT THERE but we still feel hopeless. Then all of a sudden we are like “God! I am dying here! If you don’t do something I am done! don’t you care!?….don’t you care?” Then all of a sudden we hit that zero moment and we’re just like “Jesus DO SOMETHING!”.
We panic so much. So many times in life the waves of fear are so much more stronger than our trust in the Lord. How is it that Jesus is right here in our lives but we still can’t seem to grasp the concept of trusting him? We have so much to learn from this story.
So Jesus wakes up and says “Quiet down!” To us, its us finally coming to trust Jesus and its like he’s saying quiet down to the waves and the wind and all the other scary stuff. But heres the advantage we have over the disciples. We have the word. We have seen it with our own eyes that Jesus even has the power to make all creation obey him. So why think twice that Jesus can’t control all the chaos in our lives?
The next part of the passage really hits hard to me. Jesus says “Why are you afraid? Do you still have not have faith in me?” Why are we afraid? Do we still not have faith? We are not on our own. Jesus is right here. Through any trial, through any storm, through any fire, we have the right not to fear. Why? Because Jesus has and will and will always over come. BUT ITS BY FAITH we can stand strong. Its by faith that we can become sure footed. Don’t let the storms of this life strike so much fear in you. Draw near to Jesus. Trust in him with all your heart. He won’t let you drown. He may let you get tossed around in the boat for a little while, but its only to break you down. Toss the pride aside and put your whole hearted faith in the Lord.
So im in the the beginning of Mark 2 this morning and Im reading about how Jesus heals the paralyzed man. I think its awesome that a guy and a group of his friends had SO MUCH faith in Jesus they knew if they could just get to him, he could be healed. But to those who know this story, we know that where Jesus was the place was packed. There were so many people there to see Jesus. But they didn’t turn back and say “ah, whatever we’ll do it some other time” or anything like that, they said we are going to do something about this. So his friends continue to climb on top of the building and dig through the roof to lower him down in front of Jesus to get him healed, and Jesus does just that.
That is awesome. How strong is our faith? How drastic is our faith? These guys stopped at NOTHING to make sure that they could get this guy to Jesus because they knew that Jesus could accomplish something amazing. How often do we just give up because “there are already to many people there” or that there is something blocking us from doing it? Has God called you to do something but you hesitate because of obstacles? We have a lot to learn from this guy and from a lot of the similar stories we see in the gospels.
Let nothing stop you from seeing Jesus’ miracles on the other side. Dig and dig and dig until you get to Him. Dig and dig and dig until you reach that goal God has called you to. Then when you are in the depths of digging, don’t give up. Great things are there to meet you on the other side.
When the guys finally dug through the roof of this place, it says in the scriptures
Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My son your sins are forgiven.”
The strength of our faith can lead to very powerful things. The courage of our faith offers this kind of invincibility. All things our possible when we strong plant our faith in the Lord. I know I could probably dig in deeper to this story but I want to take the story for what I believe its trying to scream at us. Our faith in the Lord is all we need to do the impossible. Take a lesson from these guys. Stop at nothing and dig your way through obstacles in your life. Have the faith that God has something amazing for you on the other side. Stay true to his word, and know that all things are possible when our faith is in him.
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“You can not be a man of endurance without pain” — ken graves
Alright, most of you already know this but heres the scoop. This is the Gretsch White Falcon. To many guitar players throughout history (since the 1950s) this guitar has been named the Cadillac of guitars. This is not only the cadillac of guitars to me. This is my pinnacle. Ive been playin guitar for over 14 years and never have I owned a guitar that was really really nice or over 300 bucks. So after time and time again lusting over expensive guitars as a kid and the such, I finally was blessed with the opportunity to get a guitar like this. It does and has everything I want. From regal looks that demand attention to the incredible clean tones and warm biting overdrives, it really has the ability to paint any kind of picture I want it to.
It means a lot to me, not just because its a nice guitar, but it really signifies, to me, just how far I’ve come in my music and how God is truly blessing my life and allowing me to bless others with this gift of music. Now, do I need a guitar like this to lead worship and play music to glorify God, absolutely not. BUT I see it as God equipping me with the best tools to do his will. So whether it be a $150 squier strat or the white falcon, God has called me to lead others and support other worship leaders in worship and thats what I plan on doing.
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