Speaker 1: Creativity is an addiction, unplugged because we will always say
yes to creativity, totally uncut because we all make mistakes.
So let's turn it into a tool. This is arrow unplugged.
I write in a forest. I go into this forest
to listen. What started at the Billy Graham Library in
twenty fifteen, right here in Charlotte, North Carolina, has evolved
into a lifelong commitment and journey. Something is always moving
through each and every one of us. I say, it's
a calling. What do you hear? These aren't my words.
These are the lyrics from Billy's Forest, chapter number three
hundred thirty seven, October ninth, twenty twenty two. I'm not
sure why I've been called to touch this subject, but
it stems from a conversation shared with a church pastor
several years ago. The leader said to me, if Jesus
were to return today, he'd be injured by the way
that we gather and celebrate on the worst day of
his life, meaning the crucifixion. Jonathan's words are points of
view that have never left me. Although the lessons I've
been taught put focus on Jesus rising in the name
of love and his spiritual forgiveness. I realize to get there,
he had to live out the events three days before.
While I sit in this forest today, it's forty five degrees.
The leaves are quickly becoming gold, deep reds and oranges.
People are amazed by the colors of fall. Stepping back
many feet, I connect to what Jonathan once shared with
me watching these leaves, amazed by nature. We are celebrating
the death of a living tree. You see, little things
like this get into my heart, like when I say
the sun is rising, Well, you know what my heart hears.
My heart hears that God's son has risen. There are
so many storms wrapped around each and every one of
us at all times of the day. Stopping to think
about what we celebrate is a deeper look into the greater,
more meaningful message. Celebrating death. Now, I'm going to go
in a route that even my heart says, don't do it.
Don't do it. The loss of my father, my brother,
my mother, and my sister four just in the past
few years I've celebrated their love, their life. Never once
along this journey have I said I have lost them,
when in fact my heart says they're right here with me.
Right now, I feel more like a family, and I
don't know why that is. We had the phone conversations,
we wrote letters, we did everything that families do together.
But yet all four of them are very much alive
in my life right now, carrying the energy of something
that has transitioned. And I think that's what the story
is about from October ninth, twenty twenty two, is that
we do celebrate the crucifixion with praise as well as reflection,
and we do stand in complete awe during the months
of fall when the leaves are changing, But when it
comes to losing a human life, it's a different story.
All I'm saying is in my heart, my family is stronger.
They are living within and they help me make the
right decisions. At where I presently stand celebrating the transition,
the transition, I'm errow. These aren't my words. These are
the lyrics from Billy's Forest.