The 4:20 effect

Most times when you hear or see "4:20" a large portion of America thinks of marijuana and it's meaning to the cannabis culture. For months I have had 4:20 being brought to my attention but not in any drug way.

Brace yourself this is going to get deep. For weeks as I sat by my laptop or just watching TV I would get distracted or something would call my attention to look at the time. Each time I did this the time was 4:20, with my work schedule this happened in the afternoon and early mornings. As I said this went on for weeks that my attention was bought to a clock and the time was 4:20 so my mind began to wonder if this is some kind of coincidence. My curiousity got the best of me and I turned to the bible and see if this coincidence had something to do with the Bible. I went through every scripture looking for 4:20 verses in each. Then it hit me Philippians 4:20 "To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Very simple and direct, just a daily reminder to remind me to give glory to God each day. Is that where this ends? No not quite. As I felt I had an answer from God as to why I am getting this reminder so often it then began to effect others around me.One day after seeing the clock at 4:20 pm my son came in and told me that one of his friends ad been arrested for a DUI the night before and had wrecked the car he was in. My son was supposed to go with him that night but decided not to.BOOM Glory be to God that he was not. I told a few others close to me what was going on with me and 4:20 and wanted to see what their thoughts were. The answer was pretty much as I figured, God was tapping me on the shoulder. A few days went by and 4:20 came into my day full force. I have a booking agent for one of my DJ gigs, my agent is a born again Christian and has recovered from drugs and alcohol and is now a counselor. usually he comes by work to see how things are and I pay him a percentage on that job. Well the Friday night he was supposed to be there he was a no show. I called him the next day and got no answer, Saturday night same result he was not there. I began to worry that something may had happened. Sadly it had, he called me a couple days later to let me know he wasn't there because his younger brother was found dead in his bed so he had been dealing with that time with his family grieving. I gave him my condolences and let him know whenever he needed his agent fee to let me know and I would meet him when things settled down after the funeral. The next week we got together to pay what I owed him because there was extra events I did I had owed him more than usual and what did i owe him? ...yep $420...amazing. I told him about this 4:20 thing going on and shared the Philippians 4:20 with him and it so comforted him. While I do work at several places during the week I mainly look at the big picture as to what money I take home, after this I took a look at my regular take home pay from this gig where someone was affected by it and once again it is $420. So I get my daily reminder to give glory and when I get paid weekly I give Glory. So glory be to God for me having a job I enjoy and being able to share and comfort others.I will add updates to more 4:20 happenings as they arise.

What lane will you choose?

One of my pet peeves is getting stuck in lines, whether it's the grocery store, a tax office or driving on the road. Stuck in line one day I came up with this analogy between church experiences and driving. In Dallas and most major cities there are 4 options on the roads.

The Slow Lane - That far right lane that gets jammed up. people that stay in this lane are quite edgy. They live life carefully always on the lookout and if something makes them uncomfortable...they exit. I sometimes see people like this in church, people that are there every once in a while sitting in the back so they can exit quickly with no interaction with others.

The Middle Lane - The safest lane, people here go the speed limit and don't want to do anything too far out of the box. In Church these are the ones that attend regularly but do not serve or get involved with much to help others. They just stay steady in the safe lane where they don't have impact with others lives.

The Fast Lane - Life in the fast lane really needs not much explaining...it's all or nothing. It's flying by all others with no regard. It's look at me and how fast I pass you up. In church these are the ones that do get involved and serve, but the tend to get involved in so many things and so many people that they quickly move to the next one not getting the fullest out of their intention.

The HOV lane - "a high-occupancy vehicle lane is a lane reserved for vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers." What a great definition! The HOV gets you where you need to go avoiding the other lanes for the most part. In church I would define this as the discipleship lane. You are on a journey with others living life and sharing the way God intended. Consider yourself the vehicle with seats for many passengers and see what amazing things will happen as you change lives and not lanes and reach your destination with a full vehicle of passengers.

Each of these lanes to me represent spiritual growth I have lived in each of these lanes in life and happy to be in the HOV lane now. I hope that we can all be in the HOV lane...Start your own spiritual HOV lane...get in a discipleship group, start a home team. Get involved with a group in your church as we are called to disciple

Matthew 28:18-20

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Ants and Alligators

Sometimes people are so afraid of getting bit by the big alligator that they get eaten by the small ants.

What does this mean? In life you have to not be so focused on big issues and problems that you let a the small things pile up and take over. Those little ant bites on your ankles will eventually scar you forever.