Verse 1

Who am I? I don’t remember. Time keeps passing by.

I find myself in mid winter, a haze covers my eyes.

I walk down this road now, no one is here to feel my pain.

But, I know I have to keep moving on and I will see the sun again. I will see the sun again.

Chorus

Carry on. Carry on. Put one foot in front of the other.

Carry on. Carry on. What else have I to do? What else have I to do?

Verse 2

No I don’t know where I am going. I just can’t go where I’ve been.

The winds of change keep blowing on and on. I don’t know where I’ll land.

I have hope that there is more than this, that this life has more to give.

One day I will make it through this dead land. I will finally start to live.

I will finally start to live.

Chorus (3x)

Have you ever felt the beat of a butterfly’s wings? Have you had one land in your hand, and watch it as it flutters? On a spring day as you walk through a park and you can see them fly around. Have you ever felt their beat? They are beautiful creatures. Small. Graceful.

What if I told you there was amazing power hidden in their wings? That the beat of a butterfly’s wings could cause a hurricane? Could something that small cause something so large and life altering?

There was a theory postulated many years ago that stated that a Butterfly’s wing beat in Africa could cause a hurricane in San Francisco. I am not going to go into the science, but let’s ask the question: have you ever witnessed something insignificant that made a huge impact? Have you ever felt the beat of a butterfly’s wings? Are you sure?

It was the fall of 1997. I had just moved to Edmond Oklahoma, a sophomore at the University of Central Oklahoma. I came to study singing…I was going to be an Opera singer. Yes. It’s true. (I am glad that is not where I ended up…) When I got to campus I started attending the Baptist Student Union. I knew I needed to meet people, and am very thankful I soon met a cool guy named Matt.

Matt was a couple of years older than me. He was a college student, but also a college pastor at a good sized church in Oklahoma City. He invited me to a Singles Bible Study at his church and I was happy to come along. Over the next several months I got to spend time with Matt and learned that he was an excellent minister. He loved people. He loved getting to be a help in people’s lives. Working at the church was not his first career choice initially. He originally wanted to be a chef.

On April fool’s day in 1998 I was at the church with Matt and he introduced me briefly to a girl named Marixa. They were friends and she politely told me hi, and then talked with him for a few and went on.

Over the next few months Matt planned out different trips that the college group took. Marixa and I both went on the trips that Matt organized. We “noticed” each other on the first trip. We started dating after the second trip. A few months later we were engaged and a few months after we were married. 1998 was 21 years ago.

Since then Marixa and I have had a son and are building our family still. We were able to introduce two friends who came to our wedding to each other. They have been married now for 17 years. They have two beautiful girls.

My question is this: what if Matt had chosen to be a chef? Would I have made it to church on April fool’s day? Would I have had the chance to meet the woman who has been my best friend through thick and thin? I don’t know the answer to that, but I believe things would have been very different.

It is interesting though. What Matt did was seemingly small at the time. I was only one person in his ministry. He was a cool dude who did amazing work. He befriended me, invited me, provided a ride to church, mentored me…it is all small stuff in retrospect, but it made a huge difference in my life.

Life is like that through. If we look at it from high above, human interaction is like a tapestry. What we do weaves in and out with others. We touch each other’s lives in far reaching and impactful ways. A small thing for us can become a huge piece of someone else’s life. Think about your life. What was small at the beginning that is now huge?

What we do everyday matters. Every interaction. Everything. You never know when what you do will set of a chain reaction of awesome for someone else.

To my original question, have you ever felt the beat of a butterfly’s wings? I have. I can see the great changes it made in my life. It is my sincere hope that you feel its gentle flutter now, here in this moment.

Someone asked me the other day, “what is something you wish people would say to you more?” I didn’t really have an answer for this. It is a question that has never really crossed my mind. I have, however, thought about something that I should say more often: thank you.

I am from the south. It is how we were raised. You say please. You say thank you. You show respect. I’m learning that even though I was taught these things, I may have initially missed the point of why we do them. We don’t say thank you only because we have been taught to. We say thank you as a way to be and stay grateful.

What does it mean to be grateful? To be grateful means you have a sincere feeling of appreciation. You are genuinely touched at the act or service of another.

How long has it been since you felt that way? Tell the truth. We live in a very fast paced, very entitled world. We expect good service, so we don’t think to say thank you when we receive it. We expect for things to be done right, so it doesn’t cross our mind to say thank you when they are. We transact business daily with so many people and do not look them in the eye and show them sincere gratitude. This has to change.

For a while now I have tried my best to say thank you several times a day to many different people. It catches many by surprise, including my bride. I told her thank you the other day for doing my laundry. She asked me why I was saying thank you. I looked deep in her eyes and said, “because I appreciate what you do.” And I do. I needed to say it to her as much as she needed to hear it from me.

I even try to practice this at work. I got some confirmation the other day that my coworkers are noticing my habit. I was walking out of a coworker’s office. She stopped me and told me thank you. I asked her for what. She said for two reasons. First she appreciates they way I help her at work. I told her it was my pleasure. The second reason? She told me she has seen how I go out of my way to show gratitude say thank you and she really appreciates it and wants to do more of it herself. That caught me off guard in a very good way.

We have so much to be thankful and grateful for. I challenge you and me both to go out of the way to show that gratitude to someone today. It will brighten their day. It will also keep you focused on the good things in yours.

Thank you so much for reading this. I appreciate you.

I have a confession to make. It isn’t something I am proud of. It isn’t something that I planned. If you would have asked me twenty years ago I’d id be in this place today, I would have laughed at you. What is my confession? I have a hard time relaxing.

Many moons ago I loved sitting down and watching movies. I collected DVDs for years and I would gladly sit and watch many of them over and over. It was a great way to relax and enjoy resting. I even had some that I would put on knowing that I would fall asleep while watching. It was comfortable.

Now, sitting still is very hard. It is not that I am up trying to be productive all the time. I do have plenty of things I want to get done, but the real issue is getting my mind to be quiet for long enough. Reassuring myself that it is ok to just chill.

Ok David, where are you going with this? Well, I am going to tell you.

At church a few weeks ago our pastor delivered a message called Take The Day Off. It was amazing. (Watch it here.) In it, he brought up a few points that I never really considered.

First, one of the Ten Commandments is about taking a day off from work. It doesn’t even mean going to church. It just means taking a day off and not working. The interesting part? It is a commandment just like not killing is. We don’t break the one about killing. We hardly ever take the rest one seriously. In short, God loves us and wants us to take a break once a week to recharge. It is so important God wrote it on a stone tablet.

Next, it is something that will catch up to you if you try to ignore it. Many people I know are burnt out. They work crazy hard and never take their foot off the gas. This is not damage that can be unwound quickly. We have to rest. We have to make it a weekly priority. How much time do we take off the end of our lives because we refuse to take care of ourselves now?

Another thing that struck me? The pastor is very unapologetic about taking his day off. It was refreshing to see. He told a story about someone who wanted his attention for something and said, “Pastor, I know tomorrow is your Sabbath (day off), but we really need you to do this.” His answer? “Ok, shall we go rob a bank and kill a few people while we are at it too? You are asking me to break a commandment, why not break a few more while we are at it?” His point? God said take a day off and he does…and we should too.

So, this week I am taking the week off. I am going to enjoy my family. I am going to eat some good food. I am going to watch a movie or two. My day job will be there when I get back. I am going to rest.

When was the last time you took a day of rest? Want to join me in making it a more regular habit? Admit it. You need it. We all do.

I was walking through the park not long ago. It was one of those warm breezy days when everyone wants to get outside and just enjoy the feeling of life happening around them. The birds were singing. Children were playing. Many had a blanket thrown down for a picnic. And for some, love seemed to be in the air. There were many walking hand in hand soaking up the time they had together. It made me smile.

Friendship. It is so hard to come by in its most authentic state. Two people who are committed to the bettering of the other. Looking out for each other. Walking through good times and bad together. Everybody needs a good friend. Life is too hard not to have one, or two, or 19.

It is an extra special thing to have a good authentic friend who is also the love of your life. There is a level of vulnerability that comes along with friendship is intense, and it becomes even more so when friendship love is paired with romantic love. You are able to experience amazing highs and lows with that person because of the relationship that you have formed. It is a precious thing that must be handled with respect and with care.

I am pleased to say I have this friendship in my life. I give thanks to God often that he allowed me the presence of mind at 19 years old to recognize the potential in the budding friendship between me and Marixa that has since turned into the greatest friendship I have ever known. I am honored to be her husband. She is my best friend and I work hard to be the man she needs me to be.

I look over our time together and I wonder what has been one of the greatest key factors to our nearly 21 years of marriage. While there have been many things that have contributed, one of the things that sticks out is the trust we have in one another. I know that she is for me. She knows that I am for her. We trust each other.

I have seen far too many people who can’t say that. They worry constantly about where their significant other, or close friend, is, or what they are doing, or with whom. Is this really any way to live life? Who wants to be in a constant state of instability? Nobody that I know.

I am sure you have heard the old example of not getting involved with people who are not living the life that you desire to live. The example goes like this: It is much easier for a person standing in a chair to be pulled down by the person on the floor than it is for the person on the floor to be pulled up in the chair. Many people use this example to persuade kids to stay away from other kids that have bad habits, but the same can be true for friendships. Friendships are hard to maintain when both sides are not committed to the maintenance.

Along with trust you have to have honesty. I remember the first few conversations that we had as we were getting to know each other. She was very easy to talk to and I saw quickly that we could be friends. I was faced with a small dilemma: do I start out completely honest and run the risk of saying or doing something she doesn’t like? Or do I play it cool and not open up very much and make her guess at who I really am? Thankfully, I went with honesty.

For our marriage it has been the essential thing. We share our entire life with each other. Yes, it is venerable, but that is where trust comes in. Just like I found out years ago, I can be open and honest with her because she is my closest friend. That is what we do. If you can’t be honest in that situation where can you be honest?

I am so thankful for my best friend. I am thankful for the love we share.