I met him once.  Sat in his sermons a half dozen times.  My husband, Patrick, also a motorcycle rider and musician, connected deeply with David Foster.  Notice the past tense in my sentence?  Yes, the man departed at the early age of 59.  Healthy, vibrant, a passionate motorcycle rider, and captivating man of God, David Foster slipped away in his sleep.  Napping.   Just like that.  After a routine jog.

Having moved to Nashville some seven years ago while keeping my toes in NYC all along, I had yet to find a “church home” — that place where I felt ultra connected to the people and more importantly the Paster/Reverend/Minister, etc.  For me to connect with the man or woman who dedicates their lives to worship and thus teaching the Holy Word, I need  to be moved, stunned, bowled over.  And I need excellent music to accompany the experience.  And they need to be a human being, doing, experiencing.

This was all available at The Gathering in Nashville.  And the best for me was this Pastor with whom I was becoming more comfortable also rode motorcycles.   He was crazy about riding.  He was funny, yet poignant and serious and real.  The real deal.   He also felt GOD on that two wheel freedom machine.

But I postponed the deeper connection with this Pastor.  Busy.  Working. Busy missing NYC.  Busy with basically nothing when it all came down to it.

I’m shaken to the core about this man’s sudden passing.  Truly, this is a man that you might find hiking up Bear Butte having ridden his motorcycle to Sturgis, on a pilgrimage to hang with God in unconventional ways.

He’s a family man.  A devoted loving husband with children.  A devoted brother to his family who gathered with him.

There’s a steep, pricy lesson I’m learning here since this man simply slipped away:  I don’t want to postpone God anymore or the people, the opportunities, the magic that comes my way that will provide a closer connection with the UNIVERSE, with the ENERGY, with the LIGHT, with the HIGHER POWER.

David Foster was a dynamic man of God.  Yes, a Renegade.  Any one of my hardcore biker family members would have seriously dug his messages and even would want to ride with him, hang out, ponder what he says even while they might be partying.  His messages of God and JESUS were that penetrating to the soul.  Because he was the real deal.

Conventional church was not David Foster’s way of representing GOD.  He did it through GATHERING.  The Gathering.  Just getting together in a rented out movie theater.  A smart move, too.  Killer sound system and video, folks could bring in their Starbucks, have messy bed head and sour breath from partying the night before.  You just had to come as you ARE.  That’s all he asked.  Come messy if you want.  We’re all messy anyway, he’d say.

That’s what God asks of us in the WIND while riding.  Just come as you ARE.   Show up for the love and the peace, and the wisdom and the awe.  Learn some lessons that feed your soul.  Learn your truth and live the truth.

Here is his last earthly sermon, the last in his series called “Messy Like Me”  and chose the sermon for April 1st, 2012.  

http://www.thegatheringnashville.com/online-campus/media/

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