Sunday, January 11, 2009

I Am Second

I admit it. I am guarded when it comes to sharing my faith. There, I said it...rather I wrote it out in public. That's my first admission.

I know that I have life experiences that I'm meant to share with others and I know that I have gifts that I'm to use for a greater purpose. At the same time, I care what others think of me and I probably value others opinions higher than I ought to which makes me very cautious when it comes to sharing my faith. That's my second admission.

I say all this to say that right now, this is one of those times, where I have found something so moving and inspiring that I'm compelled to share it no matter who my audience is.

While Greg and I were in Dallas, we saw these mysterious billboards featuring a person, the phrase "I AM SECOND" and the website address, iamsecond.com. Sometimes the person was recognizable or well known and sometimes not. The picture below is an example of what the billboards looked like and this particular one is with Brian "Head" Welch, formerly with the well known band, Korn.

The billboards were intriguing and peaked our curiosity. We both looked at the website and what we found was so profound. It's a website with provocative video testimonials of why people have put God first in their lives. Some of the people are celebrities like Stephen Baldwin, one of my favorite videos on this site. There are professional athletes; Jason Witten, Greg Ellis, and Josh Hamilton.

As I researched about "I Am Second", I ran across this picture taken by the professional photographer who worked on this project. I am normally not pro-tattoo, just a personal preference of mine, but I thought this was a cool picture.
" Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands.." Deuteronomy 11:18

Anyway, if you don't know who Josh Hamilton is or you have never heard his story, I recommend you visit the I Am Second website and listen to his struggle with drug addiction as a professional baseball player.

And then there are several everyday ordinary people like you and I. If you go to the site, you have to watch Nate Larkin's video and listen to his story of sex addiction. And you have to listen to Karen's story of life on the streets. And John Meador, who is hearing impaired. And Tony Evans, a pastor. And Joe Gibbs, former Redskins coach. And...well you get the point.

Everyone's story is told in such an honest way and they don't proselytize a specific denomination or religious viewpoint but they simply tell about 'before God' and 'after God' in their lives which is why it is so profound and exactly why I had to tell you about it here. If you have a minute to spare or your just curious, check it out. http://iamsecond.com/