A Conversation Between Friends

An article by Jason    No Comments

Yesterday was kind of an odd day for me.

It was one of the first days in a long time where I started to feel myself slip back to the “old me” with stress and insecurity and self concern coming to the surface. Luckily I told my wife. She then proceeded to rally the kids together and gave me a big cheer. Yup, a real genuine cheer with pom-pom’s and all – and no, she isn’t a cheerleader . Either way, it made me smile and helped me feel a little better.

Then on my way home a crazy, intense lightning storm hit our area in Roswell / Marietta. It was dark and visibility was like 20% out of the car window. Streaks of lightning were everywhere. I actually heard later that it was 1,000 strikes in 15 minutes! I told my wife when I got home, I felt like God was fighting for me. He was sending down bolts to show me His power and that He is in control. Sure I suppose it could have been just another storm, but for me, it was a little more.

Then, this morning on my way into work, there were these beautiful beams of morning sunlight shining through the overhead of the tree’s onto the roadway. They dotted my drive with bright light and  you could kind of see fog between the light if you looked at the right angle. I felt instant peace and saw it as a sign. A sign that things were going back to God. It felt like God was telling me my struggles from the day before – about telling others my story and not hiding it from the world are things of the past. He wants me to do it, at least for now.

Now fast forward to today.

I got an email from an old High School friend who I’ve reconnected with on FB. We comment on each others status here and there, but today her note was extra special. I think God was trying get involved.

I asked her if I could include parts of our conversation here on the blog. Thankfully, she agreed.

So, below is a simple short conversation between two old friends who had never talked about faith before. It’s about me being nervous sharing my story with others, her reading my story, and then it sparking up a conversation we never would have had otherwise. (God is great like that).

Her Original Note:

“It is so interesting that you are going through this transformation. I have been struggling with this for years. Things have started to come together recently but I still have issues with “church”. where we live there is a lot of hypocrisy and judgement involved so we just keep searching. I tell people I am “home churching” my kids! lol Just wanted you to know that I think you are reaching people and your honesty and openness about the process is refreshing and inspiring.
Thanks!!”

My Reply:

“Wow!!!
Thanks for sending the email. I feel humbled and happy any of my gibberish was enlightening in any way.

I admit, part of me doing this is letting others know how amazing they can feel with a simple effort of letting go of ego and self and letting something bigger than us lead the way.

It’s really the opposite of what our culture teaches us (what I thought most of my life). It wasn’t like I was a bad guy or anything, in fact I’d say I was an alright guy with compassion and all. But you know how we all have these conversations inside our own head with ourselves throughout the day, well, mine is now being replaced with conversations with God.

Sure He’s pretty new to me and I don’t really know what to do or say sometimes, but I believe it’s given me so much more strength by not focusing on myself and focusing more on Him. It’s brought peace in my life where I never thought I’d really have any (work and projects, life, etc.). Daily struggles are somedays non-existent for me. Of course I got problems, and definitely have weaknesses, but if I “give it up to God” (that’s my what I say to myself when I feel the ole’ back tighten up), I quickly feel a relief I’ve never felt before. Pretty amazing really, at least for me personally. I feel a solemn sense of joy most of the time now. Joy beats happiness hands-down. Happiness to me is fleeting and can come and go as it pleases. But joy is ongoing and consistent. It can fill you up and stay, not giving you much room for anything else.

As far as Church goes. You are speaking to the choir on judgement and hypocrisy which can infest themselves in the greatest of places. I was (and try not to be so much anymore), a judge. I was a number one critic and pretty good at it I thought. I definitely had things figured out. I could see wrong from right and was first in line to point it out, especially at a Church when I saw it. Now… being on the other side of that urge of “self”, I try my hardest to not judge. I see now that it’s within ourselves where we feel wronged about things sometimes. Not saying things out there aren’t real, but I swear there is evil, and what it wants most of all is for us to call out others – especially at a Church when someone is doing something that might not be “God-like”.

That’s really the bad guys winning. It’s us deciding we can judge others. When the truth is, we are all broken. We all mess up. We all think things we shouldn’t. I guess the goal is to try our best to want and become more like Jesus. He didn’t care what others did. He wanted to help them change, not judge. Trying to focus on Him makes us humble.

In a way, Christ followers get a bad rap (I know, I was one of the talkers). They are expected to not make any mistakes, which is really pretty impossible. Nobody is perfect and the more we believe that, the easier it is to look beyond their issues.

Now about the Church itself… so in my mind, I’ve found a great Church. I tried attending some and I didn’t like any of them really. In the end, they weren’t a right fit for me personally or at that moment at least.

The Church we found here in Atlanta is a “seeker” church. It actually focuses on the un-churched. So for me, it was SO much more approachable. I would recommend that you try to listen to Andy Stanley. He’s the main man from Northpoint Community and Buckhead Church (our church) and he’s got an amazing way to make you see a unique perspective on things. The sermons are amazing and took me from a regular human to a trusting Christian in about 6 months.

That an something called Starting Point which is a weekly exploration of the Bible and it’s themes that our church offers. It’s for people like my wife Samantha who grew up with it, but then left it in her college years and are coming back to God – and – for a guy like me who has no experience, is skeptical and only wants to see logic in stuff.
Their motto – “To build a growing relationship with Jesus Christ”. Basically, it’s 100% personal. It’s not about others, it’s about YOU and God working it out.

Andy Stanley is fairly well-known and there’s tons of Churches that model themselves after his style and approach. There might be a satellite Church version near you somewhere which might be worth checking out. Again, every Church has a different approach and the one BIG thing we learned is that it’s personal. It’s a personal relationship with we need, not a just religion.Anyone can check it off the to-do list one day a week.

Buckhead does post videos and podcasts all the time (each week). Andy the main guy has been out most of the summer traveling, but there is one really good sermon called “How good is good enough”. It’s what I used to think – that being good was the right thing to do, but after hearing him explain things, I see it’s kind of a joke we talk ourselves into. Anyway – if you go here and scroll to the one I referenced I think it’s pretty cool stuff.
http://www.buckheadchurch.org/messages

Another good one is “Taking Responsibility for Your Life”.

Oh yeah, and I by no means do I really know much at all. In fact, I’m probably the worst person to talk to about Churches just because my experience is so limited. The only thing I can offer is my own experiences, and that didn’t come with a manual!
But… funny enough my post today WAS about to define what you think Church is, kinda funny. http://jasoncolbydavenport.com/?p=72

Cheers and I’d love to keep the conversation going whenever you want.
- Jason”

So, there you have it. God works in funny ways sometimes. But from what I’ve seen over the last few months, opening yourself up to others at a personal level is leaps and bounds better than a surface relationship. I’ve had over 30 years of those, I’m ready for some real stuff now.