downtown Nashville

May Day: Five Years Later

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“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you” (Isaiah 43″2a).

It happened five years ago. On that day, it started raining and didn’t let up for two whole days. And I don’t just mean a friendly little sprinkle. I mean a full-on deluge that resulted in some of the worst flooding that Nashville had ever seen.

They called it a 1,000 year flood. Perhaps, 1,000 years from now, people will still be talking about it. All I know is that I was there. I saw images of portable schoolrooms floating down the interstate. I saw pictures of downtown Nashville under water. I read about how the basement of the Ryman got flooded, along with Opryland Hotel, Opry Mills, and several other businesses and homes.

It’s still crazy to think about. So much changed because of those two days. So much was lost in terms of businesses and merchandise. But we survived. We’re still here.

Who knows what the next disaster will look like? Who knows what form it will take? A pastor I greatly admire once said that everybody is either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or going into a storm. Perhaps your next storm won’t be the kind with strong winds and heavy rains. But the same Jesus who bid the waves be still in the midst of the storm can calm your fears in the midst of your metaphorical storms as well.

I do remember how people got together to help those affected by the flooding. I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in some of the clean-up and witness firsthand what flood waters can do. I also witnessed firsthand what God can do through His people when they simply become available for God to use.

 

 

 

Downtown Franklin, Fall, and Other Random Stuff Thrown in For Free

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My blogs sometimes feel like one of those boxes of assorted chocolates. You know. The ones where you pick a chocolate and hope for the best. Which for me is the creamy chocolate filling, which makes me go šŸ˜†.

Sometimes you get the pink ones, which arešŸ˜. Or coconut, which for me is šŸ˜–. You me never know unless you pick one and try it. Unless you cheat and look at the diagram on the box. šŸ˜±

So, I did my weekly Thursday visit to downtown Franklin. I visited my usual places, saw some of my favorite people, including Amanda at McCreary’s and my new friend Courtney at Sweet CeCe’s. It was a beautifully crisp fall night, the kind where you went to curl up in a cozy arm chair next to a roaring fire with a good book.

Being in my favorite place during a perfect night in my favorite season makes for a perfectly happy me. My wish is that someday some of you might join me and share in my joy. šŸ˜Š

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I took a picture of a classic example of why I love fall. The tree still had most of its leaves in a wide range of yellows and oranges that would have made Ansel Adams switch to color photography on the spot. Yeah, they were that pretty. šŸ˜

This doesn't come close to capturing the wide range of colors.

This doesn’t come close to capturing the wide range of colors.

So I once again extend my invitation for you to join me in Downtown Franklin. I offer a personalized guided your of all my favorite spots, complete with wildly inaccurate facts and figures and completely irrelevant asides. It will be fun. šŸ˜

So, until next Thursday (or tomorrow when I write another blog), I wish you all the sweetest of dreams and the soundest of sleeps. And may you all have a lap dog or a lap cat who will show you the true meaning of loyalty, affection, and devotion. šŸ˜»

Until next time, keep living the dream!

Set Free VBS- Day Three

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I’m pretty sure I’ll have no trouble getting to sleep tonight. I’m tired, but it’s a very good tired. I spent most of day three of Vacation Bible School taking pictures with my REAL camera, i.e. not a camera phone, but one with interchangeable lenses and telescopic zoom capabilities. I took 220 pictures today, compared with 83 for the first two days combined. And it was hot. Did I mention that?

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It was beautiful seeing so many children (over 100 all together) seeing the love of Jesus lived out with flesh and blood by people who gave up their time to come to an impoverished part of town where there were no TV cameras or any other kind of media present.

The main verse of this year’s VBS was 1 Timothy 1:7–Ā Ā “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calmĀ andĀ well-balanced mindĀ andĀ disciplineĀ andĀ self-control” (from the Amplified Bible).

Many of these kids know fear all too well. Maybe it’s from gangs or from abusive parents. Maybe it’s fear of never breaking out of the cycle of poverty. Whatever the case, Jesus didn’t come to perpetuate that cycle but to break it. His perfect love casts out fear and when he comes into a human heart, He brings power to overcome fear, love that replaces the fear, and self-control to make good choices and not keep up the cycle of fear and hate.

SONY DSCThis week, the Kingdom of God broke through a little more. The Set Free neighborhood may not look any different, but I truly believe that the Spirit of God dispelled the spirit of fear for a little while and people saw what life could be like apart from that fear. People saw what living in the true joy and peace that belonging to Jesus brings.

I was so blessed to be even a small part of what God is doing and has been doing in this neighborhood. I know God changed at least one life over the course of this week– mine. I can’t ever go back to who I was last week or see the world the way I used to see it. God has broken my heart a little more and made it bigger. Hopefully, I’m becoming more and more of a conduit who receives from God only to give it away to those who need it more than I.

Keep praying for these kids. Keep praying against the spirit of darkness that pervades so much of the area (as well as so many other places in this city). Pray that the seeds planted over the last three days will take root and germinate and turn into a harvest of people coming to know Jesus.

I know I’ll be back next year, God willing. I hope you’ll be there, too.

 

Set Free VBS- Day One

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I volunteered again for Vacation Bible School at Set Free Church in downtown Nashville. It’s just as much of a leap of faith (or like the above picture, an ascension into the unknown). Inner-city ministry is decidedly out of my comfort zone, but as I’ve learned, you almost never learn anything or grow or experience fullness of joy and peace inside your comfort zone. You must always step out and take risks for those miracles to happen.

That said, I had an amazing night of seeing God at work. To the average cynic, it might seem like a futile task reaching out to inner-city children who to every appearance have no attention span whatsoever and almost no impulse control. But I don’t believe that, or else I wouldn’t have been out there, doing my small part to share the love of Christ with these kids.

IMG_0769I think that deep down all children have the same needs: someone who sees them and cares about them and loves them. They are just like adults in that they won’t care how much you know about the Bible, Jesus, theology, and doctrine until you show them how much you care about them as people and not as statistics.

I’m only one very imperfect person who’s out there trying to love on some kids. I’m not Billy Graham or Mother Teresa. But it’s not about my abilities anyhow. It’s about me making myself available to a very perfect God who can take my little bitty offering (think loaves and fishes) and multiply it to satisfy the soul-needs of a multitude. It’s not great faith in God that accomplishes wonders, but faith in a great God. Even if that faith is as small as a mustard seed.

IMG_0733So it’s about planting small seeds of faith in these kids. It’s about taking their posturing and sometimes snarky attitudes and loving them anyway and pointing them to Jesus, who loves little children more than anyone.Ā 

Who knows? Maybe there’s a future Billy Graham or another Mother Teresa amongst these kids? Even if it’s one life that gets changed, that’s enough. As an old Jewish saying goes, if you change one person, you have changed the world. At the very least you have changed that person’s world. And for me that will be more than enough.

 

 

 

Lost and Found 2: The Non-Sequel

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I call it Lost and Found 2, not because it has anything to do with the my previous blog called Lost and Found, but because I couldn’t very well have two blogs with the same name, could I? And on a random note, I just finished watching the movie Brave, so I’m hearing a Scottish accent in my head as I’m typing all this.

When I volunteered at the Youth Evangelism Conference, I and all the other volunteers stayed at the downtown Doubletree hotel, courtesy of the Tennessee Baptist Convention. It was quite lovely. But somehow in my hurry to get dressed the next morning, I left one of my favorite t-shirts on the bathroom floor.

I didn’t catch the oversight until I got home. I was very tempted to give the shirt up as lost. I mean after all, it’s only a t-shirt, right? But I really liked this t-shirt. So I called the hotel and got transferred to the lost and found department. Or technically, to the answering machine of the lost and found department. Twice.

Any normal, non-OCD person might have given up by this point. But as I have mentioned many times before in many various settings, I am not a normal person. The OCD part is debatable.

I was going to be in downtown Nashville in the middle of a very wintery day today anyway for some other non-exciting event. So I thought, “Why not? What will it hurt to drop by the hotel and ask in person?”

It turns out the third time’s a charm. They did have my t-shirt, which I am now wearing, and everybody lived happily ever after. Except for those who had to go out into the bitterly cold weather.

The moral of this tale is to not give up, even when what you’re looking for seems hopelessly lost. Like maybe a lost coin. Or a missing sheep. Or maybe even a prodigal son. As someone said before, Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Don’t give up. By the way. that someone just so happens to be Jesus, so I’d do what he says.

Remember that you were once lost, too, and Jesus found you. He didn’t give up on you, and even though you might not have thought yourself worth the time and effort, he did. He didn’t (and won’t) give until he’s found you and rescued you and brought you all the way home.

That t-shirt that I went to all the trouble to find? It’s an Elvis Presley t-shirt from Goodwill. And yeah, it was completely worth the effort.

Set Free

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I’ve been really privileged and blessed to be able to participate in a Vacation Bible School being held at Set Free Church in downtown Nashville.

Set Free Church is a ministry that reaches out to homeless men in Nashville and offers an intense live-in discipleship program for those who are trying to get cleaned upĀ andĀ put their lives back together. They also minister to the needs of theĀ families in the nearby neighborhood with Wednesday night meals and various outreach programs throughout the year, as well as Sunday morning services each week.

To me, they are a light in a dark place. I see a place where the Spirit of God is moving and lives are being changed and families transformed by the amazing power of God.

The pastor himself is a formerly homeless man who can testify to God’s sovereign power to reach out to those that everyone else has given up on and to make those people into trophies of grace that tell of the awesome saving power of Jesus.

I see the Gospel as the story of how God in Jesus came down to set the captives free andĀ to proclaim liberty to those in bondage to darkness and sin. This church is the Gospel lived out in flesh and blood with hands and feet on a daily basis.

I’m so thankful I get to be a part of what God is doing in downtown Nashville. I try to serve and to be a blessing there, but I always end up being far more blessed and receive so much more than I give.

Pray for these men and women who are on the frontlines of a very great spiritual battle. Pray that the neighborhood would see Jesus in them and be drawn to what they see.

I know for certain that there will be a multitude of people in heaven because of their faithfulness.