Over the past year things have been tough business wise. The down turn in the economy has had a potentially devastating impact on the long term viability of my executive recruiting firm and our small property management business. I have never been one to shy away from working long hours but during this time I have been putting in work days longer than I can ever remember. There has been a great deal of stress, significant financial pressures, and anguish over tough decisions that had to be made. Through it all though my walk with God has become closer and the strength and peace that He pours down on me each day carries me through. The timing of my attempt at full submssion to His will for my life could not have come at a better time. God knew what was about to happen and I am just glad I finally capitulated to His desire for me to go full tilt down my path for Him.
During this spiritual growth God has been urging me to be bold for Him, to tear down the walls of my comfort zone and open my heart wide so everyone can see Him inside. God has been saying "If you are my follower then you will not be ashamed. If you are My follower you will not be afraid. Step out fearless for Me."
I have to admit this was a problem. Even though there is a great deal about me that is aggressive, outgoing, fearless, and straight forward, over the years the idea of pushing the envelope of my Faith with others was a big challenge. I never wanted to be in a situation where the person I was talking to felt uncomfortable or was put off by my actions. I had no problem discussing my beliefs with other believers. In a church setting, small group, or even one on one with another known Christian I rarely hesitated to step up and speak about my love for the Son. Put me in an opportunity to do the same with someone I knew was not a follower or worse yet a complete stranger and passive I became. The amount of times I missed an opportunity to share God’s love with someone because of my fear of rejection or my concern about what they might think are more than I can count. Frozen in these thoughts the path of least resistance was the one taken and a chance to spread God’s message and show His love disappeared.
Because I have been working so many hours getting home late in the evenings most week day nights and working long hours on Saturday mornings I have had little time to go longboard skateboarding with my Downhillbillies Skateboarding Organization brothers. It seems that my schedule has not matched up with any of them and I have been resigned to skating a bit by myself when given the odd moment.
This past Saturday I was extremely stressed. It had been an incredibly difficult week. One of our most important business deals fell through, another one was sputtering on life support, and very little had happened regarding our empty rental properties. Needless to say I was not having close to a good day. I decided I needed some time just to be by myself and go skate so I broke out one of my downhill boards and decided to play a game I call “Where’s HammerHead skating now?” If you have not heard by now I am a bit of a Twitter nut and a few weeks ago I made up this stupid game where I skate different hills all over town and Twitter my location. I doubt very seriously anyone is paying attention to where I am skating but it has been fun to try and see how many different locations all over town I can hit in one session.
I headed out of the house around 4:30 and just started making my way around town, North Race Street, Hartness Road to the Hospital, over to Forest Park, Plum Street, across Broad Street to Wood, down to Front Street and back to town I went, twittering each location after every run. With each hill I felt just a little better and I found myself just talking to God the whole time. With the exception of seeing one of my friends Stephanie pushing her new baby son in a stroller over on Forest Park I spoke to no one. It was just me, my board, some speed, a text message or two, and God. But by the time I got over to Green Street all that was about to change.
After hitting Front Street behind Carolina BBQ both directions I decided to make my way over to one my favorite hills, Green Street. This hill is sick fast and is a bit sketchy because of the amount of traffic in that neighborhood but this day I did not even see one car. I walked to the top, screamed down it ,and carried enough speed up the other side to turn on to Sharpe Street. This is another good hill but there is a blind corner where a close encounter with a car is a likely occurrence so I am always a bit cautious to bomb it from the steeper section on the Police Department side. The people that live on this street are often out on their porches and this day was no exception. As I walked up the hill I passed a grandmother and a great grandmother sitting up on a high front porch of this small framed house, what appeared to be three grandchildren ranging in ages from about 6 to 9 playing in the front yard, and grandpa working on his truck in the driveway. Something made me stop for a moment and speak to the family and especially to the children. It was a fairly general conversation I guess but you could sense a bit of curiosity in the eyes of the adults that seemed to question why this 46 year old white man, tattoos showing, wearing black cargo Dickies shorts, a Lucky 13 tattoo shop tee shirt, a helmet with a Headblade logo and skull on it, and pulling an odd looking skateboard behind him had paused to speak to them. I am sure it was a sight.
After the exchange I asked the man working on his truck if he would watch the blind spot for cars and stop any that might come out that way because I was going to skate the hill from the fast side past the house. He said he would and I headed up to the top. When I got there I looked back to see him standing in the middle of the road like a course marshal arms raised in the familiar “on your mark position”. When he dropped his arms as a signal to go I pushed in and streaked by their house. I had so much speed in fact that it carried me up to Green Street and seeing that there were no cars I made the turn and bombed back down it as well. It was a fun run and I was grinning the whole time.
As I made my way back to Sharpe Street and once again by the house of the family I thanked the man for watching the cars. I bid them all a good day walking on up the hill towards the police department and on to my next location. When I was almost at the top it happened! As clear as a thought could be in my head God said “You need to go back down to that house and pray for that family.” What? I stopped in my tracks and basically was like “You have got to be kidding me.”
“No, You need to go back down to that house and pray for that family.” I just stood there laughing and looking as though I was talking to myself. I took a step forward thinking that if I got moving maybe this was just my imagination.
“You need to turn around. Go back down there and pray for that family.”
That thought and those words were as clear as if someone was standing right there saying them to me. No I didn’t hear a voice. It was not this booming sound out of the clouds like we often want to imagine God’s voice to us. No, it was just a thought so clear, defined, and crisp, that there was no other conclusion to be drawn in my mind other than it was God speaking.
I turned around and made my way back down the hill. I could see the look on their faces as I approached especially that of the great grandma. I suspect their minds raced to the conclusion, “well here it comes, he’s going to ask for money or something.” As I walked toward them I was trying to formulate in my mind what I was going to say.
All I could think was that I must appear to be crazy so when I got back to where they where I said, “I know this might sound crazy but God told me I needed to come down here and pray for y’all. Can I pray for y’all?”
Silence. Uggh. Here I was completely out of my comfort zone asking strangers who had just seen me skateboard by their house if I could pray for them. What do I do now I thought?
Then with God’s prompting I said it again. “May I pray for you? I was lead back down here to pray.”
They said yes but I could just tell that they were all just waiting for the other shoe to drop off of this lunatic.
I begin to pray and pray with all my might. I prayed for blessings for them as a family, for God to give them all they need, and to remind them daily of their future home in eternity with Him. I even gave thanks for my “guardian angel” the grandpa for watching the road for me. The words poured out and I could not stop smiling.
When I said amen they all joined in with a louder AMEN. As I began to walk away the grandmother stood up, leaned over the banister of the porch and reached out for my hand. She looked me straight in the eyes and just thanked me over and over again.
As I walked up the hill the smile on face broke into almost complete laughter. The rush of emotion that flowed through me was like nothing I had ever experienced. Here I was just out skating around town and God had shown me a way to storm the ramparts of the barriers surrounding me and share His love. A prayer warrior was unleashed!
As I made my way down Sharpe Street toward Center Street my mind was racing. I had never thrown that much caution to the wind with my faith and now that I had it felt so amazing. Just in that simple act of praying for those people a whole new world of possibilities of sharing the love of the Father and his Son came into view and I was in awe of how it looked.
When I passed the AutoZone I recognized a gentleman in the parking lot that I had met a few weeks before while walking with a couple of friends downtown. We had spoken about church and had discussed the Cove Church and small groups. He looked as if he was having a hard time with his car as a technician from the store was looking under the hood.
You guessed it. That clear thought was there in my mind but this time it was highlighted in bold and underlined. “Go pray with him. He needs prayers.”
So there I went again. The parking lot was full of shade tree mechanics picking up their various parts for their weekend projects. If you have never been to an auto parts store on a Saturday it’s a sight to behold. There are cars in every level of condition in the parking lot, some being worked on right there, and a mass of people from all walks of life. It’s cool.
I walked over to the man, reintroduced myself and asked him how he was doing. He said he was fine but I could tell he was a bit frustrated that the part was not available or was too expensive. After a brief exchange he remembered our conversation about the Cove. I said to him that God had told me I needed to come over and pray with him and asked him if I could. While we had been standing there a couple of young boys about 10 years old or so where looking at my board and I had let them ride on it on the sidewalk. The man with them was watching as I was talking to the person I had stopped to see and as I began to pray I could hear him hush the boys. When I finished praying and looked up I realized that everyone close to us had just stopped where they were and had lowered their heads with us. Again that rush of joy surged through me and I left thinking to myself that this was awesome.
I was getting a bit tired and was getting closer to home but needed to stop and “Tweet” my latest location (“Tweet” is the term used for posting your status on “Twitter”). You see I was still playing “Where’s HammerHead Skating now?” I sat down on the wall by the vacant lot on Front Street and began texting away. I had carried a water bottle with me and was milking the last few drops of it when two ladies, what appeared to be a mom and grown daughter, walked down the hill from the Spur (or what ever the name of the gas station is now) toward me. As they got to me the younger one noticed my tattoo on my forearm of the Celtic knot work and the cross and stopped to ask me about it. As I explained its meaning and the scripture that is part of it, Ephesians Chapter 6:10-17, once again I became embolden by God’s urging and I asked the ladies if I could pray for them.
This time there was no hesitation on their part so I tore into another prayer like the last two: Asking God to bless their every step, give them all they need, and remind them daily of His promise of eternal life offered through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. They thanked me and went on their way.
I started toward Mulberry Street to head home but looking across Front Street I decided to add another hill to my take for the day and after grapping a drink at the Spur I skated down Mulberry and made my way up past Mulberry School with the intention of riding back down it toward the house. As I reached the top a car pulled over beside me driven by a young lady and man in their 20’s. I am pretty scary looking and parts of that neighborhood are fairly sketchy so I was amazed a bit that they had stopped to ask for directions to a park. A park? At 7:15 over in that neighborhood? You guys are lost I thought.
As we stood there the man started asking me about my skateboard, where did I get it, and had I ever surfed. Growing up I learn to surf with my older brother at Wrightsville Beach and out at Hatteras so I said yes and we talked a bit. By this time I figured I have prayed for everyone else so I might as well go for it. Again, after asking and the people agreeing I prayed that what ever this young couple was going through that God would lead them to what was right and safe, and that He would show them His love. You see, if they were looking for a park over there it was likely they were looking to buy drugs. I don’t know their circumstances but it is a pretty good guess I suspect. When I started to walk away the girl driving the car looked at me and thanked me.
I took off down Mulberry and for those of you that know that hill it’s faster than it looks and I had almost enough speed to roll a long ways up to the other side. I was smiling and just filled with God’s Holy Spirit but was exhausted and it was getting dark. I made my way up Mulberry past the community college and thought that I must be through praying by now. Then right in front of me I came upon a young couple and their two children in a side by side stroller heading toward the Spur. I intended on just saying hello and walking on by when the man stopped me wanting to see my board. He told me that he used to skate and still had a street board at his house that he messed around on a bit. I offered to let him ride it but his wife insisted he not. I guess she’s seen him “mess around a bit” on his board.
One thing lead to another and we began talking about church. They told me they went to a church I had not heard of and asked me where I went. I told them the Cove. He began talking about how the Cove was too contemporary for him but had heard good things. He went on to say that recently there had been a bit of controversy in his church over something and how he was a bit disillusioned with the whole thing. Well, you guessed it, new Sir Prays-a-lot was compelled to offer again. Here we stood me and the family of four in front of the college, heads bowed, and praying. Once again, I could feel God’s presence there and I was elated to be praying so boldly for Him.
I finally made my way to the house and sitting on my front steps “tweeting” my last hill, the long run down Mulberry/Oakhurst over to Kelly and back to Oakhurst at the bottom, I begin to count the number of hills I had skated during that game of “Where’s HammerHead Skating Now?” The total was 15. Then it hit me to count how many people I had prayed with during my route. That total was 14. Talking about busting your comfort zone wide open.
What is your comfort zone? What can you do to break out of it? It just takes that first step like the Israelites into the river Jordan when crossing over to the Promised Land. Once the first step is made God will hold the waters back and a whole new world can and will open for you as a Christ Follower. Become a prayer warrior unleashed. Take that first step and watch God tear the walls of your comfort zone down.
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