Best Friends I’ve ever had: Sam Dhlodhlo

Sam Dhlodhlo is the kind of guy who would never tell you, but he is a global influencer that God has used to save thousands of people.  A pastor and friend from CelebrationZimbabwe, he coordinates and directs our feeding centers serving over 24,000 kids a day in Africa.  I’m blessed to call him a friend.

I’ve had the blessing to spend lots of time with Sam both in the States and in the UK.

In Fall 2010,  I flew to England to see Sam and his family, then took him with me to Belfast to Celebration Ireland for 4 days.  We worked with our leaders there, and he brought valuable insight and support in developing some vital partnerships for us.

 In the midst of it, he made every person he encountered…great and small… feel important, loved, and value.  Here he is with 1 of our Irish team members: Timmy Vennard.

Sam doesn’t have a twitterfeed or personal blog on trends, leadership, coolness, or popular culture.  Heck, He barely ever checks facebook.  Yet I’ve never met anyone under 40 who’s done so much for the kingdom with such character and vintage sincerity.   In our generation of fads and phases, fanpages and followings….he’s a person I emulate, admire, and am incredibly thankful to call a friend.

Thank you Sam for being you…for loving thousands of the ‘least of these’, and for being a true once in a lifetime friend and role model to me.

-bigJohn

Book review: ‘Fatherless Generation: Redeeming the Story’

“When Dad leaves, something dies.”  Those 5 words from the book ‘Fatherless Generation’ so strongly describe what our church’s outreach teams have seen in hundreds of kids at foster homes and juvenile detention centers time and again these past 3 years.  Regardless of how things are when we get home for us with our own families, theres a pain that stings so deep  one almost wants to put a turnicate on the heart.  That pain of knowing that,  for those kids, a part of them is dead. 

I’m so glad John Sowers has brought his voice into the culture and beckoned a generation to bring life back into those millions of souls.   The conversation on manhood the past 18  or so years in christendom has been dominated by living up to basic “1st mile” responsibilities to your own wife, kids, and church.   This has been both noble and helpful, but somehow incomplete, or maybe better said, unfinished by a long shot.

Omniabsence
Even while many men walked that first mile well, Don Miller (the author who wrote a heart moving foreword for this book) became a voice in the wilderness and jumpstarted a conversation of fatherlessness around the “churchy” table.   John offers an all important voice on this growing conversation: the grassroots real voices of the kids both young and old walking their miles alone. I find the book does a great job of putting us in those shoes. For those of us who already walk in those shoes, he lets us know why our feet ache and how this fatherly omniabsence has “formed a callousness” in us we don’t quite understand because we’ve never known differently.

“I don’t know who you’re fighting son,” -thoughts on Robin Hood and runaways

Few people view groups of at risk youth as an army.  Mostly they’re viewed as victims. 

While watching Ridley Scott’s ‘Robin Hood’ Director’s Cut, my jaw dropped as Robin (aka Robert) happened upon the fatherless kids, the runaways in Sherwood Forest.  Kids who had been stealing and terrorizing the elderly and women see the desperate need for what it means to have guidance from a mentor.  here’s the scipt of the 1:30 scene, thanks to movie-censorship.com for their compilation of the all the scenes/dialogue.  Robin is confronting Loop, the leader of the boys.  the quotes are priceless. 

Loop: „Know him?” Marion: „Boys, this is Robert of Loxley, my husband. Sir Robert, the runaways of Sherwood.” Loop: „Untie him!” Marion: „No, I don’t think spies should be let off so easily.” Robin: „That was unkind.”

 

Loop: „You were a crusader?” Robin: „Yes.” Loop: „Did you hear that, boys? You bested a crusader! My men are good fighters.” Robin: „I don’t know about that. I think the weight of numbers might have been in their favour. But they do move silently like the creatures of the forest. But that’s only a skill if you stay as a man. You don’t become the creature you hunt.” Loop: „We’re soldiers.” Robin: „No, you’re not. Soldiers fight for a cause. What’s yours? You don’t have one. That makes you poachers. Common thieves with a lot to learn.” Loop: „Like what?” Robin: „I could teach you how to tie knots.”

 

[Suddenly, Robin jumps up. He has already freed himself from his ties with anyone noticing.] Robin: „I could teach you which wood to get to make your bows stronger. I could teach you how to make arrows that fly more then 20 feet. And I can help Marion teach you how to stay clean, so you won’t get sick.” [Robin helps Loop up.] Robin: „I don’t know who you are fighting, son. But it’s not me. I’m not your enemy. If you want to chat, you know where to find me.”

 I believe the scene speaks for itself- Just as their arrows were crooked and bows were weak; the boys were destined to not fly far or last long without someone to show them how to become men.    

 It looks like the cutting room left out this key foundational backstory of mentoring and its importance to the developing story in the franchise.  Regardless, those who have seen the film realize the ending and franchise direction will be Robin taking these bandit boys, giving them a cause to live for, and seeing them become his merry men.  At that point, the boys will being to know who to fight and why.

Lost Marbles: “See ya in another life Brotha”

You don’t have to be a fan of ‘Lost’ to appreciate someone trying to save the world one life at a time.  That’s Desmond Hume-  the 1 person in Lost continually seeing strength in people they do not see in themselves. 

Desmond’s faith in others and his destiny doesnt come from his strength, it flows from his weakness.  A defining moment of Desmond’s life happened when someone said to him, “you will never be a great man.”

“What you’re not is worthy of drinking my whiskey…how could you ever be worthy of my daughter?”

Widmore’s voice is that voice in my head that tells me I’m no one and will amount to nothing.  Regardless of achievement, this voice will always find something I havent accomplished.  Regardless of success, it will whisper to me somewhere I have failed.  No matter who I become, it will point at someone “who’s become more” to show me I don’t measure up. 

This voice is a lie.  There is another life Brotha.

We can go through our mundane monotony, believing the lies about who we really are.  Desmond leaves this moment, and out in the street realizes he’s not that weak man Widmore saw.  He spends the next years reminding people of their true identity-that they have a part to play so much larger than the lies they’ve believed. 

It’s people like Des who have kept me alive.  People who see in me what I don’t have the strength to believe myself.  You want to talk about leadership?   A leader is one who who cares enough to wake us from the nightmare of living suffocated by the lies we’ve believed about ourselves.   People who change our world see something in us maybe no one else sees…. and they help us see it and believe it ourselves.  

Don’t just settle for listening to the right voices…. BE the right voice for others.  If you and I have been lied to this much…imagine what others have believed.  They need a new lease on life–life lived under the truth.

Being the right voice gives a person a whole new life.  This is how we can say as Des does so simply…

“See you in another life, brotha”

5 Jaguars goto jail…

As detailed recently on www.jaguars.com, we really hit a high note this past month taking 5 Jaguars to juvenile facilities on 3 separate dates.   Richard Collier, a victim of 14 gunshots in 2008 that ended his NFL career, capped a great month last week when he spoke to 80 young men at Hastings Youth Academy, a local juvenile detention center, as a culmination of their “Stop the Violence” week. 

Richard, who’s in a wheelchair and had to have a leg amputated after the shooting, told the kids he was thankful to be alive, saying  ”I’d rather be in this chair than be dead.”   To this room full of juvenile offenders,

Russell Allen  (pictured center here) , a Linebacker for the team out of San Diego State, began helping us at the Duval Juvenile Detention Center a year ago, soon after the Draft.  He’s been a rock on our team.   

Russell said to the kids the week following the Buffalo game, “I was on a losing college team, I didn’t get drafted.  I had to fight to make the roster.  And here I was last week, a rookie starting Linebacker.  I had just tackled Terrell Owens across the middle on a slant route.  I got up, and it hit me, I’m living my dream.  You can live your dream to, but you have to fight to keep it alive.”

Picking up the pieces at Juvie

We hit juvie twice a month with a superteam of amazing volunteers from our church… a ragtag group of God’s mission team – many castoffs from the world’s standards.  The biggest challenge there isn’t the message we bring….it’s how we bring it.

“The devil don’t usually attack the message, he attacks relationship.”- Pastor Art, a 70+ year old Missionary Baptist Pastor in one of the toughest areas of our city. 

When your 31 verse window opens

Have you ever felt you were “ready” for something only to find yourself in a holding pattern with no foreseeable end? You’re in SUCH good company.

Moses did 40 years in the wilderness (Insert nacho libre voice)
Jacob did 14 years in serfdom to be with his girl
David hid in caves & played madman until God removed Saul
God waited thousands of years to send Jesus
Jesus waited at least 18 years to begin his public ministry after being discovered

In Christianity, we often say holding patterns serve as God’s place to refine us until we’re “ready” for His big grand plan and place for us to land.

But what if we are ready, but the runway isn’t?

Reading my age old fave story of the life of Joseph was huge this month in our daily devos. Genesis 40 ends with him feeling he was forgotten, Genesis 41 finds him being remembered- but ONLY at the time he was needed.

Joseph did 2 additional years in jail after he had shown he was ready to interpret dreams & fulfill his own. But Egypt was not ready for Joseph. The famine wasn’t near. Pharaoh’s heart wasn’t vexed. The magicians hadn’t blown their act yet.

Had Joseph been released early, perhaps he would have left the country, or found a new job, wife, house, kids etc. Instead, he was right where Egypt came looking. Right when Egypt needed him most.

In 41:7, Pharaoh lamented there was no one who could interpret his vexing dreams.

41:38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this (Joseph), a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”

The 31 verses in between represented Joseph’s landing on the scene- right when Egypt needed him- and ONLY him.

So the question isn’t simply – are you ready right now? But, will you also be ready when your 31 verse window opens?