It has been a crazy summer, to say the least.  I have been in Texas for the most part at great churches all over that great state.  As a matter of fact, I am in Texas as I write.  I was at the Lonestar Cowboy Church in Montgomery, Tx earlier this summer and had a great 3-night event.  The children’s pastor, Chris Williams and I hit it off immediately.  He is a great guy and a great leader.  He is doing a great job at his church.  I spoke with him two days before I left for this trip and told him I was going to be in the area and he insisted I stay with him.  I told him I appreciated it but I was also bringing my son, Trip.  He said don’t worry and he had my room ready.  So we have been staying with PC during this trip.  But to show what a great guy he is, he also helped me set-up for an event I had on Friday.  He took his dayoff to help me.  What a guy.  And to top it off, we had a lot of kids accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.  That is what it is all about.

I like to think that I am in pretty good shape and in pretty good health.  I have not been to the doctor in about 20 years much less the emergency room.  But, in April, while we were in the mountains for Spring Break, I got strep throat and had to go the emergency room.  And just this past Friday night, while on vacation in Daytona Beach, Florida, I had to take a visit to the emergency room for muscle spasms in my lower back.  I must be getting old.  I hate being sick and I never take medecine, but the three prescriptions they gave me at the ER on Friday night seem to be helping.  My back has been hurting so bad, I had them give me two shots while I was there.  I had to stay in bed for a couple of days because I hurt so bad.  I pity anyone who has back problems.  Being down and not able to have fun with the family stinks.  It is now Monday and I am able to be up and about, but my back still “catches” every once in a while and it really hurts.  I am praying that God heals my back so I can continue to do what he has called me to do.

I am going to be in Baton Rouge, LA on the 10th and 11th, Cut Off, LA on the 13th and Pearland, TX on the 14th then I head home.  Looking for God to do big things.  I will write later to tell of the things that He did.

The second night of the 2-night event in Cape Girardeau, MO was fantastic.  In the two nights we had over 65 decisions.  I had a great time with Rick Harris and his family.  And all of his volunteers were great.  Rick took me to lunch yesterday and today, Logan’s and Shogun, respectively.  His wife Jennifer, made me a goody pack.  Literally, a backpack stuffed with all kinds of goodies.  They set me up with a green room at the church and loaded that up with goodies.  I had chips, cookies, drinks, and my favorite, fresh fruit.

They took tremendous care of me and it was really humbling.  Thank you Jesus for the people at Cape First and for my new friends who used to live in Dalton, GA, the Harris family.

I had a great event tonight in MO.  We had over 450 people there and we had a bunch of decisions for Christ.  I have another event tomorrow night here and I am looking forward to seeing what God is going to do.  I leave here on Saturday morning and head to Jackson, MS where I will catch a plane on Sunday morning at 6am and fly to Florida where I will meet my family for some vacation time.  We will spend about 10 days in Florida and then I fly back to MS and drive to Baton Rouge where I will have events on June 10 and 11.  I will leave there to go to Cut Off, LA to do an event and then go to Pearland, TX for another event.  I am so glad that God allows me to do KidzBlitz.  I love seeing kids come to know Christ.

I haven’t been on the road that much over the past month and I haven’t gotten to play golf, so writings from the road and the golf course just haven’t been coming.  I have had things going on in my life but I just haven’t taken the time to stop and write about them.  Things such as our church having to move out of the theatre and my son playing baseball and my daughter fracturing her back are just of the few things that have happened lately.  We are blessed to have found a doctor in Atlanta that specializes in spines and he also works with athletes as is my baby girl Taylor.  When we walked into his office the walls were covered with jerseys from pro athletes who had been under our doctors care.  But one picture caught my wife Christy’s and my daughter Taylor’s eyes.  It was a picture of Matthew McConaughey.  Taylor’s shares the same doctor with Matthew McConaughey.  WOW!!!  Christy asked the nurses if that was a nice day in the office and the ladies responded with, “That was a great two weeks.” 

We have fallen in love with the doctor; he is great and we now have a plan for Taylor to get her back into the gym where she thrives.  She misses gymnastics and is ready to go back but we must make sure she is well. 

Ty finished spring baseball, ran track for two weeks and now has started summer baseball.  Oh, and he starts spring football practice tomorrow.  We are definitely busy.

Trip made the cheerleading squad for Legacy Sports and loves being around all those girls.  I can’t wait to see how he does.  He enjoys all the stunts and tumbling that they do.

I just celebrated my 37th birthday and Christy and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. Whew, how time flies.  I love my wife and am thankful to have her.  She truly is a blessing.  I think I will be finished for now, but come back later and I am sure there will be more.  Have a blessed day.

It is funny how things can run full circle.  This week, it seems my whole life just came full circle.  When we, at Life Church use the XL building for the first time, I will be returning to a building that I spent the better part of a decade in as the children’s pastor.  When we visited the building on Wednesday night, I took a little tour of my own and ended up in my old office.  Memories came flooding back.  I spent many hours in there studying, dreaming, and talking to leaders and kids.  Thoughts of my wife and kids came roaring back as I remembered the times they would come see after they got out of school.  It was a very special night for me and I am looking forward to the time we will be spending in there over the next month or two.  Hopefully and prayerfully we will once again see life change.  After all, that is why we do what we do.

Last night I drove in from Houston and went straight to my parents house for a night with the whole family.  My brother and his wife were in town from south Georgia and my sister, her husband and their kids were there.  It was the first time in a long time that all 13 of us were together.  It was a great night.  The food was great but the fellowship was incredible.  As we sat around the dinner table the discussion turned to scripture.  As a matter of fact, dad had his Bible open and we had about an hour and a half discussion on God’s Word.  It was fun and very thought provoking.  And when we were done, (well we really weren’t done, my brother had to drive back to South Georgia so we just had to stop), my dad prayed over the whole family.  After we left, I began to think about how we had just practiced God’s Word from Deuteronomy 6.  The following link is not only the verse but also the commentary that comes with it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  http://enduringword.com/commentaries/0506.htm

As Deuteronomy 6 instructs us, we need to make sure we teach our children when they are up, down and all around.  Last night was an encouragement to see that our family was living out God’s Word and reminded me that I need to do it more often.  It was a great night.

First of all, I can’t believe it has been this long since I last blogged.  I hope to do better.  But I was thinking the other day about getting the breath knocked out of you.  I mean in the proverbial sense.  Have you ever been just traveling through life and wham something happens and it knocks the breath out of you?  Something similar happened to me recently.  As I write this, I am thinking about the male gymnast who was doing the vault and he messed up and hit the vault table.  Here watch it for yourself.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XmoinxMAxE&feature=related  As I was watching this guy, I couldn’t help but think how many times he had practiced the vault.  Hundreds maybe even thousands of times he had run and completed the vault, but not this time.  What happened?  What changed?  Was it a lack of preparation?  I think it may have been that his steps were messed up or he just missed the spring board.  Either way, he had the breath knocked out of him and he was dazed.

In life, sometimes we get dazed.  We can be living our lives as we always do.  Doing the same things over and over, hundreds maybe even thousands of times.  We get into the habit of doing things and something happens, something changes.  Our steps get messed up.  We allow the monotony of life or the struggles of life get us sidetracked and get our attention off of the details of taking care of ourselves.  And before we know it, we do something, or something is done to us, and our breath is gone.  And at times, the breath comes right back, but other times it last and last, to the point where you think you are dying.

I remember getting the breath knocked out of me many times, but the first time I can recall I was playing pee-wee football.  I was running with the football and got tackled.  When I hit the ground, I landed right on top of the ball and it knocked the breath out of me.  It scared the bejeebies out of me.  I thought I was dying.  I couldn’t catch my breath.  I was gasping for air and going crazy at the same time.  My coaches came over and made me lay still.  They pulled my pants away from stomach by the waistband and it made my stomach relax enough to where I caught my breath.  LIFE!!  I could breathe.  That first full breath was new life. 

As I sit here with the breath having been knocked out of me, I look at the circumstances of how it happened and I was stupid.  I took some wrong steps.  And here I am gasping.  So what now.  I need to be still, take time with THE Coach and let Him give me back my breath.  He is the creator of my breath anyway. 

My Prayer:  Lord help me to be still and know that you are God.  Help me to make wise choices as lately I have not.  Please give me back what I have allowed the locust to destroy.  And please give me back my breath so I can use it for your glory.  Help me not be selfish.  Help me to put others needs before mine.  Help me to love as you do.  Thank you for your grace and your mercy and your forgiveness.  I love you Lord.  I want to sing of your praises forever.  I want to worship you with my actions, not just my words. Your Word teaches me that they will know me by my fruit.  What is my fruit?  Is it glorifying You?  Do my breath and my actions line up?  If not, knock my breath away as much as You need too, so that they line up to honor You.  Thank you for my time with You.  Thank you that you listen and that you care.  Help me to be a man after Your Heart.  I love you Lord.  Amen

Certain things in life bring us back to the reality of things and one of those things in my life is what my daughter is going through.  A week or so ago we found out that Taylor has a stress fracture in her L5 vertebrae caused by all of the gymnastics that she does.  She is an excellent gymnast and has a dream of one day becoming a University of Georgia Gymnast, better known as a Gym Dog.  With the news came the uncertainty of not knowing what a stress fracture of a vertebrae means in the whole scheme of life.  We were told that we needed to see a neuro-surgeon, not something a parent wants to hear when speaking about their 12 year old daughter.  This morning we visited the doctor to find out what we needed to do.  He told us that it is not normal for a 12 year olds back to hurt and that the worst sport Taylor could be competing in, with her condition, is gymnastics.  He said he would rather her play hockey.  Ultimate prognosis:  rest, rest, and more rest.  So, Taylor will take time off of gymnastics for about a month or so and then will resume her passion.

But during this time of not knowing, we, being me, Christy and Taylor, have had to take a hard look at what God is wanting us to learn from this experience.  Taylor said it best, “What does God want me to do because of this?  Who am I supposed to be helping or telling about God?” 

Leave it to a 12 year old to speak truth into a situation where the outcome is still unknown.  The “TRUTH” is trust God in all circumstances.  Thank you Taylor for having faith and reminding us who is in control.  I love you and am praying for HIS healing.

I absolutely love March Madness.  The time of year when anything can happen and everyone is talking about it.  Watching college kids give their all for their team, and at the end, one team is extremely happy and the other team is devastated.  And for what, a basketball game, that in the end is just that, a game.  When was the last time we were devastated because someone we knew wouldn’t come to church, or worse, doesn’t know Christ.  We will talk to them about basketball or anything else except Christ because we don’t want to offend.  And by doing so, we allow them to die and go to hell because we don’t want to offend.  Can we love March Madness and be courageous Christians at the same time?  I sure hope so.  Just a thought I had.