The Sailors Family

As you will be able to tell, I love to fish. It brings me life and makes me feel closer and loved by God. This last trip found me and a friend from my Band of Brothers on the Broad River below the Greenway fishing for Smallmouth Bass…it was great fun wading through the water. If you have never done it, please go. Find what makes you come alive and go…go live and enjoy life. Your family will be grateful you did and if you listen, I bet you will hear and feel God’s pleasure in what you are doing. Need permission? God created you for it.

We really enjoyed our time. It was great to be able to talk about God and our relationships with freedom while in that setting. The outdoors brings truth and life into a man. Adam was not created in the Garden but outside and there is something wild calling to everyman that beckons him to movement. Me and my friend felt it and God’s love surrounded us and I know speaking for my own heart, I felt love and healing. Plus, I caught a bunch of fish..

Some of our guys from the NWA community went to Alaska over the last week. I was supposed to go, but as I am learning in my walk with God, I ask permission first and never felt God say go. So I stayed, quite bummed out but moving on.

Anyhow, tonight I went with one of the wives to pick up her husband who had to come in early due to a wedding and we arrived at the Airport 45 mins early. We were setting at the baggage claim watching the people. Let’s just call them Airport people for the time being. They we busying themselves with all types of things…checking arrival times, getting their baggage having reunions. Those types of things.

There was this one girl (the girl with the key lime pies) who kept moving. She was going from one side of the baggage claim area to the other…back and forth..she dropped her pies at one point but kept on going. There was no stopping her…she is probably actually still going back and forth as we speak..

Then there was the classic pimp guy..I kid you not..total white suite with a red feather in his cap. Gold teeth, the whole bit…(really a sad situation here)

To our left was the Asian contingency. I bet they had $10,000.00 in electronics that were not bigger than this computer screen. They had a Mac and what I swore was an Iphone..although I didn’t think they were out yet…

Young lovers…excited to see each other were everywhere. It was quite sickening actually except for this really old couple..they were cute

The Airport is a real melting pot for sure..

but to my point..

The Airport People….not the normal type of people like above..but the folks that are zeroed in on nothing else but their task of getting to their seat in the plane. Nothing else matters..they are like robots and must wear blinders. They move fluidly..you’ve seen them, they are not hard to spot…they are the ones gliding as if on a cushion of air. They are the Airport Professionals. Almost formless with hardly an expression. Just moving forward..

Well, not going to get out of this one without a Spiritual Truth..

We cannot live our lives like the “Airport People” with out blinders on, only moving forward. There is a large lie in our society that that is all there is. But it’s not true..God has created us for the reunions; for the embrace of lovers; for the Mac computers, right JP and for the love of Key Lime Pies..(don’t think I can weave the pimp in here…) He has created us for so much more…I am always finding something new!

Do you know your more?

I love to fish and fulfilled a dream today. I have always wanted to go fishing on a boat in a big lake for Bass. Only done it once and have not had an opportunity since. Today me and a buddy went to Lake Norman and fished top water and had a few Gars hit but the Bass were slow so we went to flipping green worms in and around boat docks. We hit a few good fish. I have the good old story of the one that got away. Had to be at least 4lbs.

It’s really cool to be able to walk with guys like my buddy BT. He’s an awesome guy that loves the Lord and wants to walk closer with him, not only in his personal life but in his relationships, his job and around his community. He is making a difference and God has really done a work in his life. I am so glad he is my friend and so glad he is a part of New Wilderness Adventures.

Have you ever seen laugh wrinkles? My father loved to smile and loved to laugh. Dad had a sunburst of them around his eyes! He was a very funny person. He could always find the lighter side of things. Not because he was using that to hide but because it was his authentic personality. He loved his family. He loved to find little quirks or funny asides about everything and it never got old because it was never meant to hurt anyone or poke fun at them. We laughed a lot in our house. We’d do crazy things like “pop our fat.” I know, silly right or we would sling our legs. Not an easy mental picture, but it was great fun. We’d watch cartoons…Bugs and friends mind you with a little Flintstones thrown in. He’d find little things about the Braves games or the Tar Heel games very funny and just start smiling and chuckling to himself, oblivious to the world around him; especially at old snurlenose (inside joke.) We’d ask what he was laughing at and he’d just shake his head then we’d be laughing at him.

People respected my father. They wanted to be around him and wanted to know what he would say. Dad was very outspoken, especially when it came to something that was hurting his family or his church. He would defend and speak out on things that were opposed to the Kingdom of God. He was a man in action not just a motionless word in the wind.

Young men and children wanted to be around my dad. Dad had wonderful stories and songs would father anyone who would let him. He would love them well and give them a map in which they could see the next steps on the journey. They would come for advice or just to be cheered up.

There were many of my friends who didn’t have father or had un-engaged fathers who pretty much lived at my house. Not just because of dad but mom too. Our house was community central because of the attitude of love and welcome that was so prevalent and needed. Our home was safe for them.

I know all this sounds a little fuzzy and unreal but it is all true and I know not at all the norm. We did of course have some rough spots…disagreements. See, I was always right and so was dad, so we clashed a little but even in those times of disagreement there was love and instruction.

I miss dad. He died in 1999 and it’s funny now that I am a dad how much I think about him. I packed him away neatly for 7 years hardly thinking at all about him and now there is not a day that goes by that I am asking myself how he would have done this or that or how I wished I could talk to him. Not just because I’m a dad now but also because of the change that has went on in my life over the last 3-4 years. When I think of a Godly man. I think of my dad and I pray that the Lord of host is keeping him busy because I know he will work till Jesus comes!

Friends, the Heavenly Father is our true Father. He is and will father you to completion. Even if you had a father was un-engaged or wounded you greatly there is hope and healing available. Some of you didn’t have a father at all. Christ came to do a major work of resoration in our lives. Consider this:

Isaiah 61

The Year of the LORD’s Favor

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, ^[a]

2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,

3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor

But not only this but to set us free to go and do likewise. So, go! Do! Fellow the Son who honored the Father!

Kryssy was feeding Jackson tonight. I saw a gleam in his eyes. It was really cool to see and God spoke a quick word. He said, “Live with that gleam in your eyes!” Take a look. My boy is the beloved son. I admire him often. I love to watch him explore things, his toys, his surroundings and new things. If he gets fussy, all you have to do is introduce something new and bam…10-15 minutes of bliss. Like tonight! I gave him the proverbial cardboard box. Bliss! It was awesome to see him play with it. Then mommy came home and apparently he had eaten some of it. Doah! Daddy is in trouble; thankfully he has thus far survived. But back to the story. In John Eldredge’s The Way of the Wild Heart, he explains that the masculine journey has stages, Boyhood, Cowboy, Warrior, King, Lover and Sage. Sometimes these stages overlap or for some they get all jumbled up. In the Boyhood stage, which my son is in there is the great need for the child to know that they are the “Beloved Son!” Jack is.

Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of your eye.

I don’t want him to loose his gleam. I know the world and “common sense” would say that it will not last. Mine didn’t, but I just refuse to believe that the gleam has to go. My feelings are that if anything comes to snatch that gleam away or to hurt my son..well, words cannot express how I will defend and protect my son and try to restore it. But I want to encourage all of you; even if your sons or daughters are older than 9 months and things have happened to them or even to you and you might not see that gleam quite so bright, it doesn’t matter because it is recoverable. Consider Eldredge’s comments:

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We needn’t wander in a fog. We don’t have to live alone, striving, uncertain, angry. We don’t have to figure life out for ourselves. There is another way. Wherever we are in the journey, our initiation can begin in earnest. Far better for us–and for those who have to live with us, who look to us–to rediscover the stages and honor them, live within them, raise our sons through them. Which brings us back to our predicament: who us going to do this for us?

So, who is going to do this for us? Read the book! You’ll really enjoy it, but in short; it is solely and ultimately up to you! As much as I want to protect and defend the gleam in Jackson’s eyes all I can do is, as God spoke to me, “live with that gleam in my eye!” I have to live by example, defend what is right, leave marks on the trail that he can follow and to love my wife and my friends, protecting and providing for their spiritual, physical, mental and relational health.

So, as hard as it is: here son, you do it!

I love waterfalls. My brother and I went out west several years ago going through the Pacific Northwest and some of Canada. It was all so beautiful but I believe my favorite spot of all, although we saw many awesome sites like: Seattle, Hurricane Ridge, Mt Hood, St. Helens, Mt Rainer, Pacific Ocean among many Hedges and the beautiful Victoria and Vancouver. But to reiterate, my favorite spot of all was Multnomah Falls (left). It was very powerful and so breathtaking. You ought to see it for yourself. The bridge is very mythical. Seems to lead to adventure untold. I could go into how it transcends things etc…but will spare you this time and just say soak in God’s beauty for it is good and pleasing. Like my beautiful wife. Below we are at South Mountain Park near by where we live. Jack is 4 months here (I think) and very tired as was daddy after hauling him all the way up that trail. Anyhow, I love to go waterfalling.. there’s my plug!

The last few days NWA has been running a Wilderness Camp for the YMCA. We fish, canoe, shoot skeet among some other things. It’s a lot of fun and the kids really love it.

I was really struck today by the kids that had never caught a fish. They were so intent. Some just wanted to catch a fish for the sake of saying they did then they were on to their IPods but for a few of them it was one of the most important moments of their lives. This one kid was the smallest of the bunch. Very smart kid, a dreamer and probably 10 or so among 9-12 year old kids. His excitement was exhilarating. When he caught his first fish he let the whole lake know. Actually before he caught his first he had many bites and missed a few and had play by play for everything. I helped him learn to cast correctly and to get ready to catch a fish, paying attention to what was happening and to be eagerly expectant. When he was ready the next time the bobber went under, he had it.

You know, I didn’t have to show him again. He even showed a few others. He got it.

It’s a really funny thing about us guys. We learn something and we stick with it. Now I really don’t think this young man will only be defined by catching a Brim by learning to be expectantly ready for a bite. But many men will. It might happen in their job or church or family. They will find something that works and let it define them.

Well friends, there is more about you than you realize. Christ’s redeeming work in your life changes everything. Not only removing the junk in our lives, healing us and reshaping us but also unlocking parts of our lives that we didn’t even know existed. For example, did you know that that thing you are really good at is what God really wants you to do with you life? Or did you realize that God wants you to draw away from time to time and enjoy doing the things (fishing, hunting, sports etc..) that you love to do? He does and you should.

That little boy today has a bright future. He is eager, he feels like he can do anything and wants the help to learn to do it. I pray that the people around him will keep encouraging him and not discourage him with their false realism and the whole posture of “I just don’t want him to dream too big” attitude.