...and here we are:
In the spring of 2005 I ran out of the bar; my bar.
I owned one of the largest bars/music venues in Arizona. I also owned the 2nd largest promotion company in Arizona. My name was on most news papers, print ads, web search engines and radio stations. I was on MTV and in Rolling Stone. I had VIP service to any club, concert and art show. I had long hair, baggy Dickies, glazed eyes, a touch of Kamel breath and a Jameson Whiskey after taste. I had burnt bridges, built bridges and hid under bridges. I had friends in high places and low places. I tried suicide by drugs, alcohol, liquor and driving my Volvo off a mountain.
...but in one day a mighty force invaded my life.
...this blog today is not to glorify my past but to clarify the direction that my wife and I are heading.
In 2005 (the day after attempting to drive my Volvo to heaven) three women, two close friends, two random missionaries and one homeless man all walked into my bar with the same story. They all said that God had visited them and told them to give me a message. The funny part of this story is that only half of them had professed to be walking with God and the other half had said they would walk with God since this experience. Crazy! So here is their message from God that they all delivered on the SAME day at DIFFERENT times. Oh and none of them told each other their experience until I left AZ.
"Cole. You are called to preach to thousands. You need to leave your bar and promotions company. You need to be transformed and equipped to fulfill your calling. REFORM"
So I left Arizona in three days, moved to Idaho and started my journey. In 2006 I started my Bible schooling and discipleship. I committed to a church and a new gathering of people called family. I made money with my hands like my dad and dreamed of seeing generations free to change the world. God began to add fuel to my man-child dreams. I prayed for a wife daily until I was finally put face to face with her. Lacey Q Smith. In 2007, on July 7th, we committed our lives together forever. (7/7/7) FOR-EV-ER. We became ordained and started the next phases of our journey as The Masseys.
Our dreams rang together like a gong. We followed our hearts with the leading of our Sheppard. Passion and redemption charged our direction like two kids running towards the finish line in potato sacks. We fell down at spots and picked each other up around different corners. Some of our close friends slipped out of our grips at times some of our distant friends were planted with us in unknown fields. We have followed wisdom from wounded leaders and we have missed the divine words of the anointed at times too. Sometimes the rainbows we leaned upon from Above were black & white and other times the promises were in HD and 3D.
We left Idaho in a plane and a truck to commit ourselves to a blessed people who were building one the greatest churches in America from the plains in Colorado. We were loved on, prayed into and reshaped. We will never be able give back as much as we were given but I hope someday we will. After almost a year, the Lord moved us to a dessert in Washington where the Light revealed some needed fixing in our walk. With our knapsacks and a red letter edition we pressed towards the goal to arrive at our tribe. Pressures squeezed our marriage untill we felt empty. We held on to Jesus' hand like a child clutching to just a finger of a father. We prayed for faith to keep hoping for the unseen. Thank God for that tribe! Truth reveals.
...and here we sit in the wine country of the Northwest. We found our tribe. We found each other again. We found the river that we will be planted next to and raise our kids by. I think one of hardest things to understand about Christians is if they really heard from God when I look at their journey from my path. Although, what has shaped me now is staying convicted to that small and quiet voice that guides my path when others question my journey. Friends come and go but family never lets go. Our parents have loved us to our dreams and guided us with their relentless prayers.
A dream will just stay a dream if it’s not believed in. The sky has a limit if that's where your heart stops hoping. We have supernatural capabilities if we are consistent with the elementary principles. Our God has more faith in us than we have in Him. My largest "Goliath" has been me. I had to die to myself to let Him live in me. The devil now is just a nagging voice that I have the power to silence. My wife is a gift that I don't deserve but I have a responsibility to keep her safe. Our life has changed allot since that first day of interns when we knew God had big plans for us once we became one. I think we are done with interns now but we want to keep learning.
If you knew us then, keep us in your prayers still now. We are at that next chapter and I hope the last chapter was only the first. BE CHURCH. Jesus loves you more than I can but I will sure still try with this finite make up. You will find your voice in the wilderness and you will learn what you are TRULY thirsty for while in the desert. Trials grow you. Perseverance shapes you. Fight from a place of victory. Love most when it's the hardest. Honor your mother and father and know that somebody is praying for you right now. In the last chapter of Job are the blessings that came from Job praying for his friends. Shalom
Here is a video of a song that has been on my earphones through this season! Enjoy and listen close to the lyrics... they are my heart for you.
