Funny How Life Works

16 08 2008

Last year I quit my band South of Shaw and stepped away from secular music altogether. It had been cool over the years. I played a lot of great shows with big name bands in some pretty good sized venues, but there were also untold numbers of crap hole bars that we played in. And along with those bars come everything else that can get a guy in trouble. So after 20 years of playing clubs, I decided to leave the rock scene and play at church and other religious events exclusively. Along with that decision came the acceptance that I would never play a “big arena show” and would never be a musician for a living.

So when Paul asked me to jam with him for the Christian Music Awards competition today I didn’t think anything of it. I figured it would be a day spent jamming with my buds and watching other great musicians, and that it was. Some fantastic talent was there today and it was humbling to sit amongst and share the stage with them. Anyway, our band went on last and we did a song that Paul wrote that we originally worked out and recorded in my home studio. It went reasonable well, of course every musician thinks that they sound like crap, but we got a good response and some kind words from the judges and so I was ready to pack up and call it a good day.

Then they announced the four finalists that will go on to compete in the Christian Music Awards next week at the 16,000 seat Save Mart Center….. and we were one of them. Yep, I’m playing the big house!!!! We’re going to share the stage with the best Christian artists from around the nation. There will be TV crews there, record execs, the whole deal.

So I just think it’s amazing how God works. I struggle for 20 years to get that big show, to “play an arena”, then I give up my dream to do what he wants me to do, and he gives the dream right back to me when I’m least expecting it. Amazing.

So you have to come out and check out the Christian Music Awards next Saturday, August 23rd, The Save Mart Center in Fresno. Here’s a link to pick up some tickets. Come on out and see what great things God is doing.


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Wild at Heart: Fathers

12 08 2008

We covered the second chapter in our Wild at Heart study last night and it was pretty interesting stuff. While the first chapter covered those desires that men have in our hearts, the second chapter dealt with where we inherit those from. So there was a lot of talk first about our fathers, and then about Jesus and our Father in Heaven.

Let me just say that there’s nothing worse than talking about your old man. Honestly I’m amazed that the world even functions given the fact that most guys dads completely ignored them. I think most dads view kids like they view puppies. They are cute and fun to play with (as long as mom feeds and cleans up after them). Then when they get big and start thrashing the furniture, they need to be run, and aren’t cute anymore, they’re just a big pain in the ass and it’s time to get them out of the house.

At any rate, the second half of the chapter focused on God and I found this part of the chapter to be pretty cool. I love the picture of God as an adventurer. The author draws connections between God’s personality and his creation and I think it’s cool to look at creation with all it’s complexity and randomness and wildness, and know that God likes it that way! I can see him up there crafting Mt. Everest and just saying to himself.. “oh they’re going to dig this one… they’re going to try and climb this sucker for generations”. You know?

The other aspects the author talks about; a battle to fight and a beauty to rescue, are even more fascinating. For so much of my life I viewed God as simply somebody with power over me, but who I could never please. But when you look at the Bible and begin to look at what God’s battle to fight is, you begin to see that the battle is for a relationship with us and that is amazing to me. God is not just some rule keeper in Heaven waiting to smack the crap out of you for screwing up, he is actually seeking us out every day, going to battle to win us to Him, in spite of our shortcomings. That’s an amazing picture.

And then there’s a beauty to rescue. There’s a lot of things in the book about how god created women and the whole subject of desire and romance, and I think guys tend to wrongly associate romance directly with sex. When I started thinking about this it occurred to me that romance is really about sacrifice. We watched Braveheart last week and there’s a scene where the Queen is talking with her handmaiden and they are talking about romance, yet the conversation is all about Wallace facing danger and risking his life for his woman. Even in our modern day, things that are considered romantic are the things that guys do that are out of character. They are things that require a man to put himself at risk for his woman.

So bringing around that line of thought… there was a question asking if we thought God is a romantic. And I have to say of course he is! When you think about the fact that he sent Jesus, to take on the body of a man, to face the wrath of the religious leaders of the day as well as the Roman government; the fact that he died a horrible drawn out death…. and did it for us… yeah, that’s a romantic personality.

So it was a good study and as usual, not your traiditional idea of a bible study. I actually got to hear a pastor use the term “bumping uglies”. You won’t hear that at church very often.

Next week we’re taking the week off to go hang as dudes and watch the manly sport of baseball. The Grizzlies are taking on the Las Vegas 51’s and honestly, I could care less who wins. I just enjoy the hot dogs and spitting seeds on the floor and not getting in trouble for it.

Peace!


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When Do I Get To Rest?

30 03 2008

What a weekend. Saturday, slept until 9am. For those who know me, that’s like…. insane. I spent the whole day cleaning up my backyard which has been neglected since last summer. Let me tell you something, man… I HATE working around the house. Honestly, maintenance is the absolute worst part of homeownership. But it has to be done. So I spent the day throwing away old junk, washing away dirt, planting plants, cleaning BBQ’s, and finally at the end of the day, I was about half finished.

That’s the way it is with chores, it takes twice as long as you thought it would take. So today I finished up out back… I rebuilt a collapsing fence, and got the lawns mowed. By the end of the day things were in good enough shape to sit down, light a fire in the firepit, get some chicken on the grill, crack open a Sammy and light a cigar. Not quite enough rest, but nice.

It wasn’t all work this weekend though. Church was absolutely awesome today. The band was S-M-O-K-I-N-G!!!!, and Pastor Steve is doing a great series on being disappointed with God. This is important stuff because I think we’ve all doubted God, and to sit and pretend like everyone is a rock of faith at all times is kind of rediculous. There was a great analogy Steve used today though that I loved. He was talking about people wanting to understanding God on an intellectual level and have all the questions answered before we’ll believe in Him, and he compared it to how marriage works. When you are single you have all these doubts about marriage and what it means and how it will go, etc, etc, but then you meet somebody special and you form a relationship, and then suddenly you’re willing to dive into that commitment because the relationship is more powerful than the questions left unanswered. And it was just a really cool illustration of how God wants us to foster a relationship with Him.

Alright, so tomorrow starts another busy week but there’s a few riding related items I wanted to share because I haven’t been doing much riding and it’s ticking me off. So…. tomorrow (Monday) Sergeant Nethaniel Weibert, who has served two tours in Iraq,  is coming home to Fresno. There’s a group of motorcyclists called the Patriot Guard who goes out at the request of military families and attends funerals for fallen soldiers and also greets soldiers when they come home. Tomorrow night they will be at the Fresno Airport to welcome Sergeant Weibert home. Allen and I are heading out to take part and I urge anyone, biker or not, to come on out. [Here's a link to the information]. I hope to see you there.

Lastly, I’m going to get some rest this week and take a motorcycle ride Friday. I was supposed to go hiking with a buddy but he had to bail and since I still have the day off, I’m going to ride! I’m taking three awesome bike roads (J1, 198, and 25) in one LONG day, but that’s the way I roll, yo! Anyone coming?

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Motorcycles, Worship and the Busyness of Life

9 03 2008

Man, so much going on. It’s been one of those weeks where I’ve just overloaded myself and forgot to rest. This happens. My biggest problem is that if I have a moment to spare, I’ll fill it with something, anything. This “something” may be studying Italian, learning a new programming language, reading, working out… whatever. But what I too often forget to do is REST. Just sit and do nothing. For some reason there’s something inside of me that tells me that sitting and doing nothing is wasted time. I need to learn to change this perception. We need downtime. Downtime is good.

Anyway, even though I didn’t get any rest, this was what I would call a good weekend. Saturday Michelle and I rode the Freedom Rider Blossom Trail Poker Run which benefitted the Poverello House. It was a nice ride, and more importantly a nice time together. A few hundred people showed up to ride so that made for a nice chunk of change for the homeless, so that made it all the better.

Today I got up early and headed to Sierra Heights Baptist church to jam for the folks there. I have to say it was an incredibly moving experience for me. I have the awesome blessing of playing with some of the best musicians I’ve ever jammed with and today we played two services; one contemporary, and one a little laid back. Sierra is an older church. It’s been here for years and years and so the congregation is mostly older folks. But they seem to be trying to reach out to a younger generation and so they have one service that’s more rocking, and another that more traditional.

Now I am a rocker through and through. I’m listening to Metallica as I write this post. But honestly, today as I played the “traditional” service, I was blown away. We were playing at a lower volume and I was really holding back on the drums, but as we were playing, I could hear all these voices rising up, singing along with us… and there’s something about seeing folks in their 60’s & 70’s in thier sunday best singing out to God completely uninhibited.

You know, we’re so uptight about how we look to other people and we’re so concerned with how our voices sound and so we hold back…. but here’s these older folks who could give a rat’s behind, just belting out songs in praise of our Lord. And I was just really moved by the beauty of thier voices and thier unabashed singing. Honestly It was all I could do to keep from crying like a baby behind the drum kit.

Later as I was reflecting on the day, it reminded me of church as a kid. I remember going to church and sitting there with all these really old people dressed in suits and dresses and just not understanding it at all. But I still remember my mom singing the hymns and how beautiful her voice sounded to me. I have no idea what that all means just yet, but it was just a great day of worship.

So tomorrow is monday and that means back to the grind. There’s a few things I wanted to share in this post before I crash though. First, I picked up an album at Starbucks a few weeks ago. Yeah, I actually bought an album at Starbucks. I think that officially means I’m OLD!!! The album is a Frank Sinatra album though, so I think that’s OK. it’s called “The Heart of the Matter” and basically, it’s freaking killer. Here’s the link: http://www.hearmusic.com , buy it now!

Secondly, there’s a fundraiser going on for Big Brothers Big Sisters. I’ve gotten to know these folks through some web work I did for them and they are awesome people. They are having a big fund raiser where you get to raise money to help kids and bowl at the same time. How can you beat that? The date is March 27th and you can sign up by going [to this link]. Michelle and I, along with Bob from South of Shaw and his fiance’ Erica are forming a team and so I formally invite you to join us. It’s going to be a blast.

Have a great week!


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