I get the privilege of playing lunch time hockey every so often.  How did I get dealt such a sweet hand?  I try not to think about it.

Typically, for the Bell Sensplex, the month of August is full of kids whose parents are so desperate for someone to look after their kids that they will enroll them in summer hockey day camps.  Nevertheless, the Bell Sensplex is packed with kids who love the game of hockey.

This past week, during our very mixed bag of skill, age and athletic ability hockey game, a younger kid, probably around 9 or 10, poked his head into our sheet of ice and had his face up against the glass, looking on with great interest.  Then it dawned on me, “You don’t have to be Sidney Crosby to be an ambassador of the game of hockey”.  You are an ambassador of the game when you lace’em up.

I could have walked over to him, looked him dead in the eye, and told him I thought he sucked and he could have been so devastated about it that he would never play hockey again.  On the flip side, and the more likely of the two scenarios, I could have gone over, complimented him on his skates/gloves/helmet, handed him a puck and he may have been so fired up about that that he remembered that day as the day he decided to be a professional hockey player.  It sounds really arrogant, but it’s true!

As Christians, we have this EXACT same opportunity with non-believers or people who aren’t quite sure about their faith.  We need to be ambassadors of the spirit!

If I walked up to random people on the street, declared my love for God, and then continued to make fun of their clothes, life style choices or favorite music, WHATEVER, chances are that person will NEVER set foot in a church EVER because of that one time a Christian came up to them and started making fun.  On the flip side, and the more likely of the two scenarios, I could pay for someone’s coffee behind me, make conversation with the clerk at the gas station or WHATEVER!  I could be an ambassador of the spirit of God!

Chances are people aren’t going to run into Carl Lentz, Brian Houston or TD Jakes on the streets.  Non-Christians and Christians who are in weird spots with their faith will, however, run into us.  They will run into average ordinary lovers of God.  How we interact with people could make or break their salvation.  It may sound arrogant but it’s so true.  The stakes are SO high!

Christians worst enemy has been, and always will be, Christians themselves.  Be ambassadors of the spirit!

peace,

Jimmy

“ ²⁵ Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.”  

²⁶ David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”  

²⁷ They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”  

²⁸ When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”  

²⁹ “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?”  

³⁰ He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.  

³¹ What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.  

³² David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”  

³³ Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”  

³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 

³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 

³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 

³⁷ The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”  Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”

Dear readers,

I don’t know who you are, what you’re interested in or what you dream about at night but I can say this, you have a calling.  God has placed a calling on your life to not just be good but to be extraordinary!

Take David, for example.  He was a Sheppard.  For his entire life, or at least when he was old enough, he tended to his fathers sheep.  He did whatever sheep herders do.  I’m assuming he fed them, kept them clean AND, as it says in1 Samuel 17 34:36, he kept them safe.

Did David know that one day he would fight this Goliath and go on to be King of Judah?  I would have a hard time believing that while he was herding sheep he was like, “One more day of sheep herding then it’s off to kill the Goliath!”  No, I think David knew he had a calling but didn’t know what it was.  Regardless, while he may not of known what his calling was yet, he remained faithful to what God had put in front of him.  He may not have known exactly WHAT his calling was but he knew there was one and God was preparing him for it…through herding sheep.  As it says in 1 Samuel 17 34:36, David had to rescue his sheep from Lions and Bears.  He had to protect his sheep from LIONS and BEARS.  God prepared David for Goliath through being a Sheppard.

So, two things:  1.  What’s your “Sheep Herding”?  How is God preparing you right now for your calling, for your “Goliath”?  You may work in an office but your calling is to go to Africa and help kids read…but you work in an office.  If you remain faithful to what God has put in front of you he will use it to prepare you for something bigger.  What is your “fighting lions and bears”?  2.  What is your “Goliath”?  While we are not all called to be King, like David, each one of us is called for something and here are some tips to figuring it out:  You love it, but the thought of pursuing it scares the crap out of you or makes you extremely uncomfortable, you dream about it, it  fires you up, and you just get a little more into a conversation that is about “it”.  Rick Warren had a great tweet that said, “If you want to know where you’ll be in 5 yrs listen to what you talk about most now. “Your tongue is a rudder” James 3:4″.  What are you talking about most now?

We have a calling.  The thought of pursuing that calling may be scary.  But know this: If you are living out Gods calling on your life that means you have GOD on your side and when we have God on our side, we cannot fail.  If that doesn’t give you confidence to go for it then I don’t know what will.

peace,

Jimmy

To the reader:

This blog is now dedicated to God.  It is for God and it is about God.

For too long I feel I’ve been on the fence when has come to Christianity.  I would never shy away from admitting I’m a believer but at the same time I could never say that I was “all in” either.  I’m all in.  I want to talk about him.  I want to tell you about him.  So, from here on out I will be using every avenue at my disposal (Blog, Twitter, Facebook, music, etc) to talk/sing about God and to tell you the good things he is doing.

I hope you’ll all stick  around and read about what I believe to be important.

peace,

Jimmy

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 9:10

Something that has been on my heart recently is commitment.  More specifically, what it is and what it means to be committed to something.

I’ve wanted a dog for my entire life.  Ever since my family put our dog down when I was a kid I had always admired families that were able to pull off having dogs.  As a kid, I would lobby my parents for getting another kick at the can.  Day after day I would beg and plead for another chance for a dog.  However, I was unsuccessful and disheartened.  I promised myself that when I grew up I would get a dog, I would raise it right, he would love me and I would love him.  So, when my house was built in the winter, it only seemed logical to add my favourite four legged animal to the mix.  I did my research on which dog to get which included in talking to people, reading books and websites, and of course watching The Dog Whisperer.  When I decided on which breed to get the last step was to pick a breeder and buy a dog.  And I did.

The days leading up to actually getting my dog were mixed with second guessing my decision and being excited to welcome a puppy into my home.  Some days I would be really excited and other days I would be completely regretting my decision.  The car ride down to pick up my dog was even worse.

The whole ride to the breeder I was regretting the decision I made.  The conversation I was having with God was something like, “God, I don’t have enough time, I’m not prepared, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to afford it.  WHAT ABOUT THE MESS THAT WILL MOST CERTAINLY BE MADE in his first few puppy days, God!”  I had convinced myself that I had made the wrong decision.  I was literally in panic mode.  I have wanted a dog ever since I was a little kid and on the way down to pick him up, I wanted nothing to do with dogs.  I wanted to go back home to my clean house, curl up into a ball and fall asleep.  But I went through with it.  I got the dog, against every feeling I had in my body.

Did I make the right decision on getting a dog?  I’m not sure if I believe in right or wrong decisions anymore.  I just think there are decisions we have to make.  I think God is more concerned with what we do after we make a commitment.  In the verse “Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might…”, more value is put into how we perform after the decision we have made.  Commitment is 1% words and 99% follow through.

Did God want me to get a dog?  He probably wanted me to get a dog because I wanted a dog.  What God is more concerned with now is that I put everything that I have into raising my dog right, no excuses.  I need to feed my dog, walk him, bathe him, train him, keep him healthy, clean up the messes he makes and give him the affection he needs.

If I knew then what I know now about how free will should be exercised, I would not have asked God “What do I do?”  That is the wrong question to ask.  I think even asking that question is insulting to him.  He gave us free will so we can make our own choices and forfeiting that right because you are afraid to make the “wrong” decision is like a slap in the face to him.  God isn’t in the business of making your decisions for you.  What I believe he wants you to do is Evaluate your options, Make a decision , COMMIT to that decision, be Responsible for your actions and then God will surround you with people to help support the decision that you made.  Is any of that easy to do?  No!  But I think that’s the point.  Commitments aren’t meant to be easy.  There will be ups and there will be downs.  There will be days you will love the commitment you made and there will be days you totally regret the commitment you made.  I’ve discovered all of that is quite normal.  It’s all part of the “Cycle of Commitment”.

God doesn’t want to make your decisions for you.  He gave you free will.  It was meant to be a wonderful gift, not a terrible curse.

FYI,

Here is a picture of Bruce Wayne.

So far so good!

Peace,

Jimmy

Christianities worst enemy is, and always will be, Christians.  We are hypocrites, sensitive, arrogant, mean, angry, and all around terrible messengers of a really great message.  I mean, let’s face it, people don’t like Christianity not because of what we believe in (How could they?).  No, they don’t like it because of Christians and how people who call themselves Christians act in the world.

There is no “War on Christmas”.  Christians need to chill.  First of all, Christmas hasn’t been about Jesus in a long time.  In fact, the last time people probably cared about Jesus on Christmas was when he was born 2000 odd years ago.  Christmas is about the Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and presents.  That’s what Christmas is and that’s what it will remain.  I understand why people would make it about Jesus being born all those years ago but, as Christians, our LIVES are supposed to be a celebration of his birth.  That means everyday we should celebrate his birth!  Not just on the 25th of December.

We need to stop being so offended by people who say “Happy Holidays” etc and we need to stop saying things like “keep Christ in Christmas”.  First of all, Christ is in Christmas….it’s in the first six letters.  Second of all, nobody is forcing you to take Christ out of Christmas!  Saying things like “Happy Holiday” is just a marketing term.  There’s a reason why Starbucks cups say “Happy Holiday”.  It’s because there isn’t enough room on the cup to list all the holiday’s going on this time of year.  STOP BEING SO OFFENDED BY EVERYTHING CHRISTIANS.  We are a sensitive lot.

We need to be better represented on the world stage and we need to do a better job of telling the world WHO God is.  We have to stop letting people paint our God as a monster.  We worship a God who loves us.  He gave his only son up to death so we could live.  That’s not the God the world knows.  The God the world knows is not an accurate representation of who he is.

Let’s recap, the man who wanted to have a “Burn a Koran Day” called himself a Christian.  The people who protests funerals and carry the signs that say “God hates fags” call themselves Christians.  The Florida Family Association, who is calling for boycotts on stores who pay for advertising on the TV show “All-American Muslim”, have aligned themselves with the “Conservative Christian” crowd.  You may not like it, but these are the people who represent us.  These people have done a good job of telling the world that God is a Koran burning, Muslim hating, Gay person hating monster!  Do you understand what I am saying?  THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO REPRESENT CHRISTIANS!  It’s embarrassing, frustrating, and angering.

Have you ever heard of the term, “The Sqeaky Wheel get’s the grease”?  Well, in this example the squeaky wheel will be represented by a bunch of hateful people who have made it their mission to tell the world that our God is a monster and the grease will be represented by the attention those people get.  Christians need to do a better job of telling people that’s not who God is.  We need to be a squeakier wheel.  We need to do a better job of telling the world who God is, no excuses.

So, in the end, a Christians worst enemies aren’t Muslims, Gay people, etc.  It’s themselves.  It’s always been themselves.  If we want people to come to Christ then we need to do a better job of letting people know who he is because right now REAL Christians have let God become a monster.  And we know that’s not who he is.

Be the squeaky wheel for God!  We will eventually get our grease.

peace,

Jimmy