Loyalty - "what i learned from a redneck"...

I'm going to be 39 in a few months and when i look in the mirror... i cant believe i look this good (lol). just kidding - i actually cant believe the Lord let me live this long.

i never planned on living past 30 - i figured i would get shot in some foreign country sharing the Gospel with some unreached people group.... sigh, how romantic. but the reality is i will probably meet my Maker because i fell asleep driving to a gig or i choked on a chicken wing or something.

"Esse Quam Videri" - thats what i have tattooed on my arm - "to be rather than to appear".

its weird to look down on arm and see that reminder every day charging me to

actually be (something) rather than just to appear like (that) something.

how do you make sense of romantic things when the daily, ordinary and mundane are always staring you in the face? i never wanted to be ordinary.

i never wanted to be noticed but i certainly didnt want to be ordinary.

classy! thats what i wanted to be.

to weild the ability to make something extraordinary and look like i had no part in it or used little effort - wow! that was something to me and i know a few folks who can do just that.

i have a friend... his name is Jason. he is the biggest redneck i know. (and i know a lot).

i always refer to him as my redneck friend:) its just easier that way.

anyway, its a long and involved story how we became friends but he is certainly one of my best friends.

he is young, much younger than me but has already accomplished a lot.

he was raised by some great, God fearing parents and has become just a unique friend in my life.

i have always been wooed by the simple life and am envious that Jason gets to enjoy certain things on a daily basis.

He is a worship pastor but is probably the only worship pastor i know that can drive a track hoe, bulldozer, crane, forklift, oh and bench 300 lbs... you see where i am going with this?

i can credit his parents for his character but the Lord has built into him something that i rarely see or experience. he is one of the most loyal friends i have, maybe the most.

at the drop of a hat, if i need him, he will be there for me.

some of you know that i have owned a rental property in KY for over three years and have been financially and emotionally tortured with it. Jason, living three hours away, drives down regularly (never taking a dime for gas) with his massive truck full of tools and spends the weekend with me working on this "pile-of-crap-with-a-roof".

we sat down this spring for some wings and beer and i remember him encouraging me that it was going to get better - that the weight that was crushing me was going to ease up.

that, in itself made me feel a bit better but then he said, "and if i have to, i'll drive down there this summer and replace the roof myself so when you get back from camp you wont have to worry about it. i want you to be free".

yesterday my friend told me that a professor friend of his said that the "purpose of the church was to be missional" - maybe....

i guess it depends on if you are all talk or not.

Jason has been the hands and feet of Jesus to me. He puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak. so i believe him when he says "Jesus loves me" and "its gonna be alright".

in my mind you can't do the things of the Church unless YOU are the things of the Church -

unless you have been transformed and are spilling out all over Creation the things of God, there is no sense in going anywhere. you will just be a horrible clingy noise where God is begging for silence.

i laugh a lot when i look at my dip spitting, tire burning, shotgun shooting, beer drinking friend and i see Jesus. it makes me smile and know that God is good.