to the ordinary

Innocent Bystander

I got off work last night at 11:30 pm. I've been riding my bicycle to work for the last 3 weeks and locking it up during my shifts. When I unlocked it last night and started to peddle away I realized that the back tire was completely flat. While I was working someone slashed my tire.

It was close to a 4 mile walk home. It took nearly 3 of those miles for me to gain some perspective. Had I met the bike attacker, tire perpetrator, rubber-tubing vandalizer in the first 3 miles I would have fought for my bike's honor, and my pride. I was furious, angry, hurt, and embittered -- running through my head everyone I saw last night, wondering who and why they did it, and what I would do if I ran in to them.

In that moment several things dawned on me:

1. I've done far worse to God than what was done to me.
2. It's just a bike tire. In the grand scheme of things, it could have been much worse. Rapes, murders, abortions, genocides, and heinous crimes of which my mind can't comprehend put things in perspective.
3. Even for something so small I am only able to forgive when God gives me the strength to forgive.
4. When I know God is Just and Judicious, the mantle is removed from my shoulders to impart my own kind of justice when and how I see fit. I don't have to retaliate or give someone what they deserve.
5. Four miles takes much longer when dragging a bike.
6. I needed the time to forgive as I have been forgiven.

Not for the Faint of Heart

A friend emailed me a list of restaurants that I had to visit in Huntington. The most distinct and robust with personality, by far, is Hillbilly Hotdogs. If you eat indoors you will be eating in a school bus decked out with grafitti. The restaurant was featured on the Food Network not long ago and is quite the dining experience.

The menu highlights the Double Wide -- a 10 lb hamburger complete with 2 heads of lettuce, 2 onions, 24 slices of tomato, 24 slices of cheese, and 2 lbs of pickles. For hotdog lovers, the Homewrecker is a 3 lb hotdog with chili, cheese, nacho sauce, jalapenos, and deep fried! If you eat it in under 12 minutes you get a free T-Shirt -- makes the heart attack all the more worth it.

www.hillbillyhotdogs.com/menu.html

Diving In

Since moving to Huntington we joined the local YMCA. It has 2 pools with the warm pool starting at 6 inches deep and only increasing to 3 feet for a large section of it. This allows Ryleigh to have a huge area to roam before the water actually gets neck high...the point at which I discovered she backs off.

On our first trip in, we were having a great time until I noticed something taking place. Ryleigh was in 2 feet of water when she started to slip. It was like slow motion watching her trying to keep her balance but losing the battle. She finally went under! A split second later I pulled her up out of the water. She cried and clung to my neck like a drowning rat.

I could have stopped it. I was close enough to grab her before she went down. I didn't. If I'd stopped her from falling, she may not have learned the importance of measuring her steps. The sheer thrill of complete submergence would not have been a factor, and knowing that her daddy's not going to let her drown would have little impact. We've been back to the pool twice since and she's showed no signs of traumatic experience. She does hold tighter to daddy when traversing the deep end.

Faith is not something we can manufacture and produce more of in our own lives. God gives faith. He gives it to those who cling to Him in circumstances which drown others who live rebelliously idolatrous lives. For each step into the deep end God has allowed us to make, He's met us with the faith required to stay afloat. Every step we've made over the last 2 years has taken us deeper in our reliance on God to keep us from drowning. In this move to plant Missio Dei Church, we at times feel like we're in up to our neck. My comfort comes when I look to my Father to keep his hand on me while teaching me to navigate these waters.

Arrival

A couple of friends, my father-in-law, and I unloaded all of our stuff into our rental home in Huntington on Monday. Sarah and Addalyn got here today, and we'll bring Ryleigh up on Sunday. The weekend was exhausting!

I was up at 6:00a on Saturday and had most of the downstairs sitting on the front lawn waiting to be loaded by 8:30a. The toll it took on Ryleigh was obvious as she clung to Sarah and I and had a tough time figuring out what was going on. At one point she ran upstairs as I was vacuuming a completely empty room and hid herself behind a corner and cried--tough for a parent to see.

To make matters worse, my bright idea was to take the whole party to Chuck-E-Cheese for Ryleigh's 2 year birthday party that night. The place reminded me of the movie New Jack City and was a bomb of an idea. We were there long enough to eat. We took all the presents in, and without opening a single one, took all the presents out. By 9:00 that night we all felt like it was Midnight.

We're here now, have our internet up and running, and are excited and anxious about moving forward to the frong lines of battle.

Moving

We've become pros at packing. We ought to be. West Virginia to South Carolina (2 moves in SC: our first apartment, then a rental house); South Carolina to Texas; Texas to Virginia (2 moves in VA: rental house, then the first home we owned); Virginia to Florida; Florida to North Carolina; North Carolina to West Virginia.

For those keeping score--that's 8 moves in a span of 7 years. Somebody asked me the other day whether I was military. We are absolutely tired of moving and pray that our move to Huntington is the last for a long, long time. We're ready to plant roots.

Our rule of thumb: "If you haven't used it in the past year, you're probably not going to...get rid of it."

With the exception of our first couple of years of marriage and our first few moves, we've actually downsized along the way. From yardsales, goodwills, Ebay, and giving things away, we've managed to make each move with less and less stuff. An astonishing fact now that we have 2 kids. In order to maintain that balance, everytime Sarah and I get something new, we throw something of the girl's away. When Ryleigh cried over her favorite doll it gave us an opportunity to teach a valuable life lesson: Life's Tough. (kidding about the last 2 sentences)

Missio Dei Church

The name of the church we will plant in Huntington is Missio Dei Church. It is Latin and means Mission of God. Sarah and I were able to find a house to rent this past weekend in Huntington. We will be making the move in about 3 weeks. Our actual move date is Monday, May 5th...the day Ryleigh turns 2.

We have created a temporary blog space that will transition to become our permanent address for our website once it is completed. For now, it will be updated specifically with steps we are taking along the way in planting Missio Dei, prayer needs, and random occurrences that seem fitting to post.

Check us out at:  www.missio.cc

Passing

A friend, brother, leader, and servant died on Wednesday. Steve was in his mid-40's and found a knot on his hip in Aug/Sept, learning soon afterward that it was cancer. After surgery and chemo the cancer seemed to be in remission. Two weeks ago Wednesday, he was told it was terminal and he had about a month to live. On Wednesday, April 9th, he passed.

I had the privilege of knowing Steve through an internship I served with a church in South Carolina. He was an active leader in the student ministry and an incredile witness for Christ in the community. A strong man who told you exactly what he thought, many people today have testimonies about what God did in their lives through Steve. As much through his life, his death is a testimony to God's power, love, and grace. I had the honor of praying with my brother, kissing his head, and telling him I loved him before he died. Today Steve is cancer-free and at home with his Lord.

The greatest king in Israel's history faced his impending death. Scriptures say that his time was drawing near and he was about to go the way of all the earth. In that moment, he called his son, Solomon, to his side. What would you say to those you loved the most if it was the last thing you could tell them? David told his son to be a man, be strong, and follow God with courage--not compromising His word, steadfast to His commandments, and faithully obeying with all his heart, soul, and strength.

Our legacy is the testimony in death of what we stood for in life.

Pregnant

Around the second weekend of May, Sarah, Ryleigh, Addalyn, and I will be moving to Huntington, WV where we will be planting Missio Dei Church. It has been a long journey that has brought us to where we are, and we know an even longer road lies ahead.

It has been nearly 1 year since we left Florida, and Sarah rightly says we've gone through a lifetime of changes in the past year. With those experiences God has refined us in a way that has been painful at times and always humbling. In every step along the way, God has required of us more letting go -- not only in regards to our pride and arrogance, but in our plans and aspirations. If I stop and think about it too much it gets overwhelming.

We are in a pregnancy stage right now where our Vision, Values, Strategy and Structure are being developed through much prayer, conversation, reading, and study. Much of this blog will pertain to the process we're in concerning Missio Dei over the next few months. A brochure, promo video, and website are in the works and will be finalized in the next couple months.

Although each of you reading this blog are separated from us geographically, we invite you to join us through prayer. In 1 Samuel 11, Saul wages war on the Ammonites. To rally the troops, he slaughters oxen and sends pieces to all the tribes of Israel, saying that if they don't come to fight the same thing will happen to them. Three hundred and thirty thousand men came to battle! The amazing detail of the account was recorded in verse 7: they came out as one man. Fight with us as one in prayer: for my family, the city of Huntington, and Missio Dei Church.

[I read this article to a friend of mine before posting and he said, "Or what?" I said, "What do you mean?" He responded by saying that Saul issued a warning with the ground chuck he sent through the Postal Service to the Israelites. Don't worry, if you don't pray for us you won't find a horse head in your bed.]

Still Dancin'

I fill out one bracket and one bracket only for NCAA March Madness. I do my best to pick who I think will realistically win, except when WVU is in the tournament. If I don't take them to the national championship, I'll at least push them forward beyond where I think they'll realistically go.

You heard it here first: WVU to the Final Four, losing to Memphis by 3.

I had them over Duke, and then over Xavier. In the Elite 8, I've got them over UCLA.

You heard it here first....

Coming Around Full Circle

I can appreciate the absolute certainty and confidence some people exude. Other people have little assurance of anything and question the question. Examining things critically while remaining humble is an ability that we should rightly desire. On several occasions over the past year I have been very confident that I knew what I was talking about, only to find myself eating my words and changing my tune. Sometimes I'm too lazy to find the answer; sometimes the answers are not available (because of limited knowledge and my finite state); sometimes God only reveals what I need to know and not what I want to know.

I'm grateful for the patience that God has with people. It is a maturing and wonderful thing to come under conviction for mistakes of the past while knowing that we are works in progress. The only assurance I have is God's Word. With every door I walk through I come to an awe invoking realization that there are another 1000 doors that can be open.

In short: I have hunches, ideas, guesses, and presumptions that are fallible. God has revelation that is infallible. I live confidently in His revelation, and leave a good amount of room for humility, corrected thinking, and possibility in mine.