I’ve Had My Moments… My Days in the Sun

Good morning baby!

My child, there is part of a country song that I love that says something like, “I’ve had my moments days in the sun… moments I was second to none… moments when I did the best I could do… looking at me now you may not know it… but I’ve had my moments”. Now that song is about a homeless man looking for life to be over, but I see it as a reflection of great moments in our life. With that being said, I wanted to tell you about the first great moment in my life.

10 years ago today (yesterday now) was the first best day of my life. It was 2001 and I was Grandma Julie’s house for the summer in Glendale, Arizona. I had a huge group of friends that I hung out with every night, I had my first real girlfriend, and I had a future as hot as the Arizona sun! For as wonderful as all of those things were, nothing could compare to August 22, 2001 for a much bigger reason. It was the day I was baptized.

My child, the moment was set up perfectly. You will never lay your eyes on a more beautiful sky at night than the portrait sunsets of Arizona. I told my mom that there would be a dozen or so people coming over to witness… and as we stood on the porch waiting for people… more than 50 showed up! It was the first moment that I knew God liked to party!

As pastor Kevin baptized me, affirming my commitment to follow the Lord, my heart raced with excitement because for the first time I fully understood what a relationship with Jesus was all about. I can still remember the dunk and the rise and I truly felt like a brand new person when the water washed over me. Shortly after that moment my friend Leslie told me about a Kenny Chesney song called “The Baptism”. I listened to that song, fell in love with it, and it has been firmly rooted in my head ever since. It goes something like this: “It was down with the old man and up with the new… with faith to walk in the way of light and truth…. I didn’t see no angel… just a few footprints on the shore… but I felt like a newborn baby craddled up in the arms of the Lord”.

My child, the only days that has compared to that day was the day I married your mommy and the day I found out about you for the first time. Those days were also days that made me feel new… that I was on top of the world… that God was celebrating beside me as his family grew! My child, you will have many wonderful days like these that I call “moments”.

They are moments because they are wonderful building blocks to a solid life in Christ, but they soon become part of your legacy and history. Baptism was an eternal commitment to follow the Lord, our marriage vows was an eternal commitment to your mom, and a positive pregnancy test was an eternal commitment to love you always and give my life for you if need be.

For as wonderful as Arizona was in that moment, and as devastating as it was when it all went away, the foundation was laid and the purpose for that summer was clear… Arizona was a tool God used to change my heart. I believe in destiny and paths, and I believe had my path not gone through Arizona that summer… had I not found Christ Church of the Valley that summer… and had I not been accepted by a group of young Christians… my life would not be where it is today.

My child, when your “Arizona moments” happen… and there will be MANY for you… enjoy them and cherish them… let them become part of your legacy, but DO NOT let them define you. Look for what God is doing in your life at that moment and build on that! Do not fear these moments or yearn for them when they are gone, celebrate the knowledge you learn and the story you can tell. You will learn so much from these moments and I am excited to share them with you!

178 more days!