Like a Child

When we were kids we were taught by our parents to pray because they told us God would respond and God would talk to us about our prayers.

Those prayers were easy because we were told God was real, we trusted God was real, so our prayers were with 100 percent faith that what our parents was true. Our prayers were 100 percent authentic because we were told God was real so our prayers were genuine and real and we didn’t have to believe they were going to come true we expected they were without any question at all.

Times and Seasons

I spent this past Saturday with a good friend of mine talking about sports, media, and life itself over breakfast. Granted, the two of us had never met but the respect for each other has always been there and we’ve both been down some equally rocky roads to get where we are.

Both admitted we’ve been miserable during certain seasons but both also admitted that those were times where we found ourselves. While I’ll admit he’s done a far better job at finding himself than I have, but it makes me no less thankful to be able to learn from where he’s been and admire where he’s going.

You see there are times in our lives where God puts the right people around us. They are there for us no matter what, to be a sounding board, to listen to what’s going on, and to give feedback and advice. But don’t take this season of your life as having this particular person in it for good. Hence the reason I titled this post, “Times and Seasons.”

I have been incredibly blessed to have a certain amount of people who have been in my life since I was five years old. People that have gotten me through some of the hardest times of my life but have also been there for some of the best. They aren’t blood, but they’re still family and they know me better than anyone outside of my wife and, well, of course God Himself.

The point I’m trying to get across is to not fret if a certain friend starts to fall away because their own life is going in another direction. It doesn’t mean they don’t love you, it’s just time for you to take the right at Albuquerque instead of the left (anyone get that reference?)

It might be hard now, but when the next season of your life rolls around you’ll soon find out that God had amazing people waiting for you for just such an occasion.

Pretty cool, right?

I’ll Just Be Me

Over the last two days I think I’ve written four different posts…and deleted them all before I ever got finished. I’m critical of what I write and how I write, just ask my wife.

There have been times she’s been so frustrated with me because I’ll get seven to eight paragraphs into an article or a blog post and I’ll end up deleting the entire thing because I don’t like it or I don’t think it’s good enough. I know I’m not the only one out there who does that and I know I’m probably not the most critical person of himself.

I’ve gotten the chance to read a lot of articles over the years whether it was about a piece in the Fresno Bee talking about the Fresno State football team, the San Diego Union Tribune talking about the San Diego Padres, or, now that I live in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, going between the Dallas Morning News and the Ft Worth Star Telegram and their pieces on the Texas Rangers.

The frustrating thing about reading anything that’s written by some of the most talented writers out there is I start to psych myself out. How could I ever be as good as any of those writers who are getting to live the dream I was chasing so hard to get to?

A Letter to The Next Generation

There are so many things that are on my heart and so many frustrations with where this world seems to be going. So, I figured it was high time that I put those thoughts down as an open letter, or maybe open suggestions, to a generation that seems to have stopped caring about what’s important.

Actually, it’ll be better if I just put a full list of thoughts down and you can decipher them any way you can. If a few of these seem like I’m taking shots at a few certain members of the next generation…I am.

Freedom of Radio

I talk a lot about my faith and about the things I’ve been through, but there’s been something about being on the radio that allows me an avenue to say the things that don’t exactly come out when I write.

When you write, especially on a blog, things you say can be taken out of context. When you write them, you know exactly what you mean when you’re writing it but for the reader it might mean something completely different. It’s something you do have to be careful about from time to time but, for some of us, we write what we want to write and let people take it as they want. I would hope they would ask questions about certain things if they didn’t make sense instead of assuming but that’s the nature of the beast sometimes.

But, when it comes to doing radio, which I’ve been doing all week for the AT&T Cotton Bowl that takes place January 4th at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, there’s a much different freedom to express yourself. What you say comes out exactly how you want to say it, in the tone you want to say it, and with the kind of forcefulness and feeling you want to put into it.

There’s no question you still have to be careful about what you say, that goes without saying, but if you know the rules of the game you can use the platform to really express your opinion.

I enjoy talking about, and writing about sports, it’s something that is a definite love of mine. Just ask my wife. It allows you to give a strong opinion and back yourself up with facts or at least legitimate arguments. But the moment I get on the radio, it becomes a completely different experience. I can hit the ‘backspace’ button on my computer if I want to change something that I’ve written. On the radio, however, there is no backspace. What there is is absolute freedom and enjoyment.

I was told once that people love to listen to the radio because they don’t have to stop what they’re doing to listen to a song or a certain radio show. They have to stop what they’re doing to read an article in a newspaper or on a website. It was a tremendous point that I had never thought about.

Why do you think radio DJ’s make such an impact on people? It’s because they can hear their voice, the inflection in which they say certain things, and the true and pure emotion behind it.

If you listen to a certain radio show and you hear your favorite personality talking about something that makes them emotional, wouldn’t you get emotional right along with them? If they wrote their feelings down on a blog or a website, would it mean the same? Would the emotion behind it be felt? I would argue that the answer to both of those questions would be a resounding, “NO.”

It’s why I love being on the radio and it’s why I love to reach people that way. The next time you listen to a show, stop for a minute and realize the kind of affect their words have on you and what you believe to be right and true.

Some of it might be funny, some of it might be heart-felt, and some of it might be emotional and pure.

Those are the moments I love. It’s what makes being on the radio, even internet radio that doesn’t get nearly as many listeners as any average station in any city in the US, absolutely exhilarating.

 

Await the Blessings Still to Come

By Todd Kaufmann

Usually on Thursday mornings I awake at 4:30am and I’m out the door somewhere around 5am. I drive from my home near Arlington, Texas about 35 miles north up to Southlake where I meet up with about 15-20 other men for a morning prayer group.

This morning when the alarm went off I felt like my body wouldn’t physically allow me to get out of bed and go through the same routine I normally go through.

I love Thursday mornings because I always feel better after being around these guys. They are anointed men of God and there is nothing better than to have them pray over you and over every man in the room. They read scripture, they pray, they receive, they bless, and I leave there ready for whatever comes at me that day.

To be totally honest I wish they met every morning instead of just once a week though I know that’s too much to expect of men who probably have more packed schedules than I.

Being unable to go this morning had me in a much different mood and in a much different mindset.

So I opened up my twitter account on Tweetdeck to look over some of the sports news from late last night and to answer any questions that came in after I had gone to bed the night before.

God always says His timing is perfect. He meant that this morning and He knew I would need this scripture. It stood out like a sore thumb and literally had my name engraved on it.

“The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.” — Deuteronomy 28:12

For those of us who spend so much time doing things and trying to accomplish that ultimate goal we always seem to reach for, the fruits of our labor always seem to be out of our reach. If that’s you, trust me I know how you feel.

My day job pays the bills but it’s by no means what I want to do with my life. I’ve always told people I work with, if we all had our dream job none of us would be where we are right now. We’d all be doing different things.

I love to write but mostly about sports. I love the game of baseball and it’s why I follow, write about, and cover, the Texas Rangers during the Major League Baseball season and beyond. That’s my passion. That’s what I want to do with my life.

But that’s not the only thing I want to accomplish. There’s always been this passion inside of me to be able to change lives but not just to do it alone. I want to affect lives with my wife by my side.

She’s an incredible inspiration and one of the most encouraging people I know. She’s been so patient with me while I’ve chased this dream of mine. But we want to serve, we want to change lives, and we want to save marriages. And do all of that–together.

So here’s where the title of this post comes in. All of us have waited, for however long it had been or still is, for a blessing to come into our lives. We stood on a promise God had promised on our lives and we continued to wait for that day to come. But with every passing day it didn’t come, the more the enemy used that to try to convince you the blessing would never come. That you wouldn’t have to continue to do the same things you were doing for Him in order for that blessing to come.

I’ve failed at that more times than I can count. I’ve fallen more times than I care to recall. But each time, God has stood over me, reached out his hand, and offered to pick me up off the ground. While pride will sometimes get in the way of asking for help, it’s exactly what God is waiting for. He wants to help.

Blessings on your life won’t come if you aren’t ready for them. God isn’t going to watch you be immature about it or be complaisant about it, He wants to know you’re going to work as hard as you had been even after He bestows that promise upon you. He wants to know that after you receive it that you’ll stop searching for Him and His truth.

This message isn’t just for you. I’m not telling you how to receive your calling. He’s talking to me about how to receive mine.

Stand on those promises and await what is to come.

What’s In a Testimony?

By Todd Kaufmann

Think you’ve been through some of the worst stuff possible? Think there is no one else on this earth that has seen and done what you have? Ever wanted to tell your story and change the life of someone who’s been through the same things you have?

If you are in the Dallas/Ft Worth area and you’ve never had a chance to attend Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas I challenge you to at least give it a chance. I say that for one simple reason.

The senior pastor, Robert Morris, is one of the more real pastors you’ll ever get the chance to listen to. Not because he brings the word of God stronger than most, though he does do that, it’s because his testimony is raw and it’s real. He won’t pretend he’s better than you because he’s not. He won’t pretend he’s had a perfect life because he hasn’t.

But what he does do is change lives with the story of what he’s been through. He tells his story from the beginning, not leaving out a single detail because every detail counts to those he’s wanting to reach.

So what about our own life stories? What about the stories we could tell to change people’s lives? If we had the chance and we knew we could reach people with our testimony, why not do it? Why not put our pride aside and say, “this is who we were and this is what God has done for me.”

Believe me when I tell you that God and I have gone back and forth on this exact topic. I’m nervous to tell my story but I know that when I have my testimony down exactly how He wants me to tell it that there will be people who will see things as they’ve never seen them before. I’m not saying that I’m going to change lives, that’s not my job. The only person that can is God Himself. He uses people by allowing them to tell their stories and then talk about how God used the crap and the sludge and the heartache to reveal His glory.

So for those of you who want to reach people and want them to know they’re not alone. Tell your story. Tell where you came from and what God has brought you out of.

Because when you do, I promise you the benefits will be worth it. I promise you will see the affects it has on the people you speak to. But don’t just throw it around like just another story. Don’t add details to it that aren’t real. God wants to use you, me, and those who want to change lives in His name.

He knows that there are those who can reach the hearts of those who are waiting to realize they aren’t so bad after all and that things can change for them. Single, married, divorced, lonely, aching, along with everything else.

It’s time for us to step forward and let our brothers and sisters know that it’s time to heal.