Branded With Love

God definitely shook me up a bit. A little less than one year before graduation, things began to unravel. My girlfriend and I had broken up. I had been going through things with the band, and my spiritual/emotional state was at least at terror level orange (or whatever the scale is at the airports & military bases).

On one particular evening a group of friends decided to carpool to a Connell’s concert at Town Point Park in Norfolk. We met up in the Kempsville area of Va Beach and hopped on the highway.

While driving and following the car in front of us, everything changed. As we went to change lanes I lost control of the car. Life was spinning. It was I 64. 60+ mph. The car spun out of control as we flipped onto the middle concrete divider. We continued to roll. Roll. And roll.

We rolled about 4 times before sliding roughly 150 feet upside down on the interstate. We were the only car involved. Thank God.

There were three people in the back seat, a friend in the front (his car) and me driving. Our heads had hit the windshield. Our friend in the back seat who was in the middle didn’t have his seat belt on.

We all got out of the vehicle before the paramedics arrived. No broken bones. No large cuts. No major bleeding. No one thrown from the car. No one lost a life.

Amazing.

As the paramedics arrived and got us into the ambulance- they began to check out everyone. Including my friend and I who had pieces of glass in our heads form sitting up front and hitting the windshield. As we talked with them. They couldn’t believe we walked away. He said “In a normal car crash people tend to lock up their legs in the floor board and their arms to the dash to steady themselves. You both curled up in the fetal position (not normal) and if you hadn’t- your legs on both sides of the car would have been severely hurt, if not crushed.”

I just kept thinking of that the whole way to the hospital. In the ER, as I sat and listened to the glass pieces being pulled out of my head and hitting the metal tray, I thought, “God, why? Wat are you trying to tell me? What did I do that this is what you needed to allow in my life to wake me up? Couldn’t you just write it out in the sky? Couldn’t you mail me a letter signed ‘from God.’ Why this?”

My parents came to pick all of us up and drive us back to the college in NC. It was the longest car ride of my life. That next morning I woke up, turned to get out of bed, placed my feet on the floor- and stopped. Instead of jumping to my feet in excitement for being able to walk, I dropped to my knees. For the next hour I sang songs to God, thanked Him, and praised Him for the day. I knew I had been given a new lease on life. I recognized that God didn’t have to save me or anyone else in that car crash. We don’t deserve His grace, love and protection. But He did it anyway. Why?

Because He had a greater plan for everyone in that car, including me. Out of that car ended up being another pastor, a missionary to Asia, a wonderful musician & philosopher, and a dedicated mother & servant of God.

So yeah, God shook me up. I thanked Him and knew things needed to be different. I wasn’t perfect heading forward, but I tried. My next adventure was just around the bend.

Leaving the confines of “Jesus College” and heading out into the world to be a youth pastor…

We’ve had a great response from the website. So many of you have said how the new Forefront site has ben cool to send your friends to. but what if you have a phone with web access? Our site is in flash and most phones cannot read it. Introducing, ForefrontMobile.org

Now you can access a stripped down version of the site on your mobile phone. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can add a little icon to your homepage when you bookmark it.

Enjoy.

Sharing my thoughts from this morning’s daily Bible reading…

Got up this morning, went to hit up the reading for today, and I had to sit and really marinate on it before posting. It hit me. Like a ton of bricks. But in a good way. A great way.

I have friends that live all over the country. Many times I take for granted the friendship we have and I forget to talk to them. During good times. Bad times. Moments I am winning and times when I feel like the lowest of the low- I forget to communicate with them like I should.

James 5:13-20 was a great reminder to talk to God. Whenever I have a chance to pray to Him, talk to Him, have others involved in praying for me and vise versa. I need to be in close community with God an others. We’ll be talking about that at the Beach Campus this week.

Community. What does it look like for you?

If so, check these guys out on YouTube. Seriously- they are hilarious. Jemaine Clement (left) and Bret McKenzie (right) make up the acoustic comedy duo, “Flight of the Concords.” Their antics from New Zealand are absolutely hysterical. Not only do they have their own TV show on HBO; they also have a couple CD’s out there of their songs (which are have an accident in your pants kind of funny).

As a teaser of what you can expect from them- enjoy this video. I soooo want to use the song for a series on sex. It’s great.

Chaos.
Pure, uninterrupted, beautiful chaos.
She digs it.

Playing in her room, crawling around and getting into everything (all with a stinky diaper I later found out, ugh). But not a peep. She could care less that it was in her diaper. As long as she was having fun with the toys, trying to pull the cord out to the TV (I need to fix that somehow), getting to move around the room- it didn’t matter.

It reminds me a lot of you and I. We roll through life with this dirt, filth, depression, troubles, sin, etc. But, as long as we are content and happy, we push on through. We don’t let anyone know. In the process we have fun, but we also put ourselves in danger (may I remind you of the TV cord/outlet).

As Chloe’s dad I am here to guide her and direct her. Through the good and bad. The best part is she allows me to do that right now. But as she gets older she will get strong willed, put up a fight, and think “she knows best.”

I’m sure this doesn’t sound at all familiar.
You have never been that kid, right?
God has never been that dad with you… right?!

Sounds like we have a lot to think about. Until next time,

Jason *over and out*

I woke up this morning and have been rockin’ out to this song on repeat. Oh-so-true…

So, what kind of day are you having peeps???

“So you wanna be a rap/rock superstar, and live large, a big house, 5 cars, you’re in charge, comin’ up in the world, don’t trust no body
gotta look over your shoulder constantly.”

- the great American Poets, Cypress Hill (insert sarcasm here, even though I loved me some Cypress Hill back in the day)

What a great way to start off this chapter in these ol’ Vans. Honestly, these lyrics are a glance into my head at the time. We were a band playing music- for Jesus. It was Christian based and we were loving the opportunity to play music. We played with bands like Ghotti Hook, Squad 5-0, Vroom, The Huntingtons, and more. It was great. I loved it. But for all the wrong reasons.

I could have been all about spreading the love of Jesus. Instead, I was all about getting girls, being the center of attention, and then seeing where it would go with any lady that showed me attention. Again, I loved it. Now don’t get me wrong- we’re were not be biggest, best thing since sliced bread, but we had a good run.

The problem was I was the “Judas” of the group. I lied, stole, and manipulated my way through the rock star terrain with my band mates, friends and family. I used it to make money, feed my ego, and live a lifestyle contrary to the lyrics I sang to venues of kids every weekend…

I was finally found out right in the middle of recording our CD and preparing for a spring break tour. They were devastated. They despised me- and they had every right. I was a two faced man living a lie. We finished the CD, did the tour (without our bassist and trumpet player, they had fill ins). It was awful. I felt horrible.

With people graduating, other things arising, and my feeding the flame of a band in distress- we went our separate ways. A couple of the guys I have yet to really speak with. A few have forgiven me, and some have just kept away.

I deserve the treatment. I made my bed and have had to lie in it to this day. God has forgiven me. He has continued to restore me. And now it was time to move on past the music, chasing fame, and trying oh-so-hard to be cool.

But before I graduated and moved on, God needed to shake me up a bit…

It was 1997 and I was off to “Jesus School.” Now before anyone reading this gets up in arms- I am very thankful for my education I received at Roanoke Bible College (actually in Elizabeth City, NC). The biblical training I got, the mentoring from older students and professors, the life experience there… all appreciated and needed.

Okay, now that being said… I didn’t really fit too well. Being a city kid with long hair, piercings, tattoos, loving metal and straight edge music; I didn’t really slide into the mold of the typical student.

Another big thing standing in my way was that I was still a lot of things that aren’t normally what you look for in a future pastor: A liar. A thief. An abuser. A womanizer. A deceiver. And the list goes on. I learned really quick that sharing your past meant one of two things:

1. People would shun you from their social groups or
2. By noon, everyone would know your story and people all across the Bible belt would soon know as well.

I watched others share and didn’t like what I saw, so I kept quiet. Real quiet. I socialized and did my thing, but I never told a soul about my past or my present struggles with- everything. It began to slowly eat away at me.

I would go into people’s dorm rooms and have an inner war going on that no one could see… “Should I take that (name the item) when no one’s looking? No! Don’t do it. You’re here for a reason. Stop thinking those things.” Or maybe it was in conversation… “Should I lie to impress these people and tell them I’m fine? Yeah, because if they find out the real you, no one will accept you.” Even in class… “Jason, you can totally cheat on this test. No one even covers their papers. NO! Stop telling me to do this stuff. I want to be a better man. Stop it!”

Yeah. Imagine living in that on a daily basis. It was not picnic

In the process I joined a band and we started playing shows, toured, and also fed my appetite for ego and sin. I’ll explain next time the not-so-pretty picture…

Just in case you live under a rock, were working, possibly abducted by aliens, or just had other things going on… here is what happened yesterday and our new President’s words of encouragement & hope for us.

Rick Warren did today’s Invocation. Loved it. Say what you will about his writing books, being in the news and media, etc. His prayer was on point. Check out the following video below if you missed it.