Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The Gates...

Ya know I have some folks around me that just know what they should be doing but refuse and thus - they stay where they are - same paths over and over again. Doing what pleases them first and foremost. I am very blessed that God got a hold of me when He did. See my life was on the path that mostly everyone else is on. Making money - working and doing what pleases me. Just going through life with nothing exciting really happening. Scrap everyone else because I did not let many folks that close to me or that inner circle - you know what I am talking about here. My barrier was up and that gave me protection from getting hurt or getting too close to someone. Sure makes making friends hard I tell ya! Anyways - back in 2000 the doctors didn't think I was going to live. With Viral Meningitis and encephalitis - things did not look good. Kyle was 1 and when I got home from the hospital, which was a miracle in itself - I did not even know Kyle and did not have anything to do with him for a few months. I knew that God gave me the grace and the 2nd chance to be a good daddy and to learn His ways above my own. A few months before my mom was diagnosed with cancer - I again was having some problems and doctors told me they found a spot on my brain but they determined after many scans and scary stuff - big time prayers going on - it was scar tissue - even though they couldn't help me with my Vertigo. During the time my mom was sick and the 4 months of seeing things I never thought I would see - God really took my hand and led me through all this painful and hard stuff. I took the road less traveled and it wasn't easy loved ones. There are a few times in ones life where things change you. Sometimes for the good and sometimes not but God had me in His hands and I am where I am today because of Him - and because of my wife Carol - and because of my church and the prayers of my church family there and the prayers of my family. I want to make a difference and I want to share my life with those around me because I neglected many folks for so long. Who knows WHO I may have met long ago that would be in my life today. I can't live in the past and we all have regrets in life- have messed up and done things wrong. We live on and give those things to God so that we can move forward and not sitting paralyzed by our fears and our hangups.
I chose to take the narrow road - Jesus has shown me this path and it is my duty and my promises to my momma that I would include as many on that path as I can - especially my dad. I will do my best to show you the practical love of Jesus - I will help you do whatever I can within reason - but we will do this together. I am not the bank, nor loan money to whomever - there has to be more. Jesus would want more - when you come into His church do you think He just wants you to just come and visit? Would Jesus want you to walk out thinking about cutting the grass or the Yankee game? NO WAY!
He wants you to experience Him and experience Him in such a way that it changes your life. Sometimes that experience can take you down some roads that you wished you had never been. I lost my mom to get on the road I am on today. It breaks my heart and I may never fully recover from that - especially knowing all the hurting people that are in my life with a chance to correct that mistake in their own lives. Years of not talking over a few bucks or saying I can't deal with my children so don't bother me or a dad who walks out of a marriage and leaves the kids behind. I am blessed to be where I am today - to honor my son and my wife with everything I have. To give to my church my passion and desires to lead others to Jesus. I am forever changed by the people in my small group and how excited I am to hang out with them and do this life together. Their children are my children! I am forever changed because of my son Kyles - 3rd grade class.... those are my kids and there is nothing I would not do for any of them. I am very excited about this coming Thursday - I will reveal that later on. But its going to be AWESOME!!!
Love ones, sometimes that road is hard but if you focus your eyes on Jesus - He will show you things along that road that you would never of known and He will see you through that time. You may feel you're the only one on that road sometimes, but thats when the light of Jesus will shine its brightest through you - so that others may see - not you but Jesus in you.
Matthew 17
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

love you all -
Randy~

Quote of the Day
"In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest."– Henry Miller

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