The plans for tonight were fun and relaxing. Last Friday as Austin and I headed to the Masters, he told me that Marc Broussard was playing for free next Friday, being tonight. I spent the entire week anticipating tonight. We had our plan. We were going to get dinner downtown Greenville and then see Marc play for free. Anyone that knows Marc Broussard’s music knows that hearing him for free is an awesome deal.  So a small group of six go downtown. Let the fun begin.

First, we thought a band was opening up for Marc at 7:00 and that he was gonna come on at 8:00. We went to three different restaurants looking for a place without a long wait and a nonexpensive menu. We came to Chicora Alley. If you get a chance to go, DON’T….We sit down at 7:15 and order. Our food doesn’t come out until 8:10.  Around 8:00, Austin calls me and tells me that Marc actually started at 7:00 and was probably close to getting done playing. We ask for boxes so when they bring our food out we can box it up. One of the orders is completely wrong when it comes out and the checks are messed up. The frustrations build. We finally get out of Chicora Alley at 8:30. We walk over to the ampitheater where Marc is playing right as he is playing the last song and he’s introducing his band. The food in the boxes is cold and Marc Broussard is done with his concert and we missed the entire thing. The whole reason we came to Greenville, donzo….

We decide to find something to do to make our trip to Greenville worth our while. We end up going to the Hollywood movie theaters. We get there around 9:35. We end up deciding to see either Stop Loss at 9:45 or Smart People at 9:55. We choose to see Smart People because it looks funny–one of the worst movies ever. It took forever. It had no plot. One of the characters was weird. Nothing excited happened and we sat there for 2 hours watching this movie. We walk out of the movie and decide to recap our night.

We all agree that we just experienced one of the most frustrating, out of rhythm, annoying Friday nights ever.  1) We finally find a restaurant. It takes forever. They get the order wrong. The food is not worth the money. 2) We go to see Marc Broussard and he is finishing up his last song as we walk up. the entire point of the trip to Greenville on this Friday night - over!!! 3) We decide to make our trip worthwhile by seeing a movie–horrible movie, frustrating, stupid and they didnt layer our popcorn with butter.

We get in the car after the movie recapping our unbelievable night for the third time and just begin to laugh hysterically joking about how ridiculous our night was.

What’s the point of this long story? Sometimes we have plans that we have worked up such as a fun Friday night and nothing goes right. Everything is frustrating. You got two options. You can sit there and dwell on the magnitude of the frustrating night or you can let it roll off your back and realize that there are bigger problems than a frustrating Friday night in Greenville, SC.  Sure, tonight was the most frustrating planned night I could possibly experience. Instead of coming back to Clemson and doing nothing, we all decided to make the best of it and ended up laughing about it all. In the end, we all agreed it’s important to appreciate the small things such as fellowship and laughter in the car with friends on the ride back from a hellish night because sometimes, no matter how much you plan, you can’t have it your way!

Apparently I am an idiot and don’t know how to blog…I just spent 15 minutes trying to figure out to log in, to blog on our website. I had to reset my password twice and I think I lost a few IQ points in the process. By the way, I’m doing all of this instead of paying attention in my 2:00 class. My class is in AL 362 Psychology of Coaching, and it is not that interesting today. I’m not the only one bored. Grish is beside me writing notes with his bible open. Imagine putting God over school! What a novel idea. Do you ever have the feeling that you have so much going on and you keep adding things to your list of things to do, and you keep pleasing people until it wears you down? That’s me. I get so caught up trying to do so many different things throughout the week, that it passes by and the next thing I know, it’s over.

In my accountability group, we talk about finding time to be alone, away from people, having one on one time with God, getting into his word or having quiet prayer time before God. It’s important! I have had trouble finding that time lately. We are going 1000 miles an hour without stopping and then we wonder why we get stressed out and annoyed. Sometimes we just need to take an hour, or 30 minutes to just breathe, reflect, read the bible, and bring our burdens before God. Re-focusing our life, re-prioritizing and making sure God is the center of our life in everything we do, is necessary. Sometimes just having a peaceful time before God can help us find that energy, relieve that stress, and re-group our thoughts and slow our life down. I know I need to do it. I also know that I am not the only person with a busy life. We should all think about that and make time for this, if we are not already…

Enjoy the rest of your day and remember to come out to get filled up with the second week of the series unseen!!

Another Francis Chan quote. It’s Biblical though..so it’s ok:

“Is today a day where you’ve REALLY PRAYED and are expecting supernatural things? Or are you going to waste another day of your life … just pursuing things on your own and not seeing the fruit that you could if you really had spent the time in prayer and seeking the promises of God. “

The 40 Day Fast!  Starting with a Week of Prayer.  Saturday, March 8- March 14.  More info Thursday. Get excited!

Dr. Gary Habermas was a very very intelligent man.  Far beyond what he even conveyed on stage.  Any rare topic that I asked him about, he was not only knowledgeable about but had either interviewed people related to the event or written articles on the event.  All that knowledge seems unnecessary or over the top but he spoke some words off stage that really spoke a lot of truth into what he was doing.

He talked about why skeptics were skeptics.  He called it the cushion that they had.  If they claimed they did not believe, it removed any accountability for their lifestyle.  If you do not believe in the risen Christ, you have no reason to pursue a life of holiness and remove sin from your life.   But what Dr. Habermas does is pull out the cushion from skeptics.  He leaves them, whether they want to admit it or not, without a shadow of a doubt that Christ rose from the dead and died for our sins. 

When your cushion is gone, you are left looking at your life in the face for what is worth.  If there is a void in your heart you are left searching for that truth and the Truth calls you to sacrifice and obedience.  If you are not ready to give something up you are not ready to follow Christ and will remain skeptical.  I think we all look for that cushion, believer or non-believer, when we are not ready to sacrifice everything for our Risen Savior.  The cushion could be skepticism, alcoholism, or just disconnect from Christ for fear of the call he will put on your life.  We all have cushions that we need to remove to grow closer to our risen Savior.

Get ready, you have no idea what is coming. Introducing The Series Unseen coming to FCA February 28th. 3 weeks of amazing messages you will not want to miss out on. BE THERE! Matt Reynolds, Foster Christy, and Lee McDerment. Trust me, you don’t want to miss it.

 This year FCA was graced with the oppurtunity to play on the practice fields of our very own Tiger football team. The change in turf, matched with superior weather (minus the heavy wind gusts during the mens game) made for faster and entertaining games.

First for the girls game…

              Both girls teams were well coached and both offenses scored on their first drive. The underclassmen relied on solid quaterback play and a phenomenal tight end who was the target of most of the third down plays. The call of the game came from the mind of Xavier Dye who called for a play action pass to the star tight end for a touchdown. The upperclassmen offense seemed to have everything going their way when an under thrown pass bounced off a defender and landed in the arms of the upperclassmen’s speedy receiver Karen Martin for their first score.  The real difference in the game was the fierce defense of the upperclassmen who were responsible for two touchdowns, highlighted by star defensive end, Cristen May, ripping the ball from the hands of the quarterback and prancing into the endzone. In the end the upperclassmen pulled out the victory 30-25.

       The Boys game was a different story. The underclassmen guys never seemed to get their feet under them, with their longest play being the result of a Neal Culler pass interference (which was caught in a still shot by photographer Hampton Andrews) during their first drive. Robbie (the money-man) Green led the Upperclassmen up and down the field, hindered only by his reciever’s sometimes faulty hands. The upper classmen defense led by the stud middle linebacker Drew Gunnels (known for knocking out, famed heart-throb and Clemson QB, Tribble Reese in his last highschool game), kept the underclassmen scoreless and allowed the upperclassmen ample time on the field.  Final score 20-0 upper classmen.

     The play of the day came at half time when an unknown referee hit a 50 yard fieldgoal. This ref’s identity is unknown and those who saw him could only attest to his obvious athleticism and good looks… feel free to comment on who this man of mystery might be.

(It must be noted that future kicking star Spencer Benton easily out performed the mystery ref minutes later with a 60 yard field goal that could have been good from 70… rumor has it that the wind just picked up)

“…we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” 1 Thess. 4:17-18

“As Christians, it should be part of our dialogue that we lift people up based on the return of Christ…I hope you’re completely satisfied in Jesus Christ but I hope you’re not satisfied being on this earth apart from Him…Our goals need to change. What we do on this earth is we have this goal to set our lives up in such a way that we are satisfied… And the scary thing is often times we succeed and we become so satisfied that we’re not even sure we want Jesus to return yet because part of us wonders if what He has coming is better than what we have.  And that is an awful, awful thing… Then we get angry at God…How can there be a God if I’m this dissatisfied, if things are causing me pain?…  And we think that something is wrong when we suffer on earth… but something is wrong if you are satisfied on this planet…I am supposed to be longing…groaning for more!”   ((Francis Chan))

Are we encouraging the body of believers that He is coming back!?  And more importantly are we telling those on our campus who don’t have that hope? I pray that we are.

As some of you will see on the Blogging advertisement video that we are showing tomorrow night, I want to blog about my red and yellow tie and I’m going to. Why? I got this tie from a friend of mine. It’s a Brooks Brothers tie. It’s a good tie. I have a few ties from Brooks Brothers. That’s not why I want to blog though. I want to blog about friends and the importance of having solid friends in your lives. I just wanted to mention the tie cuz i promised the friend that bought it for me, that I would.

First of all, people are important to have around you. I love people. I love developing relationships and learning about people - things they hate and things they love. I love hanging out with people and spending time with people, even if we are just sitting around talking or watching TV. Having solid friends in my life is so important. Friends keep me accountable to daily life. Friends encourage me and keep me in check. Friends laugh with me or at me. My friends are there for me and I’m there for them. When you are down, and you can just go talk with a friend and they listen to you and you know they are paying attention to what your saying, it matters. You can be having the worst day, but a friend will know one thing, small or large, that they can do and it will instantly put you in a better mood.

It’s important to find people that care for you, but more importantly, love you for who you are!! You have to be able to be yourself around your friends and know that they are there to love you. Friends don’t judge you, rather they encourage you and lift you up and help you improve in your areas of weakness and they enhance your areas of strength. Friends that enjoy your company and will break down and experience the pain you’re going through, with you, are tough to find! Friends that understand you and how you work and know your tendencies and when to lift you up and also when to keep you in line are great friends. Friends that will just stop everything at any time of the day to pray for you or with you is an awesome thing to experience.

Friends must be honest and trustworthy! Friends must be caring and loving. Friends must be fun and have a sense of humor. Friends must be patient and understanding! Friends must be flexible! Friends have to be able to be a friend, not only in the fun, hilarious times, but also in the hard, not so fun times! Think about your friends! Are they seasonal or lifetime? Are they situational friends or consistent friends? Evaluate that! Never change yourself for others! Do your friends accept you for who you are? What kind of friends surround you? I love my friends and would be there for them at any time of any day!! Would you?

With a specifically gospel focused message coming up, this song came to my mind. This is easily my favorite song. I want it sang at my wedding (by Emily Lynch perhaps?) and eventually my funeral. I have the lyrics in my wallet. Basically, this song inspires me, and I honestly feel like someone could find Christ in this song. Please, read over the words, maybe meditate on each section. I pray that this song be your prayer.

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.