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How do you react when life isn’t fair?

I shared briefly on Sunday about Pastor Matt Chandler from The Village Church. On Thanksgiving morning, his life changed dramatically. Instead of celebrating like everyone else, Matt had a seizure and was taken to the hospital. A few days later doctors discovered a 2″ tumor in his brain.

Take a few minutes and listen to his story…

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last week and a half praying for Matt, his family and their church. I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about how I would respond if it were me.

What about you? How do you think you would respond?

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Nigerian Adventure Update

Just realized I had not updated everyone since surgery. This past Friday, doctors put 6 screws and a metal plate in my ankle. After general anesthesia AND a nerve block for post-operative pain, we decided I should stay overnight. I am VERY glad we did. The pain was… not fun. It was through lots of prayer and medication that I made it through the night.

I have been recovering at home while going stir crazy. Today, I escaped for a couple of hours to the office. Let me say again that our ministry team is INCREDIBLE! I miss working alongside them everyday.

We return to the orthopedist on Thursday to get a new cast and have the surgical staples removed. I will find out more about my limitations then. For now, they are saying 4-6 weeks of no pressure at all on the leg followed by intensive physical torture… I mean therapy.

It’s been a long 7 weeks since I was in the pulpit and I miss it. I’ll be back preaching a week from this Sunday. Hang on because it is going to be a life changing message for many as I bring a message series entitled “everything.”

Thank you everyone for all the prayers and support during this adventure.

I love you.

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4 Days in Nigeria

I was only in Nigeria for four days. But, I learned some very valuable lessons while there. Lesson #1, don’t fall in a sewage ditch.

4 Days in Nigeria from Bryan McGee on Vimeo.

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Not this year

Yesterday, I wrote about cleaning out the fridge.

Well, I need to let something that I love go. Part of me is not happy about it. A big part. But, I feel like I need to clean a few things out of my fridge for right now.

So, let me just say it. We are not going to have the July 4th bash at our house this year. I want to do it again. I want to do it bigger than last year or the year before or the year before. Yet, I need to let go of it.

Every year for a long, long time, we have had this party at our house. Last year, there were north of 100 people in our back yard to watch our huge, musically synced, slightly illicit fireworks display. It was awesome! We did not even know many of the people who attended. They were friends of friends.

Were we unhappy with the party? NO! Is it about the money? NO! NO! NO!

We need some margin in our life right now and planning this event is big. So, I am saying no this year. Will we bring back the party in the future? I do not know. Cleaning this one out of my personal “fridge” was difficult. But, I believe it is necessary. Why? Dunno yet. When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.

If you’ve ever felt you could not have a July 4th party because it would compete with ours, then this is your year. If you are having a party where you are blowing stuff up this year, feel free to invite us over. Because everybody knows we love a great party. Especially if there are explosives involved.

Here’s a little slide show of last year’s event.

Do you have something you need to let go of? Why not share with the rest of us.

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Even great things have an end date

When I clean out the refrigerator, I REALLY clean it out. Jennifer knows that if I do it, I will throw away anything that is even close to it’s end date. About a week ago, I couldn’t take it anymore. The fridge was so full of food that we could not put anything else in there.

How did this happen? Our amazing church family brought tons of meals when Jennifer was out with her surgery. The food in our fridge was delicious. The only problem was that most of it was now old. We had too much of a good thing and that was keeping us from receiving the new. We couldn’t move forward while hanging on to the past.

For a couple weeks, we* had repositioned, crowded and crammed our fridge until it was a mess. The only way to move forward was to put away the amazing food that was now old. There are times in our lives when we must re-evaluate what we are holding onto. Are we cramming more and more in because we are unwilling to let go of something we love?

Recently, I have been grappling with letting go of something that I really love. I look forward to it. I take pride in it. In fact, many people will say, “Why would you let go of that? It was amazing.” But, I believe it is time to let it go. It may come back in a new fashion in the future. However, I must be willing to let go. Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you what it is.

Here’s to looking for our next Isaiah 42:9 moment.

“Everything has happened just as I said it would; now I will announce what will happen next.” Isaiah 42:9

For now, what do you need to clean out? What are you unwilling to let go of in order to make room for God’s plan?

* By we, I mean myself and the boys.
Jennifer was recovering from surgery.

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Are you insane?

Yes. I am. You may be too.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” ~ Albert Einstein

There are areas of our lives, businesses and ministries that show we are insane. Our perspective has been to simply improve the process. Maybe it’s time to rethink… start over… or just stop what we are doing.

Call me crazy. But, I feel a change coming.

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