Cody Thomas

For those who care to know, in the past couple weeks, my plans have been forced to shift. To make a long story short, the church plant that I was on staff with is no more. I’ll spare the details. Just know that this has been a major curveball for me.

So, now, I have moved into a cheap apartment in Central, SC. The plan is to live there until Kindel graduates in December. I was working part-time at a Panera Bread in Simpsonville to supplement my income from the church planting support, but there’s no point for me to continue to work there and keep making the hour commute for little pay. My last day at Panera is Thursday this week and I begin a new job working full-time at the snack shop/grill on SWU’s campus. It’s not the most exciting job to get, but the way things are right now, I’ll be happy with it. It’s more money, more hours, regular daytime hours, and it’s a half-mile from my apartment. I can walk to work now instead of the two-hours round trip commute I was doing.

Kindel and I are plugging back into ALIVE on the worship team this Sunday. I am definitely excited to get back into music and worshiping through playing music. There is something so worshipful for me when I can play my guitar. Sometimes the words don’t even matter so much. The music is my expression of God’s majesty for me. Each note I pick or chord I strum is sometimes more of an expression of worship for me than singing. To some of you, you totally get that.

So that’s life. Honestly, it blows. I’ve had to deal with some hard feelings. I’ve had to ask forgiveness for pride, jealousy, and not trusting that God is still with me. This is the second burn I’ve had from a “church job” since finishing school. Neither of which were my fault or within my control. I’m going to need time to heal. I’m learning to be more trusting of a God who is making good out of this messed up journey. I’m learning to share my burdens with my best friend instead of carrying it by myself. I’m learning to let God have more of me and be more honest with Him and others.

There have been many benefits from this church planting journey. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve had great experiences. My ideas on the Church and the Gospel have been radically transformed, and I believe those transformations have been for the good. Over the next few weeks, I plan to use this blog for two main purposes.

1. Therapeutic – I need my wounds to heal and this blog has a very therapeutic effect on me when I can think through my thoughts and emotions “out loud”.
2. Soundboard – As I said, my thoughts on the Church and the Gospel have been radically changing over these past few days. There are many thoughts in those areas that are swirling through my head and I just can’t get rid of them. The blog will be my soundboard to share those thoughts briefly and hear your thoughts as well. I hope you can participate!

Well, that’s the short version of my life update. Thanks again for all your prayers and support as I continue down this crazy journey!

My cat of 15 years was put to sleep today because of very bad diabetic complications too. The bad news never ends, does it?

Sorry for not posting the last few days. I’ve been going through a moving process into a new apartment. Unfortunately, I don’t have internet at the new apartment yet, and I honestly don’t know when I will get it. So, I apologize in advance for the lack of blogging.

You can still follow me on twitter for day to day updates and such. That’s easy to use from my phone.

This morning, I read about Babe Ruth and his strike out record via Ben Arment’s post this morning. I never knew this, but Babe Ruth held the strikeout record from 1926 to 1964. Yet, at the same time, his home run record (60 in one season – 1927) also stood the test of time until beaten in 1961 by Roger Maris. His career home run record of 714 stood until 1974 (beaten by Hank Aaron).

The Great Bambino had 714 homeruns, but he also had 488 strikeouts. He knew if he wanted the home run, then he had to swing. He had to risk the possibility of a strikeout for the chance of a home run.

All in all, Babe Ruth swung a lot, but he didn’t always connect. He didn’t always point to the outfield and knock it out of the park. However, if he had not swung, he wouldn’t have hit it there.

We have to do the risky things. We have to swing for the fence. Who wants to settle for bunting for chances at first base? What sort of life is that?

I want to look back and know that I swung for the fences. I want to know I tried to do impossible things. I want to know I didn’t play it safe. I want to know I followed my ideas and “what if…” thoughts.

Even if I just end up striking out.

There’s still more I want to know about you guys. This time it’s where you live.

Not precisely where you live. I’m not that stalkerish. Just your region. I assumed most of my readers are in North Carolina and South Carolina, so I made those separate options.

So go vote!

Since I opened my account on Twitter back in May 2008, I have just recently went over the 1000 mark for number of “tweets” (which is what they call updates). So, I thought I would share some of what this past 1005 tweets have looked like and show you some of my trends.

• Since starting (taking into account all 1005 tweets), I tweet an average of 4.21 times a day.
• Over the last 100 tweets, I average about 7.15 times a day.
• My highest month of tweets was December 2008 with 261.
• My lowest month of tweets (not counting the current month) was May 2008 with 41.
• I tweet more on Wednesdays than other days. (see below picture)

• I tweet between 11pm and 12am more than any other hour of the day. (see below picture)

• In the picture below (created using Wordle), you can see the trends of words I use in my tweets. The bigger the word, the more I’ve used that word. (Note: No, I don’t talk in the third person. The reason my own twitter name is so big is because it is also this blog address and I tweet links to new blog posts.) You can click the picture below to see the full size version.

So there are some interesting trends about my twitter habits. I found out all this information and more using followcost.com and tweetstats.com.

So what’s your twitter trends? Post about them.

Oh…you don’t have twitter trends?

Better late than never.

Here’s what I want to accomplish by New Year’s Day 2010.

1. GET MARRIED! May 30, 2009. I’m stoked about this goal!
2. Lose 50 pounds. I know, I know. This was my goal for 2008 too, but I failed at it. Just because I failed doesn’t mean I can’t give up!
3. Read at least 12 books. I have a few in mind already!
4. Cut down my spending. I hear the Gospels telling me more and more each day that I live (and especially eat) like a king while my brothers and sisters can’t afford a roof or a meal. That’s got to stop if I want to follow after the Jesus who came to take the Gospel to the poor! It’s not just a stewardship issue. It’s a following Jesus issue!
5. Have less financial debt than I do now. Keep paying down the debt. Stop acquiring it. That’s the goal.
6. Read the Bible every day. I’m going to follow along the YouVersion readings each day. It has readings each day and goes through the whole Bible in a year (once through the Old Testament and twice through the New Testament). You should join me!
7. Get further involved in serving the homeless and poor. I’m hoping to get involved volunteering at a mission, on the streets handing out clothes, etc. This has to be the passion of the church, but that sort of change starts with an individual changing the norm.
8. “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Gandhi. This is my mantra for 2009. Instead of complaining and whining about the church or “Christians” or how the world acts, I will first make sure that I am becoming the change that I wish to see in the world. But trust me. I’m still going to call out the Church and those who claim Jesus when I see the disconnect between us and the things that Jesus said. But not until I am changing first.

This is going to be an awesome year! I have hopes that it will be the best year of my life so far! I can’t wait to see what God has in store!

This is probably a good representation of you guys.

So what should I poll next? What else should I learn about you guys? Any suggestions?

Last night, I finally finished The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. To say that the book impacted me would be a complete understatement! After I finished the book and set it down, chills went down my spine as I realized (or maybe the Spirit reminded me…) that my life will no longer be the same. My responsibility to the Gospel will no longer be the same. I’m giving it to Kindel today for her to read it, but after she finishes, I dare say that I’ll read it again to internalize it more!

It has messed me up so much that I decided I’ll be doing a series of posts (not all at once, but probably mixed in among other posts) covering topics in the book that have messed me up. I can’t wait to flesh out more of it and share it with you all!

I am DEAD SERIOUS when I say this: EVERY person who wants to follow Jesus NEEDS to read this book. EVERY pastor NEEDS to read this book. Every person who wants to catch a better glimpse of what it means to follow Jesus (in stark comparison to the apathetic and complacent church we see today in America) NEEDS to read this book. It’s not because Shane has it all totally figured out. It’s not that we all need to look, act, and live exactly like Shane. It’s just that, in my opinion, Shane’s story is one of the closest models of truly following after Jesus and truly believing that Jesus meant what He said.

Read it. Please. I beg you. I don’t normal do that. But I am now. But be prepared to never be the same.

Go buy it. (All the proceeds from the book go to social justice communities that are loving the unloved. So why not buy it!)