Do you ever feel married?

Well today one of my co-workers asked me, “Brent, when are you going to get married?” I took a moment to respond and said with a huge smile, “well, I’m not in a huge hurry, cause I really want to marry the right one.” Not wanting to miss an opportunity to share my love for Jesus, I told Anna, “I’m waiting for a girl who loves Jesus as much as I do.” I have invited Anna and her Husband to church and have had a few opportunities to express to her my love for Jesus, but it was so cool that I had a chance to use my singleness to let her know how important Jesus is to me . . . important enough that I would wait to get married until I find a girl who loves Jesus as much as I do. I think she was a little confused and then mentioned something about getting out more to meet girls. I could only smile, because I know she doesn’t understand what I mean when I say that I want to marry someone who loves Jesus as much as I do. Oh well, maybe this will be yet another seed.

Anyway, that was actually just a whole side note to my real reason for this blog. My question is: as a single person, “do you ever feel married?”

Well this blog entry really goes out to one of my best friends in the world . . . Isaac Weinhausen! Isaac and I have one of those friendships that is very unique and even weird at times . . . so weird, that we sometimes joke that we feel like a married couple. We can look at each other and know what the other is thinking, we get completely frustrated and irritated at each other at times and then quickly make things right, we talk on the phone together as long as some girls do, we bear each other’s burdens, and as we hang out, hours can go by without even knowing it. Tonight was a perfect example! We met at Panda Express for dinner, and two and a half hours later, we were still chatting . . . mostly about girls, and about how excited he is about marrying Sammy, and about a million other things.

Well, long story short, I am so thankful for my friend Isaac. I have many friends, but none just like him. I think the reason why we are so close is because we sharpen each other. . . He has held me accountable like no other friend and has literally cried over my sin and shed tears as he has prayed for me. Isaac is one who I can always count on to turn me to Christ or to confront me in love. He will give me encouragement, wisdom, or exhortation when needed. But we also laugh hysterically together as well. He is my Jonathon (that’s another thing, we fight over who is David, so since this is my blog, I win). He has a heart of gold and though he might not read this, I have to let it be known that I love my friend Isaac with the love of Christ. I am proud of him and his desire to honor the Lord, and I thank the Lord continually for giving me such a true friend who loves Jesus and wants to honor God. I can’t wait to see how God will continue to use him as he gets married to a gem of a girl in only a few months.

Swing Dance Evangelism

About a month ago in the Training Center we did an awesome study on evangelism and I definitely left feeling very convicted about how I was lacking some of the proactive measures needed in order to make disciples. One of the chapters that we read talked about being involved in normal activities of life in order to place oneself in the opportunity of sharing the gospel. The book mentioned ideal scenarios like joining a sports team, a bowling league, and the like, in order to put oneself in a normal and comfortable environment with non-believers. As a result, about a week later when some friends told me they were going to go do one of my favorite pastimes, I quickly agreed to go with them . . . I agreed to go swing dancing. It is something I enjoy doing, it isn’t damaging to my own walk with the Lord, and it is full of pagans; in just the last two times of going, I’ve had a couple of great chances to share the gospel.

Tonight was an awesome opportunity. I had purposefully worn my “Supernatural Transformation” shirt and a gal named Lisa ended up commenting on the meaning of the shirt. I had a chance to tell her that it was implying the verse from Romans 12:1-2 about being like Jesus and not conforming to the standards of the world. Lisa asked if it represented any sect of religion or philosophy, and I had a chance to tell her that it was just straight from the Bible. Knowing that I would simply be dancing to a four minute song, I quickly began a follow-up conversation. I asked her, “So Lisa, do you go to church anywhere?” To which she replied “No.” “Oh, well what do you believe,” I said. She mentioned about her studies with “religion” and “philosophy,” and I asked her what she had been studying recently. She said, “I’ve recently been doing some research into Eastern religions.” She said that she wanted to know what faith was correct. I asked her how she was raised and she said that she had been baptized in the Catholic church but her dad had stopped liking the church when they switched to English services as opposed to the Latin service. She also said that they had been hurt by the church. I asked her if she believed in heaven and hell. She didn’t really agree with them and she believes that all people are “pretty good,” to which I applied, “how good would someone have to be to get to heaven?” She replied by saying, “that is a great question!” I wanted to know more about her standard of good and whether people are born being good, so I probed a little deeper. She definitely thought that people were born good to which I responded, “what baffles my mind is when I think of little kids who are never taught how to lie, cheat, or steal, but they just do it naturally. “That is a really great point,” she said. After finishing the song, I thanked her and told her that it was a pleasure talking with her. If I had to do it over again, the one thing that I would leave her with is the truth that Christ came to save sinners from their sin, and he did it by living a perfect life, dying on a cross, and rising again. Though the only reference I made to Christ was in the beginning when I was telling her about the meaning of my shirt, I still know that God will use the conversation in whatever way he desires. Well, I look forward to the many more opportunities that God will give me to proclaim the gospel as I do more East Coast, Charleston, or Lindy-Hop Swing.

Sanctified by Socks

Well for those of you, who don’t know my crazy idiosyncrasies, let me tell you at least one. I can be very organized . . . so much so that I know exactly when I will have to do my laundry because I know that I have exactly enough black socks to last about 2 weeks. Therefore, this last week to my surprise I knew that I had a sock thief in my house because I had to do my laundry in exactly 7 business days as opposed to the normal 2 weeks . . . Yeah I know I’m crazy! Anyway, I also knew that I was running low when I had to use a pair of black socks that I hadn’t used since my mom had bought them 3 months ago for me. They were of sentimental value because of the reason why she had bought them for me and the symbols that the socks had on them. The pair of socks had crosses all over them because my mom had bought them at a Christian books store. She had bought them for me because about 3 months ago my brother Barry had stolen my socks because he had failed to do his own laundry and my mom wanted to remind me of Christ’s forgiveness (what a great mother!) That pair of socks is now a constant reminder to me of how irritated . . . frustrated . . . perturbed . . . okay, ANGRY I was at Barry . . . so much so that my mom would go and buy a pair of “Christian” socks for me to remember Christ’s forgiveness.

So, in memory of the last time I lost it over a stupid few pairs of black socks being missing and the inconvenience it caused me because I had to do my laundry 5 days sooner, I politely told my brother Barry that I knew he had been stealing my socks again. He smiled and told me that he would get them back to me the next day. Well tonight, 4 days later, I still had not gotten my black socks returned. Yeah, did I say that I know I’m a depraved soul in desperate need of the continual grace of God? Yeah! Well, tonight, not having my returned socks, I confronted my brother in a much more gracious manner than I did the last time . . . but it was definitely from a selfish heart that cared more about me and my needs than for him. What a schmuck I can be! So, once again, our amazing mother came to the rescue and allowed the Holy Spirit to work his conviction on my sinful heart. A while ago, she had bought four new packs of black socks for such a time as this. Having been squabbling about SOCKS for a few minutes, my mom went to her room and pulled out the four packs of socks and asked which ones I wanted and gave the other two packs to Barry.

If you don’t know what it feels like to be put in your place, I don’t think that I can really even describe it to you. My mom didn’t say a word. She only smiled. It was a smile that said, “I knew this would happen again because you and Barry can be so selfish and so a few months ago I went out and bought these socks for a moment like this to remind you about looking out for the needs of others before your own and remembering the forgiveness, grace, and love of Christ.” WOW, she said a lot without saying a word.

Having had a few hours to think this whole situation over again, I am left just completely smiling about the unique ways that God sanctifies believers to the conformity to his Son Jesus Christ. God used socks to sanctify my sinful heart. PRAISE HIS NAME. However, now that Barry just finished the laundry, I think I’m going to go steal my socks back. Wow, I’m glad God is still sanctifying me (mischievous smile and chuckle).