Thank You Father……….

I can hardly write this blog entry, I’m overcome with gratitude, and praise for my Heavenly Father!  This fast weekends workshop was far greater than I had even dreamed and prayed for, God blessed us beyond imagination!  I’ve had a dream for such along time of a gathering of photographers to learn, laugh, fellowship, but also to deepen our walk with Him.  This weekend it all came together.  On Thursday night at our first meeting we enjoyed seeing the Guests images,and they were wonderful, at the end of the evening I share a movie clip from the film 7 Days in Utopia.   The film is a story of a young golfer whose father has driven him his whole life to become a pro golfer and in a major tournament  that he is about to win, he melts down and looses it, his father walks away and he storms  off in anger.  While driving in the country he swerves off the road to miss a cow, he’s not injured but a kind old rancher comes to his aid.  The rancher tales him if he will spend one week in Utopia he will help him find his game.  For a week,the rancher,  named Johnny , helps him with his golf game and much more.  He teaches him to See, Feel, and Trust.

At the end of the film Johnny invites Luke to show him what he has learned and they start playing a game of golf, as a storm rolls in he is playing the best golf of his life, when Johnny says the storm is to bad to continue,  he rebells ands says he has to finish!  Johnny walks away just as his father had one week before, and he realizes what a mistake he has made.  The next morning he goes to see Johnny to apologize. He finds him in the small cemetery digging a small grave.  When he approaches him and apologizes for his actions he asks whose grave he is digging.  Johnny the old rancher, played in the film by Robert Duvall, tells him he will soon see!

Johnny asked Luke, (the young golfer),  what will you epitaph say?  Will it say you shot a 59?   Luke knew right then that he had been chasing the wrong goals in his life.  He thank Johnny for everything, but Johnny responded like this,  “Luke, I don’t think it was an accident your coming here, but I can’t each you anymore, what you do with what you’ve learned is up to you now.”  Luke said, “Thank you Johnny.”  but Johnny responded, ” Don’t think me, thank Him, thank God, because He is all around you and in you, there is a still small voice of truth in your heart, He will guide you. He then said You can See His face, Feel His presence, and Trust His love.  SFT.  Johnny says to him God Bless you son, and walks away.  Luke kneels at the grave side and pulls out the wooden box in the shallow grave.  Inside he finds as note from Johnny, “Luke, in this box you will find a pencil and two pieces of paper.  On one right down all the truths that you’ve learned while you have been in Utopia, that life is about Faith, relationships, Character, and Integrity. That God has a plan for you  that is much deeper than a little white ball falling  into the cup.   That  will become the heartbeat, the foundation of your new life.  On the other piece of  paper write down all the lies you’ve been told about your life, that your golf score is and indicator of your identity and true self worth, or that failure is golf is failure in life. Take the truths with you, but bury the lies, right here, right now!

After our group watched the film clip I told them that Dean Lewis who owns Old Car City, had agreed to dig as small grave in the woods of his property and placed a sign on the grave that said S F T.  They were invited to bury their lies at the end of the workshop.  That was to take place Saturday afternoon at 4:30.  As the time approached, the enemy was telling me that it was a stupid idea, that very few people would participate.  As I walked over to the old lunch box we were using to hold our lies, I saw that the lunch box was filled almost o overflowing with little pieces of folded up paper, I then discovered that the thermos bottle was also stuffed with pieces of paper, dozens of slips of paper containing our friends lies to themselves. I had to hold back the tears as i walked to the grave sight, there I found all our attendees walking into the site.  We prayed over the lies and then placed them in the ground.  a number of people came over and on their knees tossed the dirt over the lunch box with their bare hands, we then put rocks on the grave site.

As we walked away the air of freedom in our hearts was incredible.  Like everything else through out our workshop weekend, God had honored our prayers and given us a wonderful time with each other and Himself.  It was the beginning of an exciting time in all our lives, free from our lies, and a wonderful start for His ministry through, His Light.

Blessed beyond measure,

the pilgrim