daniel troy carmichael

May 26: Anniversary.....

 

Ashley, minutes after I proposed.

 

 

Ashley and I in front of the Chapel.

 

  

Ashley and I were engaged while having a picnic on the trail along the shore of the pond in front of Callaway Gardens chapel.

 

Ashley and I celebrate two anniversaries, November 3 (our wedding date) and May 26. Ashley and I met on May 26, 1989. One year later, to the day, we were engaged. We were married five months, seven days, and a Sabbath later...yes, I was counting the days!

Today is the 19th anniversary of our meeting, 18th of our engagement. Ashley is God's perfect choice for me.

Talents: A Right or Responsibility

A homeless man in Philadelphia. Which Scripture below would be an appropriate subtitle to use?

• Matthew 26:11, "The poor will always be with you"?
• Luke 4:18, "Preach the gospel to the poor"?
• Luke 18:22, "Sell all you have and give to the poor"?
• Matthew 25:45 (paraphrased), "In as much as you did not feed the poor you did not feed me?"
• Matthew 25:27 (paraphrased), "You should have taken what I have given you and produced something with it"?

(most of this was written in early December 2007)

I am a longtime sufferer of a debilitating disease of the soul called affluenza. According to the Dr. of Democracy, this disease afflicts with shame the wealthy and those who aspire to be so. The shame is due to the fact that, after the financial "luck" that hard work, sacrifice, and delayed gratification bring, those who achieve financial success are often ashamed of having achieved it, especially when those who have not had "luck" (i.e. hard work, sacrifice, and delayed gratification) have much less.

I have only recently realized how this disease has been all-pervasive in my soul, like cancer, since I was young. I grew up in a wonderful environment and never lacked for anything. My parents provided my needs, and even many wants, and taught me that hard work achieved the things and experiences they provided. They taught me of my heritage and those of my ancestors--great and small--who went before me and of whom I was wrought. They taught me a right and proper view of wealth, not only in its financial sense, but also in its many other godly permutations.

Yet, because I saw how so many people did not have what I had and how others abused their wealth, compounded by having no proper framework for understanding, the devil's lie of the shame of wealth--"affluenza"--began to affect me and spread through my soul at an early age. For example, as an adolescent, I would reject my father's desires to buy me newer clothes or to spend his money on things he wanted to give me. Likewise, I rejected my mother's attempts to refurbish my room with the decor appropriate for a teenager, instead of the three-year-old's decor of spaceships and such. I constantly rejected the proper gifts of a parent to their child.

Yet another example was when, as a young adult, I brought my wife-to-be home for the first time to meet my parents. I spoke to her of my embarrassment of where I lived and how I had never brought any of my college friends home. Why was I ashamed? Because of the size of our house and the amount of nice things we had. Affluenza.

During my fast just before Thanksgiving, God showed me how affluenza had poisoned my ability to achieve in life. Like my parents, I rejected in my heart so many things my heavenly Father wanted to give me. So many of my financial fears came to be in my life these past 20 years and little--if any--of the success I had hoped for ever happened. Because of the pain of how I lived and how I wanted to live, I prayed for years for God to take away my desires to achieve great things in His kingdom or the world--to be satisfied with much less and how I was living--but He never answered the prayer. The pain of where I was (and am) and where I believed I was supposed to be was (and is) excruciating.

But now I am coming to peace with the fact that it is ok in God's eyes to achieve more, even if someone else does not or is not capable of the same achievement. I realize that the Scripture is true when it describes as a great gift the man who can enjoy what he has been given to do in life. I am slowly being healed of affluenza.

When I read the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, I am convicted that God has given to every man a measure of talents. What He desires is for us to produce a return from those talents--whether one talent, two talents, or five. I am now entering a part of my life where I choose to not hold back or feel ashamed for the financial success that God has or may choose to give me. I also know that I have the God-given desires to be generous to those less fortunate and that may greatest desire is not financial success or to worship at the false idols of comfort and convenience.

What I desire more than anything is to know God and to be used by Him as He intended for me to be used. The talents He has given me are not my right to have, but my responsibility to use. I want God to receive a good return on the talents He has entrusted to my keeping. May it be so for me; may it also be so for you.

April at a Glance: Photos

April has flown by. Here are some pictures, primarily from three events:

 

• The Basement
• The Call
• Outback America

 

Beginning of the Month

 

 

 

Little mister fell off the swing at school. Both he and daddy were proud of his man-scars!

 

 

 

The Call, Montgomery, Alabama, April 5, 2008

 

 

 

We went to The Call as a family. Dutch Sheets, a fairly well-known prophet, felt led to proclaim this day the beginning of America's Third Spiritual Awakening. We went to 7/7/7 in Nashville last July.

 

 

 

 

 

A small portion of the abortion memorial at The Call where mothers brought baby shoes and wrote notes and confessed their sins to God for murdering their unborn children. Imagine how I explained this to my 5 year old son and 8 year old daughter.

 

 

 

 

Outback America, April 2008, Sylacauga, Alabama

 

Our dear friends Jim & Sue Key found a scholarship for me to take my eldest daughter, Lauren Claire, to this father-daughter retreat.

 

 

Teaching took place "Under the Big Top"

 

 

 

 

Tent city, where we slept the second night (the first night was a HUGE storm and we slept in the barn--until the hail storm hit the tin roof at 2:00 AM!!)

 

 

 

 

Lauren Claire and Ashleigh took off the first night....where did they go??? We couldn't find them. No worry! The rain storm sent them scattering into the barn! What fun!

 

 

 

 

Me and my wonderful daughter. It was a tough weekend for her and she did a wonderful job posing for this picture.

 

 

 

 

 

The Basement

 

An interesting student revival has been going on in Center Point called The Basement and it meets on Tuesday nights at the Cathedral of the Cross. Somewhere between 2000-3000 kids show up each night. I've been taking LC and her friends off an on the past several months.  

 

 

A view from the back of the auditorium during the worship. This was the Californian Christian band "Worth Dying For" that played.

 

 

School Shows

 

Both Daniel and Gracie had school shows this month.

 

 

 

Gracie with her class after a wonderful third grade show.

 

 

 

 

...and thus ends another month-at-a-glance!