My Mission

Today at church, our pastor spoke about missions. God wants us all to take part in a mission in His name. Now, for most people, we hear the word mission and we think about traveling to a third world country and preaching to people that most likely do not speak the same language as we do. Growing up Catholic, I have a good understanding of missions, and my brother traveled to the Dominican Republic his last year in high school to take part in a mission effort. Missions are wonderful things, but they're also foreign concepts to many of us.

Today's message, however, was that we need to find a mission in our everyday lives. It's not only about making a commitment to travel to Africa or Central America. It's also not about taking only one hour per week to give to God. Living a mission for God is about making it part of our every day. It needs to be the cornerstone of what we do and who we are.

This got me thinking about something my dad once told me. I need to caveat what I am about to say with this: My dad was my hero. I loved my father with all that I had, and losing him in 2004 had a profound effect on me and my life. I lost a parent and a friend, and every memory I have of my father, most good and some bad, comes with a little life-lesson. He tried in everything he did to teach my brother and me something new, and he felt it was his obligation to better prepare us for the world.

Still, my father was not perfect. Not by a long shot. The one thing in particular about which I never saw eye-to-eye with my dad was his notion that you never get something for nothing. His life and his experiences lead him to believe that everyone had an agenda. He did not inherently trust people who performed kind gestures for him. What's ironic is that he was so giving and he instinctively gave of himself with no agenda at all. He just liked to help out whenever he could.

It pains me to say that my dad was wrong. Although we must be vigilant of others and not just blindly place our trust in strangers, I do believe that you can get something for nothing. I believe there does exist in people the ability to give to others without an expectation of reciprocation of any sort. Just as my dad always gave of himself to help others, there are others who also give of themselves every day. And it's possible someone who has chosen to live a giving life may interact with you and, as such, give to you something for nothing.

I believe my mission in God and with God is to live my life as best I can to be a giving person. To be someone who, every day, gives someone else something for nothing. I think it's ironic that in proving my father wrong I am able to prove my Father right. And I think my dad would be okay with that.

The Rita Recap

I struggled with how to begin this post. I literally did not know where to begin. So instead I decided to just list thoughts at random and with each one thank God for the blessing that it was.

Lee and I hosted a party on Friday, July 3, to celebrate our marriage in June. We knew we wanted to target about 100 people for the shindig, and we also knew that given the party was on a holiday weekend, many of the invited guests would likely have previous commitments or would not be able to afford travelling in from out of town. We thought we'd do well with about 50 - 65 people showing up for the party. There were actually over 90 individuals who attended our Rockin' Rita Celebration, and Lee and I are so blessed to have the friends and family that we do.

The party itself is a bit of a blur, not so much because of all the adult beverages that were consumed, although that does play a bit of a factor in the hazy memories, but mostly because it was one of those nights that were so much fun, time just zipped by. It was a sensory overload of music, laughter, great food and tequila shots. There was so much going on, it was hard to spend enough time on any one thing. Lee and I are so blessed to have had the opportunity to work with a great party planner and host such a fantastic event.

The night began with music by our friend Chris Glover. Not only was Chris gracious enough to perform at our party, he also provided the complete setup for the musical entertainment that evening. He lugged his equipment, including show lights, from his home in Orlando all the way to Treasure Island, Florida. That's at least a two hour drive, and the party would not have been the same without his help and participation. Lee and I are so blessed to have such talented and giving friends.

Lee and I then took part in our Unity Cocktail ceremony. Many of you have heard of unity candles and sand mixing ceremonies. Our Unity Cocktail was like that …. but only better. Our dear friend Matt Harrington performed the ceremony in which we took the ingredients of a margarita, each of which represented Lee, myself and our family and friends, mixed them together and produced, dare I say, one of the best margaritas I've ever had.

Matt then proceeded to surprise Lee and me with his gift. Now, I have to clarify that Matt is a talented musician – regardless of what he'll tell you – and he once had his own band back in the day. It had been over five years since Matt sat down and wrote a song, but that's exactly what he did for us as our gift. It was beautiful and heartfelt and completely amazing. I don't think there was a dry eye in the room. Lee and I are so blessed to have such creative and selfless friends.

The night progressed with a sunset toast outside of the venue on the soft sand of Sunset Beach. It was so amazing to look around and see so many people out there who traveled both near and far to share in that moment with us. We had visitors from New Hampshire, Alabama, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Miami, North Carolina, Tallahassee, the Orlando area, and one near miss from Brazil via New York (we really missed you at the party, Juli). It is so humbling to have so many individuals willing to travel to be with us, and Lee and I are again so very blessed to be surrounded by such loving people.

Following the festivities outside, we all moved inside for music by Dirty Shannon, photo booth fun by Elise Schreiner Photography, and continued joviality provided by our emcee and good friend Kurt. It was a whirlwind of fun and excitement and more shots of tequila, and the night was marred only by me forcing cats to commit suicide by singing along – on microphone, no less - to The Outfield's 'Lose Your Love'. Other than that, the night was perfect.

Lee then surprised me with my own groom's cake in the form of a bottle of Patron Silver Tequila. It was chocolate, it was awesome and ultimately it was very messy. Everything was just as we'd hoped it would be, with the exception that it all went by too fast and we didn't get a chance to spend quality time with everyone. (FYI. We registered on SeeYouThen.com so that those of you who attended can share your pictures from the event with everyone else. I tip my hat to the team at SeeYouThen.com for their fantastic work in putting together the template for our site: http://gilandlee.seeyouthen.com/)

Personally, I need to thank everyone once again for coming out and for making it one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I also want to apologize to you all for not getting around to sitting down with you, saying hi and just catching up. I guess with so many guests it was a nice problem to have, but still I feel that I missed so many of you, and for that I am truly sorry.

When I stop to think about and reflect on that wonderful evening, my heart feels like bursting from all the love you all have given Lee and me. I am also both graciously overjoyed and sincerely humbled by the many blessings that fill my life. Thank you, each and every one of you.

Associated Content -- Transformers 2 Movie Review

Please check out my movie review of Transformers 2 on Associated Content. More posts to this AC site to follow.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/danacreative

Q's House

I had the fantastic opportunity of being on Q's House earlier this week to discuss The Lives Project, working with John Taglieri on the effort, and just writing and blogging in general. The inteview is now available via podcast on iTunes (search for Q's House) as well as other online resources. The name of the download is 219_The Projects.

I hope you take a moment to listen in, if for no other reason than to listen to Fight Together by Sci-Fried. Funny song, but only if you're a geek like me.