We ALL can be used...

I've long struggled with the issue of "what is God going to do with me?".

When I was a kid, it was following in my father's footsteps as a pastor. When I was a teenager, it was becoming a doctor of sports medicine. When I was in college, it was becoming a television or print sports analyst. Now, I've gone to the exact opposite end of the spectrum that I ever thought possible. I'm playing, singing, writing, managing, booking, and all things in the music scene. I couldn't be happier (with a couple exceptions) of where I am. The journey that God has taken me on has been a long one with no end in sight, and I hope that it will be a life-long journey full of twists and turns and endless fun.

But as I look back on this story that is my life, I have to again wonder, "why me?" The answer is simply this, "I could have chosen anyone, but I chose you, because I know you can handle it." This statement reminds me of the sermon I was lucky enough to get to hear this morning.

To be honest, I've dazed out of my fair share of Sunday morning messages. I'll be thinking about lunch, (like anyone who was raised Southern Baptist would), or the game that will be on in the afternoon, or even that girl sitting across the room I just caught eyes with (at least I think we did). Today though, God just hit me and said, "Listen up Dave! This message is for you!"

A member of my church's "teaching team", Stuart Hall, just engaged and captivated me with the use of imagery and more importantly, God's word. We have been in a series called, "Simply Joshua". So guess what we were talking about...YES, the book of Joshua! (you are some smart cookies there!) We were backtracking a little bit today and focusing on the story of 12 spies who were sent to go out throughout the land of Canaan to see what it was like. We really focused in on two spies who were sent to Jericho and found safekeeping in the house of a woman named Rahab. Now, Rahab was very much looked down by the people of Jericho. Rahab was a prostitute. At this moment, two worlds collided. One being the world of the Israelites, who have been traveling in the desert for years upon years and even with many times of doubt and fear, they still followed the path that God was setting before them, and the other being the world of the people of Jericho, who followed idols and had a god for anything and everything. Rahab knew that these gods of Jericho was not followed by these two spies and she was intrigued. The spies told Rahab of the plans that were in order and she asks them, "When you return to your camp and then come and destroy this city, will you please remember me and my family and spare our lives?" Rahab had heard in the past about all the miracles that God had performed in the desert with the Israelites and she instantly knew that God was going to deliver the city to them. Rahab didn't ask this of the spies for only her own safety, but she also did this because she believed that God would protect her, she took what little faith she was able to muster and put it in front of a BIG GOD! She didn't try to do things herself, as we so often do, she relied on the God that sent these two spies to her to give her the strength to stand up. The King of Jericho even sent a messenger to her house to ask her about the spies and she denied knowing where they were from so that they would be kept safe and even steered the king's men in a direction totally the opposite of where they needed to go.

Most of you have heard the story before, but here is how the rest of it goes. The spies are able to escape back to the camp and report about the city. God tells Joshua that the city will belong to the Israelites and that they will go marching around the city for seven days and on the seventh day, blow trumpets and scream and the walls will come falling down. Well, that is EXACTLY what happens. The walls come tumbling down, but Rahab's home and all of her family are kept safe and sound and because she stepped up and had faith in Christ. Rahab is again mentioned in the book of Hebrews in what we call the "Hall of Faith".

³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

 ³² And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,³⁴ quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. ³⁵ Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. ³⁶ Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— ³⁸ the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

³⁹ These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, ⁴⁰ since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

If you look at those verses again, many famous names are mentioned, but little to no detail is given in what they did. Rahab, who did nothing more than hide two men on her roof underneath some flax is shown as a major player on God's team of awesome leaders. And why is she mentioned with this detail? Because she stood up and mustered what little faith she should and laid it all at the feet of God and said, "Here you go God. You know what I've been in the past, but I give that and all I will ever be in the future to You now. I don't expect you do anything, but if You choose to spare me and my family's lives, we will forever praise Your name, but even if you choose not to, I will not let your word fall on deaf ears in this city." 

After hearing this, I couldn't help but think...

God can use anyone, whether its a screw-up like me, or a prostitute like Rahab. 

I can't go on any longer letting the "elephants in my room" destroy the man God has promised He would make me if I'd just have the faith to let Him lead, but also do my part to make sure that in all things, God will be glorified through me.

If a prostitute can be used for God's glory, we ALL can be used.

-D-

You're An Indictment of the American Educational System...

Twitter, the final frontier of essentially anonymous arrogance and ignorance.

Some people use it as a tool to expand their "brand", maybe keep up with their friends, or better yet, stalk celebrities and hope and pray for a "retweet" or "reply". Apparently, that is all it takes to make someone's life immesurably better. Now, it does feel cool when someone that we consider "untouchable" acknowledges something we as the little people say, but maybe we should tone it down a little bit...I know I need to. That was NOT what I wanted to really convey tonight, but its a start.

Do we as a people actually read words before we react to them? Its amazing how we're so quick to respond to one or two words that we see and instantly lash out in a tirade that makes no sense. Case in point (sorry to some of you, this is sports related, but it wasn't meant to go this far).

I was watching a show on ESPN called "Around the Horn". On this show, 4 sportswriters from around the country debate about different sports topics. On this day, there were writers from Denver, Dallas, Charlotte, and Boston on the show and the topic of Tim Tebow, former QB for the University of Florida and current back-up QB for the Denver Broncos.

After being selected in the first round in the 2010 NFL draft, Tim hasn't had many opportunites to display his skills in front of the home fans other than coming in when the Broncos had a large lead or were behind by a large margin with the exception of one start that he made where he led a 4th quarter comeback to lead the Broncos to a win over the Houston Texans (I'm not a Broncos fan, but I like Tebow and respect what he's been able to do with his limited time). Tim was brought into the game this past Sunday against the San Diego Chargers to play the second half after the starter, Kyle Orton, was rather ineffective and was removed at halftime. Tim had some rough spots in the third quarter, but with about 7 minutes left in the fourth, ran for a 12 yard TD and then 3 minutes later, connected with former University of Georgia star, Knowshon Moreno, for a 28 yard touchdown, but the Broncos were not able to score again and lost 29-24. Tebow led a thrilling comeback and injected some much needed excitement into the crowd in Denver which had been deflated following the dreadful first half. Well, back to the show....the debate is on whether Tebow should start the Broncos next game at Miami on October 23rd.

Tebow is a part of the new breed of QB, a guy who can throw the ball a mile, but at the same time, be able to escape the pocket and run for first downs and touchdowns. In college, Tim was a run-first QB, meaning, if he found a running lane, he would take that before having to sit in the pocket and scan the field for a receiver. Now, in the NFL, he is a pass-first QB, he has changed his style to match the game he's in. There is another high profile QB in this position right now by the name of Cam Newton.

Cam is quite the story. He was kicked off the team at Florida (while Tebow was there) for questionable actions involving a stolen laptop, went to Blinn Junior College in Texas before being highly recruited by a couple schools and ending up at Auburn University, leading them to the 2010 BCS National Championship (which is under investigation by the NCAA). Even with all this speculation about his actions last season, Newton is an extremely talented athlete. But in the same regard, in college he was a run-first QB, in fact, he ran the ball only 4 times less than he threw it. Now, in the NFL, Newton is a pass-first QB and has shown that maybe he can one day be more than a middle of the road QB (sorry for all the backstory, but this sets up the real story, I promise).

Now the writer from Denver praised the efforts of Tebow for how he played Sunday, but no matter what he said, the writer from Charlotte (where Newton plays), wouldn't give Tebow any credit and proceeded to say later on in an exclusive video Here that "Tebow isn't athletic enough to overcome the fact that he stinks". The fact that this writer who represents a city that has the same type of QB for their team and then refuses to give the guy a chance just shows that he is a hypocrite. He loves what Newton is doing in Charlotte, but because Tebow hasn't had the opportunity to shine like Newton, says that he stinks. This writer from Charlotte is a very arrogant guy, when he "wins" on the show, he puts a replica WWE belt on his shoulder and pretends like he is the champ (but he loses MUCH more often than he wins, so that belt should be "dropped" like any champ who loses in WWE). So, after this segment, I go to twitter to talk about this writer and I write the following tweet:

@AroundTheHorn Bomani Jones hates on Tebow when he's reppin' the city that has CAM NEWTON as their QB!!! #hypocrite

Here's where the fun starts!!!!

Within seconds, literally...I get bombarded with person after person "replying" to me saying the same thing, "Cam is better than Tebow". Will someone PLEASE tell me where in my tweet I said anything comparing these two QBs statistics or abilities? Next thing I know, I have people asking me if Tebow being a devout Christian has anything to do with my stance on my tweet? Really, somone is playing the religion card on me now? This is getting out of hand! All I said is that this sportswriter from Charlotte is giving no respect to a person when the QB for the team that is in the city he writes for has the EXACT same type of QB. Some of these people who "reply" to me say that I'm essentially a racist for my tweet. Did I ever mention anywhere that Tebow is white and Newton is black??? NO, NOT AT ALL, THAT DOESN'T MATTER TO ME!

We have such a deep desire to be heard that we are willing to try to destroy the credibility of others to make ourselves feel better. People refuse to read anything past the names of who is involved in a story. They start to judge and if they think something is different, they will relentlessly attack someone who thinks differently of them. The arrogance of this writer and the ignorance of the people who replied to my tweet just prove to me how poorly we've done in this country in educating people. It hurts me to realize how much people don't read something in its entirety before giving an assessment. This world would be so much different if people would just stop looking things over, read entire statements and articles, then give it time to process instead of reacting on emotion. Believe me, I've reacted on emotion plenty of times and its gotten me nowhere fast. Its put me in situations I wish I wasn't, kind of like it has now. So maybe its time for a new inititiative. Lets call it...Educate The Previously Semi-Educated, this time No Moron Left Behind...

Maybe then we can avoid this indictment of the American Education System.

-D-

If you want to see the "tweet war" that ensued, I'll let you see every reply that was posted to my tweet, just contact me and I'll let you see them.

Its All A Part of Something Greater...

First of all, I am as guilty of this as anyone else, so this is not me "calling you out". I've just been thinking a lot recently on why is it that whenever we refer to our favorite sports teams, we refer to ourselves as a part of the team by saying "we"? Whether its in high school, college, or pro sports, we all desire so badly to be a part of the action, we want to live in the moment just like those who are actually participating in the events. When I was a student at Ole Miss, I can remember vividly games on Saturdays, (though my friend Ryan can attest to this, we didn't get to attend many games due to work), and in the spring, sitting up in Section I at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field yelling "throw it in the dirt!" at the top of our lungs. Whenever I'd describe what happened during a game, I would always refer to the team as "we", but I've never realized how often I do that until a couple of weeks ago when I was talking about how the University of Georgia was punished for 60 minutes by Boise State University (who I was cheering for, btw...). Now I've never been to Boise, I've never gotten to see, (outside of a TV screen), the "smurf turf" that serves as the single greatest home-field advantage in collegiate athletics, but when I talked about the game the next day, I used the word "we". Maybe its just that I love cheering for the underdogs and defending their right to be able to play on the national stage, (since they've constantly proven themselves, and believe me, I'll defend them against any of you "SEC supremacists" whenever you want, and I promise, I WILL WIN), or maybe its just that I can choose whoever I want to cheer for whenever I want. But as I watched that game, I felt myself wishing more than ever that I had played football in high school, tried out in college, and was not in the position I am today.

In all that, it still boggles my mind that we all just want to be a part of something so badly that we live in the delusion that in some way, us yelling through the TV at the referees or the coaches really make a difference and that whether we're at the games or not will make the team play harder or even win more often. Now, I've never seen Boise State play live, but I'll tell you, I think they'd still beat any team in the country whether I was there or not, (and I really want to see them play live sometime), and whether they win or lose, I'll still fight for their right to be placed in the same company as the top conferences and not reference them as "the little sisters of the poor". But personal thoughts aside, why do we have to feel like we belong to these teams? Is it our desire to be with like-minded people? Is it our desire for community?

We were meant to live in the company of others. But is this really the way for us to feel like we are a part of something bigger?

These questions can unlock all sorts of doors. But its when our desire to be a part of something bigger becomes who we are, we can destroy ours and the lives of others. (reference to Harvey Updyke, the man who poisoned the trees at Toomer's Corner in Auburn, AL.) We all love our rivalries and the jokes and gloating we get to make, (which still makes it funny, cause we didn't play in any of the games that allow us fans to gloat), but why do we take them so far? Why is a man willing to destroy another school's tradition over a the fact that "his" team lost a game? Its sickening to think that we are a people who are so petty that we're willing to destroy things in the towns of a rival school. The "sickness" of the human condition blows my mind and continues to make me wonder why I love sports so much...oh yeah, I know now...the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.


That says it all.

Words often quoted, but rarely ever meant...or understood

 As I sit upstairs in a room that isn't mine, about to go to sleep on bed that isn't mine and watching Missouri play Arizona State on a wireless internet signal that once again isn't mine, I find myself contemplating how many times I've heard phrases that are famously quoted and "owned" by us but we rarely, if ever actually take that quote and do something useful with it. I mean, honestly, how many times have you heard Jeremiah 29:11 get quoted by someone as a "theme verse for their life"? The simple fact is that while that verse is incredibly uplifting and hopeful, it wasn't meant to be used in the context of "Dear God, I don't have a job, I don't know if I'm going to be able to pay the rent next month, but I know you have a purpose and a plan for me..." HOW SELFISH TO MAKE A PRAYER ALL ABOUT YOURSELF!!! 

Jeremiah was around in a time where the people of Israel had been enslaved by the Babylonians and they were crying out to God hoping that there would be a reprieve to their struggles. God tells them in Jeremiah 29:10-14, (SEE THE USE OF CONTEXT), ¹⁰"For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. ¹¹For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. God is simply saying that you MUST WAIT ON ME! It is going to be 70 years before you have the chance to come back home. I made you a promise and I will come through on it, but you have to be patient. A vast majority of people don't ever read the context of that verse and understand what its truly about. The same thing exists in essence with the phrase "Here am I, send me", famously said by Isaiah in the sixth chapter of his book in the bible. 

Isaiah believes that he is the lowest of the low and he doesn't deserve to be in the presence of God. But during this time, a seraphim takes a burning hot piece of coal and touches Isaiah's lips with it (talk about ouchies!!!) and says, "your sins are forgiven". Since Christ had not yet come to save us from our sins, this is a huge moment, for a man to be forgiven is just incredible. But then, a voice is heard saying, "Who will go for us?" and Isaiah famously utters, "Here am I, send me!" 

Yes, this is absolutely amazing, but also very scary. Isaiah is going in blind, he has no idea where he's going or what he's doing, but he does know that he is going to be the voice of God in what he does. How many times have you heard that uttered from someone at a camp, in a dramatic reading, or even as a person being called to full-time Christian service, yet doesn't do anything with that call...was their call fake? Was it a mixed signal from God? What are we to do? Simply this, WAIT ON GOD, don't try to do things yourself. When we try to do things alone, WE WILL FAIL. But also, if you don't take these words, "SEND ME" seriously, WE WILL FAIL. We have to understand what it means to tell God to send us. It means leaving all comfort and what we see as basic necessities of life and trading them for little or next to nothing. I'm not saying that you should give up and say that maybe God didn't really speak to you, but search into what God is calling you to do, just because you have a call, doesn't necessarily mean that you have to go overseas. You could be simply a teacher to 3rd graders at a church or helping out at your local Boys and Girls Club or anything inbetween or further out. 

This is a cautionary tale and a sincere hope that before you go quoting words and claiming that they're from God, that you do some research and soul searching (and of course, praying) that HIS will be done and not YOURS.

-D-