I honestly don’t pay a ton of attention to my @ replies on twitter…but for the past several weeks I’ve seen a theme occurring that I do feel like I want to address. And it’s this…
For the past several Sunday nights I have twittered something like this when I get home, “Today was one of the most amazing days in the history of our church,” or, “This was one of my most favorite days ever” or even “I am overwhelmed and amazed and what Jesus is doing in our church right now.”
And…some of the questions/responses have gone something like this…
- “Why do you always say that?”
- “It can’t really be as good as you are saying.”
- “Aren’t you overhyping things?”
- “Everything you guys do can’t be that ‘awesome’ or ‘epic!’”
I could go on and on…but I think you get the point. And…I think this is something worthy of responding to…and so I will say to those who may question the authenticity of my tweets…I am so sorry that your life/church happens to be so normal that you hardly ever have anything significant to celebrate.
You see, the people who question the authenticity of consistant celebration would probably have zero problems if I tweeted things on Sunday nights such as…
- “Today sucked!”
- “Today at NewSpring Church nothing happened…it was business as usual.”
- “Today I was scared out of my mind to speak the truth…so I did my best to make everyone feel good about themselves.”
- “I hate my life!”
For some reason in the “Christian community” we seem to mourn very well together…but cannot seem to celebrate with people on a consistant basis.
Here’s the deal…I turn 40 next month. 40!!! That’s a big deal for me…it’s began to impact the way I am thinking…especially when I consider that my mother died when she was 49. WOW! What if I only have nine years left? What if I have already lived over half of my life?
God chooses what we go through in life…we choose how we go through it. And so…I’ve decided that for the rest of my life I am going to embrace the day that the Lord has blessed me with…I am going to seize it with an intense focus…and I am going to celebrate each epic moment that Jesus allows me to experience.
And…for the record…EVERY Sunday for the rest of the history of NewSpring Church will be EPIC and worthy of celebration.
- Every Sunday the Bible will be preached…HIS Gospel will be declared…and Scripture promises us that His Word will NEVER return void (Isaiah 55:8-13)...that’s EPIC!
- Every single time ONE PERSON surrenders their lives to Christ I/we will celebrate it like crazy…because that person has crossed over from DEATH to LIFE…that’s supernatural…that’s EPIC! (AND…in Luke 15 we see the angels throwing a party over ONE!!!)
- Every single Sunday people are convicted of sin and confess and repent…that’s EPIC as they take one more step in their journey with Jesus.
- Every single Sunday children learn about Jesus in an environment that is custom designed for them…that’s EPIC as I believe the next generation will lead the greatest awakening this world has ever seen!
- Every single Sunday here in America we have the freedom to gather together as a body of believers for the purpose of worshipping Jesus…that’s EPIC as many of our brothers and sisters all over the world do not have that same freedom!
- Every single Sunday as the Scripture is taught people are given HOPE…that’s EPIC as we live in a world that tries to rob us of our hope!
I could go on and on…but reality is that if we do not see EVERY SINGLE DAY as EPIC…as a gift from the MOST HIGH GOD and then EMBRACE it with passion and persistance…then…we become normal…and normal really does suck!!!
I don’t want to live a normal life!
I don’t want to have a normal church!
And so…as long as the Lord allows air to be in my lungs I am going to find reasons to celebrate…and when I find them I am going to blog about them, tweet about them and preach about them.
I refuse to wallow and mire in mediocrity…and I refuse to allow those who cannot celebrate crash my party and talk me out of living the rest of my life with a view of God that allows me to CELEBRATE my life rather than hate it.
- He saved me!
- He called me!
- He forgave me!
- He has blessed me!
- He blessed me with with an amazing wife!
- He blessed me with an awesome little girl!
- He blessed me with unbelievable friends!
- He allows me to serve the greatest church on the planet!
- He has given me a home that has running water, electricity and I have food in my cabinets!
- He has given me more than I could EVER imagine!
- He’s an EPIC God…His church IS EPIC…and I will use the platform He has given me for the rest of my life to CELEBRATE His goodness.
So…this Sunday night there will be more tweets…about how amazing the service was…about how good God is to me and our church…and how I really do believe the best is yet to come!
I love this life that He has blessed me with…it’s EPIC!!!