What up everyone! I am so pumped to go to Knoxville tomorrow with Joseph McMillan the genius videographer (is that a word?) and some of our students to shoot an awesome video idea that God dropped into me a couple weeks ago.

Now if you know me you know I love Hip-Hop music, if you know me real well you know I actually recorded 1 (uno) song while in college in a home made bathroom studio. It was terrible. Bottom Line.

But the other night, real late, when God speaks most clearly to me He sparked an idea in me so I grabbed, my pen, my paper, my pen. (If you caught on to that you know me real well). Any-who, no I did not write another Rap song, but instead a little Spoken Word poem (Check some out here). I have never written one before but it goes a little something like this…

Many times when I look in the mirror I find,

A mind,

Full of confusion.

Identity crisis.

I’m blind.

The world’s tellin’ me on thing,

They sing.

Do what ever you like.

Do what feels right.

You’re King!

But you say there’s only One King, Jesus,

He frees us!

I hear your words, but I see no actions.

Plus!

If Jesus really frees us,

And He’s in you,

Then why do you always fight and fuss?

Yell and cuss?

You push me aside,

Forget about us?

You say we’re the future.

The youth.

A bright spot ahead.

But the truth?

I stand right here today.

Not in the future.

And I’m not dead.

Like I said,

My head,

It gets filled with lies

I trust my heart to mortal man.

Watch things to please my eyes.

But when I look inside,

My heart,

It withers,

And dies.

You see,

I don’t know who I am.

I don’t know my purpose.

On the surface,

I look clean,

But Inside,

I’m Mean.

And honestly,

I fein.

Look at me,

My home life’s in shambles, no parents around.

I store up my emotions, My questions, My thoughts.

Its all scrambled

It kills me inside!

Depressed,

Distraught.

Oh, that’s right,

I haven’t forgot.

That name Jesus,

You say it a lot

It sounds so nice,

But I want to SEE Him!

No. No, better yet,

I NEED to see Him!

He’s all I got!

So here’s a question,

Am I still just your future?

A youth?

A bright spot ahead?

Look around.

I’m in this room too.

Sitting here.

Waiting.

For You.

Just a little somethin’ somethin’ about how our Youth are over looked as leaders TODAY, not just FUTURE leaders. Many are ready to be leaders right now, TODAY! While others are dying, daily broken. They need positive people in their lives. They get beat down every day by peers, parents, media and our culture.

I praise God for allowing me to serve the students in our county. Lord may I always remember these students are here TODAY to lead TODAY, TOMORROW and in the FUTURE.

Video will be up in a few weeks. Good night all.

Outie Five.

You know, over the past couple of days I have been wondering, what would Jesus’ ministry would have looked like if He had all the technology stuff that we have today.

Would Jesus have a Facebook? That way He could keep up with all of His carpenter boys from back in the day. He could “poke” them, or wish them happy birthday only because he was reminded by the Birthday Calendar application. Would there be a “group” on Facebook titled “I used to couldn’t walk but now I can!” just for the people Jesus healed?

Would Jesus have a Myspace so He could keep up with all of David’s Harp Worship albums or change His “Mood” status every time a Pharisee ticked Him off?

What about blogging? Would Jesus be a master Blogger, letting everyone know about the crazy things that go on in His day to day life. Would He share all of His deep emotional thoughts and advice on how to do ministry with the World Wide Blogging Community?

YouTube, Jesus would get His YouTube on fa sho. Right? Posting videos of all His miracles and casting out of demons. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt He would get more hits than “Charlie Bit My Finger” if He posted the whole walking on water thing.

And how cool would it be to have a Podcast of Jesus teaching the Sermon on the Mount!? That would be incredible! Would He charge $9.99 for the video Podcast and just .99 Cents for the Audio?

You know, Kanye West hates Twitter. I don’t know why. Personally I love Twitter. It’s just fun to let everyone know what random crap is going on in your life at any given moment. I wonder WWJT. What Would Jesus Tweet? Or would He Tweet at all? Could you imagine how many followers He would have? Would He send out Bible Verses that constantly run through His mind all day? Would He send in Twitter Pics? Who knows!? I don’t.

Seriously, I don’t have an answer to any of these questions, so if you read all of that thinking I would somehow supply you with the answer to What Would Jesus Tweet? I am sorry to disappoint you.

I honestly don’t know if Jesus would use any of the technology we have today. I do know that He would not worship it though. I know He would not spend 11 hours a day on Facebook checking friend requests and status updates. I know He would not only communicate with people through text messaging and Twitter updates. I know He would not rely on His Pod casts to do all His outreach around the world.

But what I do know is that Jesus would be out in this world. Looking at people face to face. Eating lunch with sinners. Loving everyone He came in contact with trying desperatly to show them the love of His Father.

Sometimes I get caught up. A lot of times I rely way to much on text messaging or e-mails. Often times I catch myself surfing Facebook for hours on end. And it just got me thinking about how impersonal our culture is, and has the potential to become. Even with ministry.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not trying to say any of these things are evil. I’m not saying that at all. I’m just a guy, in a technologically filled world, that gets easily distracted by all the flashing lights and new electronic stuff, but sees myself slipping further and further away from actual face to face discussions, with real words, no computer lingo, and missing out on that personal relationship with the people in my life.

My prayer is that I remember a man named Jesus, who had nothing, took nothing with Him, had no gimmicks, no shows. Just love and the Word of God. And He impacted this world like no other man in history.

May we put down our phones, shut off the computers, take a step outside of our cyber world and remember what it is like to simply Love people and communicate that through personal interaction every now and then. Yes everyone is on Facebook. Yes everyone has a Twitter. Yes everyone Text Messages. But the last time I checked most everyone still has a voice, and most everyone loves to hear a voice or see a face. I pray we use our resources, but not worship them.

Outie 5

This weekend while chillin in Lexington, Kentucky with my main man Rob Geezy we checked out a few movies. Friday we went out and watched the new G.I. Jane movie. Yes, I said G.I. Jane, I never remember playing with my G.I. Joes and thinking, “Hmmmm I think it would be real fun to go get some of my lil sis’ Barbie dolls and create some sort of love square Soap Opera scenario.” G.I. Joes were made to kick the crap out of each other not be Disney prince charmings! FYI the choice of actors was terrible and all the cool stuff was shown in the previews. Anyways, sorry for the rant, let me hop down off my popcorn box now.

We also watched the movie Role Models, which if you look past all the “R” rated garbage, it was pretty funny and had a good message. Matter of fact, I am pretty sure I am in search for a Mid-Evil Knights of the Round Table-like fan club to join around East Tennessee, so if you know any groups hook me up with the info.

Then yesterday we watched the movie The Soloist, with Jamie Fox. I heard a ton of mixed reviews on the movie, mainly negative, mainly coming from an 8 year old and a couple Middle School students, but I didn’t care I wanted to see it anyway. After hearing everyone’s ideas on the movie, my verdict is that it was a pretty good movie. I really enjoyed it. It made me take a long hard look at how I deal with friends and students who are having problems or going through some rough times.

So many times, me being a man, I want to fix everything. I want to figure out some way to stop the hurting or the behavior that’s going on. I talk way too much, I ramble and I preach when I simply need to shut up and listen. Listen to someone who is in need of a friend to talk with. Someone to hang out with. A friend who helps them keep their mind off the hurt or the mistakes for a few calming minutes. Someone to love them.

Working in the ministry I think many times we forget the verse found in James 1:19. Instead of always throwing answers at people and trying to fix them and their situations we instead need to be “quick to listen and slow to speak.”

May I stop trying to be askjeeves.com all the time, take a timeout and be a friend who genuinely cares.

I’m Gone.

Yes I am a blog slacker. Yes I have not posted in over a month. Yes its been busy. Yes busyness is not an excuse. But again it has been busy. Yes I need to step my blog game back up. Yes I have some good stuff to share in the coming months. Yes I am sorry for not communicating over the past month. and Yes I HAVE A NEW HERO! Check him out.

I’m Outie 5