Once again I say welcome aboard. Man time flies by, and you will see why I say that in a minute. I want to have some fun with this one, and while it may inspire the occasional chuckle ,there may be other parts that are a little alarming and depending on where you are in life…..down right scary. I was working on something else, and then I looked at the calendar and thought, nope, I need to do this one. In our time together, I have shared different pieces of my story. Things about my grandfather, my kids, ex wives, siblings, peer group, some of the ladies that I’ve dated and this right here was inspired by a coworker. Have you ever been here, where you meet someone, and something seems a little off, but you can’t exactly put your finger on it? Then , a little further down the road, you get this additional piece of information, and then You think, ahh !!, now it makes sense, and I can understand why they are so jacked up☺️☺️. While I touch briefly on my coworker, we are going to talk about how I got here. When I say here, I’m talking about, what has made up me ,with all of my weird compositions and do I say identities. Well we are living in the age of self identification. Let’s jump in shall we? Back in December, which was only a few months ago , but felt like last week, time is on the move . So , ninety days ago or so, I was at a Christmas eve service at my church, a Saturday evening, because I believe Christmas was on a Sunday, yeah that’s right. Well as I’m exiting the building, someone grabs my arm and calls me by my name. It was this coworker of mine Logan, not his actual name. I was shocked to see him there, because, we have had spiritual conversations in the past, and he was much like the cockroaches that I spoke of in my last outing. When I asked him what he was doing there, he told me that he was a “CEO”. Now I have been a round the block a few times, but just like most of you guys , those three letters together, at least in my mind stood for Chief Executives Officer, as in someone heading up a corporation, or some none profit outfit. When I asked him for clarification, he informed me that his wife and his two beautiful little girls were only allowed to ask him to accompany them to church on Christmas & Easter Only!, all other times was a straight up No! I felt as if the word flabbergasted was an appropriate response, I had never heard it put that way before. I mean, yes, I know that plenty of people are in that camp, just never heard it so eloquently coined before. I believe that he had told me before that his wife and I went to the same church, but since I never had an intro before, we could have passed each other and I would have had no idea. If I’m honest here, the first thing that crossed my mind ,was about them being unequally yoked,, that is a churchy way of saying one part of the union, doesn’t share the same mentality about faith. I have a very, very dear friend waiting on a kidney transplant, to help save her life. I was made aware that after a transplant that you have to take drugs everyday to ensure that your body doesn’t reject the organ. I know that was a little random, but I was thinking, what if my friend decided that they were only going to take their medication on Christmases and Easters only!. It doesn’t sound like it would be to effective, and most assuredly not life sustaining. That may have been a crude analogy, but I think that you get the point. Suppose that you have a significant other, and you were only allowed to utter the words I love You, on Christmas & Easter only? How do you think that would go over? Do you feel real confident that , that relationship will be sustainable? So, your sweetie comes home from work or school, at the end of an incredible awful day. They failed a test, or got fired, and they got a speeding ticket, and then the car breaks down and while they were waiting for the tow truck, someone drove by and splashed them with water, because it’s been pouring out all day, just an absolute miserable day. They come home and all they want is to be held, reassured that there is some place safe in the world, and to hear that they are loved. Nope, can’t do that, because it’s not Christmas or Easter…. how ludicrous! Ok, one more, just for good measure. I know for a fact that I use electricity each and everyday in some shape or form, however, I believe that I should only have to pay the Power bill around Christmas, because I have to have those beautiful lights going, so that the neighbors don’t out shine me, or around Easter, because we are have friends and family coming over for an Easter dinner, whatever that is supposed to be, well the supermarket had a sale on Easter hams, so it’s an Easter dinner ☺️☺️. How long do you think the lights would stay on if I only paid the bill twice a year? That’s was three illustrations of something bordering on a little insanity, yet going to church twice a year is.?.?.?. Can someone please connect the dots for me and help me to understand the significance of being a CEO. I completely get that those are the two high holy days for Christians. Yet, with a child like faith, if you truly understand why they are high holy days and all that they represent, wouldn’t it demand some kind of homage more than twice a year? I’m not going to point fingers or call anyone out, but reflect on how I got here, and that way I’m being self critical and not putting others under the microscope. When I was four or five, I went to a church kindergarten. I remember singing songs such as ” Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, they are Yellow, black and white and they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves little children of the world”. I could give you another one about the stone being rolled away, but I will give you a break. The point here is that I started out on the right path, even though I didn’t know it was a path☺️☺️. I believe that my mom and my step-dad were on the same page as my coworker Logan and his wife, but my mom did her best to have us in church every Sunday. She gave us money to put in the offering plate, sometimes it made there, and other times, we split it with the lady that use to sell candy out of her house ☺️☺️, sorry God for robbing You ☺️. So the foundation was there for being a thither, and no idea, why we were giving God money ☺️. When I asked about it, I was told that is how they keep the lights on, so at that point I was thinking if I gave more of the money to the candy lady, they wouldn’t be able to keep the lights on and I wouldn’t have to get dressed in a monkey’s suit, because there would be no church!☺️☺️. Maybe eight or so by then, still pretty clueless , so, even at an early age, God was being patient with me. I can testify that I was in church just about every week, vacation Bible school in the summer, and there was always Sunday school, where some of the kids were trying really hard to be the teacher’s pet. Not me!, I was thinking if you shut up and stop asking so many stupid questions, we could blow this pop stand, I had better things to do, so a rebel from the onset ☺️☺️, still clueless, maybe early teen by now. Ok, so now ,let’s talk about a disturbance in the force☺️. Low and behold, guess who is having sex, yep ? , you guessed it, and guess what comes along with that? , yep, you guessed correctly again , pregnancy. Talk about stuff hitting the fan☺️☺️. This was still the time where it wasn’t cool to be having kids out of wedlock. In fact, I don’t even think the terms baby daddy, and baby momma had even been coined yet.☺️☺️ Ok, so now that I’m a father and have a beautiful daughter of my own , now I have a much better understanding as to why my girlfriend’s father was out to literally put an end to me☺️☺️. I tell people all the time that I’m only here by the grace of God. This was probably one of the first times that God saved my bacon. I have had a few opportunities to not be on the planet, and this was definitely one, but not the first one , that probably goes back to when I was a we bit fetus. When my mom came home knocked up out of wedlock, my grandmother literally beat her with a cord off of an old singer sewing machine, which my mother still has to this day . I think my grandmother hope was to get her to miscarry to avoid the embarrassment and all of the chatter, you know how people love to gossip. We will get back to that some other time. Ok, so let’s get back on track, I was way past the point of a dilima, I was in full crisis mode. Well, I wasn’t an unpopular kid in school, so I had peers who had made a “Decision to follow Christ ” . They talked about what a difference He had made in their lives, and had helped them out with things they had been walking through, ok, I’m thinking break ups and turning in homework late☺️☺️, but what the hell, I was desperate and definitely could use some help. So, when I was seventeen years old, I walked the carpet, did the baptism thing as my mother sang oh happy days! ☺️☺️. Ok, DON’T MISS THIS NEXT POINT, I was in need of a rescue and I was willing to give and try anything, so my plan was for God to fix my mess, like a genie in a bottle, and guess what? That absolutely did not take place. I said pay attention, because I think that a lot of people think once they start walking with God , that their lives will be a bowl of cherries, and I don’t even like cherries, so what the hell was I thinking ☺️☺️? It is clear all through out scripture that is not the case, so I was majorly biblically illiterate. I became disillusioned, because of my insufficient understanding of God, and I threw my hands up and walked away. I can’t even begin to tell you about the next thirteen years of my life as a rebel in the wilderness. There was so much mischief, mayhem, and misdeeds, that I could probably fill in a whole section at the congressional library.☺️☺️ We will just say not my best moments, but some fun times. The saying is that sin will always take you further than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and almost always leave you disappointed and disillusioned, and that was certainly true for me. There was even a point in my life that I knew people, who made other people disappear, yep , just like lake Meade, again not something to brag on or put on the high light reel. All through out those thirteen year, I continued to be drawn to God, but found it very hard to get past the disappointing expectations that I had, and yes sometimes I was even in a church some where. I was probably in the CEO category, but I’m pretty sure that my mindset was probably slightly different. Then year thirty rolled around and I had this couple friend who use to pray for me and invite me to church almost every week, and I was great at finding excuses not to go, just like a lot of other people. I can honestly tell that their was very little about myself that resembled a child of God. See, while I had changed my mind about God, He never changed His mind about me. I can look back and see both protection and Provision and purpose in all of it, when I reached thirty, it was almost as if a light went off and someone had flipped a switch. This is also the time that the mother of my children entered my life. Ok, so let’s speed this up some, I’m sorry that some of you aren’t getting all of the details to satisfy your questions, but stick around, I’m sure it will pop up at some point ☺️☺️. So the couple that I was friends with Ed & Darlene, a real blessing to getting me back on track, I want to say that they finally wore me down, but it was more so the drawing of God’s spirit . I attended church with them and had a real come to Jesus moment, complete with tears and snoot ☺️☺️, just the truth. I pray with a pastor, still remember his name all these years later Mike Stevens, and rededicated my life to God .If you never understood the story about the prodigal son, I lived it first hand. All that time In the wilderness and God was waiting for me to return home. Of course there is more to this story, so much more, but let’s get down to the skinny. I will just be terribly blunt with you for the sake of time. If you are a regular church attendee or a CEO, and you do not know beyond the shadow of a doubt that You have a relationship with God and that your eternal future is secure, the question is ” why not?”. I have said this one before as well, but if you are a parent, do you want your kids guessing about if you love them or not? , probably not so much!. Well the same is true of God , He doesn’t want you to be guessing about your place with Him. If you can not say for sure that you know that you know that you are going to heaven, then I suggest that you address that as a priority, because none of us know when we are leaving the planet. And for the record, it’s not about if you go to church or not, or how often, it’s about a hearts cry and a heart decision. It’s not about money and whether you give or not and it’s not about being a good person. The name of this blog is” not the only one “. I am not the only person in the world, who has had to go through hard things, or do hard things, or have hard things happen to me. In case you aren’t paying attention, the world is full of broken people, all of us, even the ones who wants you believe that they have it all together. God loves all people and today is Good Friday. It is one of the key points of Christmas & Easter. This is the day that Christ sacrificed Himself, so that we can have a relationship with a Holy God. The transaction was the just for the unjust. The sinless for the sinful. The whole for the broken. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that my life has been perfect, if you read what I write, then you know that is not true. However , I’m never alone or abandoned, and I’m absolutely never without hope, and as you watch the world turns, you know that hope is something this world desperately needs. I think some people think that faith is blind and I can assure you that is not the case at all. The prophecies in the Bible are incredibly accurate and telling. In fact Christ fulfilled over three hundred prophecies exactly as they were predicted, even today going to the cross was prophesied over five hundred years before crucifixion was ever known by mankind. I don’t have time for this, but if you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment or reach out. When I use to do evangelism , one of the hard truths is that over the years churches have done a very poor job of letting people know how to get to heaven and how to have a relationship with God. All those years I was in church and remaining clueless is proof positive of that. If I could be there, how many other people are sitting in church week in and week out, with no clue. The best proof I have for you is that He lives within me, and if you can’t say that, then again the question is why the hell not? I was clueless much of my life, but not in entirety, and if you don’t know God, You don’t have to remain clueless as well. He loves you and wants to have a personal relationship with you.
