Just the Start

I’m Jason Davenport.

I was one of those people who thought they had it all figured out. Someone who thought science and undeniable proof was the bridge to logic and understanding in this world.

I wasn’t raised in a Church, nor to necessarily follow God.

I was definitely one of those doubters you run into form time to time.

Really the whole topic just made me kinda laugh.

I thought the world was about stuff, life and death.

Now that I think about it, that all sounds pretty lame.

I guess the change began when I met the love of my life 14 years ago. A year later when we got engaged, Samantha made me promise to give God a chance. At that time, it was just another thing to agree to and figure out later. I didn’t even really know what the heck a Christain really was, but hey – for her… I think I can.

Now fast forward through another 12 years of marriage and two kids later.

We tried a handful of churches, but nothing spoke to me. It was all I could to do to just get dressed up and sit there, much less trying to understand what everyone was talking about. I felt like an outcast even though nobody else really knew. But I knew for some unknown reason, I wanted my kids, my own flesh and blood to be raised going to Church. Now that probably sounds pretty ridiculous coming from a un-churched kind of guy. But I had at least enough common sense that if they started early, it would probably be easier for them to sit in one for an hour every Sunday than it was for me at my age. We just didn’t know how to make it work for both us AND them.

We’d been invited to Buckhead Church for I think about 3 years, but since we lived in East Cobb (the bubble), it seemed WAY too far to drive. Eventually I got so fed up with the stodgy church we’d been killing ourselves to visit that we finally decided to listen to Andy Stanley on podcast (head pastor hero at NorthPoint Community and Buckhead Church). After one sermon, I was pretty much hooked. At least enough to open my mind up and let some sink in. Andy had an amazing way of pulling all this stuff together and making it relevant to people like me (outsiders). So we kept listening for about 3 or 4 weeks. Finally, we said – OK- OK! We’ll try it and we made the trek.

Our kids, Ruby and Wilder, were troopers, even though they didn’t really know anybody. Thank heavens they are still young enough not too complain too much.

We pretty much realized upon our first visit this was no ordinary place. It was pretty much like a concert inside. No robes and holding hands, but some serious light shows and smoke. Yikes! I was a little thrown off even through I’d been told it was “modern”.

The messages continued to entice me and Samantha. I really found myself wanting more.

She talked me into trying Starting Point where I was introduced to the Bible for the first time.

It was an amazing experience. At first I was thinking, there’s NO WAY any of these people will understand my point of view. But luckily… I was totally wrong.

Our leaders Jon, Judi and Don were fantastic, as well as the others in our group. I was the only one who had absolutely no experience, but I think my genuine questions of “what?” all the time made people pause and give me some pretty darn good input.

That’s when I struggled with this new feeling I had growing inside me. Somehow I had gone from the “no way – yeah right” guy into the “well maybe – yeah I guess” guy. It wasn’t that all my questions were necessarily answered, they just kinda stopped mattering as much.

One morning as we studied our reading for that week, I had mentioned to Samantha how I was feeling scared and unsure about how to deal with the whole Jesus thing. She simply said “what have you got to lose?”. That rung in my ear all day long. So that night on my way home from work, I took a chance and reached out to Jesus directly for the very first time. I asked for guidance. I asked for him to come into my life. I said I wanted to know him better and get to a relationship going.

That was like the first day of my new life.

The weight seemed lighter instantly, but some of the other changes happened over the next few days and weeks. I quickly made my way from being a non-believer into being a guy with some crazy super powers. I can only describe it as the Holy Spirit who does not back down. It screams in my head all day long. I know it’s called a whisper when you read about it and I suppose as far as volume goes, it is a whisper, but it’s definitely on continuous play. It’s not letting down. In fact, it’s gotten so amazing that I feel like a whole new reborn and completely raw person now.

My daily struggles and worries with life have almost disappeared into thin air over the last few months. I honestly can’t think of much else during my days except for learning more about God. It’s the most enriching experience I could ever have imagined and feel like there’s no way anyone could understand what I’m even talking about. Luckily my wife has been stricken by this same “Jesus bug” and we’ve had a marvelous time discussing the deepest things in our lives until late at night, only to wake up early and start the discussion all over again. We can’t get enough.

So, this is a place where I’m going to share some thoughts, insights, inspirations, feelings, wishes, fears, secrets, prayers, and what ever else I can think of. I don’t expect to have a long line of visitors here, but need to somehow write some of this down or I think I’ll lose my mind.

So, if you are a un-churched person, or if you are a super churched person, hopefully you’ll see a little passion in these pages. I feel like I’ve got purity on my side and hopefully I can stay this excited for the rest of my life and shine off on others out there. It might be only the beginning…

PS -

I used to think that my life was just lucky.

But now I know, I was blessed.