Thursday, July 23, 2009

Pushing A Skateboard For God


Back in the latter part of winter I had decided to try out a new form of skateboarding called longboard pushing or long distance pushing. As the name suggests basically this somewhat “kooky fringe” sport consists of riding a longboard (the definition of a longboard is a skateboard of 36 inches or more typically that is set up primarily for carving or skating down hills) over distance propelling the board by alternately pushing with either foot when necessary on flat ground or going uphill. Having ridden skateboards since I was 12, ridden longboards a great deal over the last several years racing, and being a former road cyclist combined to make this form of skating somewhat natural to me.

It took me a little while to get use to pushing with my right foot (back foot) because all my skating life I had pushed with my front foot (or mongo as it is called in skateboarding). Once I got the hang of it though I quickly found myself wanting to longboard push a great deal. I found out through a friend in Atlanta about a paved bicycle trail called the Silver Comet (http://www.silvercometga.com/) in Georgia and the Chief Ladiga Trail (http://epic.jsu.edu/clt/) in Alabama that was close to 100 miles long and I decided I would set a goal to attempt to skate the entire distance over two days the weekend of July 3rd and July 4th.

I trained for two months on the roads around Statesville and in northern Iredell County starting out small with pushes of only a few miles and working my way up to 35 miles plus. It was a great experience and through the process I started getting motivated about the attempt at the Alabama/Georgia trail.

When the time came I traveled to Atlanta on Thursday, July 2nd and stayed with my nephew Rich. The next day he drove me over to Anniston, Alabama early in the morning and dropped me off with my board, backpack, and gear and I started my push back toward Atlanta. I embarked on what I thought was going to be a journey focused on me accomplishing something other than a business deal, a completion of a building project, or surviving the extended economic turndown we have been facing. I had learned in doing my planning for the trip that no one had ever skateboarded the entire length of the trail so I was stoked to have the opportunity to be the first. It was going to be a small accomplishment that I could put in my memory bank and also a chance to get a break from all of the stress of this past year.

All of that changed just a few miles down the path. The weather was perfect, the trail was beautiful, and I found myself alone and talking with God thanking Him for the trip. Not very far up the route I saw an older couple out for a morning walk. It was early around 8:15 am and it seemed to me that this was their daily routine. As I approached them it hit me that this event, this achievement I was hoping to accomplish was not meant to be about me. You see over the last year God has been challenging me to step out of my comfort zone and be bold about my faith no matter what the circumstances. (See blog> “"Storming The Walls of The Comfort Zone- A Prayer Warrior Unleashed")
I have found it more and more natural to pray for perfect strangers that I meet in every day life or while out skating and as soon as I saw this couple that familiar voice in my head said “You need to pray with these people”.

When I rolled up to them from behind I got a very startled look from them both because they were obviously expecting a cyclist. By the time I finished the two day journey this look became very familiar. We exchanged the normal “good mornings” and then the man asked me how far I was “going on that thing”. I told him I had just left the trailhead and was skating to Atlanta. The look on his face also became familiar as the two days went on. It was sort of a combination of astonishment and “dude, you are a crazy person”. As he was recovering I told him that God also wanted me to pray with as many people as I could as I traveled along the way and asked him if I could pray for he and his wife.

At first he hesitated but then said ok and I began to pray. I prayed that God would bless their walk, their family, keep them safe, and keep the ever mindful of the gift that he so freely gave of his Son that brings an abundant and eternal life. That prayer became the backbone of prayers I would go on to say with over 30 people over the next two days.

I had the opportunity to pray with several national guard members who were taking their PT on the trail around Jacksonville, Alabama in anticipation of being deployed. I was able to pray with multiple cyclists along the way ranging in ages of 20 to in their 60’s.
I was blessed to have a father bring his two daughters out to meet me on the trail and ride their bikes along with me for 5 miles outside of Piedmont, AL and we both prayed for each other and each other’s families.

I also had the chance to pray with an awesome man named Alvin Davis who is in his early 60’s and rides the trail everyday around Cedartown, Ga . He road his bike along side me the first six miles of the second day and showed me a great bit of southern hospitality.

When stopping in Rockmart, Georgia at a coffee shop I prayed for the young couple who had just moved back to their hometown to open this shop. They were in hopes of being in a better place to raise their small child who was playing in a make-shift playpen in the back of the store.

The list went on and on and each experience was both fulfilling and humbling at the same time. God kept introducing me to different opportunities to show His love and grace and it was a blessing to be a part of each one. He even introduced me to other people who were Christ Followers that I have now become contacts with and we are looking forward to staying in touch and seeing what God does in each other’s lives. Over 30 people allowed me the opportunity to share with them a prayer and only two people, a couple, asked that I not (another blog in the making).

God took the opportunity to take what was meant to be a “selfish act” of accomplishing something for myself and turn it in to something to give Him glory. He took this time I had for myself and not only became an integral part of it but rolled along with me every push of the way.

How can something you are doing for yourself be transformed into being focused on Him?

Where is it, work, school, home, in the community, your hobbies, or elsewhere that including God could make a big difference in someone else’s life and your own?

He’s already given you what you need to do just that very thing. In everyday life God is opening the door for you to share his love. All you need to do is to turn the focus from yourself and make it about His glory. What starts out in your mind to be one thing will turn into something far greater than you imagined or expected.

Hebrews 13:20-21
“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever." Amen”

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

What Does Jesus See When He Looks At Us?


I have been blessed over the years to have been able to do some pretty cool things and be around some incredibly cool people. As a teenager rather than playing baseball or football like most of the boys my age all I wanted to do was skateboard and ride bicycles.

I got my first “real” skateboard when I was 12 and immediately fell in love with it. I would skate for hours everyday practicing all the tricks and style coming out of California that I saw in Skateboarder magazine. I went to my first skateboard competition when I was 13 and after that it was ON! For me skating was this huge act of self expression and the whole surf/skate culture spoke to me like nothing I had experienced up to that point.

Skateboarding introduced me to other skaters from around the Charlotte and Concord area and I got plugged into an emerging East Coast skate scene. Immediately my circle of influence became primarily older guys who liked me, I think, because I always went big ever time I got on the board…even if it meant a trip to the hospital or skin left on the pavement. I earned their respect by never backing off….Once I even tried riding a skateboard out of the back of a moving van in the McDonald’s parking lot on a Friday night……that didn’t turn out too good….But I was legend after that!

The team of skaters I was a part of was the best around and when we went to competitions or rolled into a new town to skate everyone knew us. Younger skaters wanted to be like us and I can remember one in particular that would try to emulate everything I did, how I dressed, what kind of board I road, and my style. To that kid I was the man!

As adult I moved away from skateboarding in the 80’s and got deep into the world of mountain biking. Once again I was drawn to some great guys and though I wasn’t as good a mountain biker as I had been a skater I got to be part of some great groups. Through the sport I became interested in trail building and became a national volunteer for the International Mountain Biking Association leading trail projects in multiple states. I also gained a reputation for being able to survive spectacular crashes. I am not sure it is a good thing to be known for that fact but that was who I was in the sport. Once after riding off of a 30 ft drop and crashing through the top of a pine tree in the dark…yes, we were riding at night with lights...one of the riders who was out with us for the first time who witnessed the crash asked my regular riding partner, “Dude, is he alright?”

As I was climbing up the side of the hill dragging what was left of my bike behind me I could hear his answer, “Oh man, he does that all the time.”

After being forced to leave the sport in 1999 because of a serious neck injury I needed something to fuel my need for speed. I started skateboarding again and by 2003 was being drawn back into my first love, but this time through skateboard racing and longboarding. By 2005 I was competing again and getting connected with the top skaters in that part of sport from all over the world. I poured the same amount of energy I did when I was younger into skating except with an older person’s body. I was able to get sponsorship, compete at high level, and skate with the coolest people in the sport. Through my local skate group I got involved in putting on skateboard racing events one of which was the 2007 World Championships. Again, in the sport, I was pretty cool, huh?

But now I want to tell you about someone else I knew. As I am describing him I want you to start forming a picture in your mind of this person. Create a mental image of what you think this person was like.

First, his hair was not in style. Matter of fact, it was somewhat unkempt, and almost was like a chronic bed head. I am not talking about the style now that people pay good money to look like they don’t comb their hair…this guy just didn’t comb his hair. It was a curly mess.

Let’s talk about his clothes. Man, his clothes. They were never in style. When all of the other teenagers in the area were dressed in Izod and the latest preppy fashion he dressed almost as if he was from a foreign country…….a poor foreign country.

He also was in marching band. Marching band was cool if you were a trumpet player or better yet on the drum line, but this dude played the baritone saxophone. Who knows what a baritone sax is? That is that really big saxophone that is about the size of a small person. The band member playing the bari sax was almost always put out on the end of the formation for some reason. Come on man.

Are you starting to get a picture now?

Band Geek!

This guy was also in the Drama Club. He had roles in plays like the Sound of Music and Oklahoma. He was so into drama he even did summer theater playing roles like Bert from Mary Poppins, the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, and the Candy Man from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory! The Candy Man? Are you kidding me?

Can’t you just see him? I can. Dude. (shaking my head)

While we are talking, we should mention that this guy was also smart. I’m talking bookworm smart. He was top 20 in his graduating class, a class that turned out four or five doctors, PhD’s, lawyers, and you name it. Between his GPA and his SAT score he got a full ride academic scholarship. He didn’t get invited to parties too much but everyone wanted him in their study group.

What a Nerd. I can even remember this was the first kid I knew with a digital watch…he got a digital watch in the 7th grade! It was an LCD watch not LED like today. You had to push a button on the side to see the time and that is all it gave…the time!! No stopwatch, no heart rate monitor, no day/date….just the time. His family was poor and it was the only Christmas present he got that year. If he were a student today he probably would be destined to work at Microsoft or be writing computer code for Doom 5.

He even road the bus to school…..when he was a Senior! What a loser!

This kid also had a really dark side. If there had been such a thing as Emo back then this guy would have been the poster child. He wrote punk rock songs that reflected the teenage angst that was raging inside of him. One of the songs was called Battery Acid.

The chorus went “Just give me some acid and I’ll fly away, life’s a mess that’s a what I say, Battery Acid…takes care of me…Battery Acid, it sets me free.” This dude was messed up.

He also wrote a song called “Death Wish” that was just as the title suggest…except it was about him and his two best friends and how they wanted to die.

“This is a story about 3 friends. They all know how they want it to end. They all know how they want to go. Two up high and one down low.”

What was with that? Wierdo.

Can you see this guy? Can you get a picture of what this guy is about? Can’t you just see him?

Yes. You can. You see, you are looking at him in this blog.

That was me when I was in high school.

You have to understand, skateboarding, in the a 70’s was a fringe sport that attracted loners and teenagers that didn’t feel they fit in with the mainstream.

That was me the drama geek that found being on stage was better than real life because when I was up there I was the character and not me. Can’t you just see me doing the part of Will in Oklahoma…..”I went to Kansas City on a Friday, by Saturday I learned a thing or two. Cause up to then I didn’t have an i-de of what the modern world was coming too. I counted 20 gas buggies going by themselves almost every time I took a walk. Then I put my ear to a bell telephone and a strange women started in to talk….”

Talk about lame!

In my skateboard world or my drama world I was cool. I was somebody. In the world that was my high school, I felt like a freak. Crazy huh?

But you know what? Jesus doesn’t care about all of that. Jesus doesn’t care if I am cool or a nerd. All Jesus cares about is my heart. He longs for me to follow Him. He sees past what I am wearing, what I do, how popular I am, or what sport I play. Jesus looks deep into my soul and wants nothing from me but everything. He wants that so much in fact that He willingly took on the form of a man and went to the cross for me. Jesus suffered and died for me, then defeated sin and death for me. He waled out of the tomb and kicked the doors of heaven wide open so a wretch like me could walk in someday.

He did that for all of you as well.

He wants all of us to be with Him no matter who we are, where we come from, or if we are cool or not.

Jesus proved this when He was on this earth. Jesus didn’t surround himself with the popular people, the cool people, and the leaders of the day. Who did he select as His closest friends?

Think about the Disciples. Man were they a mess or what? Talk about the most unlikely to succeed. They were nobodies who were definitely not part of the “in crowd” of the day.

Some were fishermen. I don’t know about you, but when I was in high school no one I knew said they wanted to be a fisherman. I am not talking about the sponsored by Bass Pro Shop driving a $100,000 boat with a 250 horsepower Evinrude motor fishing in the Bass Master Classic fisherman. I am talking hard working, on the ocean every day, pulling in heavy nets, and getting fish oil all over them so much that no matter how much they bathe they still smell like fish fishermen. I wouldn’t want to hang around anyone that smells like fish all the time. But what did Jesus see? He saw the men that would build his church.

In Matthew Chapter 4. 19 Jesus said “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

Or better yet, consider Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector. Let me put that in perspective for you. Matthew was not like a government employee who works for the Internal Revenue Service that collects taxes through the mail. No. Tax collectors during that time were independent contractors for the Roman Government.

Imagine that your next door neighbor was a tax collector like Matthew and that every week, every month, every quarter, and every year, he came over and knocked on your door to collect the taxes. Then imagine that the taxes you are paying are to a government of a country that you are not even a citizen of and neither is your neighbor. Now, to add insult to injury, picture your neighbor putting part of the money in one pocket for the government and part of it in the other for himself. Not sure about you but I would have a hard time loving my neighbor if that were the situation.

Tax collectors were despised by the Jews because they saw them as collaborating with the enemy and not being much better than a thieves. Even the Romans who used tax collectors like Matthew held them in disregard because of the unsavory way they went about their job.

But what did Jesus see in Matthew? He looked past his profession. He looked past how despised and hated he was by those Jesus would ultimately use Matthew to reach. He saw a man that would follow Him completely and would go on to write arguably the most complete record of His ministry. Jesus saw through to Matthew’s heart.

So what does Jesus see when He looks at you? What does He know about you by seeing inside of your heart and soul?

At one point in my life my hope, other than ultimately ending up in heaven myself and my family being there as well, was to make the difference in one person’s life so that they do too. How cool would it to be in heaven some day and have someone come up to me and say “Remember when you shared with me what Jesus was doing in your life when we were down on earth? Well, that got me thinking and I decided I wanted what you had so I asked Jesus into my heart. Now I am here!” That would be incredible.

My dream has changed now though. Instead of just one person I want Jesus to use me to help as many people as possible to see Him and ultimately end up in heaven. I want everyone that is reading this now to be there. I want people to not see me as cool or a nerd, a skater, a business person, or a tattooed dude with a shaved head. No, the thing I want them to see is Jesus in me. What I want them to take away is that God is real, that He is Love, and that by following Him, everlasting life is there’s to be had. Someday everyone of us can be in heaven together. Every single one of us can stand in His presence . All we have to do is to accept Him as our personal Lord and Savior and follow Him. Talk about being the cool kids? Everyone in heaven is the absolute coolest!

Jesus sees you for who you are inside your heart. He loves you no matter what and as I said before longs to spend eternity with you. He also longs for you to allow Him to work through you so that others turn to him as well. No matter where you come from, no matter what you are like, once He is inside of you and you become a Jesus Follower, what people will ultimately see will be Him.

Warren Barfield, the contemporary Christian singer/songwriter from Eastern North Carolina, has a song called “Mistaken” which spoke to me so much the first time I heard it. The lyric that stood out the most was this “I shouldn’t have to tell you who I am, because who I am should be speaking for itself.”

You see, be it nerd or be it cool, who I am as a Jesus follower should be speaking for itself.

Let’s all let who we are speak for itself and lets all someday be together in Heaven. We can do it. We can secure that right this minute. All we have to do is shed our worldly selves and accept our new person in Jesus. Let’s all be cool. What do you say?