Out of My Mind

Last Sunday, Amber and I were sitting on the couch watching a professional football game. One of the commentators just went off on how much he loves Thanksgiving - really because of food and football.

He said, “I love Thanksgiving. You get to eat and watch football, and eat some more and watch football, and eat some more and take a nap. It’s like the greatest day ever. How could it get any better than that. Thanksgiving is like the greatest day ever!”

Amber was sitting there with me and laughed, “Oh that is such a man’s perspective.”

It is Thanksgiving morning as I write this, and she has gotten up, straightened up the house (I helped), prepared the turkey to roast. I prepared a smaller one to smoke on the grill. She has planned and strategically coordinated the cooking and eating schedule with her mom. It is a real science. She seems to be fine, but so far I don’ think it would be classified as the best day ever!

As for me, I am ready for a little food and football. Oh what a great day, at least from a man’s perspective. Oh ladies, don’t worry, I will help clean up the dishes.

God bless. Happy Thanksgiving!

I don’t really cry a lot, but yesterday I had tears in my eyes. On Monday, my family had some pictures taken by Tim Brown, a really good photographer and friend. So Friday morning, Amber and I sat down with Tim and Michelle (his wife) to view the pictures. He basically showed a slide show of our session from the beach complete with background music.

I can’t describe what happened as I viewed the images on the screen. It was like watching a movie starring my family. We had some of the nice posed portrait pictures, but then we had a lot of candid, fun, laughing pictures as well. It was so cool. The pictures seemed to tell a story of the life of my family, and I just began to cry. I am not quite sure why. Part of it was realizing how the time is passing by. Eli is now a teenager, growing up. Jonathan and Hannah are no longer babies. Another emotion was just gratitude - grateful for my family, grateful for life, grateful for every good thing God has allowed me to experience. Watching that slide show became a moment of worship to my God as I thanked Him with tears in my eyes.

I left that session with a full heart. I called a friend to tell him how much he meant. I wrote an email thanking someone I wanted to thank. I slowed down and enjoyed the day. I hugged my kids a little harder and let them know how much they meant to me. I watched a movie with my son Jonathan. I celebrated life and lived it as well as I could yesterday. It may all sound a little corny and emotional to you, but I find that the older I get - the more emotional I am becoming. My heart it a little softer, but it lets me appreciate life a little deeper.

How great are those moments when you really come in touch with the goodness of God, and the gift of life that he has given. Have you had any of those moments lately? Have you had any moments lately where life stood still, and you just soaked it in? If we let it, those moments can be an incredible occasion for worship! What ya think?

(I had to come back and edit this one after some insight from Charity.  Thanks Charity!)

Hi, I am David, and I am a recovering people pleaser. Much of my life I have sought for the “praise of men.” I wanted to succeed because it felt good to have others praise me and complement me. It gave me an identity.

I live in the same small community I grew up in where I have pastored a church (www.sscommunitychurch.com)for the last 8 years. I know a lot of people in this area. God has blessed our ministry here and the church has grown. You can only imagine how that has fed the “people pleaser” in me. It has felt good to see this church grow - sometimes it has felt way too good. This is an area that God has been dealing with in a pretty big way over the last few years. I am seeking to care way more about what God thinks, and less about what others think.

God has his ways of making us deal with these issues, and boy he made me deal with it the other night. I heard a quote that said, “To inoculate me to the praise of man, God baptized me in the criticism of man so as to deliver me from the fear of man.” While it has been a joy seeing God at work at St. Simons Community Church over the last few years, my world has certainly shrunk. You can get to a place in a small town where everyone knows your business, or at least has an opinion of your business. As a pastor of a growing church, sometimes it feels like you have nowhere to run and hide. The more we have grown as a church, the harder it is to always please everyone. God has used this to strike at my people pleasing tendencies.

Then the other night, God used a circumstance in one of my children’s lives to make me and my wife deal further with our own junk. One of my children got a little aggressive in their athletic contest. I didn’t think it was over the line, but it was certainly pretty aggressive. Well the parents on the other team thought it was across the line and started calling out my child’s number telling him to reign it in. I could tell it hurt him. After the game, a mom from the other team came up to me and Amber. She goes to church with us and said she was defending our child. She said to the parents on her team, “That is my pastor’s child.” Well, they all wanted to know who her pastor was, and just what in the world kind of church was he running? (It wasn’t said quite like that, but you get the drift.)

How small do you think this little community felt all of a sudden? We weren’t just a nameless face seeking to make a difference for God. I am a pastor who is known by more people than I would care to be know by at times.   My call or mission from the Lord is no more important than every Christian out there who is seeking to serve the Lord.  As a pastor though sometimes, you feel like you are in the direct spotlight.  It is hard to feel like you can make a mistake or have a bad day without your spiritual commitment being called into question.  You can imagine the devil had a hey day with our emotions on the way home. We really felt our child had not acted maliciously. We talked with him about it, and he was frustrated that other parents felt he was playing unfair. He was upset they were calling his number out, and yelling at him. It was a tough night for all of us.

Amber and I talked about it though, and realized that our reputations are in the hands of God. We know we are not perfect parents, but we are very proactive. We teach, talk, encourage and discipline constantly. We do not dismiss wrong behavior, but our children are not perfect. They have struggles too.

The next morning, Amber and I decided not to listen to Satan’s taunts. Instead, we decided to turn it around and find the victory of God in that moment. We turned on a worship CD and praised God in the valley. We praised him for His work in our lives, and the lives of our children. We praised and worshiped Him, knowing that He is in control. It became a holy moment of sweet surrender and trust to our Lord Jesus. We praised Him from the valley and Jesus actually turned it into a mountain - a place of grace and joy. What started to feel like a defeat became a victory - a little more freedom from people pleasing. And that felt good! It still does!

Do you praise Him in the valley? Have you ever had a moment when God turned your valley into a mountain top? Be blessed,

DY

Each week has both Highs and lows. So here are my highs and lows over the last week:

The Georgia - Florida Game. As a Dawg fan, it was pretty awesome being in the stadium with my two sons and my dad. The fans for both sides were fired up, and the game was intense. It was an electric atmoshphere. I have never enjoyed a game so much in all of my life. Go DAWGS! This was a HIGH!!!

My dog Shep ate my IPod! Yeah, you read it right. Some dogs eat homework, and others eat IPods. In my opinion, the IPod is perhaps the greatest invention in all of history so I was pretty bummed. I was hoping I could at least yank on Shep’s tale and hear a Third Day song, or have him recite a podcast or something. No such luck. He didn’t actually swallow it, but he demolished it. If it were not for the kids, that dog would be history. This was definitely a LOW!!!

My Fantasy Football Team won - finally. After winning my first two games, I was thinking I could run the table only to lose 5 straight games. That was almost as bad as having the dog eat my IPod. But I finally got back on the winning track. I had forgotten what the sweet taste of victory was like. This was a HIGH!

My son Jonathan had an awesome 35 yard touchdown run in his Little League football game the other night. It was a sweep to the right - he broke a tackle, juked out a man, and then cut it back to the left all the way across the field and beat a man to the corner of the end zone. It was sweeeeeet!!! That’s my boy. Well, what would you think - a high or a low. HIGH Baby!!!

I prayed with a guy to receive Christ at the end of our 8 oclock service. We had a video testimony from one of our members, Kevin (see the link to the video at end of post) . At the end of the service, I just mentioned that I felt like there was someone here that may need to come and know Christ. Well Kevin ended up front with his friend Brian. And Brian who has been struggling with recovery issues was ready to trust Christ. Major High. Ministry is about changed lives!!!

I keep trying to think of more lows, but it has been a great week. I have met with God, spent time with my family, seen God at work in the people around me. I give Him thanks. And even though the dog ate my IPod, I give Him thanks. It doesn’t hurt that I ordered another one off the internet, and it already arrived (HIGH!!!).

Life is full of emotional highs and lows. I know that next week, I may have more lows than highs, but I plan to praise and give Him thanks any way. Next time, I want to share with you a time where my wife and I sought to turn a valley into a mountain with God’s help.

Will we praise Him in the valley like we will when we are on the mountain? I would love to read some of your highs and lows this week. How was it for you? Where do you see God at work this week? What did you enjoy this week? What bothered you this week? Hope to hear from you.

DY

http://www.sscommunitychurch.com/kevin-adkinson-changed-lives/

This is my first official blog, and the world will never be the same!!!!

If you continue to read this blog, I guarantee that you will become better looking, smarter, closer to God, richer, and pretty much the envy of all of your friends. So as you can see, you will probably want to drop by pretty often. Really, I am not just trying to get you to come back by making a bunch of cheesy promises that I cannot actually deliver on…

Okay, maybe I am. I actually can’t guarantee any of the following, but I hope something that I say somwhere along the line might strike a chord in your heart. I hope I can stir something inside of you that might make you think a little differently. That is in part why I have titled this blog “Out of My Mind.”

This blog is called “Out of My Mind” because:

• As a pastor, husband, and father of three, I sometimes feel that I have completely lost it and I am totally out of my mind. That will be quite evident if you choose to come back and visit often (which I highly suggest by the way - just in case you were wondering).
• Every good thought, creative thought, stupid thought, humorous thought, boring thought, and every other thought you read here will have come out of my mind. Well I may steal/borrow some ideas from time to time, but they will at least have come through my mind. You get my drift though. This is a place where I can share what I have been thinking about and chewing on and then do some verbal vomit. I will give you a minute to get over that mental image and then continue.PAUSE

  Okay are you ready again.

• Last of all, the scripture tells us that we have received the mind of Christ. A major goal of the Christian life is to learn to think differently so we can therefore live differently. Proverbs says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)  We need to get out of our minds and into the mind of Christ. I am learning more and more how much “stinking thinking” I have had and lived with for such a long time. I am tasting some new freedom in my heart and my mind. I am learning to get out of my mind. Hopefully some of the insights I share may be a real encouragement to you. So what do you say, are you ready to get out of your mind with me???????

As I close my first blog, let me give a shout out and a little link love to a few of my peeps who work with me at St. Simons Community Church. They call me Trumps because I get to wear the pastor/leader hat, but these guys are good friends and a lot of fun to hang out with. Two of the guys lead our technology department at the church, and the other is our Director of Worship. These guys are all pretty tech saavy so they are all geeked up about my first blog. So I dedicate this first blog to my mom and these three guys.

Now here is the link love fellas:

Props to Fred McKinnon, aka Blog boy. You are the source of my blogging inspiration.

Props to Travis Paulding, longtime friend and soon to be first time father. Enjoy the sleep while you can.

Props to Chris Moncus, who was a big help getting this site off the ground. Thanks for the excitement man. This blogs for you!

Props to Mandy Thompson - from what I understand, she is the blogging queen in B-Town.

Hey guys, I am outta here. But come back by Thursday. I will put up a post that you will not want to miss!

DY