Story of the Week

To all my Family:

Looking back. I won't spend much time on this, but I want to reflect a bit and share the view I have with you.

Nearly 20 years ago I received the truth of Gods love for me and I have never been the same. I can see how the same simple truth that I received then is the same simple truth that continues to consume me and change me. For years I thought that it was all about me and my personal holiness, and for certain that was a part of the work done. But as I live, and move and do and continue to exist, I find that this truth is producing it-self in me. It is causing me to love what our Father loves and hate what our Father hates. I never knew where this truth would lead me and I still don’t, but as I reflect I can see that without my knowing, it has always lead me to love people. I have been involved with a lot of projects over the years and have experienced many things, but the only value has been the individual people loved along the way. Because of the plan of redemption and the reality of its fulfillment, we are now people who should continually be consumed by the reality that we are Sons and Daughters of the creator of heaven and earth. His love being produced in our hearts is the evidence of this adoption. I am certain that you can sit where you are and list what you have spent the last year doing. Like some long to-do list. And I am equally sure that many of those things were very necessary. But what I challenge you to do is reflect on the people that our Father has surrounded you with and look at how He has used you to bring light into their world. Looking back can be a great encouragement when you know what to look for. As we strive to live lives of obedience to the Father we must remember that it is about us receiving His love and then pouring that same love in to people around us.

Looking ahead. This is where I get excited. My personal reflections have revealed a couple things to me that are consistent with every other man of faith I have read about or have personally witnessed. I have seen that I rarely knew what I was doing or where I was going. But I also know that on a daily basis, I must surrender my will to the Holy Spirit and His leading. I knew that I must look at my days as opportunities to reveal the Father to people around me and not as just another day to get stuff done. But as I have lived this way, our Father has led my steps. The year ahead holds huge potential for Riding High Ministries to love a lot of people. Therein lies the temptation to get project oriented and not people oriented. We as a ministry have committed to keeping our focus on loving people as individuals and not executing big campaigns and programs. We have seen that big ministry is what Jesus did. He loved the people around him and taught others to do the same. As he did this, there where the times when multitudes came to hear his teachings, but his focus was on a handful. For me, that handful is a beautiful little lady named Leslie and three young boys. Beyond that is a dozen or so men whom I love and who love me. Beyond that is 5 million or so fans of Professional Bull Riding who adore the men in my life. As a ministry, the men we disciple are men with an enormous following and our Father has ordained it that way. Although some very large events are currently being organized to maximize our potential of sharing the good news of the Kingdom of Jesus, our focus will remain on these few men. My commitment to each of you is to be better about communicating what is happening out there. Many of you pray continually for this work and that is what we see as the greatest level of partnership in this ministry family. Others give finances to help us fulfill this calling. But as we look at the year to come, we believe we are to get more of you hands on. We are beginning to organize local groups within event cities so we provide more people the opportunity to get involved in what the Lord is doing within the PBR. It will take some time, but be expecting it and ask our Father what he wants your part to be. I can see how this coming year, we will not only be able to share the gospel with thousands of people, we will present a new kind of man to millions. This new kind of man is a man of God. He is a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, a follower of The Way. We will love with all the love that our Father has poured into our hearts and I invite you to join us.

In service of the King, Todd