God’s Irony Pt. 1

I’ve always operated under the believe that things like chance and luck are fun things to talk about and play around with but just as valid and real as the tooth fairy. Yes, I’m one of those people who believe things happen for a reason or a purpose. They may be righteous and wholesome reasons and purposes like God’s sovereign Will or they may be consequences of certain actions or decisions. Sometimes the reasons bad things happen are simply because we made a bad decision and we have to live with the consequences of that. Many times we don’t realize the relevance of a situation until we’re out on the other side of that circumstance and then it hits us like a ton of bricks. Pain is an indication that something is hurt and needs fixing and sometimes it’s because we’re broken sinful people living in a broken fallen world. But you’ve heard all that before I’m sure.

I want you to be chewing on this though because I’m in a conundrum right now. And since my blog is a place to flesh out thoughts and many of you are further down the road than I, I present this conundrum to you. It’s obvious that God has a sense of humor: penguins, llamas, the funny bone, what happens to your ears and nose and you get older, parachute pants, please feel free to add some of your favorites! But God having a divine sense of irony? The thought never crossed my mind. Until this weekend that is.

Chew on that appetizer as I prepare my story.

Computer Crashes

computer crashes, a motherboard cries
her peripherals fall to the floor
my cousin opens his eyes
the confusion sets in
before the Great Gramalama can even close the door

lightning crashes, a motherboard dies
her internal hard drive falls to the floor
my cousin closes his eyes
the confusion that was his
belongs now, to the father down the hall

oh now feel it comin’ back again
like a rollin’ hard drive whirling to begin
RAM is pullin’ from the center of the system again
I can feel it!

lightning crashes, that flippin mother board cries
this moment he’s been waiting for
the blue screen of death opens his eyes
pale blue colored screen
presents the pain
and realization that if he only bought a Mac in the 1st place he might not have to hide, hiiiide, HIIIIDE his pocket book from needing to get another computer because this one crashed on vacation not allowing him to blog at wonderful leisure on the 12th floor balcony overlooking the beach and bay that was breathtakingly beautiful and now has so much to catch up on and tell that it’ll take him long into the nights to come and mornings to follow to catch up with all his friends and family about the past 2 weeks that have been chock full of interesting nuggets of life as well as keeping up to date with new music and movie reviews!

WOW that last line is a mouthful

Great Escape Words 1

So last week I took my Middle School youth to Great Escape, a Middle School week long camp, where I was also the camp Worship Leader. It was SICK! I loved every minute of it. It was my first time leading worship at a camp, much less for Middle Schoolers. I’d like to share some of my thoughts since many of you operate in the worship realm as well as the youth realm.

Observation Numero 1: MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS ARE NUTS! Yeah totally nuts! The first night our song selection was:

1. Our Love is Loud
2. Take it all
3. Every Move I Make
4. No One Like You

And I’m certain there was a fif but I can’t remember. These kids were so wild they actually carried and led Every Move I Make. We totally rip off Crowder’s version of this song and do it with a slower shuffle feel which is kinda cool. After the verse we loop it instrumentally and repeat it…oh no! The kids would not have that! They kept on going and sang so loudly I motioned to the band to follow them and we followed along! It was the greatest! I’ve never had that happen before.

They also went buck wild with Take It All! Incredibly exhilarating and wonderful to experience! An entire room of students throwing their fists in the air and chanting: TAKE TAKE TAKE IT ALL!! is such a beautiful thing!

Observation Numero 2: Camp is exhausting! Pulling double duty was just physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausting! That being said, it was one of the best experiences I’ve had and I’d love to fill my summer months next year chock full of camps! I mean the days were just non-stop. Planning meetings before breakfast, breakfast, leader’s meetings, sound check, leading worship, break time (listening to the speaker! HA!), straight to rec, and then finally a true break: lunch! Then before that started all over again we had ‘free time rec’ which we would use to practice some days and then back to meetings, worship, message, then late night that would last until 11:00 each night. So doing that 4 1/2 days in a row is nuts with 11 wild and crazy middle school boys and girls!

I thought at the end of the week that I’d never do it again. It did take some time away from spending time with my own youth group with practicing and planning and such, however, after talking to the other leaders that came with my group I’ve changed me mind. Surprisingly, the said the opposite. My youth apparently LOVED the fact that the ‘camp celebrity’ was their youth pastor! They were so proud that I was up there leading worship. I think it was great too because the bassist I had play with the band was one of our high school students, so that was doubly special! PLEASE do not read into me being prideful here and patting myself on the back. ‘Camp celebrity’ and such are words they used to describe us. I was incredibly awkward and uncomfortable (at least in my mind) at the beginning of the week because I’d never been in this environment. I’ve been begging for feedback ever since I got back. Apparently though the kids ate it up and loved every minute of it! A great testament of a great God and what’s He’s able to do in the hands of an obedient willing person

16 Stories and a beautiful afternoon

Life just doesn’t seem to slow down most day…then there’s today

16 stories up in the Portofino Island condo, sitting on the balcony looking at the jet skis in the bay to my left and the waves rolling up on the beach to my right. The sun almost blinding kicking off the white sand bridging the two. Rae’s reading the last Harry Potter novel, Chloe’s asleep for her midday nap. I’m here with my Mom’s side of the family. All but 3 people of the Smith clan   There’s 16 of us total, I think. We’re missing 4 to complete the entire side of my mom’s family.

It’s awesome because I think we totally don’t have your typical American family. Everyone, all the way up to my Gram and Gramps is still married and mostly madly in love with their spouse. Everyone’s still in their 1st marriage. All the parents are Christians who pray and serve in some capacity or another. We gather together as a family at least once a year, most of us more than that but we’re now spread out across Louisiana, Georgia, and Kansas so sometimes its difficult to get together more than once a year. I’m completely thankful for the family I have.

So, hot off a crazy, zany, wild week of camp I take vacation to the beach with the fam! Wifi here is awesome and I’ll be relaxing and checking in on ya’ll! I’m totally stoked about Los’ new tat so I’m on here more than I probably should for vacation!

This Day in Music – Alter Bridge’s Blackbird!

ALTER BRIDGE NAMES NEW ALBUM ‘BLACKBIRD’
First Single “Rise Today” Hits Radio On July 30th

July 23, 2007 – New York, NY – Universal Republic recording artists Alter Bridge have announced the name of their forthcoming second album will be Blackbird.

Clocking in at almost eight minutes, the title track is clearly one of the masterpieces of the new album. “We felt like Blackbird was the perfect song to use as the title track for this record,” lead singer/guitarist Myles Kennedy commented.

“Though a majority of the album is not as dark thematically, we really hoped to draw attention to what we felt was one of the most challenging yet gratifying songs we’ve ever written. It was inspired by a friend of mine who passed away as the song was completed; it’s a story about the struggle to move on to a better place. It was my wish for him to finally find his peace.“

There are many differences between One Day Remains and the band’s new album Blackbird with the most notable being the full integration of Myles Kennedy as a guitarist and songwriter (Woohoo!) . While One Day Remains was largely written before Myles came on board, this time around, it was a collaborative effort with Mark and Myles sharing the songwriting duties, while all four band members worked on the arrangements.

“It’s a natural evolution after three years of working together,” Mark Tremonti stated. “We knew Myles was an amazing singer, that’s why we hired him. What we found out when we toured the first record was that he’s also an incredibly gifted guitar player and songwriter, as well as a vocalist. It would have been a crime not to utilize all that talent. We wanted to use every weapon we had in our arsenal for this album.”

Blackbird will be the follow up to Alter Bridge’s debut album, the Gold-certified One Day Remains, which peaked at #5 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart its week of release. That release featured three consecutive hits on rock radio: (“Open Your Eyes,” “Find The Real,” and “Broken Wings”). The first single from Blackbird “Rise Today” has already gotten substantial early airplay before the official add date of July 30th.

Comprised of Mark Tremonti, Scott Phillips, Brian Marshall and Myles Kennedy, three of the four members of Alter Bridge made up the 30+ million selling band Creed. The band will be hitting the road upon the release of Blackbird this fall. Touring details will be released at a later date.

Full Track Listing For Blackbird
1. Ties That Bind
2. Come To Life
3. Brand New Start
4. Buried Alive
5. Coming Home
6. Before Tomorrow Comes
7. Rise Today
8. Blackbird
9. One By One
10. Watch Over You
11. Break Me Down
12. White Knuckles
13. Wayward One

Oh happy freakin’ day!!!

This Day in Music – Fisherman’s Friend

In 5 days I played and sang 9 times, practiced at least once a day, ran around on rec courses, swam, got blobbed in the lake, square danced, and hollered and ran around with 11 of my students doing zany wild crazy stuff. So my voice took a beating!

I did everything from giving up caffeine, drinking/eating honey, napping, resting, trying not to talk and yell, praying, EVERYTHING I could think of to not loose my voice and the one surprise of the week was taking these Fisherman’s Friend throat lozenges. They were recommended by a vocal teacher who was along at the camp and they were a life saver! They look like dog food! But you suck on them and they make your throat feel incredible! I don’t know much about them and will be researching what they even are but apparently they work!

Apparently, the fishermen wouldn’t leave the harbor without them and began referring to them as their ‘friends.‘ Well this vocalist now has a new friend and won’t be leaving to sing without them!

I’m baaaack

Back from camp! Exhausted, beat, tired, hoarse, and exhilarated to see my family!

It appears that while I’ve been away with Middle Schoolers and leading worship 2x a day which is a great excuse not to blog, since I didn’t have full access to a computer, some of you have been just as lazy and have given me nothing to catch up on! Some of you however, have given me a mountainside full! My google reader shows 100+ posts to read!

So, I’ll frantically begin getting back to life as I once knew it and catching up with all of you! It’s good to be back!

Don’t worry, I still love you

Sorry, guys, I’m away at Youth camp this week leading worship and running around with Middle Schoolers so I’ll be a little absent. I’ll try to send some updates later on.

I’m having an affair

That just rocked all you RSS readers who get the title of my posts only! HA!

HOLY MOSES this guy just celebrated his 5 year wedding anniversary!!

Blame it all on Donald Miller if you will. It’s obvious that throughout the Bible, God is interested in having a relationship with us. Very rarely, seldom really does God answer the questions like: If I take a right turn at Albuquerque will I meet Mrs. Right? And if God chooses to answer those questions its very rarely, seldom really that He answers straightforwardly with a YES or NO. Jesus speaks over and over again in this metaphor of the Bride and the Bridegroom to show this relationship between God and His people. Jesus does a ton of preaching but many of the environments we read him being in are over dinner at so-and-so’s house or in this person’s home and even his interactions with the 12.

So why is it that we treat God as a Cosmic Google? And then when we don’t get our answers we get all pissed off? Why is it that we try to come to God like He’s a 12 Step Program and that if I can pray 3 times a day (not counting over meals, 1 has to be on my knees and 1 has to be out loud), if I give 10% to my church and another 5% to ‘those in need’ each month, if I don’t say 5 cuss words, if I don’t drink, if I don’t chew, if I don’t hang with girls that do then I’ll get closer to God and I’ll “feel” closer to Him? Now all of those things are wonderful and good things to do. Great things to do many of them! But I wonder if we approached Him like a Him? I think sometimes we put the cart before the horse. The cart being our actions and the horse being our heart attitude.

Are we in love with God?

If I was in love with God how would that change my actions and behaviors? What does being in love with God look like? I mean I can talk about the President all day long because I know things about him but I don’t really know him. Is that the same thing with my relationship with Jesus?

So, I’m not really having an affair I think, yet. Don’s just brought all these things to the surface and they’re bubbling. If you haven’t heard this then check it out:

I never liked Jazz music because Jazz music doesn’t resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked Jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.

What am I in love with when people look at me?

Will It Blend – the iPhone

This is just shameful…shameful and horrible…shameful and horrible and completely wicked!!!

You’ve seen the drop test, now the question is: WILL IT BLEND???

It’s just a video pimping day I suppose.