NEVER TO LATE?

Maybe I am a little old to be learning childish dances but I am pushing myself to learn more. Forget the CPA exam I am learning the Cupid Shuffle.

Honesty, Is it Honestly Possible?

Is real honesty possible? Do we get so caught up in what we want to believe about others that all we care is our own perception? Would it hurt us so bad to look at others as they really are and not what we want out of them? Can we not just for once look past their human faults and love then as Christ loves? Better yet, why can't those who have loved me for years not rejoice when God does great things in my life just because these things don't fit their religious template?

In the last few months I have been convinced that many that I thought I could depend on really didn't love and respect the real me. They only loved who they thought I was. Once I started to change, and yes it has been the greatest change of my life, I found out that they could not handle the new me. I am not even sure what it is that they want. Truly if I knew how to please them I probably would try.

I guess I made the mistake of expecting that they would actually care about about my journey and want to share in that journey. I believe that God puts people in our life for a season and purpose and when that time ends it is painful but for the best.

To all those folks out there who are my true friend, and you know who you are, thank you. You accepted me for who I was and who I am now. You were there during the greatest transformation of my life and I have no doubt that I can trust and be honesty with you all.

I sang in church this Sunday. Not for the first time but it was really the first time that I actually sang a full song all the way through. I sang "Whatever Your Doing," by Sanctus Real. Kim sang backup vocal with me while REMIX band provided the music with special guest Robert Petko on the keys. See, I have needed a good acoustic for a long time so the church bought a great Taylor DN3 guitar. This guitar sounded so good I was almost overwhelmed by the tone and the "colors" of sound that came from this guitar.

Well, the guitar came to my office Friday so that left me no time to practice with the band. So, Saturday night Kim and I practiced for a few minutes just to see if I could even sing it. It was a leap of faith to even try this song but the song meant so much to me that I had to give it a try. The guys played the song with only about five minutes of practice and we just rocked out for Jesus. I gave it everything I had and I hope a few folks were blessed by the song.

The past few weeks we have been doing the worship music for some other churches. First, Gamari Baptist and then New Life Church of God. Then we played at "The Way." The Way is probably one of the coolest churches I have ever stepped foot in. They are located in the old Hwy 1-82 cemima. I jokingly said as we walked in, "wonder if they serve popcorn." They not only had popcorn but hotdogs and fountain drinks. The only downside to the service was the opening countdown video of a rollercoaster ride on the huge movie screen. I felt myself getting a little sick and had to leave to get some fresh air.

Once the service started we sang our hearts out and worshiped our savior with our music for about thirty minutes. The crowd was great and I could hear them singing the songs along with us with great enthusiasm. There was a poweful message and altar call that followed. There was a true love and christlike spirit of unity that we shared with the folks at The Way that just lets me know that great things are happening in the body of Christ in the Mississippi Delta.

Week of unity with Gamari Baptist and New Life Church of God

Last week some of our youth, Jason, and the Remix band (me, josh, austin, and kim) joined up with around five other churches to gather together and worship our Saviour over at Gamari Baptist. We were invited to do the worship music and for thirty minutes we just rocked out for Jesus. Kim sang most of the songs but I did sing a couple of my favorites, You Are My Joy (David Crowder) and Jesus, I Surrender (Jeff Deyo)

I expected a few people to be there but I was not expecting a church packed to capacity. What an amazing feeling of unity that I felt. Brotherly love, true Christlike love was evident in the worship that ushered in the presence of God. Youth pastor John Gentry spoke for a few minutes about how, WE are the church and that even though we might all go to different places on Sunday that we were truly the body of Christ. He ended with a challenge that if we are to change the delta then we must spend time in prayer and come together with a vision of unity and become passionate about our relationship with God.

Then Friday night we headed over to New Life Church of God. We played a couple of songs and then just sat back and enjoyed God's presence while the other groups led in worship. It was so nice to actually have a chance to worship. New Life has a great sound system and did some cool powerpoint videos.

We met some great people and hopefully some new friends. I can't wait to fellowship like this again.

God? Is that you?

I was feeling a little down and not myself last night and this morning. So, I was trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I am, like, I never get depressed or anything. But I was feeling kind of spiritual/emotional/weird and I am thinking that maybe I need to just take some time and feel after God. You know maybe, . . . pray. Well, someone emailed me this song last night and so I decided to listen to it. The message of this song really touched me. I am not claiming to be super-spiritual or anything (I do have a reputation to uphold) but lately it just seems like the message of Christ is very, very close.

Bachelorette - TRUE ROMANTIC

So I have to admit a really embarrassing secret. I watched this season of the Bachelorette. I mean every single episode, including one recorded by my old VCR with a tape from like 1987.

DeAnna's is an all around beautiful girl with a very honest personality that kept my attention. She treated everyone with respect but didn't take any crap from anybody (very sexy). Her Greek good looks and dark hair kept my interest. Even her flaws were hot! Plus, Sandra was going to watch it no matter what so I had better learn to like it real fast!

So I learned to read DeAnna from like the second episode. She could not hide her emotions. Sidenote: In the past year I have learned to understand others feeling and emotions. This is part of my personal growth and all that new-age psychobabble that we are learning at church. Her forced-interest-fake-smile was so easy to catch. If you saw it you could guarantee the guy was gone. With Graham being the exception I picked every guy who would leave and who would stay all the way down to Jesse. In fact, I picked Jesse three weeks ago. The only reason I messed up on Graham is because she was so into him and his bad guy image. Plus, they fought the whole time. Girls like the bad guys, it is simple as that, but she was able to substitute Jesse's as her new "bad guy".

So we get to the end last night and I tell Sandra like I have told her for three weeks, Jesse is the one she is in love with. And would you believe she picks Jesse, Yes!!! I win. I know all about true love and all that girly stuff and for once and for all I am the man of the house . . . ha ha ha . . . ha . . . ha . . . (she is giving me a really evil look) Who cares, it is just a TV show, . . . right? Yeah, . . . well I wasn't expecting Sandra to have a complete emotional breakdown over this. So while the TV survived the impact, the remote control will have to be replaced and I will be ok because it wasn't a direct hit.

But hey,



I WAS RIGHT!!! ]:-)

Random Pictures

So, as everyone knows I have this new haircut. I have Jason (he cut my hair) and Kim (she was goading me into it, you can check out her picture here) to thank for this. I am not sure if I really like it because it is such a change but . . . I don't hate it as much now as I did a week ago. Radical change isn't always bad, especially for me as I have this problem with getting stuck in a rut. Here are the before and after pics.

Then we went camping at Tishomingo state park way up in north Mississippi. We hiked, rock climbed, and went on a canoe trip. The trip flew by so fast. Jason Provine is writing a story about our adventures on his myspace page .