Hi guys.
I saw this update on the healer situation with Mike G. and the Hillsong Church. Thought you guys might want to read it. It sounds like this guy is pretty broken and in need of restoration. My heart breaks for this guy and his need for freedom. A need we all have I’m sure in certain areas of our lives.
Here’s the link:
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24233308-5006301,00.html
I thought you’d enjoy this!
I’ve been thinking over the last several days what are the values that govern dee’s and I lives. I told dee and I tonight that I really wanted to get with her and work on our core values so we did tonight and I wanted to share with you guys what we decided on. We both agree that we’ll update this, but for now, it’s official. We want our lives to be governed by our core values and these are them. Here they are.
Wilcox Core Values:
1] We will choose not to substitute what we do for God, for a relationship with Him. We will decisively and diligently pursue time with Him, His Word and His Presence
2] We will choose to exercise financial discipline to live wisely day-to-day and to use financial wisdom to plan for the future so that we can live generously and give to those in need.
3] We will choose to have strong relationships with mentors who are pouring
into us spiritually, relationally and with wisdom.
4] We will cultivate develop and pursue deep, meaningful relationships with friends that we can do life with. This value is one of the key values, we believe, to having a truly “enriched and blessed” life.
5] We will choose to discipline ourselves and carve out to time to grow through
school, reading and mentorship.
6] We will choose to live lives marked by giving of our lives unselfishly and unreservedly through servant hood in whatever situations the Lord puts us in. We will make it our aim, though we are not perfect, to live our lives by the spirit and to produce lives that mirror the fruits of the spirit.
7] We will choose daily to govern what we eat and how we live. It will be our goal to honor the Temple of the Holy Spirit that the Lord has given us. We will choose to discipline our bodies even when we don’t feel like it. We want to Honor the Lord with our Bodies and how we take care of them.
8] We will consciously choose to live our lives first and foremost under the guidance and direction of God and the Holy Spirit. We will choose to seek him and his direction before we make any decisions.
9] Lastly, the scriptures say that a good name is better than gold. We will make it our aim to build a good reputation and to rebuild any hurts or mistakes of our past. We want our name to be held in good stature and to leave a positive, Godly name for our Children and family
So it’s midnight at the wilcox house and I’ve been brainstorming some concepts to experiment with for some upcoming video projects I’ve got coming down the pipe. The season is upon me and our entire creative department once again to work on several videos in a very short time which will amount to lots of enegy drinks, several super long days and nights and a very patient (and might I mention amazing) wife! Dee, I love you! You’re amazing and I’m so grateful for you! Thanks for understanding the busy times!
Ok, so tonight I’m experimenting with a concept called “Light Painting”. It’s probably a fairly common concept to most photographers and videographers, but to me, it’s fairly new and exciting. I played around with it a little tonight and am going to experient further with it tomorrow for a few videos I’ve got coming up. I posted a pic of it below. Anyway, it’s not terribly creative, but I thought I’d welcome any creative feedback and maybe some ideas if you lovely people have them on how I can use this concept, especially using a video camera.
Thanks for checking the blog out!
Chris
While I was on my trip to NYC and even before I left, I started thinking about this scene in the movie “Pearl Harbor” where ben afflecks and josh hartnetts characters were volunteering to fly this crazy surprise attack mission into japan in response to their attack on pearl harbor. It was when their captain was talking with them about how dangerous their mission was and I’m not saying it happened exactly this way, but I think he was asking them if they were anxious to die and what they said back has been coming to my mind lately. They said, “we’re not anxious to die sir, we’re anxious to matter”. This phrase has been coming to my mind alot lately. I’ve been asking myself some hard questions. Things like, why aren’t I dreaming anymore? Why do I feel drier spiritually than I have in a while? I also can’t get past the fact that inside my heart, I feel like I have so much left to do. The thing that has stuck out to me the most is that I feel like God has been closest to me when I experience things that break his heart.
I’ve told a few people about this recently and I guess I”ll share it here. Dee and I were ending one of our days in NYC and about to head back to our hotel in brooklyn. We both got a hot dog and proceeded to head into the subway. I remember walking towards the middle of the subway and seeing this man sitting on one of the benches alone. He caught my eye because he was wrapped in a thin sheet and I’m guessing he was completely naked underneath it. He had several trash bags full of these sheets. Now for those of you who’ve been to NYC, you know it is ridiculously hot in the subways and it was blatantly obvious that this guy had been sitting there for a while. His hair was matted, he had terrible teeth and for some reason, I couldn’t get past this guy. I kept looking at him like there was something wrong about this situation beyond his obvious circumstances. Then, all of the sudden, it was like I became aware of everyone around me. I started looking at the well dressed people. People texting, eating, having fun with their families, things that are entirely ok and normal, except people kept walking in front of, behind and around the one guy, almost as if he didn’t exist. Then, i started asking myself, “does anyone even see this guy”? What must be going through this guys head. Maybe he’s hungry, maybe he has some terrible, painful disease that prevents him from walking, maybe he has absolutely nothing, no where to go, who knows and my heart just started to break for this man. In my mind, I’m thinking to myself, My God, Have we become so numb that we pretend like it’s normal to see broken people like this, like it’s ok, like people have just made their peace with the fact that theirs nothing they can do and i started to get mad. I mean don’t get me wrong, I saw my share of people who it seems like they know how to work you over, but this was different. This guy had no sign, he wasn’t asking for anything, he didn’t say anything. He just had this blank stare looking straight ahead and the longer i looked at this guy, the angrier I got. I was Not angry like I wanted to hit someone, I was angry in a way that broke me on the inside. I was asking myself what I could do for this guy and I knew I didn’t have money, but I did have some food so I walked up to this guy and offered him some food and asked him if he needed anything. The thing that stuck out to me the most was that I don’t think this guy knew how to respond. It was like he was used to be ignored and that broke my heart. I’m tearing up even as I write this because it’s moment like these that make me feel like I’m the closest to God. I’m far beyond the four walls of my church and office. I’m not in the mix of the day to day church things. I’m in the world, walking in the midst of the broken and it’s in those moments where I can sense the presence of God.
[Prayer] God, help us remember those moments when we struggle with religion. Help us remember that you’re the hope of our salvation. Help us remember that it’s not about us. Help us serve you. Soften our hearts to the things that matter to you. Bring us to that place of surrender. Jesus, break our hearts for the things that break yours and move us to action through compassion.
so dee and I’s first day out of arkansas heading to NYC was quite the adventure. There was a wall of storms all up the east coast which meant that they would not let our flight leave. Anyway, so when dee and I had found our piece of carpet where we were going to sleep for 1.5 hours before we had to be up for security, I decided to make this video blog. Here are a few things I left out (unintentionally). Once our flight was cancelled, us along with 300 people headed out (in a single file line) to the airport checkin counter to be re-ticketed (at 1:30AM). There was only 1 agent and people were screaming and cussing at each other simply because someone accidentally cut in line. The airline agents were screaming at the construction people in the hallway, they told us all the hotels were sold out and that the machines to help expedite the process were broken. It was all I could do not to laugh because I was so frustrated, but there was nothing I could do. So, we found a place to eat (thank God there was a bread company open) and we were their last customers before they closed. We then found a piece of carpet, feel asleep (it was freezing cold, by the way and we were dressed for hot weather with no warm clothes on us) for 1.5 hours. got up, checked in and flew out by 7:30am. Everyone clapped and rejoiced with passionate applause when we landed in New York, (us included).
Enjoy!
Ok friends, I thought I’d share some of our trip to NYC with you. Keep in mind, since there was only the 2 of us, I was always behind the camera. Because I have some money invested in my camera, I was VERY uneasy about handing if off to a complete stranger in NYC. With that in mind, we had a blast. One thought for ya NYC though, how about a little air conditioning in those subways. It was so friggin hot down there. Also, can I just say that going to NYC is expensive. Dee and I were looking at what we spend and all I can say is DANG! We’re going to be poor for a while. Cab’s are expensive and all those trips on the metro added up.
Without further adeiu (hope that’s how you spell it). Here’s our vacation in pictures (not everything tho). I didn’t shoot the entire time.
Here’s the explanation from the top left to right on each column (it’ll be 1.1-1.3, 2.1-2.3….hope you get it)
1.1 Dee and I right after we took a carriage ride in central park in the evening. I gave her a diamond ring to pair up with her current diamond. (for all of you who will ask, I don’t know what we’re standing in)
1.2 Dee in rockefeller center
1.3 Us watching a band called Hiromi and the sonic bloom. She was amazing. Check her out on itunes. This was a dream come true for us to listen to live jazz in new york late at night. It was rediculously expensive, but well worth it.
2.1 A place called rice to riches where they shot a scene from the movie “hitch” in.
2.2 Tavern on the green (thanks Neil Greathouse ) where dee and I had dinner before we took our carriage ride in central park.
2.3 Trump towers where the film the apprentice
3.1 Us in front of the house used as the establishing shot at the beginning of the cosby show. Did you know that the guy who lives in that place bought his place for 60,000 back in the day and his house now is worth close to 5 million. He also makes 1500 bones every single time his house is shown on the cosby show still to this day.
3.2 Dee in time square
3.3 Ellis island as seen from the staten island ferry
4.1 Dee eating her first dirty water hot dog from a new york street vender out in front of the apple store
4.2 this is a relic from the ghost buster show on the inside of the hook and ladder 8 fire station in tribeca
4.3 New York Skyline
5.1 Side Entrance to NBC studios. We also got to see where brian williams and saturday night live broadcast from. It was sweet.
Hope you enjoyed the description. Also, don’t forget to check out my video blog from dee and I’s first time to get stuck and have to sleep in an airport.
Here’s the actual firehouse that was used for the movie ghost busters and hitch.
