What It Drew Explained

I've had a few questions about my blog's name, so I'll explain. I learned the phrase "What it do?" from kids I worked with in a group home. It's a phrase that originated from the Bay Area Hyphy culture (see video below.) It basically means "What's up?" or "What's going on?" I took the phrase "What it do?" and turned it into "What it Drew?"

Here's the urbandictionary.com definition of "What it do?"

See this video for more information on the Hyphy Movement:

Things I Learned on the Way to Jersey Yesterday

I traveled from South Lake Tahoe to Newark, New Jersey, yesterday. I learned a few things during the trip:

1. CalTrans vehicle operators don't care about getting in wrecks. One made a u-turn in the middle of the road and stopped right in front of me. I was headed straight for him. Snow was all over the road, and I was going about 40mph. I started pumping my brakes like mad and turned the wheel. It didn't matter. I was headed right for his bumper. I think God saved me because I stopped about a foot away from him. The CalTrans guy got out and asked if I had 4-wheel-drive. When I said yes, he told me I could continue my way up the pass. He had no freaking clue.

2. The saying amongst Realtors, "If you want business, go on vacation" is true. I was in the Sacramento airport and was contacted by a client who wants to buy a certain home now. I'll be writing an offer on Monday. Last time I went to Jersey I got a listing!

3. Chris Rock was wrong. I had a layover in Minneapolis. There's way more black people in Minnesota than Prince and Kirby Puckett.

4. Inflate-a-beds are better in warm weather. The air underneath you is just as cold as the air above you. I was swaddled in my blankets like the Baby Jesus last night.

Gay Roommate Service?

So most of the time when you check out the Google Ads that are on the right side of my page, there's one for Gay Roommate Service. How did that get there? Google usually tries to tailor their ads for their readers. Are most of you guys gay? Actually, they probably think my page is gay. Interesting. I'll have to blog more about sports and all the girls I sleep with. Actually, I only have material to write on sports. Ha.

Righting This Ship

Typically, I like to organize thoughts and create an outline before writing. Not today, today I’m just writing and seeing where this heads. I’m shooting from the hip.

Right now I feel like Bugs Bunny, popping out of the ground and wondering where the hell I am. I’m not where I want to be. For perhaps the first time in my adulthood, I wish my life was different. I’m not happy. I feel as if I have little purpose. Where did I go wrong? I knew I should have taken that left at Albuquerque.

It’s been a messed up year. My father passed. My grandmother passed. I lost my first love. I tore my Achilles tendon. I underwent surgery to repair it two and a half months later. Three months later, I began walking on my own. I developed some really intense allergies and started taking allergy shots. It now looks like the shots compromised my immune system, and I can no longer participate in strenuous exercise. This year has also been a complete failure for me professionally. I’ve hardly made any money at all. And on top of this all, my relationship with God has never been worse. Before my father died, I never considered the idea of being angry with God. Yet five minutes after he passed, I was. I had prayed over a decade that my father would know God. And God had given me a lot of reasons to believe it would happen – different promises in the Bible, experiences with the Holy Spirit, and even multiple dreams of my father worshiping. Why didn’t he give my father a reason to believe? I’m not really angry anymore, just incredibly confused. I don’t think there will ever be answers for some of these questions. God never promised to shield us from messed up years.

I’m not looking for a pity party here. I’m just trying to explain a little on how I arrived in the place I am now. Once again, I realize that I’m not in control here. I look at everything that’s happened to me above, and there wasn’t much I could have done about any of it. No organizing, planning, or outlining could have led me to a much better place. I’ll just continue in the conscious, deliberate, and exhausting efforts to right this ship. I pray about this as well, not nearly as much as I should. Not looking for pity. Definitely not looking for comments. You could pray for me, though. Meanwhile, looking at what is ahead and forgetting what is behind, I will continue on toward the Prize. --drew

Goodbye Kristen, Lily & Claire

I lived with a great family over the last 4 months. They're moving to Florida soon, and I had to say goodbye to the girls tonight. I'm pretty sad about it. They feel like family in lots of ways. Here's a video and a couple pictures of them:

Claire Taking a Bath (Click to see the video. Press pause & wait for the download before playing)

Lily on the Phone















Lily Nursing Her Baby

2131 Cascade Road

My work has become pretty multi-faceted lately. I'm not just a Realtor anymore. I'm an IT specialist at my office 10 hours a week. I'm also a videographer. This is my latest virtual tour. The home featured is listed at $3,600,000.

2131 Cascade Road (Click here to play. You will need to pause the video & wait for it to download before playing.)

Roommate Fun

This is video of my roommates, Lily, and her mom, Kristen. It was laundry day and Lily found that her dad's boxers were good for hiding.

Married

A couple months ago I changed my religious views on Facebook from "I love Jesus!" to "Married". A friend asked what I meant by it. My response was as follows:

You’re curious about my "married” religious views? I guess as I continue my relationship with God, it feels more and more like a marriage. There are good times and bad times, ups and downs, feelings of being in love and times when I don’t feel that way at all. I don’t feel like I’m in love right now. But during this time that sucks, I've come to a better realization that I do love God. I’m not going anywhere. I never made a "till death do us part” vow, but that’s the way it is. It feels like something’s been pushed through my flesh and affixed me to him (Deut. 15:16-17). Isaiah 54:5 says, “For your maker is your husband – the Lord Almighty is his name.” I'm married.

Out of Control

Here's one more for tonight. This one is much more recent.


8/3/2008
I'm lacking in control these days. Despite determined efforts to direct my life in the direction I'd have for the day, I'm feeling pretty weak. It sucks.

I've been doing a lot of swimming these days because of my Achilles reconstruction (5/15/08). When swimming in an open body of water with a strong current, it only makes sense to swim one way if you want to get anywhere. Otherwise, you're kinda swimming in place or else doing some counter-productive swimming, most likely in a direction you don't want to go. The current always pushes.

A few days ago I was praying about some life decisions. At one point, I looked up in a moment of clarity and said, "I'm really not in control of this one. Am I, God?" Moments like that are kinda scary. For the most part, I think God puts the reigns of our lives in our own hands. I've prayed over big decisions before and have oftentimes heard answers like, "It's your life, Drew. Just make a choice." Of course, I've also received answers on the direction I should go. This one was different. I didn't feel like God was telling me anything. I just knew that regardless of what I'd do in the future, regardless of any decision I'd make, I would be completely helpless in the direction I would ultimately take. I can only hope to quickly figure out which way this current is pushing. It's pretty damn strong.

Anointing

I wrote this last summer. I think it's pretty good. I figured I'd post something cool to inaugurate this blog instead of telling you about my jacked up day :(. So here goes ...


6/13/2007
The subject of God's anointing has presented itself twice in the last couple days, so I'm here to write about it. Biblically, there is no secret that amongst his children, God chooses some to stand out in his kingdom. These people will do amazing works in his name. Some that immediately come to mind are Moses, David, Paul, and even some contemporary figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa. There are others, anointed by God, whom you've never heard of. They plant churches. They write books. They preach or serve the poor. Regardless of what they do, as God's anointed he appoints and equips each of them to do something amazing.

A couple nights ago after praying with a woman at church, she told me of how her husband saw an anointing on me. This was at a prayer meeting a few weeks ago. During the meeting, he began to go from one person to the next, praying for them. When he turned to pray for me, he saw an anointing, big and thick, surrounding me. It was so powerful that he couldn't speak or move while near me. That's pretty intense stuff. Now there have been times in the past when I've heard things like this and been skeptical. You charismatics know what I'm talking about. You hear the person speak their "word" or prophecy. Then you nod your head a few times. And then you say you'll keep it in prayer. As you walk away you say, "Now THAT was kinda weird. You can do whatever you want with that one, God." That wasn't the case here. It was pretty convincing. A few years ago, I received a similar word in the form of a prophecy. This was from the pastor of a pretty major church. So I have to ask the question, "When, if ever, will this anointing manifest itself?"

Yesterday I ran across a guy with an anointing that cannot be questioned. When I met Charlie at my church's prayer meeting, my first impression of him was: Asian (probably Chinese), close to forty, a little out of shape, and he had a very soft voice. Based on some things he said before prayer and what others had to say afterward, Charlie has probably only been a Christian for a few months.

Prayer kicked off per the usual with opening prayers followed by intercessions for those on the church prayer list. During this time Charlie only offered two short prayers. One of them, however, led me to think, "Wow. This guy is probably listening to God pretty intently." As we began to exhaust the prayer list and slow down some, Charlie's prayers became more frequent, and they became more powerful. One prayer had me surprised as I knew the words were ministering to a life situation of the man next to me. I was then in awe as Charlie's words turned toward me. He prayed for desires in my heart that I myself had never addressed in prayer. From then on, I hoped for Charlie to pray something stupid just to bring him back to earth. It didn't happen. And as he continued to offer prayers, it really felt like God had decided to embody himself in this baby Christian across the room. It was almost creepy … like in Ghost when Patrick Swayze jumped into Whoopie Goldberg. All of our intercessory "Amen's" and "Yes Lord's" began to cease. I guess when God's speaking, trying to validate His words with "yes" or "amen" seems kinda silly.

If I have an anointing, it's not anything like Charlie's. When I started becoming serious about my faith, I often had my leaders shaking their heads. I'd always say something dumb in the most inappropriate of situations. I'd wrestle girls at Bible studies. I was 21 but acted like an 18 year old, immature beyond my years. I still am. I mean, God has grown me in many ways … but over the years I have rarely seen signs of an anointing. I've poured so much time, energy, and emotion into my relationship with God and into ministry, and it just hasn't yielded that much fruit. When am I going to see a real manifestation of this anointing? Or will this "anointing" simply continue to be something that hyper-spiritual people sit around and talk about?

I know God sees a bigger picture than I do. I'm thankful for it, because this calling to usher a region (the Sierra Nevada) back to repentance seems to be a much bigger shoe than I'll ever be able to wear. I need the Holy Spirit's help in this. And I'm not talking about help like when the teacher would stop by your desk in math. I'm talking about what the phone booth did for Clark Kent*. As for right now, I'll just continue to love God and love people the best I can. I trust in him and I know he'll work it all out in the end.


*Credit goes to Rod Parsley for the Holy Spirit / Clark Kent analogy.