Sweet Home Alabama

I have spent the last two days in Birmingham and today I got to meet
and spend time with Debbie, Denny & Noelle from South Highland
Presbyterian Church. They are going to host our LeadNow simulcast on
November 15th. They have a great spirit about them and I am excited
about the ways God is moving in young adult ministry in Birmingham.

A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

An Obvious Lesson

I learned an obvious lesson yesterday. Obvious because it was something I already knew. But a lesson because it’s still something that I don’t fully grasp.

I had to take my car into the shop over the weekend to get my catalytic converter fixed. I ended up going to a new mechanic that I had never met and I already have a distrust of mechanics. But this experience actually went well – I felt like I was treated fairly and was impressed with their speed and service. Until… I drove out of the shop and my car stared rocking and bouncing like a hip hop mobile. I stopped to see if I had a flat tire. Nope. Then I just drove home to see if it would stop (why would it stop?). I didn’t think about it again until Monday – when I drove 30 miles on the sidestreets of Garland, Texas to get to work. This is when my hissy fit began…

My car was bouncing so bad that my coffee was jumping out of my cup, through the lid, and all over my bad self. I had no rap music blaring, but I can assure you that the words in my car were worthy of an explicit lyrics tag. I was furious. I was mad at the mechanic because I was sure he had ripped me off. I was mad at the situation because my back and neck were killing me. I was mad at the drivers in front of me because their cars weren’t bouncing. I was yelling – no seriously – I was yelling things out in the car – just because. I basically lost it.

When I finally arrived at work, with whiplash and coffee spilt all over me I came to the simple realization that I didn’t have to get so mad about this. I started praying and telling God I was sorry for my actions. I had a choice in the matter. I could have chosen to react differently to the situation – but I didn’t. And even knowing that I had been acting like a bonehead didn’t change my day. I didn’t fully repent. In fact, I was pretty much ticked off all day. The lingering neck pains kept reminding me of the mechanic. And oh yeah – I made a not so nice phone call to the dude – demanding he fix my car today! And he did by the way take a look at my car and offer to help me out. He was never the problem… I was!

So by now the day is almost over and I am taking Macy to her basketball practice and something amazing happened. The 10 minute drive with Macy melted away all of my anger. Her sweet spirit and presence literally transformed me. I began to pray to God thanking Him for Macy and in my prayer I came to learn an obvious lesson.

God’s kindness leads you towards repentance – Romans 2:4

I was acting a fool. God didn’t need to do anything to make me feel better. This was all my fault. But God… used Macy to show His kindness towards me. When I didn’t deserve anything good – He gave me something spectacular in Macy. And His kindness through Macy – led me to immediate and full repentance.

The obvious here is that God loves you and me and He desires the absolute best for our lives. The lesson is that the best for our lives doesn’t necessarily include our own desired results. But God has mercy on us… again and again… so that we will turn to Him and live our lives not for ourselves, but for His glory!

RWB

Rob Wilson Band was rocking at Pier 419 last night!

The Sein

Robin and I are eagerly awaiting Jerry Seinfeld. He will appear inside
that tiny spotlight on that big ole stage any minute now. Looks
intimidating...

This is the man

Who is about to unleash my iPhone

Supernatural Hero

In honor of Fathers Day, I woke up early and read every scripture in the first 5 books of the Bible that has the word Father in it – that’s 347 for those of you who are counting. Here are my observations:

God created Fathers and gave them a supernatural ability to do lots of amazing things. Fathers are leaders, protectors, diligent, strong, and so many other things. But in reading the Old Testament scriptures about Fathers, the two things that stand out to me are that Fathers make a tremendous impact on their children and that Fathers are the mouthpiece for God.

Impact - Story after story we see children doing amazing things to capture their Fathers love.

• Noah’s family spent about 100 years building a giant boat because their Dad was convinced God told him to
• Isaac walks three days to the mountain with Abraham and is bound at the altar ready to be killed by his Father
• Jacob steals his Fathers blessing from his brother Esau
• The first thing Joseph does after revealing himself to his brothers is to get his brothers to go and bring back his Father; Joseph wants his Father to know about everything he has accomplished

Mouthpiece – God uses Fathers to tell the people what He wants them to do.

• God is known as the God of our Fathers
• The God of our Fathers: Abraham, Isaac & Jacob

I was also struck that God calls us over and over again to defend the cause of the Fatherless. He wants us to care for those who don’t have a Dad and after reading all the scriptures about Fathers it really makes a lot of sense. God has given Fathers this supernatural ability and incredible responsibility and when a kid doesn’t have his Father – then God extends grace by using other key men to step in and be that supernatural hero. So I am left with two prevailing thoughts from my little Fathers Day project.

1. Thank you Jesus for giving me my Dad as my Dad!!! I may have had the greatest Dad in the history of the world, because my Dad is such a passionate pursuer of Jesus Christ. My Dad is my supernatural hero and he is worthy of being emulated. He has made an impact in my life that has given me vision for who I want to become. And as God’s mouthpiece my Dad has challenged me to be the Father that he was and more… Only by the grace of God!

2. I want to be a supernatural hero to my children and to the Fatherless. I want to love Jesus in a way that causes my daughters to want to pursue Christ more than anything else in life. And I want to defend the cause of the Fatherless.

Prince Caspian

I went to an advance screening of Prince Caspian last night. I told my kids that I had to go and check it out to make sure the film was suitable for them. Truth is, I wanted to go. I am a huge fan of The Chronicles of Narnia and as I was watching last night it occurred to me that watching these movies from a kids perspective is the way to go. I let myself get lost in the magical world of Narnia for those 140 minutes and it was a great ride. The thought and creativity behind the story is enchanting and the cinematography and CG work is just spectacular.

Sure, as an adult - there are some serious flaws in the movie. But as a kid, it was amazing! The story is loaded with symbolism and Biblical messaging. I don't want to ruin the plot for any of you who never read the books, so I won't go into any specifics. But there is a scene near the end that speaks to our reluctance as followers of Christ to put our faith in action even when we know we clearly heard God's voice. And in those times, we often listen to all of the other voices of "conventional wisdom" even though we just heard the voice of Almighty God. My prayer is that we would become a generation that is willing to follow God no matter what he asks. Please pray for me that God would develop in me an Abraham type of faith!

Rachel Joy Scott

I just got back from Rachel's Rally where nearly 8,000 people from Rockwall gathered to honor the life of Rachel Scott and accept her challenge to start a chain reaction of kindness and compassion. Rockwall ISD was the first school district in the nation to accept Rachel's challenge and Robin and the girls have been working on it all year. Kids from all of the Rockwall schools have been documenting acts of kindness and compassion by creating chain links made out of construction paper with the names of the people who exhibited kindness.

At our high school football stadium tonight, the sixth graders from each elementary school carried the 123,000+ chains of kindness and compassion. You read that correctly - over 123,000 documented acts of kindness and compassion - wow! I am very proud of Robin, Macy & Mallory for the part they played in Rachel's Challenge and Rachel's Rally.

Rachel Scott has been a hero of mine since April 20, 1999 - which in my opinion was one of the worst days in our nations history. That's when two students murdered 12 of their class mates at Columbine High School. Columbine wasn't the deadliest school shooting in our history, but for some reason it seemed to hit our nation the hardest. Perhaps it was because of the media coverage that let us inside a portion of the tragedy? Or maybe it was because of the specificity in which the killers chose their targets. It could have been the culmination of several school shootings in a row and this was just the boiling point. I don't have all the answers, but I do know that it profoundly impacted a generation that was fed up with senseless violence.

Rachel Scott was the first one to die that day. The killers had already shot her once when they asked her to renounce the name of Jesus. Rachel wouldn't do so. She proclaimed Christ and was subsequently shot in the head.

As stories came out about the shooters, it became evident that they felt like outcasts and misfits. The irony was that Rachel Scott had been one of the few people to actually reach out to them, but they killed her anyway.

The amazing thing is that Rachel's life has impacted far more people than her death. Even though, April 20, 1999 will remain a dark day in our history - the life of Rachel Scott is still shinning bright. The love of Christ compelled Rachel to start a chain reaction of kindness and compassion.

I accept Rachel's Challenge!

Thief Stopped Again

It turns out the basketball goal was stolen by a 7 year old! Okay - let's call it borrowed, not stolen. One of the neighborhood kids thought it would be a good idea to have a basketball goal at his house, so he got his friends to help him drag our goal down the street. I was driving by his house yesterday and his Dad waved me down. Evidently his son told him we had thrown the basketball goal away and that he could have it. Hah!

Thief Stopped!

No... not the thief that stole my basketball goal, the one that comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).

My precious daughter Mallory asked Jesus in her heart tonight! It doesn't get any better than this! We were at soccer practice and we took a few minutes to share about Jesus. Two other girls asked Christ in their heart as well. I have coached these girls for three years now, so it was a pretty awesome night!

Stop Thief

I got my basketball goal stolen from my house tonight. That stinks!