Get Louder than the Distractions

I recently had a chance to attend the Stronger Men’s Conference in Springfield, MO.

I was one of 25 men from my church to attend the event and we were joined by about 8,300 other men from across the US. It was my first time attending any type of large scale worship event. And it did not fail to deliver.

There was so much to unpack from this conference. All of the messages we heard were fantastic.

A big takeaway for me was the fact that 8,300 men climbed into a sports arena and worshiped God just as fanatically as people might do when they enter Arrowhead Stadium for a Kansas City Chiefs game. It was the first time I experienced something like that since I started down my faith journey in 2020 and it left my heart overjoyed.

That conference weekend really set off a 36 hour Jesus binge fest for me. I rode down to the conference with a friend from church. We listened to sermons for most of the three hour drive.

We attended the conference Friday night and Saturday morning. And then on the drive back to Kansas City, we listened to more sermons and talked through our favorite moments of the weekend.

When I got home, I just couldn’t stop thinking about the experience. So, I found Tim Timberlake on YouTube, one of the speakers from the conference, and watched sermons from him for another few hours.

We need to get louder than the distractions

Needless to say, after a weekend of non-stop Jesus, my heart was full. And I just kept craving more. But as Sunday night came calling and the impending work week getting louder in my head, I was left reflecting on what happens when I can’t focus all of my time and thoughts on Jesus.

What usually happens? That joy I experience usually evaporates in rushing river of distractions.

As Tim Timberlake said on stage during the Stronger Conference, “when you are on your way to a breakthrough, when God is getting ready to work in your life, the background noise gets louder.”

So often, the enemy tries to take our voice away from us, and I’m left wondering what to do.   

Here’s a great example of a distraction short circuiting me. A few days after the conference, I stumbled across a social media post from an online reporter. The post described the event as “just as cringe-worthy” as you could imagine. It was followed by hundreds of people commenting about the evils of “Christian male toxicity” this event was spreading.

That post took the breath right out of me. It did exactly what the enemy wanted it to do to me. It made me want to hide behind my keyboard and not share any of the encouragement and joy that Jesus filled up my cup with over the weekend.  

I prayed and reflected more on the messages I heard at Stronger. Pastor Tim challenged us to get louder than the noise. And that’s what I’ve committed to doing coming out of this conference.

I left Stronger with my Jesus cup full. And what do you do when your cup is full? You pour out your love for Jesus and share with as many people as you can. I can’t let all of the words poured into me over the weekend go to waste.

It starts with making sure I am sharing my love of Jesus and the wisdom I gained with my wife and with my kids.

It’s making sure that I am sharing the encouragement and hope with other members of my church, lifting them up just as Jesus lifted me up this weekend.

And it is making sure I am sharing how Jesus transformed my life and my marriage with everyone in my community. Whether it is through serving or through sharing my testimony, I have to get loud.

We’ve got work to do. And we need to make our voices louder than the distractions around us. We need to make our voices STRONGER.

How are you getting louder than the distractions in your world?

When Your Old Life Collides with New Life

God made it easy for me to turn away from my old life in April 2020– He knew I couldn’t do it on my own. That’s why He took everything that I loved away in the middle of the pandemic. No temptations from the opposite sex, no pornography, no bars, no drinking, no pot, and no sports to watch. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset my life and I took full advantage.

Amy would always ask me in those initial weeks, “do you think you would still be saved if God didn’t take all of those things away from you?” The honest answer? Probably not. All those sins I mentioned were my escape from the anxiety and depression I faced.

I want to make it clear that I’m not saying sports is bad. Obviously, playing sports has its benefits. And watching sports often brings families and communities together. I plan to watch sports and root for my teams in the years ahead with my sons. But for me, going out to watch sports used to bring out the worst in me. It was an easy doorway to open that led me to all of my worst sins.

Binge drinking.

Anger.

Idolatry.

Sexual sin.

And it’s a door that I know I can’t ever open again. Frankly, I don’t want to open again.

Fast forward to 2022 and the world is coming out of its pandemic cave. That means the enemy is using the temptations of my old life to see if he can break me. Especially when it comes to the sports I worshiped more than life itself, specifically, college basketball. The Kansas Jayhawks hoops team was my idol, my high place.

The last time KU was in the Final Four was 2018. I celebrated by passing out drunk in a bar. Throwing up getting carried to a friend’s car. Getting dropped off a home only to make it to the garage where I promptly passed out in the back seat of my parked car. And then finally stumbling upstairs to the couch with my boys watching me. At the time, I considered it a badge of honor for the experience.  

Everywhere I turned over the past Final Four weekend, there were pictures of celebrating Kansas fans. Flooding the bars. Dancing in the streets. Those old memories came flooding back to me. And my old life is whispering, “are you going to worship your team or are you going to worship your God?”

I started telling myself, “Well, maybe I can go to the bar and watch the game. I just won’t drink or act like a fool again. My old friends are likely there waiting for me to welcome me back and would never try to force a shot on me.”  

But instead of giving in to my temptations of my old life, I let my new life take control. I prayed and asked God for some encouragement. Of course, he did not fail to deliver.

God put this word in my heart.

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

Jesus shed blood and died on the cross for my sins. Do I really want to put myself in a situation that I know will lead me to temptation? Why am I looking back at a life that nearly ruined me? How could I do that after what Jesus did for me?

I need to die on my cross every single day, and deny myself, if I truly want to follow Jesus.

I’m excited to root for the Jayhawks as they play for a national title sitting on my couch, sober minded.

But I’m overjoyed to give praise and worship to God every day. It’s His healing power that created the miracle in my life.

How can I put anything above that?