Lauren and I are bummed! We left on Wednesday to go to Gulf Shores, AL for vacation to enjoy the beach for a few days. Our plan after that was to meet up with her friend Erin, who lives in Mobile, to hang out with her Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We were getting ready on Thursday evening to go eat dinner when Lauren got a call from Erin. Erin is in the hospital with pneumonia (spelling?) and will be there for 3 days. We were looking forward to seeing Erin, but there is not much fun we can have in a hospital. We decided to see if we could book our hotel room for one more night, but the rate went up $50 so that option was gone. The last option was to see if there were hotel rooms at the beach in Pensacola, FL (about an hour away), but none were available in our price range. Like I said, we were BUMMED!
After exhausting our options, we decided to get up early on Friday morning and go to the beach one last time to let Price play in the sand and take some family beach pictures. On our 5 minute walk to the beach, Price quicly fell asleep. We laid out our blanket, set up our chairs, and hoisted up the umbrella. After Price being asleep for about an hour, we looked behind us and the darkest of rain clouds were upon us. I saw the look on Lauren's face, which said, "You have got to be kidding me!" With Price still being asleep, there was no chance for him to play in the sand one last time, and the photo opp for beach pictures with our family was gone. The situation was turning from bad to worse. As soon as we returned to the hotel, the flood began. We cleaned up, packed up, and headed for home in the storm. It was a very silent ride home and there was nothing I could do about it...FRUSTRATING!
As I drove up I-65, everyone was sound asleep in the car, so I began to ask God to show me why He needed us back in Cartersville so bad. Every option we had to stay longer was shut down. I was clueless! When we reached home (a few days too early), we unloaded the car and just sat in silence. Frustrated, confused, and wallowing in self pity. It was about 8:30 pm and I needed to go pick up one of our dogs from a friend's house. Once I arrived, my friends and I began talking about caring where the people we know and love will spend eternity, and we even spent a minute praying for a couple opportunities my friend will have this week to speak with her friends about eternity. I put Charlie (our dog) in the car and decided to go through the drive-thru at Arby's for dinner. This is where God began to speak...
Let me take you back a few minutes before Arby's...
When I was leaving our friend's neighborhood, I began to tell God that I wanted to see why He brought us home early...it had to be a pretty good reason, right?!? I asked God that if I needed to share Christ with someone, then He needed to show me clearly. So after I got my food from Arby's, I was at the stop light on West Avenue and I noticed there were a couple of guys in the truck in front of me leaning out the window waving at me, one on each side. It was two of my former baseball players. All of a sudden, it hit me...was this the encounter I was brought home early from vacation for? The reason I say that is because I had a conversation earlier this year with one of the guys in the truck about where he would spend eternity. He clearly told me that he knew that he did not have a relationship with Jesus. I asked Him why and he replied, "Because I see all these people that call themselves Christians at school and they do the same stuff I do. I don't want to be a hypocrite like them." That answer about killed me, but he was right. If Christians do the same stuff people who are not Christians do, what is the difference??? It actually made me down-right mad knowing that is the picture a lot of non-believers have of "Christians"!
This morning I got up and I text him to let him know that I care where he spends eternity. I let him know that if there is ever a time that he wanted to talk about it, that I would drop whatever I am doing to talk with him. He text back and said, "Ok Coach, I will let you know." I truly believe last night was one reason that God brought us home early from this trip, so that I would see that young man and be reminded to let him know that I care where he will spend eternity. I know this...he has something to think about this weekend and he has a choice to make. Making no choice is making the choice to reject Jesus because he knows the truth about Jesus and why He came to earth. He may not decide to talk to me anytime soon about this matter, but it is in God's hands now. My job is to simply let him know that I care where he will spend eternity.
Let me finish this post by asking you this...
If you are a Christian, what picture are you giving non-believers about a relationship with Christ? Does it make you different (in a good way), or are you the one that gives non-believers the excuse why not to make Jesus the Lord of their life??? Like Alan Duncan said at SPLASH Bartow, "You are either a missionary or the mission field." Which are you?
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