Sunday, April 26, 2015

Sabbatical Day 20- Jay's Wintry Mix and how to start a movement


Jay is one of my electric guitar player at church. He is really exceptional at finding worship tones, yet guitar is not his main passion. Jay works a job in the DC area, yet his job is not what gets him out of bed in the morning. His passion is something that we all talk about every day! Its where we go when a conversation has bogged down and has slowly entered the "ok its kinda awkward now' phase. We always go there. As either a conversation starter or a conversation killer we inquire within said conversation "how about this weather?!" Only for Jay this is not a byline or a cultural pleasantry used to exit uncomfortable situations. Its his passion. Holly Syswerda Grate noticed it shortly after we moved here. It seems that Holly has a passion for weather too. When Jay and Holly are in the same band at church it seems to be all that they talk about. All weekend. Constantly. Holly inherited this passion from her amazing father John. He will call at least three or four times a week. To talk about the weather and to remind me to go out into the pasture next to our house and get a load of cow poo for our garden. It seems that these two things are extremely important to him.
Holly noticed Jay's passion for weather and said in passing one Sunday morning...
(please say this next line in Holly voice)
"I am totally going to go home right now and start you a weather page on Facebook"
Now you have to understand something about Holly. Her suggestions or things that she says in passing are not pleasantries or conversation fillers. They are law. Yet she doesn't always communicate well so I have had to create in my mind and marriage a code breaking machine to understand the nature of what her comments mean.
Example- "Wow, the weeds are really growing fast"
Translation- "Get your butt outside and take care of the weeds"
Example- "Wow, gas prices are low"
Translation- "Go fill up my car with gas"
Its a secret language that I sometimes understand and I sometimes don't. My point is that when Holly says that she is going to do something, she does it. When she asks you to do something, and you say yes, she expects you to do it. She is a mover and a shaker. I have never seen Holly do anything with half her heart. Its just not in her. So when she says to Jay, I am going to start you a weather page on Facebook, and its going to be huge, both of those things are going to be true.
She started Jays page I believe around three years ago, and the page now has almost 13 thousand followers. 13,000!!!!! Actually I think its more like 12,501 but 13,000 followers sounds so much more dramatic and I always round up:) Its amazing. Jay uses words I don't understand in his forecast. His knowledge of meteorology is profound, and this one thing I do know- He is almost always right. His followers are FANATICAL! As they should be. The comments are hilarious. "I will be traveling down I-81 next friday at 7:00pm. Should I allow for more time or cancel the trip all together?" "I have family flying in from Spain, they already bought tickets but should I tell them to cancel?"
Groupies, followers, fanatics, and disciples follow Jay and hang on his every word. If you live in Loudoun County and you want to know the weather, you look to Jay.
It all began in the green room in between service with a sassy blonde saying "I am going to start a Facebook page for you." Then she followed up on what she said that she was going to do. A movement was born.
All of us, no matter what stage of life that we are in have that one thing that is stuck in the back of our head that we dream about accomplishing. For whatever reason we have put it off for years. Wether it be a fear of failure or being terrified of ridicule we continue to suppress whatever it is that could potentially be a movement. A world changing missions organization, a mountain we have always wanted to climb, a race we have always wanted to run, an event we have always wanted to have, or a ministry we have always wanted to begin, just continues to lay dormant just beyond our reach.
I have found that when it comes to fulfilling these divine callings, the most difficult thing to do is start. When looking from the outside the task seems so unachievable that we are overwhelmed and don't have the courage to take that first step and just do it. So whatever it is that is burning in your heart, START. BEGIN. I promise you that you don't want to be looking back on your life 30 years from now with the weight of an unfulfilled dream on your shoulders.

Sometimes....you have to be the first one on the dance floor....And sometimes, that courageous first step is all it takes to start a movement

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