Jeff speaking at Thrive Church in Lexington, KY.
Chasing Rainbows & Unicorns
I’m gonna say this once. ‘Gonna say it simple. And I hope to God for your sakes you all listen. There are no Abominable Snowmen. There are so Sasquatches. There are no Big Feet!
Harry and the Hendersons
As the father of five gen Z’s, I feel I have God given role in the lives of my children that only I can fulfill. This responsibility I take with great seriousness. Only I can lay the proper foundation of great cinematic disciplines. In short, I force them to watch classic 80’s films.
This exclusive list of life lessons has included a search for One Eyed Willie’s treasure, time traveling in a DeLorian, and most critically how to take the most perfect day off of school. Anyone, anyone, anyone?
To my surprise, the film of the decade that captured the attention and hearts of my squad was Harry and the Hendersons. It is part science-fiction, part physical comedy as a Sasquatch takes up residency with a suburban family. It is the heart felt tale of Big Foot and an all American family finding common ground and acceptance of each other’s differences. It did so well they spun a failed sit-com from it.
This critical piece of cinematography led the young minds of mine to the deep conversation of “is Big Foot real?”
I will take my stance by quoting the movie:
I’m gonna say this once. ‘Gonna say it simple. And I hope to God for your sakes you all listen. There are no Abominable Snowmen. There are so Sasquatches. There are no Big Feet!
For that matter, there are no Unicorns, leprechauns, talking cereal rabbits or Loch Ness Monster. Somewhere we got sold a bag of myth like the undiscovered pot gold at the end of every rainbow. I have searched, there is no gold. Yet it seems as if a huge chunk of our life is spent chasing the unicorn.
I know some dude is sitting there chest hair protruding from a deep v-neck t-shirt proclaiming you would never chase a unicorn. But you do. We all do it we just don’t know we do. We all chase unicorns.
Have you ever seen a unicorn? Of course not. They are mythical, magical creatures that only exist in our imagination and Rainbow Brite cartoons. Sure you can buy one on a felt neon color poster that glows in the dark with a black light hanging in your college dorm room but it doesn’t mean it really exists. Some people spend their entire life chasing the mythical single horned white horse.
By now you think i have lost my mind, but let me explain. The unicorn of your life is what you chase that you will never catch (because it doesn’t really exist). It is the fantasy you create in your mind that has little to do with the reality of your life. Unicorns are fun when you are a kid. They capture our attentions and imaginations. They seem like something we want to be or become. But it is never who we really we are.
For 14 years we have watched unicorn chasing on television. We called it American Idol. Scattered in between the 8 or 10 legitimate singers were hundreds of people whose mama had lied to them. They showed up waiting for hours, standing in lines around other sweaty unicorn chasers believing they could become a star. You and I, admittedly laughed at these atrocities of musical mess. Yet, in the mind of every contestant, they believed their destiny was the bright lights of the stage.
No, no it wasn’t. They had zero business being in line, let alone in front of the judges.
While most of us had not made of mockery of our family name in front of millions of viewers, we are all just as guilty. Your unicorn is the relationship you chased that you had zero business being in but kept believing it was “meant to be”.
You chased the magical myth of a job or career you had to have to create the status you needed to keep up with. Now you are just trying to keep up the facade that everything is okay.
Your unicorn may have been the belief that the infidelity of your spouse would eventually end and you would eventually get the white picket fence front porch family of your dreams.
They are all unicorns. Every one is a greener pasture on bigger mountain with better sheep feeding on the green, green grass.
I have spent most of my adult life chasing unicorns. I have chased mythical beliefs of a life that would never really happen. I have created goals and dreams that were not mine to chase. It left me hurting, helpless and striving for all the wrong things in life. I was chasing after things that I would never catch because they were never mine to chase to begin with.
So I started chasing rainbows.
Now I know you think I have really lost my mind. But hang with me. In the book of Genesis, God made a promise to Noah that he would never flood the earth again. As a guarantee of that promise he gave Noah a sign, a rainbow.
The rainbow is a symbol of God’s promise. So instead of chasing the myths of my life, I started chasing the promises of God. I don’t think my story is that unique. I think most of us have spent more time chasing the wrongs things instead of pursuing the promises of God.
When we pursue promises instead of myths we find that our life fits perfectly into the plan God had for us. Now don’t get me wrong, it is not always a picturesque sunset with ROYGBIV bouncing off a cloudless sky. But what we do find is our place. We find our purpose. We find our fit. We find peace. We find joy. We find that what we do is important and significant. We find that places and people that God has had for us all along.
What I have learned in my adventures in the lush land of life is that when I pursue the promises, instead of chasing the myths I find myself perfectly in the place of where I am supposed to be. I find myself content with me. I find joy in my journey. I find that capacity to authentic. I find that chasing rainbows is better than chasing unicorns.
So quit chasing unicorns. Start chasing rainbows.
The Same
By Your spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected king
Is resurrecting me
Resurrecting, Elevation Worship
I have a heritage of ministry in my background. The man I call Gramps spent most of his adult life bi-vocationally working and building churches, both spiritually and physically. He was a spit-fire, short man of about 5 foot 5 inches at best, but preached hard like a man of great stature. It was all hell-fire and brimstone preaching most days. It was a consummate petition to the people to commit to God.
God gave me a gift that I will never forget. I spent one year in a little Midwest corn-field town, with a little white church building that my grandfather built with his own two hands. After a year in the role of associate pastor, God moved again and moved me with him.
Not much of that single year was all that impactful, other than that final Sunday in that little small town church that meant so much to me.
As a parting staff member, I got to say parting words from the pulpit. More than likely not particularly memorable to anyone else. And in truth, not sure the message was all that memorable to me. But moments before I shared the message God had given me for this small group of faithful followers, the Pastor asks that same small powerful man of God, who built that church, to pray from the pew where he sat to support his grandson.
Like a hot knife on butter were the gentle words of this powerful preacher as they spilled from his mouth. In that moment a grandson was made a son. He was proud that roles had reversed. He was elated that what he was leaving behind was being picked up by me.
In a simple prayer, the blessing of power and anointing was passed from one generation to younger generation. It was a real life moment of Elijah passing the mantle to Elisha. My spirit and heart melted as the soft prayer of such a powerful man and the ministry mantle of Gramps was officially passed to me. Years before he would take me to his study, stretch wide his hand over a collection of books like it was the promised land and say “Jeff, one day all this would be yours.” While, I eventually got the books, what I received that day was by far more significant than any collection.
What was apparent was that the same power that 50 plus years earlier was imparted into my grandfather, God had imparted into me.
Paul wrote these words to the church at Rome:
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
Take moment and re-read those words. Now pause and think on them.
The very same Spirit that had the power to resurrect a dead Jesus back to life lives in you and me. It is the passing of the baton to us. God the father has spoken sweet and soft over us with his blessing of the Holy Spirit.
The struggle is most of us never live out the power we have. It wasn’t necessarily that moment in Small Town, USA that empowered my ministry. While I feel it was a significant day in my life. That same power had always been there. The prayer simply served as a lighting of the fuse of potential that existed.
We have access to a someone in the Spirit of God that has resurrecting potential. Power to resurrect your life, your career, your ministry, your family. That same power is living and active and accessible in me and you! So take hold allow God to bring back to life what was dead. Allow the Spirit to breathe on dry and dead bones.
Maybe today is your resurrection day! Maybe today is the day you realize that the same power that raised Jesus is available for you.
I've Robbed My Kids
Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.
~Carl Jung
I am just going to say it.
I have robbed my kids blind for years. And really they never even knew it.
Before you turn me into the FEDs to be prosecuted because you presume I have been taking their cash, it has been more my lack of giving rather than taking.
I come from a classic Pentecostal, Bible-believing, Jesus heals background. (To clarify: I do listen to secular music and I have not yet boycotted Disney). My childhood faith framework was that of one that God is “able”. God is able to save. God is able to heal. God is able to provide. God is able to deliver. God is able to give his Spirit. God is able to do the impossible.
And I grew up experiencing that divine ability. I saw God do the miraculous. I saw God do ridiculous things that left me with zero doubt in who God was and what he was able to do.
And for most of my adult life the childhood years of my kids have seen their dad live, work and volunteer in the house of God. And while we have always attended church. What they have not never really seen is that move of God I grew up with.
Jesus said this ” no one lights a lamp and places a bowl over it”. But in so many ways that is exactly what I have done. Went to my closet to seek the big things of God and kept the light in there. Keeping my kids in the dark and leaving the miraculous still a mystery to them.
I have robbed them of experiencing the miraculous.
I have robbed them of having their faith made firm by an amazing move of God.
I have robbed them of seeing the BIGNESS of a God in order that they can believe for themselves in a God who is “able”.
So yes, I am guilty.
I am guilty of not being the priest I need to be.
I am guilty of not allowing them to fully see the mighty move of God that lies just on the edge of the prayers I pray.
I am guilty of shading the shine of the Son from the eyes of my kids.
And I had to change that. So this Sunday I did.
I went to my pantry got the extra large bottle of extra virgin olive oil and prayed over my kids. I get that it’s old school and maybe to some a little unorthodox. But scripture teaches us some critical lessons about blessings.
Jacob was willing to deceived and trick his father Isaac to steal Esau’s. Jacob wrestled all night with the angel of the Lord just to receive the blessing. Jacob later blesses the Ephraim instead of the older child Manasseh. The blessing the father was coveted and sought after.
Now I have been “blessed out” many times. I told you I have a Holy Spirit filled mama, but this is not that. This was me putting my hand on their hand and passing the passion infused in me by a loving Father onto them. This is not a right of passage or ritual duty. This is the heart of a father loving and longingly desiring his three kids to fully discover the Father and all he has for their lives.
Stop robbing your kids of their blessing. Yes it was awkward. No they didn’t understand. Yet I firmly believe that God has a way of transferring love and passion and callings through a father’s hand. I believe that in that moment my kids destiny was determined and set into motion. They may not know it today, but one day they may look back and see that moment as a revelation that God is able.
So quit robbing them. Bless them.
