60 minutes with Steven Furtick

Steven Furtick is an American pastor. He has been the pastor of Elevation Church for 17 Years . Even though I am thousands of kilometres away from North Carolina, I call his church Home. What draws me to him is his ability to admit that he is human and fallible.

If I had 60 minutes with Steven Furtick…

I’d spend 5 minutes saying hello, asking about his wife Holly and the kids… Elijah, Graham and Abby.

As soon as that was done with, I would take 5 minutes to ask him about how he was able to throw in pop culture references and still get me to see that it is by Jesus alone…

I would take 5 minutes to talk about Television and film. He’s got some amazing recommendations. He probably doesn’t know I or anyone noted them.

I would take another 5 to try to squeeze a conversation about music… I doubt it would do but I would manage.

Then… I would ask him to spend 20 mins with me on his favourite sermon ever… I would hope he’d say it was ‘Yes You’.

I’d take 5 minutes for a bit of that parenting series he refuses to do.

For 10 minutes, I would let him talk to me from his heart.

We would take 4 minutes to pray together…

And in the last minute I would ask if I could get another 60 minutes with him.

And if he said yes, I’d like John Malone, Msugh and Su’eddie to be with me…

We’d make it casual over tea and coffee.

And He Wasn’t Even Real

Who was your first Crush?

Jeff Colby

I couldn’t have been more than 10 years old.

We would gather to watch. Episode after episode.

We got them from the local video rental shop.

I think we may have had a schedule because Uncle Peter, Uncle Yashi and Aunty Angie were always present on the days we watched.

Maybe it was Tuesday and Thursday evenings… And weekends too. I think that’s what I remember.

It was so long ago…

Everyone had a favourite. For Mummy and Aunty Angie it was Alexis.

Daddy loved Blake. Sometimes I think he wished he was Blake.

We watched every single episode… Dynasty 1981… 9 seasons.

I watched and waited… Just to see Jeff. Always.

To me, he was the ideal man. I was going to find myself a man exactly like him when I grew up…

It didn’t matter that he wasn’t real.

As I grew up and became a teenager, he was replaced… Of course… By real humans.

…but when the question comes up, the answer is always Jeff Colby.

Jeff Colby is a character played by John James (now 67 years old) in Dynasty and The Colbys.

How Far Off?

I used to dream.

I had it all planned out.

Oh the wishes and dreams of a child…

Now I ask myself… Now I ask you…

How far off of your dream did you sway?

Are you living your life just like you dreamed?

Have you got that job you pictured you would have?

Did you move to that big city like you thought you would? Did you dream of a simple quiet town life? Either way, did your dream come true?

Did you get to fall in love?… Exactly the way you dreamed?

Did you get to buy everything you dreamed you would buy when you started earning your own money?

Did you get to have that wedding just the way you pictured it?

How about that car?

… And the places you planned to go… To see.

… All the things you planned to do…

How far off the dream did you go?

Do you still wish for the dream?

Are you satisfied with the reality?