-the vision-

started about six months ago. in georgia at an event called The Awakening i attended with a friend of mine, is where at all started. there are a couple things that are involved in a journey that i'm coming to find out that are almost always present. change, a broken heart (weather from being hurt by someone, or seeing the injustices or needs of others that break your heart), and the unknown. part of a journey is finding out often the hard way, what doesn't work,, and what does. romans 12:2 says "that by testing you may discern what what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

this has been my life over the last three years or so, and i'm coming to embrace the reality that this will be part of my life until my body is dead and i'm with Jesus. i think the hardest part of this reality for me to be ok with, is the "testing" part of it. testing takes time, effort and patience. in saying that you have to test something, automatically implies that there is going to be failure, more likely then not, a lot of it.

testing on a consistent basis will yield results, it has in my life. the results of testing can be intimidating to us though as it has been with me. God begins to reveal to you things that He wants you to pursue, objectives to start working for. the goals and tasks He gives us are most of the time out of our reach, something that we cannot complete ourselves without the help of someone completely superior to us in every way. this is God's way of using us to complete His purposes for Him, but those purposes will be done if HIS strength, and not ours.

1. The Vision.

-to fight human trafficking, specifically sex trafficking.

2. Breaking it down practically.

-what is my role, what is my voice and how do I exercise those things on a consistent basis in my every day life.

3. My Role.

-music is my role, music is my voice.

4. Creating a band and using it as leverage to raise awareness and support in the fight against human trafficking, starting here, in my own country.

-currently praying through the steps for this.

5. How to live this out in everyday life.

-simply start talking about it, telling everyone you know about it, your vision, what you hope to accomplish through it, and the steps your taking to get there. if you don't believe in what your doing, neither will anyone else. pray about it, a lot! get people praying for you, as many as possible. don't forget who your following, you can only lead as well as you follow.

this is where i'm at. a crazy journey ahead of me and whoever God brings to partner with me.

ways you can be praying for us.

1. -leading in how to go after this vision, step by step.

2. -that the right band members would come together.

3. -original, creative and tasteful blending of lyrics and creating of music.

4. -that we would be a gospel driven group.

more comin.....

Jesus, sunsets and cigars.

1 Corinthians 7:17. "only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him."

these words echo in my mind, engaging my will, struggling with my emotions. Every part of my heart has been impacted by these words written so long ago.

1 Corinthians 5:9 "i wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world."

i sat on my back porch yesterday, enjoying a fall sunset, the wind came and went in violent gusts, but it wasn't cold wind, just the perfect combination of fall chill and warmth. pulling out a cigar, i neatly clipped the end off (i enjoy a good cigar once in awhile, and today was the perfect day for one), flipped open my zippo, and held the flame to the end of the cigar. the smell was sweet, the taste and after taste was sweet, the barcar burned slowly, by far the best one i've had. i tilted back in my porch rocker and let the painted sky fill my vision, smells of dead leaves, november air and the sweet smelling cigar filled my senses. i think moments like these in our lives are few, where everything is as it should be, i drank it up.

somewhere, in the middle of all this, i let my thoughts drift back into the deeper files of my mind, pulling up and going over again why i was here, why i existed, and what i was investing my life in. my focus this whole last week seemed to have been lost somehow, and i was determined to get it back. my time spent on the streets, the people that God placed in my path, and used me to speak to all came rushing back. i heard Jesus say "this is the style of life, the calling I've called you to live, wherever I lead you." called to love the un-lovable. this may seem like a broad statement, but it brought back to me as what my life was about. its about, others. we are to be friends, literal friends with the "sexually immoral" people, with the "swindlers"and ""idolaters" with the "un-touchable's" of this messed up world.

the very people, situations and circumstances that i was raised and taught to stay away from, are the very heart of where Jesus calls me. this "World Race" that i will be a part of, is the next step in following Jesus' call on my life. while others go through college, my team and i will be traveling the world bringing hope to hopeless people, showing the hated and abused what it means to be loved and to love. while others get married and have kids, i'll be chasing hard after Jesus, while people are making their fortunes and stashing away money, God's kingdom will be advanced by an army of selfless people who have experienced the love of Jesus.

a lifetime of knowing and following Jesus is not marked by what you have or got from others, but what you gave after you had been given everything by God Himself.

God has given us everything ....

Ephesians 1:3-10

"blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

1 Peter 1:3

"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence."

Now we are called to give, not because we have to, but because we can.

Romans 12:1-2

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

John 12 25-26

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow after me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Mark 8:34-36

'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wold save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul."

i've been discovering lately just how much of the society around us dictates to us who we are, how we should act, how we should live, what we should say and not say. to talk about society is to talk about yourself. what makes up society? people. who are those people? me, you, and everyone else that lives around us. giving into society is something that is bred into us by people, parents and peers that are followers of a society. is all of society bad? no, I wouldn't say that, cause it wouldn't be true. but all it takes is a quick look at yourself to realize that more likely then not, eighty percent of what you do is not based on what you like, but a twisted combination of what you want people to think, how you want them to view you and how you want to be accepted by them.

dumb? yes. why we do it? another combination of wanting acceptance, being people pleaseers and the last third of our decision making is just simply not even knowing why we do it. to stop and think about it is dangerous, because it brings to the light a reality that we are guided by others and their reasoning which leaves us in a place of discomfort knowing that we are not as strong of an individual as we commonly like to think of ourselves. most of us are individuals stuck within the confines of what society has said makes someone an individual. rarely do we do anything that wold be leave people questioning our social skills. we were raised to be people pleasers, people who blend in, who live just like the "normal" society.

yet we are society, we make up society, we help set the standard for the quote "norm" of what life should look like. my first girlfriend Teylor used to say something to me that has stuck with me. "normal is just a setting on a washing machine" she would say. it's true. underneath all of our clothes, makeup, cars, houses, careful language, social behavior, public images and so called "families that have it together" are a bunch of people chained by a society that they have created, and they don't even realize it. we are a people so drastically diverse in likes, interests, communication, backgrounds and circumstances that are only ever partly shown through how we build our homes, or what we drive. rarely do you meet someone who is truly knowledgeable of who they really are and what they like. they are the people who we don't care to really be around, because they cause us to start looking at our true selves, and that simply scares us to death, that we might step outside of the "guidelines" of society, stepping outside of our own self made cages, looking beyond ourselves.

step out, be real about who you are, be real and honest with others, know what you like, what you don't like, what your are pursuing, what you stand for and why. but remember, confidence about yourself doesn't come from inside of you, it has to come from someone bigger then you. because after all, once you understand yourself, you understand that life is not. about. you.

Zombie stuff.

So I admit it, I am very intrigued by Zombies. I currently started watching "The Walking Dead" every now and then when I have time. I wonder sometimes to myself what would happen if something like a Zombie epidemic were to actually happen . What would I do, how would I survive, who would I go looking for to join me in my fight for survival? Things like that. Within my mind I have a plan of what I would do, but here's an interesting reality. Something I've found out over time is, every dude I know has already though of a plan (regardless of how simple or complex) of action they would take in case something like "Zombies" suddenly became a reality among us. On the flip side, maybe 5% of women have ever given that subject a single though.

Something else I've also discovered. Most dudes actually think that a Zombie world might actually be fun to live in as long as the right survival tools were available to them. The number one tool that pretty much all dudes agree is the most needed survival tool for such an occasion, is a gun. The reality is that men enjoy shooting things, we really do. And the thought of being able to walk around and shoot Zombies knowing that their already dead, is actually a really fun thought. Personally, a gun would be my first choice. Water would be my second choice, and a machete would be my third. Fourth item would be a big truck, 4x4 with big tires and a nice big grill on the front. Most women that read this will think that this is juvenile and childish. I would have to agree and disagree with them. If you are referring to the guy's that completely take it to far and let it consume them by becoming Zombie nerds, then yes I would agree with you, very childish. But if you talking about the dudes who have thought through a plan just in case, and then moved on with their lives, I disagree with you. It's good to take into account the "what if's" in your life at some point in your life, but not let them control you.

Of course there are ton of different things that come into play with the idea of a Zombie epidemic. The massive loss of life as millions of people are infected, a whole culture collapsing, and a whole mass of other things.

But you gotta admit, the idea of living in a world that doesn't revolve around money and politics, where you can carry gun's wherever you go, sounds pretty awesome to me.

Questions.

I've often wondered what the key component for growing and maturing is. While I've found that there are many components that go into how and why we grow, I recently heard one of the most profound statements that helped the missing piece fall into place. I don't remember exactly what He said because I was so taken by it, I forgot to write it down. It went something like this. A true disciple is not defined by the complexity of his answers, but by the quality of his questions. I've thought about this a TON since I heard it and damn, it's so true.

I used to think that a mature person was someone who knew their stuff, someone who could confidently tell you why he/she believed what they believed. But then I noticed another observation, most of the people that I have known and respected as "mature" people in my life had one thing in common. They all "knew" the answers to most things that I would ask questions about. Most of them had reached a certain point in their life where they stopped growing, stopped maturing. I've wondered so many times over the last few years why this happens. I would say the answer to this question is simple. People have forgot how to ask questions. We as people are prone to get to a place in our lives where we answer all of the questions that we have though were important, we become content with the answers. And instead of continuing to ask questions and find answers, we simply sit back and make the simple answers that we found for our questions painfully complex.

We lose out wonder, we forget to ask ourselves questions about ourselves and life. The way to continue to grow and mature is to ask quality questions.

Mike

New.

My Dad's house is empty of everyone but me and the lonely cricket that I can hear somewhere. Today has been such a slow day for me it seems. I have so much to do, but I've been in one of those mindsets of not being sure where to start. So, I sat down and decided to see what I could do on my WR stuff, saw that I hadn't blogged yet, so I decided to do that.

Actually having a WR blog is a kinda crazy. I've read tons of other WR blogs from other people, but now I actually have one. I cannot wait for July to get here and the traveling to start. The ministries that God has led me to and taken me through this last summer have been the hardest and best season of my life, I know that as I continue to follow Him, it will continue to get better. I'm really not sure what to expect in this coming season of life with the World Race. And I think it's good not to have expectations, but at the same time have the right expectations. Here's what I mean. The right expectations would be; expecting God to completely change me top to bottom, expecting God to do great things through my team and myself, expect God to lead with His Spirit and expect life to be nothing I've experienced before. The wrong expectations; Planning out what I think God should do, and expecting Him to unfold events the way I imagined, expecting to be able to guess how God will do things.

Two different kinds of expectations. There is the right kind and the wrong kind.

Learning to embrace whatever He brings into my life, knowing that God has my good in mind, and that He is using me to further His Kingdom.
Romans 8:28
Mike

Accepting the not understanding part of life.....

How God works things out in life is, and always will be a mystery to me. A line from the movie "Batman Begins" has always stood out to me, and just recently I've realized the truth behind it.

"You always fear, what you don't understand."

Fear I think is one, if not THE biggest paralyzer in the life of human beings. It's so true, we always fear what we don't understand. If we don't know what the next day is going to hold, we start to get anxious. If we don't have some kind of "projection" of what out next week will hold on our planners and smart phones, we can hardly function. When people ask us "what are you doing next week", it's like we're afraid to answer....I don't know. We are afraid of the unknown.

This has really been something that's I've struggled with as God has began to work things out in my life. As I've emptied my schedule and He has began to fill it up, more often then not, it's been on an as I go basis. Hard to accept? Yes. It has completely brought to the surface just how much I don't trust God, in return shown me how distorted my view of God is. We say that God is all powerful, completely loving to His children and the provider for your needs. We say our "God greater, out God is stronger, God you are higher then any other!" But when it comes right down to it, when we're in the fiery trial, we see that we don't truly believe like we tell everyone we do. Someone cannot follow God and have a small unbelieving view of God and His power. They have to see God as He is. HUGE, completely powerful, completely loving to His children, and a keeper of His promises. God has been walking me through this all summer this year, crushing false ideas and views of Himself and instilling in my mind will and emotions the truth about Himself. Instilling in me the ability to trust Him with the things in life that I don't understand.

Growing to understand His love,

Mike