Giving it All Away

I am not sure who actually stops by this blog, for all I know it is only about 3 of you, but it does not matter, I still enjoy putting random things out on the web for anyone to see or read. It is a comfortable way to feel kind of exposed and for some reason I like that. I have a few things brewing today and so I figured I would put it out there.

In our community we have a phrase. The phrase is "Go and give it all away." The phrase implies that we are filled with some good stuff that we should not keep to ourselves. The phrase also has to do with the simplicity of church planting. It has to do with the simplicity of gathering people around you and loving on them. We have something that we cannot keep for ourselves. As I was thinking through this I was remembering how much my life was different before we moved to Oklahoma 3 years ago. It was a good life, but it was no a full life. Something was missing, in fact looking back there were a lot of things missing, but I did not know that at the time.

We came to Oklahoma and we walked into a community that had a lot of good things and desired to give those good things to us. To lavishly love on us. A community that cared to walk with us through the details of life. A community that wanted to keep us accountable, and pushed us to see us walk in our giftings in the Kingdom. To develope those giftings and become more confident in them. Simply said, we walked into a community that "gave it all away," and continue to do so. It has forever changed my life and my perspective on community and on the Church. It is so good, and I am so thankful.

I say all this becasue what it boils down to is gathering people and loving on them. It entails all the stuff I listed above and so much more, but it is all so easy. I also say all this becasue this is what I want my life to be about now and forever. I want to see transformation in the Church simply through gathering and loving each other in communities. I want to see the Kingdom of God become bigger through people giving their hearts and lives to Jesus through these loving communities. I want to see the Holy Spirit move in amazing ways.

And to see all of this is not hard, it just takes obedience and a certian level selfless-ness. We have some good friends, Andy and Jessica Biddy, who are moving to NYC to do just what I am talking about in this post, to plant churches. And by that I mean they are going to gather people together to love on them and walk with them in the love of Jesus, and they will let Him lead. They will form communities built on loving each other and going after Jesus. It is so easy and so radical, but I know from experience that it is so life giving. I have a passion to see this happen, and I have a passion to see lives changed.

I have no idea if God will call Crystal and I to "Go and give it all away," in a specific place (ie. NYC, San Fran, Chicado, Istanbul, Rome) I have a feeling He will and I am very excited about that, I want that. I do know that I am called to that lifestyle here in OKC and I am learning more and more about it. I want to walk with people and love on them because I have felt the change in my life and I want to give that away. So.....Let's do it.

New Art

This is our new peice of art that we bought for above our fireplace. We have never bought "Art" before. It is a hand painted peice, it is not a re-printing, which I think is very cool. It is BIG, it is 5 feet wide by 3 feet tall, and does a great job of carrying out our objective of covering most of our pink fireplace. I have never been a huge art gallery guy, but I really love this painting. It has levels. We have been given pictures before and framed some of Crystal's pics, but this is the first time I have ever bought something to hang on the wall since my Michael Jordan posters as a kid. I like it.

Baby Hawk

This bird was found at my brothers house the other day. We know the parents live in one of the taller trees in the yard, but this little guy must have fallen out of the nest, becasue now it is hanging out in the front yard just walking around. I think it has made a make-shift house under some bushes, but the little thing can not yet fly. We know that it is a hawk, but we are not positive on which kind it is. Based on pics I have seen, it may be a red-tailed hawk. Either way, to get this close to a hawk is really rare. If you are wondering how it eats like I was, you may notice the meat under it's claws in this pic. The mother caught and killed a squirel and gave it to the baby. You have to love wildlife!!