adam herod

Acts 3:4a “Peter looked straight at him, as did John.”

This sentenced fascinated me today. There was a lame man at the gate called Beautiful. It says that he was there every day. Peter and John prayed every day. It stands to reason that this wasn’t the first time they’d walked by this broken man. But on the day in question Peter “looked straight at him”.

I thought about how many times I look away from the hurting. Who are we missing who’s hurting right in front of us? I think about all the people I pass in church and don’t take the time to engage in their brokenness. I think about the neighbor who doesn’t know Jesus. I think about Global Poverty,  Haiti, World Vision, Human Trafficking, The Plumpy Nut Initiative, Compassion, Chile, Voice of the Martyrs, Iran, Charity Water and the other millions of great needs of the world we live in. It’s so much easier to disengage before it ever has a chance to grab my heart. Because once it’s there I have to respond to what I’ve seen.

I know we can’t handle all the world’s problems, but I also know that we can’t hide our head in the sand and pretend the world isn’t hurting. And most of us can’t pretend like we can’t find some way to help. Let me encourage you to find some way to look straight at a problem today. Maybe it’s one of the organizations I linked to above or maybe something God’s placed in your heart (or put in your way). Look it in the eye today. Engage it with your heart, your soul, your strength and your wallet. Don’t look away.

PS…I want to thank a couple of people who make it hard for me to look away. Thanks @ShaunKing & @EugeneCho.

I recently found my high school band director through a friend on facebook. I’ve wanted to say thank you to him for a long time. Here’s what I emailed him:

Mr. J,

It’s Adam Herod. Not sure if you’ll remember me or not. I was a sax player at Terry Sanford graduating in ****.

At any rate, it’s nice to see what you’re up to. I wanted to drop you a line to say thank you for the influence you and Mrs. J had on my life. I thought you’d like to know that music is now my profession and passion. I am a worship pastor here in Raleigh after spending time in Atlanta and Virginia Beach.

I’ve used a lot of things I learned from you in my musical journey. (especially the “if you’re going to make mistakes, make them big”) Continue Reading…

I was reading this passage in Jonah the other day about the things God “prepared” for Jonah. I found it eye-opening and would love to hear your thoughts.

And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened that when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said “It is better for me to die than to live”.

Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.  And should I not pity Nineveh, Continue Reading…

I’m like a roller coaster. That’s the nicest way I know to put it.  Some people go through seasons. I feel like I go through hours. I can start a day fueled with fire to change the world and by five o’clock wonder why the world would ever want anything I have to offer.

Thing is I’m really tough on me. If you screwed up I’d still know that you’re valuable because of Scriptures x, y and z. If I screwed up? Let’s forget about it. Pack it up. Show’s over. I don’t know why that is, I just know it’s me being me. And sometimes that can be really annoying.

It seems so silly. You would think that my constant run-ins with God’s grace would have settled into a definitive pattern of trust and peace. He’s faithfulness is certainly new every morning and His mercy rises with the sun.  The problem is that there are many days that I feel wholly undeserving of any of it.

But I know, like little orphan Annie, ‘the sun will come out tomorrow’. And I’m betting my bottom dollar that scripture is true when it says that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. I’m one weaker brother that’s counting on His strength in more ways than one.

(Welcome to the new blog. The older posts you’ll see are from Merge Worship (my former blog) but Merge Worship is shutting down for now. I’m glad you decided to stop by today. Take off your shoes, drop your mask at the door and make yourself at home.)

My heart has been a little wrecked recently. There’s more than one explanation as to why that could be the case but none are really worth rehashing here. I was surprised by the way my heart has been revealing itself recently. Just the other day I sat down at the piano and this chorus came flowing out:

I want to tear down the walls of apathy and make believe

Take off the mask I wear of everything is perfect here

I wonder if I will ever find a place where I can just be me

I want to live…honestly

Now I hadn’t been doing a ton of thinking about living honestly but I will say that I live (and have for the past couple of years) in a state of what I call “holy discontent”. My heart has been heavy with the desire to be a great leader, a phenomenal Dad, a wonderful husband and a difference maker in the world for His sake. And the truth is that on any given day I feel like I stink at a number of those things but I don’t know who I’d actually say that to. I have a great wife, amazing family and wonderful friends but some days I still feel all alone.

In many ways I think I just want to be able to be real. Human. Honest. Broken.

Do you ever wonder if you’ll ever find honesty? Do you ever dream of a place where you can share all your stuff and hear truth and love in response? I do.