This week I present to you the TOP 5 things that were on my mind when this picture was taken of me:
5. Do I look abnormally skinny in this uniform ?
4. Why am I so miserable ? Could it be that we only have Diet Coke to drink ?
3. If it weren’t for this handy-dandy nose of mine these ENORMOUS glasses would simply fall right off of my face !
2. One day this watch of mine is going to be a collector’s item.
1. I just can’t wait to get home so that I can listen to my hot new Ace Of Base CD !
Good Evening My Friends,
It’s Sunday night. It’s after 9 PM, and I just felt like posting one more blog entry for tonight before I retire to bed. Tomorrow is Columbus Day – a major Federal holiday here in the U.S. – or as this cat refers to it – ‘a fake holiday’ – a normal work day for Life Pointe Church staff.
This morning as I was driving southbound along the new-and-improved ’18-Mile-Stretch’ (U.S. 1 between Florida City and Key Largo) I was trying to figure out when was the last time I had driven down into the Florida Keys. It was nearly 22 months ago – about 3 weeks before I discovered Life Pointe Church for the first time. It was back during the final few days of December 2006 when I drove all the way down to Key West with my parents who were visiting me here in Homestead for the first time in about 18½ years.
Although it’s been nearly two years since I set foot in the Keys I was a fairly regular visitor for a good decade up until 2006. I mostly went down there to party – back when I used to that. In fact I used to party pretty much within a single mile of where our new campus is located at in Plantation Key (near Mile Marker 90).
There’s a lot of places I don’t go to anymore because of who I am today as a born-again Christian. The Florida Keys (to the south) and Orlando (to the north) are two such places that I no longer have a vested interest in. Well scratch that – because of our new Life Pointe Church campus down south. It felt weird returning to the scene of the crime after all of this time – just as weird as it felt returning to Orlando for a national Christian conference last April after previously abandoning everything that I had up there. My Life (always capitalized) has changed since then. Thanks Jesus for rescuing me from the darkness and saving me. I owe it all to You.
Well that’s ‘Bedtime Stories’ for this glorious Sunday night. Thank You for allowing me to share my Life with you, and until we hang out again – REMEMBER THIS !
1. If you’re looking for a good solid wrap-up of the goings-on of Life Pointe Church in Homestead Florida this morning then don’t look here. I wasn’t there. Neither was Travis, Kelly, Kourtney, McKenna, Blake, Alex, Ritz, or Gio. In fact they were all with me here:
2. It’s the brand new Plantation Key campus of Life Pointe Church – located exactly 38.5 miles southwest of my home in Homestead. Get ready for our official launch at this exciting new campus at 5 PM EST on Sunday November 09TH 2008. We’re gonna do a dry run of the 5 PM service on the Sunday before that (November 02ND), so be sure to check that out as well. I envision the devil hurriedly packing his bags and moving out of town once the Life Pointe crew takes over the joint. I envision a packed house for God on both of those Sundays and every Sunday from that point forward. A lot of people in that neighbourhood simply do not know Jesus Christ. I know this because I used to hang out in this area occasionally before I met Him myself. We’re gonna make it super easy for residents of Plantation Key and Key Largo to be introduced to The Lord Almighty.
3. Pastor Travis led a 10:30 AM service at our Plantation Key campus this morning, and it was deja vu as we were back in ‘the dip’ again. We were back with Habakkuk in the Old Testament, and we were reminded that we should listen, write, and wait. God’s delays are not his denials. We must avoid the proud (Habakkuk 2:4), the arrogant (2:5), the thieves (2:6), the murderers (2:8), the cheaters (2:9), the corrupt (2:12), the drunkards (2:15), the destructionists (2:17), and the false idols (2:19). Three words – ‘BUT THE LORD’. But the Lord is in his Holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. (2:20)
Last Saturday night we flashed back 35 years ago to 1973. This week I’m taking you even further back – on a trip to 1969.
As the year began I was 18 months old and beginning to walk alone – without braces (apparently due to pigeon toe / curved feet). I started the year in Selma Alabama (where I was born), but then we moved to Greenbelt Maryland (very near NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center). We lived in the brand new Chelsea Wood rental apartment complex on Greenbelt Road. 40 years later that apartment complex still stands, but they are now condominiums (privately owned). It looks exactly the same today (at least on the outside) as it did all of those years ago.
We lived in a first-floor unit, and I remember an early birthday party for me with a bunch of the local toddlers that was held right out front of our apartment building in the lush grassy area.
One of my lifelong wishes before it’s too late is to return to the Prince Georges County Maryland region of the Washington D.C. area for a few days. I’d like to spend some quality time retracing the early years of my life through the various neighbourhoods and communities that I lived in and spent a lot of time in for 11 years in Greenbelt, Bowie, Glenn Dale, Lanham, Seabrook, New Carrollton, and Riverdale. After all it was there where the trunk of my life was developed.
I’ve stated before that my childhood was for the most part forgettable and downright miserable; however, it wasn’t all a blur, and it wasn’t all bad either. There were a lot of good times that I experienced during those early years of my life, and I remember much of them to this day. Perhaps it was the good times that I have purposely chosen to remember after all of these years.
As a curious two-year-old toddler living in my apartment with my Mom and Dad I remember getting bathed in the kitchen sink. I also remember watching and enjoying “Rowan And Martin’s Laugh-In” every Monday night at 8 PM on NBC-TV. That was family night in front of the tube. The entire nation was watching.
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