Well, here goes my first attempt at a blog.
My life has been filled with ups and downs just like everyone else, but everyone carries their own past on their back and hold out there arms welcoming their future.
The title of my blog really holds dear to my heart. I was at the Newspring Leadership Conference a couple of weeks ago with my friends from Revolution Church when I heard a man talking about that he wasn't the man he was and he is not the man he's going to be, it's what he did in the meantime that really counted. I sat there in my seat and went, Wow! How true is that for everyone? Everyone changes. It's what they do in the meantime that can affect how their lives will influence other people that they meet.
"The man I was". I was a man who wanted to hang out with the guys as much as possible. We would go to ball games, fishing, golfing or just out of town camping, all the time. I didn't want to be home. Not once did I ever notice the impact that was making on my family, especially my wife and son. My family and friends were concerened about me, but I wouldn't stop to listen. It was all about me. While all of this was taking place, my father was diagnosed with cancer. He battled the disease for a couple of years. My brothers and I knew we had to take him on a trip before he got worse. We took him fishing on Fathers Day to North Carolina, we didn't know that was going to be our last trip with him. While he was battling, he started going to church regularly, accepted Christ into his life and was baptized. He eventually was overcome by brain cancer and died October 4, 2008.
My wife Angie and my brother Brian went to this church called "Revolution" and they would ask me to go to check it out. I went and I hated it. I wanted nothing to do with God or a church. They never gave up on me though, they kept trying and trying to get me to come, so I started going about every 4 or 5 months just to listen to the band. But I kept doing the things I was doing and was going full speed into a brick wall. Then BAM! In May of 2009 I attended Revolution and heard a message that would change my life forever. It was Luke 15:1-7 Parable of the lost sheep. I sat in my chair and it felt like God was talking directly to me. I was sitting between my wife and brother that day when I asked God to come into my life. I was saved. We all sat there in our chairs and wept together. They knew I was coming home.
"In the meantime". Since that day, I was baptized (by Tim May) and I have worked harder on my relationship with God, my marriage and my family. But I don't think my wife and brother knew what was about to happen next. From the day I was saved until now, I attend Revolution Church every Sunday and volunteer all day, I get there about 4:00 am and stay until about 2:30 pm. It started by taking out the trash and doing odds and ends. As I was doing these things, I had the privelage of meeting a lot of new people and builing new relationships. Let me tell ya, this church is full of amazing people. But now I am the leader of our parking team. We have 14 guys on the crew now and we get to greet every single person that comes to our church. Some people would think it was crazy to have people park cars at a church, but let me tell ya, if you could see how fast Revolution Church is growing and see how many parking spots were actually available, you wouldn't think it was that crazy.
My wife Angie, my son Brandon and I get along better now than we ever have. I actually had the privilege to witness and be apart of one of the most amazing things thats happened in my life. We had our 1st Wednesday service October 6 at Revolution, Brandon was baptized! The cool thing was I helped baptize him with the same pastor that baptized me, Tim May. Brandon was also presented with a Bible. It was the same Bible that my dad received when he was baptized, how crazy is that!
"The man I'm going to be". I have no idea how the man I'm going to be will turn out. All I can do is keep learning from my mistakes. My pastor, Jason Gerdes said it best "It's ok not to be ok, it's just not ok to stay there". He also said "everyone leaves a wake", I want to make sure my wake leaves a positve effect on people, so what I do in the "meantime" is what will reflect the man that I'm going to be.
