He's My Brother

Today my only biological brother celebrated his 31^st birthday. David joins my father and I in not being that much bothered about birthday celebrations. Then again the whole point about these things is that you don’t have to be bothered when other people will be bothered for you. When it comes to being bothered about David Dryden I make a habit of it.

I trust my brother. I implicitly trust him in a way that I trust no other human being with the exception of my wife. I trust my brother like I trust no other man including my own dad. When everyone else gave up on me, my brother never gave up on me. When everyone else misunderstood me, my brother stuck around and even when it was a case of others not wanting to stick around, he stuck up for me like no other person has ever stuck up for me. The Bible suggests that faithful are the wounds of a friend and my brother has been faithful in challenging my beliefs, deflating my ego and on occasion giving me some hard home truths.

There was a point in which I hoped he and his beautiful wife Nicola would stay with me in the area. It is a point of how highly I regard him that I desperately wanted that to be the case. As it happened it worked out for the best that he chose to remain in Milton Keynes as it has meant I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy many great weekends down his yard and seeing what it is to enjoy the Sabbath rest, have wonderful warn relaxed fellowship and good food.

David as a brother has been brilliant this year in the understated ways as well. This year has been crucial for him to grow up and he’s risen well to the challenge. It is the greatest joy to know he’s made it being a father. The devotions he has and the undoubted love he has for his wife and his son are a quality trait to be admired by most men and I’m glad he’s not made some of the elemental early mistakes that I made in a similar position.

My brother remains a man of integrity committed to the truth at any cost especially on himself. He’s been willing to walk in places that few would dare to tread on the basis of his conviction of his beliefs. He’s taken that road alone at times, but he has shown incredible strength of character to not only persist in the area but also to gain strength and wisdom from it.

It is his character development over recent years that have been particularly pleasing to me. His skill and talent were never in question, but his priority of character over theses has allowed him to pay some costly prices in this regard. That bravery is something I hope will be a hallmark of his son and others. I pray that his circle of influence will indeed continued to be impressed by his character.

David faces some hard days ahead and I’m sure wouldn’t say no to prayers for him and his family, yet I remain confident in God that my brother will walk through these challenges with a great commitment to the truth and expression of it in his daily life. I know I continue to appreciate his advice and words of wisdom that remind me of what it’s all about. I know these will be entrenched even further because of his choosing his path of righteousness.

He’s a great friend to me and means far more than flesh and blood. I trust he will go from success to success in every aspect of his life. He ain’t heavy …

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Quick Weekend Note

The teaching today worked out alright. What I enjoy most about the opportunity to teach is the creativity it calls for from me in making connections to some of the key points. It’s a conversational approach to the teaching ensuring that within it people are engaging with the material. It’s not always easy to discern whether people get it, but the test f the pudding is in the eating apparently.

My brother’s around so that has made the day that much better as we have been able to talk and catch up on a lot of stuff. He is such a gifted creative songwriter and producer that I’m eager for his stuff to get the airing it deserves. In the meantime he has a MySpace page that I strongly recommend you check for yourself especially The Last Time sample which is seriously underrated.

That really is it for today. Hopefully I’ll be working through some of the outstanding articles in the next day or so and with Oscar night nearly two weeks away I want to share that elusive review of The Dark Knight among other reviews.

For His Name's Sake
Shalom
dmcd

He Ain’t Heavy … He’s My Link To Some Funny Stuff

David has been with us at the crib since last night. It’s good to have him around. You must know how much I love my brother by now! I have blogged about him in detail. We strike a good rapport whenever he’s around and I find it helps me to unload stuff when I’m around him. Like tonight I gave him the full Rafa Rant and we earlier on discussed the concept of things starting at home. It was just great to be able to bounce off him. He’s good for business.

What makes him especially helpful as well is that he’s a very resourceful man. Very resourceful. Just before I got to start my notes for the evening – and it’s rather late around 10:55pm – David shared some great stuff with me. It’s so good I’ve had to post it on the Among Friends site.

The five part series called The Googling is a great comic riff on the whole supernatural in the natural thing. What I really enjoyed was the fact that this is obviously a group approach and although not experts on a professional scale, the movies are watchable, enjoyable and hilarious. They are so good I would happily recommend them to anyone. There’s also plenty of food for thought in some of them. So go ahead and check them out (part one, part two, part three, part four, and part five) and let me know what you make of them!

Also while you’re there check the latest offering for New York Comic Con 2009 by It’s Just Some Random Guy. I tell you the truth, as someone better than I put it, IJSRG is one of the great talents that give YouTube a reason to exist. The world is a happier place for having this dude’s creative juices flowing for us all.

And speaking of creative, please pray for me, I’ve been invited to speak again at Church WOW – more on them in a later entry. It’s on the topic Creation and it’s exciting thinking about the different angles to approach it and the ways it can come across. The prayer is that I allow the Spirit to have His way in the planning and execution of the presentation to God’s glory and the benefit of His people.

Well that’s a highly informative post about me today and thankfully for the first time in ages I’ve been able to do more posts on me other blog than on this as it was looking a bit empty for this year’s quota. I hope you enjoy them all and I’ll be back soon.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd