Tonight, I had a visit from my neighbor. This may not seem like a big deal, but there are circumstances around this situation that are really encouraging to me and I thought I would share with you all. When I was REALLY sick with my eye situation, God had convicted me of not sharing my faith enough with the people that live in our townhome complex. One guy in particular, was a person who had always been on my heart since we had moved to this area of town about six years ago but for one reason or another I had always found excuses not to talk to him about Jesus. Being a pastor, I always said I was too busy putting together services for other people so THEY could go out and share their faith with the world. Then my world was turned upside down by having Scleritis and almost losing my eye in the process. If you have never been really sick to the point of a changed lifestyle, one thing to know is that your priorities in life change. I went from “looking good” as a pastor to actually doing my job on this earth which is sharing my faith with others. I can remember the night about five years ago when I decided that I was not going to go blind or die and not have shared my faith with this neighbor who had been on my heart for so many years. I walked over and knocked on the door and he let me into the doorway of his house. I told him, “I have lived here for two years and have never told you about the most important thing in my life which is my relationship with Jesus.” I was then waiting for him to break down and start crying and give his life over to God right then and there. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. He went on to tell me how he had been involved with a denomination growing up and had been abused by the church staff when he was a kid and still had some pretty hard feelings for church in general. I told him, “well, you know I am pretty sick right now and I dont know what is going to happen to me, but I knew that I needed to tell him about my feelings for Jesus and that I knew I was supposed to talk to him that night. I walked back to my house and went on with my life and living out the next four most painful years of my life emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially. Whenever I had seen this neighbor around it was good because I knew I had done my part to tell him about God and the rest was up to him.
So fast forward to tonight and my visit from this neighbor. He proceeded to tell me that he was fully involved in a church now singing in the choir and that he had dealt with the issues that had hurt him so many years ago. He told me that he had made it right with God and was not mad at the church anymore. I really feel like my conversation with him about four years ago started something in him that progressed to the point of him coming to grips with the pain that he went through as a child and knowing that being mad at God was not the answer to the peace he was looking for in life. The other amazing thing was that his intention tonight was only to walk over and tell me this information about him going to church and that he had made it right with God. This was encouraging to me in that my eye situation was used to get me off my fat butt and go tell someone about my relationship with Jesus and for it to start something good in his life and change his eternal destination forever. I know that it was not just about me talking to my neighbor that changed him, but it was about God using me in the middle of my crap to change a guy who I will now see in heaven and who has made peace with a painful past. What are you doing today to change the world around you? Please don’t do what I did and wait for a rotten eyeball to do the things that God is asking you to do. If you dont have a relationship with him then please send me an email and we can talk. pbrian7@yahoo.com
I can now say that this is the most fun I have had in my walk with God and helping to change people’s lives for the better. It really isn’t me sharing with people about what I think is wrong with their lives or what they believe, it is talking about the peace I have found in Christ and the purpose beyond my life that is changing the world I live in forever for the glory of God.
Sample from my book “Holy Crap…finding God’s presence in your pain”
Here is a small sample of a chapter I worked on today about people watching you when you are going through pain. Remember, this is a “thoughts to paper” draft of this chapter and very rough, but gives a good idea where I am going with the chapter. Thanks and enjoy!
Holy Crap…finding God’s presence in your pain – Chapter 9
People will watch your Pain
What is it with a traffic accident? In Colorado there is an epidemic of “gawker traffic” that occurs whenever there is any kind of flashing lights on the side of the road. I am a true believer that people (although they wont say it) are looking for as much blood and guts as possible when seeing the red and blue lights of any kind of emergency vehicle. It really is interesting to think about what people would do if they actually did see something gruesome on the side of the road and have to mentally process it. I think when people see an accident they are thinking a few things; they may want to see if they know anyone involved in the incident, maybe they are thanking God that it wasn’t them in the accident or they want to see the level of destruction involved so they have a juicy story when they get to the office. I say all these things because I believe that pain and opposition in a persons life can evoke some of those same emotions to the world around them. Maybe people around them react based on the level that they know the person affected by pain. I know for my parents, sister and wife that my sickness has really challenged them in their faith and believe in God’s grace and power. People may also ask how a person is doing just so they can have the “inside scoop” when other people ask how that person is doing. When they are talking to the person in pain they are thinking in the back of their mind, “I am sure glad I am not going through what that person is dealing with.” I feel like for the years I was sick I encountered every one of those types of people in conversations or just in knowing that people were watching Yolanda and I from the thirty five different doctors reviewing my case and looking in my eye, to people in our neighborhood to friends and family in the church. I am not looking down or talking bad about those people looking at me in any of the ways I identified, I am just saying that its a fact that people will look at you and your life when you go through pain. I really want this book to be able to help people on all levels of pain and crap they go through in life. I firmly believe that crap happens in life and we have all kinds of opportunities to help others, help ourselves and let Jesus do something more amazing in the bad times than in the good. When people are looking at you and the life you are living in pain, God has just allowed you to influence and affect the path of their life in a greater way than you could ever imagine.
Before I go into some of these elements, always remember that it is your decision if you want to matter to other people or if you just want to “turtle up” and go into survival mode with your pain. Survival mode is the automatic reaction to a painful situation, but remember that the first, initial, gut reaction to anything usually not the right thing to do, think or say. I cannot remember one time in my life when I reacted to something and it turned out well, helped anyone or made me not look stupid and reactionary to a situation. When I stepped back, evaluated my situation and then ACTED on whatever was happening I always did my best to make the most out of the situation for myself and for others around me. This is not just you programming yourself to do the right thing when people around you are looking at your life. It takes effort on your part but it also takes the power of the Holy Spirit in your life to do this. In the Bible, Phillipians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It still says that its “me” doing the things, but it is the power of Christ in my life that gives me the ability to live a life that is not only pleasing to him, but encouraging to the people around me.
There is one key thing to remember here; I am not saying I have done everything right with my attitude and actions when I came home from the eye doctors office with reports of moving closer to removing my eye, possibly going completely blind and probably dealing with medication for the rest of my life because of an overactive immune system. This book, prayerfully, is for you to read and learn from my mistakes and also to learn something from the principles of going through crap and not just getting through it but, in some way, looking forward to them as growing experiences.
Susan Boyle and Crappy American Idol tryout kids
I watched the amazing video clip of Susan Boyle on Brittain’s Got Talent again today and also refelected back to the beautiful TV known as the American Idol auditions. There is something very funny about those auditions for a couple of reasons. 1) The fact that pe0ple have seen the show and know that if they are not any good that Simon is going to trash them like 2 week expired milk. 2) VOLUNTERARILY sign a contract to be put on television and basically, be video foder for us the public to view and critique. For the longest time, I thought, “Why in the heck would anyone who was that sucky of a singer, put themselves in from of a gajillion people to be made fun of?” The simple answer, for most all the contestants that really were terrible, was that they really thought they were good enough to make it on the show and in the music industry. They either had a mom who always told them that they were the greatest thing since sliced bread, which is not bad in itself, but basically lied to them and told them their singing was just as great (notice the mom’s comments on the American Idol link above). Or maybe they had people around them who were too afraid to tell them they sucked so they encouraged the friend to go on Idol to have Simon “tell it like it is.” For whatever reason, we all watched that television show like a trainwreak waiting to happen. Then you have someone like Susan Boyle who, in every respect, is a very odd looking person with a strange lifestyle. But when she opens her mouth and starts to sing, she could have on a pantsuit made of turd-smears and hair frizzed to the high heavens and it wouldn’t have mattered.
The interesting dichotomy here is that Susan probably didn’t have anyone to tell her that she was a great singer or encourage her to go onto Britain’s Got Talent before this season because of her physical appearance or just a lack of support around her to help tell her she was great. She was probably always looked down on automatically (like Simon did in the the beginning of her audition) and has not had the people around her all through her life to tell her that she had a special gift to be shared with the world.
The point of my blog today is two questions; 1) are you being honest with people when they ask you for an evaluation of them in some way? It is more important that we share things with people in private before they possibly look foolish in public. 2)Are you encouraging others to greatness? Are you investing positive words of encouragement in kids, a spouse or a friend? We are not on this earth to glorify ourselves but, I believe, to make others better than they would be without us. Anyone can be a smart alek and say cutting things, but it is a true person of value who says things to build people up and help them be as great as they can be.
Holy Crap 