Tag: Sacrifice

Posted on

When Relationships Trump Ego – A Lebron James Story

lebronjames_150hgt I was happy when the Lebron James decision came last night. I couldn’t even turn on the news without seeing a report about it or being told to go to their website to answer their poll on where I thought he would go. Now, here I am diving into the conversation. Just to get it out there, I didn’t think LeBron would stay in Cleveland, I was leaning towards New York, after all, that’s what everyone has been talking about for two years now. After all, that’s what was going to be the best for Lebron’s brand, his bank account, and his ego.

Okay, great, that’s out of the way….

With every athlete there is an ego. I personally didn’t think Lebron’s television “Decision” on ESPN was the best decision. In fact, I thought it was quite egotistical, a little self-centered. I had a slight change of heart when I found out proceeds from the television performance was going to the Boys and Girls Club of America.

dewaynewade_150hgtI also had a change of heart in Lebron’s choice from last night to this morning. When Lebron mentioned that he was going to South Beach in Miami, I at first wanted to tweet that he would never be seen in the same light at Michael Jordan, even if he did win multiple championships, I still believe that, but that’s the point of my change of heart.

I read an article on ESPN from Bill Simmons about a pact that Lebron James, Dewayne Wade, Chris Bosh and Chris Paul made two years ago. In the article Bill reports that the four players made a pact that they would all play with each other in a single city one day. It has been widely reported all over the media that Wade, James, and Bosh are all good friends and in the end, I have no doubt that is what made the final decision for Lebron.

I find it interesting that most of the outrage surrounds the decision by Lebron to go to Miami, however, the fact is, it is requiring a huge sacrifice on his part to attempt to win a championship. After all, that’s what professional sports are all about, winning championships. Lebron hurts his brand, he sacrifices his ego, and he sacrificed a lot of money (although Florida’s no state income tax may have helped there too). Chris Bosh and Dewayne Wade are also sacrificing many of the same things that Lebron is sacrificing, all to play with each other and to win a championship. That’s truly unheard of with All-Star athletes.

chrisbosh_150hgtThe media questions why things are progressing the way they are with the ego and selfishness of professional athletes, yet, we feed it. I think a majority of people who followed the Lebron situation wanted him to make a choice that would “benefit” him the most. Even his entourage advised him not to go to Miami because of the things he would be sacrificing. Instead of celebrating an athlete that would give his television proceeds to the Boys and Girls Club, sacrifice at least 30 million dollars in salary, sacrifice his legacy as a player that could win a championship in a “cursed” city and be the “leader” of the team; we make him the black sheep. We would rather celebrate greed and self-centeredness over sacrifice and selflessness.

I am sure there are plenty of things that we can fault Lebron on and I can definitely understand Cleveland’s hurt and pain with Lebron leaving, however, the fact is, this is a business and Lebron has to make the best decision as someone who is employeed in the industry. I am sure his decision was tough, but in the end, I think relationships trumped ego and that is at least one lesson that should be taught to our kids and at least one thing that should be praised throughout this situation.

Posted on

The Influence of Sacrifice

In my post yesterday I shared how New Passion Church has committed to selling a portable sound system that we are not using and is in storage so we can give the money to Cross Point Church for their Nashville Flood Relief Efforts. We’ll only get $300-400 for the system, its not a lot of money, but it’s just one more small part that we can contribute.

In all honesty, this sound system is special to me. It isn’t to my worship leader Jonothan. In fact, when I first showed him the system, I think he laughed really loud inside his head & then verbally asked how much money we had and said our first major purchase when we got the money would be for a new sound system. Not because it is not a good system; only because it would not fit our needs for growing into the future. It is however special to me. Why? Well, because its New Passion’s first sound system. Given the money we had and the sacrifices we had to make, the $800 we invested to get the mixer, speakers, mics and cords was a huge deal. I was excited! In fact, instead of getting rid of it, I’d rather  plate it in gold and put it in a trophy case.

So, why is it easy for me to let it go? Because of the influence of sacrifice. Jonothan understood that we were limited in our early days financially. We still are, but we are in a much better place than we were 1-2 months in. We are in a better place financially because of people like Jonothan who are willing to sacrifice and therefore influence the entire DNA of our church. Jonothan had a prized possession; his motorcycle. He sold that motorcycle to purchase new NICE speakers and a new NICE sound board for New Passion to use in our worship services. We’re still developing our band, so its kind of funny right now to see two singers plugged into a 32 channel Allan and Heath board 🙂

allanheathboard
Every time New Passion and our people have sacrificed for a Kingdom cause, God has blown us away with his response. We’ve never given or sacrificed to get a response, only to be obedient. This Sunday as we collect supplies and financial gifts for our Nashville Flood Relief Efforts, we don’t expect anything locally to come of it. We do however expect God to use our efforts globally in Nashville for the BIG church. We don’t sacrifice to get or to gain. We sacrifice to influence others for Christ. There is no better church in the world that I would want to partner with than Cross Point Church. It has been amazing to see the influence they’ve created out of their personal sacrifice. Their pastor, Pete Wilson, said the other day that this is being called the 1,000 year flood, he sees it as a once in a 1,000 year opportunity to reach out to those who are in crisis.

Will you join us this Sunday? If you can’t be there will you join us online HERE or HERE to donate to their relief efforts? Even a sacrifice of $5 can influence a changed world for someone. Will you bring one or several of the requested supplies? We’ll be collecting supplies at Cedar Ridge Elementary School (1000 Trudeau Trail, Grovetown, GA 30813: Directions) from 8 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. You don’t have to stay for the service, you can simply drop off and leave. Will you share the link to our website and our Facebook Events page on your Facebook or with your friends through Email or other Social Media sites? Even if you are from another state, you can get involved, you can get others involved. Join the people of Nashville. Influence others through your sacrifice!

Posted on

A Night For Africa

This is an event hosted by The 410 Bridge. You need to be there!
Its going to be awesome!!!

Click HERE or the button above to order your tickets.

Lanny Donoho asked me personally via Twitter (ok maybe I wasn’t the only one he asked) to post this, you can see his blog HERE and his Twitter HERE.

See you there!

Nick

Posted on

Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort Video Footage

With Hurrican Ike leering on the coast of Texas I am reminded of Hurricane Katrina. I wrote in another post how Katrina not only changed the people’s lives who were effected by the hurricane, but it changed my life as well. Here is video footage from 2 of our 4 Relief Trips that our church took in the days and weeks after Katrina. Please note, this first video is 18 minutes long, but was used as a sermon filler to show the church members what people in that area was facing and how we needed resources and assistance as our church was going to adopt a neighborhood called Eagle Pointe. There is a lot of footage of the damage to homes and property as well as some personal interviews by some of the residents of the community we adopted. It has some rough spots that are very shaky, but I had to use the video available to me. This was the first video I had ever edited and made into a movie, so bear with it, it is worth the watch.

Our church was one of the first relief assistance teams on the scene. A couple of days after Katrina hit Biloxi, MS we loaded an RV up with water and as much food as possible, and 6 of us went to offer whatever help we could offer, this is what we saw and what we heard from some of the people…

Update: You may have to hit play and then pause to let it load some, the file is big.
Can’t see the video? CLICK HERE

This video footage is from trip #2 of our adoption of the Eagle Point Community. We were larger than the Red Cross; we had over 40 volunteers, two half-ton trucks, a semi-truck, two RV’s and a 15 passenger van full of volunteers and supplies for the people of Biloxi. We provided them with basic necessities and a hot meal. The first video literally took me all night to create. The next morning several local news agencies used it for their local news stories, one used it to partner with us with a program called, “A Time to Care” along with the US Army. A service rep with Purpose Driven, who happened to be in Rick Warren’s small group got the first video in his hands, he showed it to his executive leadership team, and they donated our remaining Purpose Driven Life Books to the relief effort, and credited our account for the entire balance (very cool!). We handed the books out to everyone as well as Bibles. With no power it is a perfect opportunity for people to read, and as the church lived out the Gospel, many people were interested in what God had to say to them through His Word.  I never knew that video would make it so far around the nation. Video 2 was made possible because of video 1.


Can’t see the video? CLICK HERE

This was truly living out the Gospel.