Arms Wide Open

For some reason, the following quote rocked my socks tonight.

People who love authentic community always prefer the pain of temporary chaos to the peace of permanent superficiality.

-John Ortberg

“There’s times I’d rather kill you then listen to your honesty, but you’ve always been a friend to me” – Garth Brooks

You gotta love when you surround yourself with “truth tellers”. I made a commitment long ago to run everything in the discernment process through God, family and close friends. The catch was that I would not keep calling people until SOMEONE finally agreed with my point of view. Each persons input must be considered.

Today I spoke with 3 of my “truth tellers” and their responses reminded me why they are in my band of brothers. All three responses were different yet fed directly into my thought process as well. With respect to my friends, I share their comments with you too…

Friend #1 – “I knew this email was coming….”

Friend #2 – “While I can’t say I am thrilled about it, you have to be obedient to what you feel like God is calling you to do.”

Friend #3 – “Dude…you have not been able to find your groove for months now.”

Three friends with three insights. What I find amazing is that all three recognized something in my life. They didn’t offer their input until asked, but were kind enough to be honest in their responses. Not only were they honest, they were right. I couldn’t have put it any better myself. To my friends and brothers, I thank you.

I thank you for being a friend to me.

What a weekend. The family and I left on Friday afternoon to head to our hometown of Bedford, Ohio for the wedding of Heather’s youngest sister. “My Girls”, “The Boy” and Heather were all in the wedding so it was an exciting time for everyone. There is always a part of me that still loves going “home” to where my roots are planted. While the condition of my old hometown is not what I remembered it to be, one thing is for sure…the people never change. You really can go home.

One take away from this weekend is that no matter how many miles, years or changes separate people, when there is a bond that is formed, nothing can ever break that. This weekend I was reminded of how strong and real friendships are as I spent some time with some old friends. I’m amazed how 10 years can seem like 10 minutes when you meet up with old friends. When I spent some time with guys like Gary and Ern, it was as if we were on the old softball fields again.

One other mark of friendships that last forever is that they still answer the bell when you are in a time of need. With Heather’s responsibilities in the wedding, I was flying solo trying to keep 2 little girls dresses clean neat and organized and one little boys tux from permanent damage. Just when I needed help most, there were old friends saying “You need a hand?” and “if there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know”. That’s friendship. That’s community. That’s going home.

Wow…where did March go? A new month must mean that this Saturday is another All Pro Dad day. The topic this month is “Caring for the less fortunate“. We are privileged to have a guest speaker from Faith Mission in Columbus, Ohio with us. He will share a little bit about Faith Mission, but even more exciting is what will happen between our meetings in April and May.

Based on the information from our guest speaker, Dads and kids will have the opportunity to spend the month gathering needed items and raising awareness of the less fortunate in our community. For our May meeting, we will meet briefly to have some breakfast and spend some time with the kids. From there we will caravan to Faith Mission to deliver the items that we gathered throughout the month to those less fortunate.

Dads, this is your opportunity to get creative with your kids and teach lessons that they can carry with them for a lifetime. It is my hope that we can give our children a glimpse at one way we can be “Hands and Feet” in our community. If you have yet to attend one of our All Pro Dad days, this is a great time to start. If you are interested in attending, feel free to send me an email for more information! See you on Saturday.

“Today there are thousands of people sitting in church pews every Sunday who look like they’ve got it together on the outside but are broken on the inside. People who want to grab a Christian brother or sister by the shoulders and shout, “I’m not together! I’m in trouble! My relationship with God is terrible! I feel like a fake!” Instead, they pass out another bulletin or stack another chair, afraid to reach out, because everyone else looks like they have life’s problems whipped”

-Michael English from the book “The Prodigal Comes Home“

“Stained Glass Masquerade” by Casting Crowns

[audio http://leftfield8.com/audio/ccstained.mp3]

Very cool video here from Nickelback. Watch and see if you can catch the message about halfway through. It’s not so much the words to the song, but rather the visual representation.