Happy Birthday Martha!

This weekend included the annual Berry College festivities known as Mountain Day. Now, for those of you who did not go to Berry, you would call this tradition crazy, dumb, borderline fruity, and many other descriptions that I've heard over the years. However, if you look at most school's traditions, the actual act is pretty silly, but the tradition and history of it is great and means a lot to those who share that common bond. Mountain Day is no exception. Basically it is a whole weekend filled with olympics, alumni reunions and projects, athletic events, carnival, picnic, chapel services and of course the Grand March. I'll give a quick description for those who have no earthly clue what the heck I am talking about. On Saturday, up at the Mountain Campus (WinShape), there is a huge outdoor picnic and then starting at 1:00pm, all the students line up by gender in two lines (one with boys, one with girls) starting with seniors up front and going down to lower classmen. Senior boys where white shirts, senior girls where blue shirts, all other boys where blue shirts and all other girls wear pink. Then the march begins. Both single file lines start heading down the hill and when they get to the bottom, they place a handful of change (the amount is supposed to be your age) into the basket, then walk back up the hill in two's (typically one boy/one girl, but there are a lot more girls, so you get the idea). They come back down the hill in 2's, then go back up in 4's. This process repeats until the final march down the hill in row's of 16. Then everyone stops and the soccer team does their special chant and every sings (or fakes) the Alma Mater. I know, you are still lost, but it's tradition. It symbolizes the idea of multiplication. Martha Berry, one of the greatest female pioneers the stated of Georgia has ever had, was a Christian and believed in the principle of multiplication. You touch one or two lives, then those touch one or two, and so on and so on until millions have been reached. Martha believed this and lived it out giving of her time, energy, money, land, experience, resources, connections, and everything she had to impact the lives of young people and to provide them with a future. Brittany and I are two of the many people positively affected by her sacrifice and commitment to education. Thank you Martha!

It was a good day seeing old friends and classmates, many I only see this time every year. Brittany was able to catch up with many friends as well and we had a good time. Saturday evening we went to a benefit get together with many current and former Berry students. Quick story: a friend of ours, Mike "Gooch" Hearn, was in a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago and currently is paralyzed from the chest down and given only a 5% chance to walk. Some people decided to get a bunch of his friends together, held a silent auction, spent time celebrating his life and trying to raise money and prayers and support to help pay for medical bills and just to show love for Mike. His girlfriend, Ellen, also a good friend of ours was there and very appreciative of the turnout. If you are reading this and feel compelled to give/donate, please let me know and I will make sure and give you more information on how to do that. Here is a picture of Brittany and I at the event:



I want to leave you all with some thoughts. We serve a huge God. Not only is he big enough to let Mike walk again, which I pray is the case, but he is big enough to change the lives of many people out of it. God doesn't perform miracles just so that we can be better off. Sure, he wants to do great things for those He loves, but that is a biproduct of his purpose. God does miracles so that he will become more famous, more glorified, known throughout the world, adored, feared, praised, honored, and seen as holy and gracious and good (just a couple of his attributes). Keep in mind that miracles come in all shapes and sizes. From the miracle of a baby, to physical healing, to the saving of nations, and so on. Jesus brought people back to life, healed sickness, cured blindness, turned water into wine, walked on water, changed the lives of everyone who would know him and follow after him, changed the minds of kings, showed kindness to servants, spent time with sinners and lived a life full of miracles. Brittany and I could talk for hours about the things the Lord has done to provide for us, encourage us, grow us, bring us back to him and sometimes just to remind us he is with us. Some bigger than others, but all with the same purpose of glorifying Himself and then for our good. Psalm 84 says "no good thing does he withhold from those who love him." Nothing in Scripture is on accident or without purpose. The Word of God was written so that we would know it and nothing in it is worth skipping over or taking lightly. That includes promises, commandments, stories, and yes, even the Old Testament. I know, shocker, but yes it is still important and applies today and should be read. I say all of this with great conviction because I need more than 2 hands to count the number of Bibles in my home, but still don't read it with enough regularity or passion. People ask, "how do I become more like Christ?" I think the answer starts with knowing him, reading his words, meditating and memorizing it, and sharing it with others. This applies to me as much if not more than anyone and I pray that the Lord takes my heart and mind and gives me the desire to know him and his word so much better and to live it daily. I forget exactly where this comes from, but somewhere in the Old Testament the writer states that he longs to hear from the Lord more than food. Sorry for the loose translation and lack of remembering the reference of the text, again another reason I need to be reading more. Still, what an incredible passion and hunger to know God that he would wake up in the morning and before wanting breakfast, or wanting to sleep longer or do anything else, he longs to spend time with God, listening and hearing from the Lord. My desire is that I would be like that and I simply am not there at all. It's sometimes hard for me to sing songs that talk about Jesus being better than life and things like that because my actions don't echo that. What songs do you sing that are hard because you don't really mean the words, or that your life doesn't show it? If you do this, you are not alone. God, please change the hearts of those who don't long for you more than everything else. You satisfy our every need and give us life, what more shall we want? I leave you with the lyrics of one of my favorite hymns that we do a lot at Three Rivers with a modern tune, but the words are powerful. May God bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and be gracious, and give you peace!

All my life long, I had panted
For a drink from some cool spring
That I hoped would quench the burning
Of the thirst I felt within

Hallelujah, He has found me
The one my soul so long has craved
Jesus satisfies all my longings
Through His blood I now am saved

Feeding on the filth around me
Until my strength was almost gone
Longed me soul for something better
Only still to hunger on

Poor I was and sought for riches
Something that would satisfy
But the dust I gathered round me
Only mocked my soul's sad cry

Well of water ever springing
Bread of Life so rich and free
Untold wealth that never faileth
My Redeemer is to me!