I was working and so many ideas jumped into my brain while i was folding Tshirts… it was wild.
It occurred to me that God wants us all to work hard at something, even a very tedious task for long hours for a reason.
My reason is that when I work, my mind does some organising and dreaming.
dusty shelves and rude customers did a great job tonight in helping me look beyond this small job and onto the places i want to go, the man i want to continue becoming… and the choices i think will benefit me in the long run.
TO DO LIST:
I’ve been stepping outside of my regular lameness lately and God is showing me new and exciting things.
I’m excited to be braving a small, part-time business venture in which I do what i love. Share.
I’ll be sharing my skateboarding skills and also the love and hope, peace and purpose I’ve recieved through Christ Jesus with any little kid who’s parents will pay me to do so!
Just kidding. Well actually that IS how it works…
*I have been blessed by the Lord to have a very large, expensive land to share the Gospel in now. It is a magnet for skateboarders. Ladies and Gents, i present to you… the PARKER PARK!
Skate Lesson with 2 new students at 2pm in Cherry Creek
Pick up homey & drive to Bday party
Host my very first Bday skate-themed party for ten+ 9yr-olds. Complete with skate lesson, skate session, pizza, cake, trampoline, and lots of filming.
Take homey downtown, then halfway back.
Drive to Highlands Ranch (35 minutes from downtown) for Smallgroup.
-First off, I’m totally one to complain.
Second, if you factor in a 1/2 hour for drivetime between each of these events… there’s no possible way i could’ve made it to every engagement on time if my life depended on it.
I’ve learned through Life Hurts God Heals that i should shed this dangerous need to please everyone. So today i had my tantrum in the car and prayed:
“Damn… Ahhhhh! Lord, how can i possibly accomplish everything that needs to be done today unless you show up? Will you take care of me in this?”
I just decided to not freak out and wait for God to do his thing and take care of his kid…AKA Me.
I will just give away the surprise and let you know that today i got home after every battle, adventure, party, trek, and meeting exhausted, yet utterly at peace and in awe. God heard my earnestly frustrated prayer and he showed up today.
HOW?
I’ve felt ignored, but today Mark played a song that i referred, in church- so it was encouraging to say the least that I could see that I’m not totally invisible.
I hate leadership meetings where Travis Says, “I’ll keep this short…” because what’s the point of showing up if it’s not worth more than 10 minutes of our time? However, P.A. and Trav encouraged us about small groups and the meeting was a stoking gathering for our team(s).
Since God is abundant, he also reaffirmed my validity by allowing me to lead a song in Catalyst that I’ve asked about for months. We rehearsed it at band practice after church and i was stoked!
I then booked it to my lesson and met some siblings, Sydney and Jack, who got stoked on skating and hired me for next week to do another lesson. Praise God!
Picked up my longtime friend Casey, who assisted me with my Birthday party by filming it so we could make a memorable DVD for the family. Casey and I had lots of fun with all those little guys and he told me that he felt really welcomed and loved by the parents and kids. He mentioned, “I forgot what it’s like to be a little kid. To be so stoked and no nothing about skating. It’s like we’re giving back to the next generation of skaters and I would have loved this birthday party when i was nine.”
I took Casey home and then BOOKED It to smallgroup an hour late… only to find a welcoming family when i really expected to be resented because of my tardiness.Isn’t the body of Christ fabulous sometimes? Extending God’s unending love to me when i feel so undeserving of it.
Arriving home after chilling with Nate and Marlon and the girls from Aegis, our group my mommy and I got to recap my last few days and it’s always wonderful when she lovingly listens to every loose thought in my head. She’s a great listener and an encouraging source of strength and direction in my life. I’m taken aback by God’s plan. He put me in her womb, and He’ll take me to my tomb.
I NEVER journal, even though I live a life so highly blessed with FAVOR and purpose. It’s lame how I take God’s gifts for granted, so I’m just thankful that the LORD inspired me to recap this stupendous day, despite my regular habit of avoiding such a glorious activity. Now i can look back and say to myself or others,
“God has not walked away. In fact, He’s stepped into my world and stirred things up with his great love.”
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!
A few weeks ago i wrote about going down to 16th street and ministering to a few people.
Today after skating with a friend, I was going down 16th street’s mall towards the Denver Skatepark and i ran into Marcus again. He is a cynical man in his 50’s who finds joy and purpose and hope in playing his guitar and singin his guts out to the passersby or even the security guards at the bank that he frequently peddles outside of.
Instantly my heart sunk when i saw his cardboard sign…
“Guitar Broken, need money to fix it Please HELP”
I sat with marcus for 45 minutes and talked with him. He didn’t know how the neck of his guitar had cracked and then broken off, but he did know that he could not play and earn money ALL DAY.
It always seems as though being forbidden or prohibited from doing something that you love gives you all the more reason to relish in it and sing, play, skate, speak, or work all the more passionately.
Marcus could not play today and when I got to him i told him to cry. Let it out. Not to bottle it up.
As over 100 people walked by without a second thought, he sobbed.
His Life is hard. Not hard as in “my ipod car radio transmitter got slammed in the door of my new car and now i can’t listen to my new CD on the way to meet my friends who all have money-Hard”
That’s all Marcus has. He has a dark past, a dirt poor present, and no hope of a future other than maybe a new song to sing tomorrow.
I handed him my ipod Shuffle
(not my big ipod, just the one i use when I’m skating…how rich i am…)
-handed him the headphones and he listened to a few acoustic songs by Thrice and Jars of Clay, and then I remembered that he used to go to church in the 90’s so i skipped ahead to Hillsong’s “Awesome God”
Tears in his eyes, not knowing what to do with his hands, Marcus started to rock his noggin and lift his hands in praise to the God that he felt had abandoned him that morning. He started singing and didn’t even realize or care that some people walking by were getting a full volume/half drunk version of an outdated Christian song. He found an escape that brought him to remember who’s hands he was in.
He listened to it over again and shook my hand as he said for the sixth time in an hour, “What’s your name? I’m Marcus. Oh, Evan? Thanks brother.”
Our College Bible Study leader Aaron scheduled us all to go downtown in Denver and hand out Hamburgers and water to the homeless and pray for them last night.
We did. We met a few fun characters and people with really injured lives. To Chrissy’s surprise, the filthy giant black brother with the big smile didn’t mind that she’d already drunk half of the starbucks I offered him. He was stoked for more than water i suppose.
We met one dude who refused prayer then right as we walked away started firing off all kinds of prayers in tongues! That surprised me and I thought to myself… Oh yeah, people can be warriors for the Lord and live in the park downtown.
After another interaction between a few of us and a brother named Marcus, who played the guitar with passion and power at the foot of one of the tallest buildings in Denver,
we all regrouped and agreed that God used our little naive suburban church group to extend his provision, and His care to some fellow Earth-dwellers who may have been covered in dirt, but were no less loved in God’s eyes than us.
Right when everyone split up, i went to 7Eleven for some snackage and upon exiting the thriving convenient store, God blessed me with the highlight of the night. I was standing with some friends, and saw a girl my age with pink hair and some ragged garments frantically running to each trash can, peeking inside, and then scurrying a little more desperately to the next.
Hands full of food, i immediately ditched my compadres and skated after her.
Her name is Britney and she’s a 21 year old mommy from West VA. Her boyfriend waited a few blocks up the street with their little one named Miles. Miles is 2 years old and was born while their group was train hopping across the country.
Covered in dust and all unshaven, this family let me stay and talk with them for the next 4 hours. I was blessed for once to have enough money to buy us all some food, so we sat and talked/ate/played and skated with little Miles for a while and God broke my heart for them.
There’s a line in the Hillsong United’s tune Hosanna that begs “Break my heart for what breaks Yours.”
My Abba Father reminded me of how much I do have.
Nights like those are the ones that prove to me that God answers prayer and has a bigger scope of vision than I do. His viewpoint takes simple things like talking to someone with nothing, and using that encounter to make the largest impact on our lives.
Over 2 Weeks in 3 of the largest cities in Jamaica: Montego Bay, Mandeville and Kingston- We built. We set up. We rode. We spoke about the Gospel and humanity’s need for the Savior. They laughed when we fell. They called our tricks “Stunts.” We had skateboards, BMX, and Motocross- which they went super crazy for. The arial photo is of the festival early in the afternoon, and the night shot was of 50-70,000 people who showed up for the message and DJ NICHOLAS. The dude is super popular there and Jamaicans know how to dance, sing and praise with no reserve. Luis Palau gave an in depth invitation to come home to Jesus if you’ve strayed into the world like the prodigal son. The artist Prodigal Son was there too, and he was just as popular as DJ Nicholas.
I need to keep blogging, but i don’t want to put work into it if no one gets blessed or affected. But i’ll just plug away even if it all goes unseen, cause i find a parallel in this scenario to the habit of living a God-honoring life in the dark, or outside of the public.
*I thought JWon Dropped off the face of Aurora.
*My new camera is already being treated like an old toy… that needs to change.
*My tranny skills are improving slowly.
*I’m anticipating Jamaica.
*I posted a blog about Jamaica that no one read or commented. Jerks.
is a RADICALICIOUS worship band.
*Just watched “Halloween” -Waste of brain space.
*yay for girls retreat. I’ve not been so proud of my mommy in a while and she IS a warrior woman.
My pity for my own life is at an all time high. Why are so many day to day things such alien practices for me? Would a dad around the house bellowing at me when I disrespected my mother really make all this fall into place and feel like it makes enough sense? Yeah yeah…tons of people who’s dads did live in their family portraits weren’t there for games, dinners, church, accomplishments, failures, tears, fears, lessons and lectures that so many people take for granted and resent.But MY dad -1. Isn’t a manly mcgruff lumberjack that i dream a father would be, and 2-100. WAS ABSENT/APATHETIC/PREOCCUPIED/DISTRACTED and not to mention unequipped for the training of a warrior in this spiritual shit-saturated salad we allow into our homes via dish, ti-vo,cable,myspace,radio,commercial,infomercial,moral dispersal culture. Evan means young warrior. I remind the world of that frequently. Why that name? A warrior is equipped, trained, diligent, alert, focused, conditioned and prepared for his battle. This warrior feels more like a kleenex vs. a molotov cocktail, though. “The Widow”- As Cities Burn
Dead man, were you ever alive or was I just a seed
buried deep inside some woman you wed
right before you crawled out of her bed and crept down the hall?
Did you think of me?
Did you even for a second heistate, in the doorway?
It’s just something I’d like to know,
though I’d still love you if you told me that you just walked away.
.
My God, what a world you love!
Men bury their sons, and without thought, they just walk away.
And my mother’s heart breaks like the water inside of her. (2x)
Dead man, is it being high that makes you alive?
It makes you leave behind three boys and a wife, in ‘89.
And as the track marks inch their way up your arm,
my mother taught my brothers and I not to call you “Daddy,"
but to call you “Father”.
But I believe there is something here to be learned of grace.
’Cause I can’t help but love you!
Even with a heart that breaks, like the promises that you made.
Like the promises that you made. No, I can’t help but love you
The promises that you made. Layin in your bead. Dyin' of disease, it's takin over your cells, it's takin over me. ‘Cause I still love you. yeah I still love you. Oh i still love you... Cause after all I've done he still loved me.
.
My God, what a world you love…
This song makes me cry, because Cody sings that he has learned a lesson about God through forgiving his own runaway dad. I’m mad at my dad, my uncles, my pastors, my cousins, my mentors, and somehow that must reflect on my emotions toward my Heavenly Father. Maybe it’s all a mind game and Satan would love for this pity party to go on for as long as possible, because he knows that if he keeps me focused in the rear view mirror, i’m gonna miss the signs in front of me.I AM A TREASURED CHILD OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. ”God does not call the equipped, he equips the called.” Its not all about me either! There are plenty of dadless in this world who seek God like they mean it, and my circumstance should not dictate my view of God or His plan. He loves me after all I’ve done. If i could ever find peace in accepting that free gift given by the Savior, then i must learn to practice this forgiveness on the daily. Wether it’s with any of those listed men, or with God, or with myself. My poor old self… boo hoo cindy lou hoo. Get over it cause God’s still God and I am surely NOT.
is the number of times that i’ve gotten pulled over for no headlight.Two days in a row is a new record! zerO. -The number of tickets recieved. Ok, Lord, I’ll stop ignoring you. Oh! and thanks a trillion…
Posted by obedientson 
Just kidding. Well actually that IS how it works…
Posted by obedientson 
Posted by obedientson 
we all regrouped and agreed that God used our little naive suburban church group to extend his provision, and His care to some fellow Earth-dwellers who may have been covered in dirt, but were no less loved in God’s eyes than us. 
Over 2 Weeks in 3 of the largest cities in Jamaica: Montego Bay, Mandeville and Kingston- We built. We set up. We rode. We spoke about the Gospel and humanity’s need for the Savior. They laughed when we fell. They called our tricks “Stunts.” We had skateboards, BMX, and Motocross- which they went super crazy for. The arial photo is of the festival early in the afternoon, and the night shot was of 50-70,000 people who showed up for the message and DJ NICHOLAS. The dude is super popular there and Jamaicans know how to dance, sing and praise with no reserve. Luis Palau gave an in depth invitation to come home to Jesus if you’ve strayed into the world like the prodigal son. The artist Prodigal Son was there too, and he was just as popular as DJ Nicholas. 
