Sorry that this blog is two days late for those of you faithful blog fans.  Let me warn you this blog will be longer than I normally like to write, so hang in there with me.

This week I had a God moment.  Have you ever had a God moment? You know one of those moments in your life where you have been at the end of your rope, a time when all things around you seem to be crumbling and you don’t know what to do.  A time when you are starting to lose all hope and you have to make a decision and you don’t know which one is right.  You would rather just run and hide and avoid the situation all together, but you know that you can’t.  Then God shows up.  Well He doesn’t really show up, because He has been there the entire time, but you see Him at work and all you can do is say, Wow….. You are truly amazing God.

For me that happend yesterday morning, which was the last day of our PAO (Professional Athletes Outreach) Conference in Dallas TX.  I am the Director of NFL Programs for PAO and so I am in charge of just about every detail that has to do with the conference.  This year was the biggest conference in PAO history with some 450 attendees.  So we knew that the devil was prowling. 

The conference started off phenomenal.  People were coming up to my wife Yannette and I and telling us how awesome the conference was going.  Then after two days, Satan reared his ugly head and I had to make a decision with my President and CEO, Steve Stenstrom.  That decision was going to determine the rest of the conference and it was a hard decision to make, but we did it.  Immediately there was pushback for the decision that was made.  So after many hours of counseling with folks and putting out fires all over the building, I finally laid down for four agonizing hours of sleep only to wake up with lots of doubts in my head and the pit in my stomach.  Did we make the right decision?  What are we going to do this morning?  What if….

Then God did what only He could have done; what He always does. He worked it all out for our good and His glory.  Its funny, I spent so many hours worrying and questioning, and yet the entire time God knew exactly what was going to take place.  The only thing we had to do with the outcome of the program was nothing.  We just prayed and trusted God.  Sure we did have to make some though choices, but nothing worth having comes cheap or easy. 

So if I can leave you with one thing it would be this; Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

Every year Pastor, Author and teacher Ed Young Jr. hosts a pastors conference in Dallas TX called C-3.  The highlight of the entire conference for me was on Friday, where we got a double dose of Bishop T.D. Jakes.  The Bishop talked about Thomas called the Twin who was absent from the upper room when Jesus visited the disciples after His crucifixion.

The Bishop encouraged us all to deal with the Twin that is inside of us, because we all have two sides to our personalities.  The ideal you, or the person you claim to be and the real you.  The one that everyone sees at work, church or out in the community.  The real you is the one that Jesus is most interested in.  Because the real you is the only one that can take you to the places you hope to be.

Then Bishop said this, “You cannot be powerful in public and a failure in private.  God will not bless the ideal you, He will only bless the real you.”  So we must get our twin in check.  Then he said, “you cannot profess with your ideal what you don’t posses in the real.”  In other words you cannot profess to be free, if the real you is really in bondage.

Here is the good news that Bishop Jakes ended with, Jesus came back for the twin.  (John 20:24-29)  He could have decided to say, tough luck Thomas, you should have been there, but instead He came back for Thomas and He is coming back for you too.  Are you ready?  (Romans 10:9-10)

Recently I read the touching story of a 42 year old single mother named Denise Anderson who lost her only son Corey Shea  who was serving in Iraq.  Anderson said she raised Shea alone with little money, but they had a whole lot of love.  Mrs. Anderson decided to have her son Corey buried in a military cemetery saying, “he deserves to be buried honorably with his fellow soldiers.”Corey passed away in November of 2008 and his mother says she still visits his grave a couple times a week.  Denise says, “all I want is to be with my son for all of eternity.”  What is the problem you might ask?   Denise is not allowed to be buried with her son in the military cemetery.  That is reserved for spouses and children of military veterans.  Mrs. Anderson says, since Corey died before he had a chance to get married or have children that she doesn’t want her son to be alone.  That is why she requested the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs to make an exception to her case to which she was denied.This is sad on so many accounts.  Just a couple of thoughts.  First, because our bodies go into the ground and our souls go to another place, Corey is no longer in that cemetery.  Second, Corey is not alone, that I can guarantee.  Finally, even if Mrs. Anderson was granted permission to be buried with her son Corey’s body, I still don’t believe she would have peace.True peace can only come from God, who gave us His son Jesus to become our peace. (Ephesians 2:14)  Jesus says He will give us this peace, but it can only come from being in a commited relationship with Him.  (John 14:27)  So I grieve with Mrs. Anderson, but I pray that she will find the only peace that will comfort her soul before her days are done on this earth.